Francophile

What has travel to a foreign language taught you?

In preparing essential questions for my travel unit, thought it would be helpful to have the varied opinions of my PLN (Professional Learning Network) on Twitter. As always, they were very helpful in my quest to discover the advantages of foreign language travel. Here are there responses in a Wallwisher.

Resources: Keeping them real and keeping them together

Un grand merci to José Picardo, an amazing educator  and Head of Modern Languages, from Nottingham High School, Nottingham, UK. José, who is a member of my Twitter Professional Learning Network (PLN), asked me if I would write a guest post for his extremely helpful Box of Tricks. Box of Tricks is a website aimed at providing educators with important information about technology and language learning.

In Resources: Keeping them real and keeping them together,  I explain how I use authentic resources and how I attempt to organize my resources. For me, using authentic resources provides a credibility for the usefulness of French and as well as improving my own language proficiency. I also think it is important to give my students tools to be not only successful in my class but in other courses and in life in general.

In my outline of this post I had also included student autonomy and assessment, but I realized that each of those topics could easily generate a blog post or two on their own. I will follow up on these at a later date. 

Using authentic resources and keeping them together is an ongoing endeavor.

How to you use authentic resources in the language classroom and how do you organize your resources?

10 Simple Ways to Make a Second Language Part of Your Daily Life

One of the great things about learning a second language is the opening your world to a new culture. One of the not so great things about learning a second language is that it requires daily practice. While traveling to the country where your second language is spoken is not possible on a daily basis, having exposure to your second language does not need to be difficult.

In the words of Marcel Proust , "The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes." Here are ten simple ways to make your second language part of your daily life.

1. Change the language in your cell phone. If you have had your phone for a while, you are already familiar with how it works so why not change the language in your phone? Every time you answer your phone or send a text, you will read in your second language, increasing your vocabulary and reinforcing your language skills..
2. Change the language in your Ipod or MP3 player. Again, each time you select a song to listen to you will be reading in your second language, are reinforcing your language skills.
3. Change the language In your GPS system. Changing the language your GPS allows you to both listen and read in your second language. Ordinary trips in your neighborhood take on a different light when the voice in your GPS system tells you to turn to the left or turn to the right in your second language.
4. Change the soundtrack and/or language while watching DVDs. Putting the soundtrack in your second language allows you to hear language at a normal conversational speed. You can also learn quite a bit of contemporary language this way. Putting the subtitles in French reinforces your reading skills as well.
5. Change the language in your Gmail account to your second language. It is simple to change the language in your Gmail account and this simple change allows you to carry out all of the functions such as writing an email, attaching files, and sending files in your second language. You can also take advantage of using the spell check in your second language.
6. Open a Yahoo email account in the country where your language is spoken. Having a Yahoo account in a second language is not only chic but as mentioned above; it requires you to carry out all email functions In your second language.
7. Read the sales circulars in your second language to increase your vocabulary. Both Costco and Walmart ( You can put in  G2K 2M4 for the zip code of Québec City) have French websites and reading the circulars and other publications online help to increase your vocabulary of everyday items.
8. Use a home page written in your target language. You can use Igoogle to create a home page in your second language. IGoogle has many customizable modules which allow you to have access to many references in your target language. My Yahoo complements the Yahoo account in the second language. It has many customizable modules as well. Having a home page in your second language keeps you aware of all of the everyday aspects such as news, weather, sports, and other cultural things. My personal home page is L'Internaute , which keeps the French speaking world at my fingertips.
9. Change your computer keyboard settings to access foreign language characters. There are several ways to type foreign language characters. You can either use ALT codes or change the settings on your keyboard. For me, the easiest way is to change the settings. You can find both the ALT codes and the directions here. Typing the characters in your second language must become second nature so that you can communicate via email, forums, or instant messaging with ease.
10. Obtain materials travel in your second language from your local tourist bureau and wherever you travel. Many large cities print informational brochures about their cities in several languages. Make a point of stopping by the your local tourist bureau and the tourist bureaus in each new city you visit and ask for materials in your second language. Additionally, if the city is a large one, check to see if there is a guide book about that city written in your second language. Not only will you have a souvenir of the city, but you will also be able to practice your second language as well.

What do YOU do to make your second language a part of your daily life?

Update: For additional resources and strategies, consult Soyez Motivés! at the French Corner. This blog has additional tips as well as excellent thematic vocabulary.

Dix Auteurs à Lire Ten French Authors to Read

In Le Français Pour Les Nuls, Jean- Joseph Julaud recommends 10 authors to read. This is a list of those ten authors with a sampling of quotations in both English and French. Sources: English Wikiquote,  French Wikiquote , and Wikipedia

 

1. Antoine de Saint.-Exupéry

Antoine de Saint Exupéry (29 June 1900 -31 July 1944) was a French writer, poet and aviator. He is most famous for his novella The Little Prince, and is also well known for his books about aviation adventures, including Night Flight and Wind, Sand and Stars.

He was a successful commercial pilot pre-war, joining the Armée de l'Air (French Air Force) on the outbreak of war, flying reconnaissance missions until the armistice with Germany. Following a spell writing in the United States, he joined the Free French Forces. He went missing on a reconnaissance flight over the Mediterranean in July 1944.

Quotations

The machine does not isolate us from the great problems of nature but plunges us more deeply into them. Terre des Hommes (1939)

It is another of the miraculous things about mankind that there is no pain nor passion that does not radiate to the ends of the earth. Let a man in a garret but burn with enough intensity and he will set fire to the world. Terre des Hommes (1939)

Transport of the mails, transport of the human voice, transport of flickering pictures — in this century, as in others, our highest accomplishments still have the single aim of bringing men together. Le Petit Prince, 1943

Moi, dit-il encore, je possède une fleur que j'arrose tous les jours. Je possède trois volcans que je ramone toutes les semaines. Car je ramone aussi celui qui est éteint. On ne sait jamais. C'est utile à mes volcans, et c'est utile à ma fleur, que je les possède. Mais tu n'es pas utile aux étoiles… Le Petit Prince (1943), Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, éd. Gallimard jeunesse, coll. Hors luxe, 1951 (ISBN 2-07-010502-4), chap. 13, p. 49

Le renard : On ne voit bien qu'avec le cœur. L'essentiel est invisible pour les yeux. Le Petit Prince (1943), Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, éd. Gallimard jeunesse, coll. Hors luxe, 1951 (ISBN 2-07-010502-4), chap. 21, p. 72

Tu es responsable pour toujours de ce que tu as apprivoisé. Le Petit Prince (1943), Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, éd. Gallimard jeunesse, coll. Hors luxe, 1951 (ISBN 2-07-010502-4), chap. 21, p. 72

2. André Malraux

André Georges Malraux (November 3, 1901 – November 23, 1976) was a French novelist, adventurer, art historian and statesman. He served as Minister for Cultural Affairs from 1958 to 1969.

Quotations

No one can endure his own solitude. Author's commentary, serialized version of La condition humaine in the Nouvelle revue française (1933)

The human mind invents its Puss-in-Boots and its coaches that change into pumpkins at midnight because neither the believer nor the atheist is completely satisfied with appearances.

Anti-Memoirs, preface (1967)

 

Our civilization … is not devaluing its awareness of the unknowable; nor is it deifying it. It is the first civilization that has severed it from religion and superstition. In order to question it.

Picasso's Mask (1976)

If a man is not ready to risk his life, where is his dignity? La condition humaine [Man's Fate] (1933)

The great mystery is not that we should have been thrown down here at random between the profusion of matter and that of the stars; it is that from our very prison we should draw, from our own selves, images powerful enough to deny our own nothingness. La condition humaine [Man's Fate] (1933)

The sons of torture victims make good terrorists. La condition humaine [Man's Fate] (1933)

Gisors - La connaissance d'un être est un sentiment négatif : le sentiment positif, la réalité, c'est l'angoisse d'être toujours étranger à ce qu'on aime.La Condition humaine (1933), Malraux, éd. Gallimard, coll. Folio, 1997

Le cœur viril des hommes est un refuge à morts qui vaut bien l'esprit. La Condition humaine (1933), Malraux, éd. Gallimard, coll. Folio, 1997

Gisors : Toute douleur qui n'aide personne est absurde. La Condition humaine (1933), Malraux, éd. Gallimard, coll. Folio, 1997

3. Albert Camus

Albert Camus (1913-11-07 – 1960-01-04) was an Algerian–French author and Absurdist philosopher. who was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1957. He is often associated with existentialism, but Camus refused this label.[1] He wrote in his essay, The Rebel, that his whole life was devoted to opposing the philosophy of nihilism while still delving deeply into individual freedom.

In 1949, Camus founded the Group for International Liaisons, in the Revolutionary Union Movement, according to the book Albert Camus, une vie by Olivier Todd, a group opposed to some tendencies of the surrealistic movement of André Breton. Camus was the second-youngest recipient of the Nobel Prize for Literature (after Rudyard Kipling) when he became the first Africa-born writer to receive the award, in 1957.[2] He is also the shortest-lived of any literature laureate to date, having died in an automobile accident only three years after receiving the award.

In an interview in 1945, Camus rejected any ideological associations: "No, I am not an existentialist. Sartre and I are always surprised to see our names linked…"[3]

Quotations

Man cannot do without beauty, and this is what our era pretends to want to disregard. It steels itself to attain the absolute and authority; it wants to transfigure the world before having exhausted it, to set it to rights before having understood it. Whatever it may say, our era is deserting this world. "Helen's Exile" (1948)

Accepting the absurdity of everything around us is one step, a necessary experience: it should not become a dead end. It arouses a revolt that can become fruitful. "Three Interviews" in Lyrical and Critical Essays (1970)

A living man can be enslaved and reduced to the historic condition of an object. But if he dies in refusing to be enslaved, he reaffirms the existence of another kind of human nature which refuses to be classified as an object. "The Failing of Prophecy" in Existentialism Versus Marxism : Conflicting Views on Humanism (1966) by George Edward Novack

Vivre une expérience, un destin, c'est l'accepter pleinement. Le Mythe de Sisyphe, Albert Camus, éd. Gallimard, 1994 (ISBN 2-07-032288-2), p. 78

Il n'était même pas sûr d'être en vie puisqu'il vivait comme un mort. L'Étranger, Albert Camus, éd. Gallimard, 1972 (ISBN 2-07-036002-4), partie II, chap. V, p. 180

[...] il peut y avoir de la honte à être heureux tout seul. La Peste, Albert Camus, éd. Gallimard, 1947 (ISBN 2-07-0360042-3), p. 190

4. Marcel Proust

Valentin-Louis-Georges-Eugène-Marcel Proust

(1871-07-10 – 1922-11-18) was a French novelist, essayist and critic

best known as the author of À la recherche du temps perdu (in English, In Search of Lost Time; earlier translated as Remembrance of Things Past), a monumental work of twentieth-century fiction published in seven parts from 1913 to 1927

Quotations

In his younger days a man dreams of possessing the heart of the woman whom he loves; later, the feeling that he possesses the heart of a woman may be enough to make him fall in love with her. "Swann in Love"

The time which we have at our disposal every day is elastic; the passions that we feel expand it, those that we inspire contract it; and habit fills up what remains. Ch. I: "Madame Swann at Home

We are healed of a suffering only by experiencing it to the full. Ch. I: "Grief and Oblivion

Laissons les jolies femmes aux hommes sans imagination.« Albertine disparue », dans À la recherche du temps perdu, vol. 15, Marcel Proust, éd. Gallimard, 1946-1947, chap. 1 (« Le chagrin et l'oubli »), p. 33

La force qui fait le plus de fois le tour de la terre en une seconde, ce n'est pas l'électricité, c'est la douleur.« Albertine disparue », dans À la recherche du temps perdu, vol. 15, Marcel Proust, éd. Gallimard, 1946-1947, chap. 1 (« Le chagrin et l'oubli »), p. 70 (

On désire être compris, parce qu'on désire être aimé, et on désire être aimé parce qu'on aime. La compréhension des autres est indifférente et leur amour importun « Albertine disparue », dans À la recherche du temps perdu, vol. 15, Marcel Proust, éd. Gallimard, 1946-1947, chap. 1 (« Le chagrin et l'oubli »), p. 100 (voir la fiche de référence de l'œuvre

5. Guy de Maupassant

Henri-René-Albert-Guy de Maupassant (5 August 1850 – 6 July 1893) was a popular 19th-century French writer, one of the fathers of the modern short story. and considered one of the fathers of the modern short story.

A protégé of Flaubert, Maupassant's stories are characterized by their economy of style and their efficient, effortless dénouement. Many of the stories are set during the Franco-Prussian War of the 1870s and several describe the futility of war and the innocent civilians who, caught in the conflict, emerge changed. He also wrote six short novels.

Quotations

Let them respect my convictions, and I will respect theirs! "Friend Joseph"

You have the army of mediocrities followed by the multitude of fools. As the mediocrities and the fools always form the immense majority, it is impossible for them to elect an intelligent government. "Sundays of a Bourgeois"

There is only one good thing in life, and that is love. And how you misunderstand it! how you spoil it! You treat it as something solemn like a sacrament, or something to be bought, like a dress. "The Love of Long Ago"

Nos yeux, nos oreilles, notre odorat, notre goût différents créent autant de vérités qu'il y a d'hommes sur la terre. Pierre et Jean, Guy de Maupassant, éd. Paul Ollendorff, 1888, Introduction, p. XVIII (texte intégral sur Wikisource)

J'aime ce pays, et j'aime y vivre parce que j'y ai mes racines, ces profondes et délicates racines, qui attachent un homme à la terre où sont nés et morts ses aïeux, qui l'attachent à ce qu'on pense et à ce qu'on mange, aux usages comme aux nourritures, aux locutions locales, aux intonations des paysans, aux odeurs du sol, des villages et de l'air lui-même. Le Horla (1887), Guy de Maupassant, éd. Albin Michel, coll. Le livre de poche, 1967, p. 5 (texte intégral sur Wikisource)

La vie, voyez-vous, ça n'est jamais si bon ni si mauvais qu'on le croit. Une vie (1883), Guy de Maupassant, éd. Gallimard, coll. folio classique, 1974 (ISBN 2-07-041084-6), chap. XIV, p. 278

6. Emile Zola

Émile Zola

(1840-04-02 – 1902-09-29) was a French writer and social activist

the most important exemplar of the literary school of naturalism, an important contributor to the development of theatrical naturalism, and a major figure in the political liberalisation of France and in the exoneration of the falsely accused and convicted army officer Alfred Dreyfus

Quotations

If you shut up truth and bury it under the ground, it will but grow, and gather to itself such explosive power that the day it bursts through it will blow up everything in its way. Dreyfus : His Life and Letters‎ (1937) edited by Pierre Dreyfus, p. 175

If you ask me what I came to do in this world, I, an artist, I will answer you: I am here to live out loud! Writers on Writing‎ (1986) by Jon Winokur

The artist is nothing without the gift, but the gift is nothing without work. Wisdom for the Soul : Five Millennia of Prescriptions for Spiritual Healing‎ (2006) by Larry Chang , p. 55

J'aime les ragoûts littéraires fortement épicés, les œuvres de dédacence où une sorte de sensibilité maladive remplace la santé plantureuse des époques classiques. Je suis de mon âge. Mes haines (1866), Émile Zola, éd. Charpentier, 1879, chap. « Germinie Lacerteux, par MM. Ed. et J. de Goncourt », p. 67-68

La vérité est en marche et rien ne l'arrêtera. « J'accuse… ! », Émile Zola, L'Aurore, nº 87, le 13 janvier 1898, p. 2

Mon idéal, ce serait de travailler tranquille, de manger toujours du pain, d'avoir un trou un peu propre pour dormir, vous savez un lit, une table et deux chaises, pas davantage… L'Assommoir (1876), Émile Zola, éd. Charpentier, 1879, chap. II, p. 49

7. Charles Baudelaire

Charles Baudelaire (1821-04-09 — 1867-08-31) was a French poet, critic and translator. A controversial figure in his lifetime, Baudelaire's name has become a byword for literary and artistic decadence. At the same time his works, in particular his book of poetry Les Fleurs du mal (The Flowers of Evil), have been acknowledged as classics of French literature.

Quotations

All beauties, like all possible phenomena, have something of the eternal and something of the ephemeral— of the absolute and the particular. "De l'héroïsme de la vie moderne," Salon de 1846, XVIII (1846) [2]

There is no sweeter pleasure than to surprise a man by giving him more than he hopes for. XXVIII: "La Fausse Monnaie" [26]

Everything, alas, is an abyss, — actions, desires, dreams, Words! "Le Gouffre" [The Abyss], Nouvelles Fleurs du Mal (1862) [5]

Homme libre, toujours tu chériras la mer. « Les Fleurs du mal », dans Œuvres complètes (1980), Charles Baudelaire, éd. Robert Laffont, coll. Bouquins, 2004, p. 14

Hypocrite lecteur, — mon semblable, — mon frère ! « Les Fleurs du mal », dans Œuvres complètes (1980), Charles Baudelaire, éd. Robert Laffont, coll. Bouquins, 2004, p. 4

Être un homme utile m'a toujours paru quelque chose de bien hideux. « Mon cœur mis à nu », dans Œuvres complètes (1980), Charles Baudelaire, éd. Robert Laffont, coll. Bouquins, 2004, p. 407

8. Honoré de Balzac

Honoré de Balzac (20 May 1799 – 18 August 1850) was a French novelist and playwright. His magnum opus was a sequence of almost 100 novels and plays collectively entitled La Comédie humaine, which presents a panorama of French life in the years after the fall of Napoléon Bonaparte in 1815.

Due to his keen observation of detail and unfiltered representation of society, Balzac is regarded as one of the founders of realism in European literature. He is renowned for his multi-faceted characters; even his lesser characters are complex, morally ambiguous and fully human. Inanimate objects are imbued with character as well; the city of Paris, a backdrop for much of his writing, takes on many human qualities. His writing influenced many famous authors, including the novelists Marcel Proust, Émile Zola, Charles Dickens, Gustave Flaubert, Marie Corelli, Henry James, Jack Kerouac, and Italo Calvino as well as important philosophers such as Friedrich Engels. Many of Balzac's works have been made into films, and they continue to inspire other writers.

Quotations

Those who spend too fast never grow rich. La Maison du Chat-qui-pelote [At the Sign of the Cat and Racket] (1830), trans. Clara Bell

True love is eternal, infinite, always like unto itself; it is equable, pure, without violent demonstration; white hair often covers the head, but the heart that holds it is ever young. Le lys dans la vallée (1836), trans. Katharine Prescott Wormeley, part II: First Love

I prefer thought to action, an idea to a transaction, contemplation to activity. Louis Lambert (1832), trans. Clara Bell

Il existe dans notre société trois hommes, le Prêtre, le Médecin et l'Homme de justice, qui ne peuvent pas estimer le monde. Ils ont des robes noires, peut-être parce qu'ils portent le deuil de toutes les vertus, de toutes les illusions. Le Colonel Chabert ; Le Père Goriot ; La Messe de l'athée ; L'Interdiction ; Le Contrat de mariage; Autre étude de femme ; Ursule Mirouët ; Eugénie Grandet (1844), Honoré de Balzac, éd. Gallimard, t.III, coll. Bibliothèque de la pléiade, 1976, p. 373

Si la lumière est le premier amour de la vie, l'amour n'est-il pas la lumière du cœur ? Eugénie Grandet, histoire de province (1833), Honoré de Balzac, éd. Larousse, coll. Petits Classiques Larousse, 2001, p. 72

L'amour est la seule passion qui ne souffre ni passé ni avenir .Les Chouans, dans La Comédie humaine, VIII (1829), Honoré de Balzac, éd. Gallimard, coll. Bibliothèque de la Pléiade, 1978, p. 1014

9. Jean Racine

Jean Racine (December 22, 1639 – April 21, 1699) was a French dramatist, one of the "big three" of 17th century France (along with Molière and Pierre Corneille). Racine was primarily a tragedian, though he did write one comedy.

Quotations

I loved him too much not to hate him at all! Hermione, Andromaque (1667), act II, scene I

Behind a veil, unseen yet present, I was the forceful soul that moved this mighty body. Agrippine, Britannicus, (1669), act I, scene I

My only hope lies in my despair. Atalide, Bajazet, (1672), act I, scene IV

Oreste à Pylade : Pour qui sont ces serpents qui sifflent sur vos têtes? Ce vers est l'exemple littéraire d'allitération (ici en "s") le plus cité. Andromaque (1667), Jean Racine, éd. Hachette Education, coll. Classiques Hachette, année de publication (obligatoire) (ISBN 2-01-017221-3), acte V, scène 5, p. 112, vers 1638

Hippolyte à Théramène : La fille de Minos et de Pasiphaé. Vers fameux pris comme le modèle de tout alexandrin « Phèdre », dans Oeuvres complètes, Jean Racine, éd. Gallimard, coll. Bibliothèque de la Pléiade, 1999, t. I, acte I, scène 1, p. 822

10. Jean de la Fontaine

Jean de La Fontaine (1621-07-08 – 1695-04-13) is the most famous French fabulist and probably the most widely read French poet of the 17th century. According to Flaubert, he was the only French poet to understand and master the texture of the French language before Hugo. A set of postage stamps celebrating La Fontaine and the Fables was issued by France in 1995. A film of his life was released in France in April 2007 (Jean de La Fontaine - le défi starring Laurent Deutsch).

Quotations

The ant is no lender; that is the least of her faults. Book I (1668), fable 1.

Beware, as long as you live, of judging people by appearances. Book VI (1668), fable 5

People must help one another; it is nature's law. "L'Ane et le Chien", as quoted in On a Darkling Plain (1995) by Richard Lee Byers, p. 94

Les Animaux malades de la peste Les jugements de cour vous rendront blanc ou noir. Fables, Jean de La Fontaine, éd. Hachette, 1868, livre septième, fable première, p. 399

Le Corbeau et le Renard Apprenez que tout flatteur, Vit aux dépens de celui qui l'écoute. Fables, Jean de La Fontaine, éd. Hachette, 1868, livre premier, fable II, p. 10

Le Singe et le Léopard Ce n'est pas sur l'habit Que la diversité me plaît ; c'est dans l'esprit. Fables, Jean de La Fontaine, éd. Hachette, 1868, livre neuvième, fable III, p. 575

Tant Qu'elle Chante, Elle Vit- The Music of Carole Fredericks

 I first heard of Carole Fredericks in session by Nancy Gadbois  at AATF. Carole sang with Jean Jacques Goldman and Michael Jones in the trio of Fredericks, Goldman, and Jones.  I had heard of Jean Jacques Goldman, but I didn't know of Carole Fredericks and wanted to learn more about her life.

The following year, I attended the AATF conference and Carole Frederick's CD and teaching guide were on sale at the booth. When I purchased my CD, I chatted for a while with the very pleasant woman who had sold me my CD. There was a session on the music for Carole Fredericks later that day and I was looking forward to the presentation. 

I arrived a bit late at the session because there were several sessions going on at the same time and I wanted to try to have a glimpse of all of them. When I entered the room, there was a video of Carole singing on the big projection screen and I was hooked... After the video was over, a woman got up and started to speak about Carole and I recognized the pleasant woman from the AATF booth who looked so much like Carole. Connie Fredericks Malone, the sister of Carole Fredericks spoke about Carole's music, her life, and her death in Senegal in 2001 of a heart attack.

After the conference was over, I went up to tell Connie how much I had enjoyed the conference. As I started to speak, tears started rolling down my face for a reason I can not explain. Connie reached out and hugged me and she had tears too. Little did I know that this was the beginning of a collaboration that would change my life.

When I went back to school and played the music for my students. They LOVED it. They also loved the videos and the story of her life. I wrote to Connie to tell her how much my students had enjoyed the music and we kept in touch. I was asked to write lessons for the Elementary/Middle School resource book of Couleurs et Parfums for Tralco Publications  and to present my lesson with Connie, Karen Traynor (of Tralco Publications, and Valencia Siff at AATF in Baton Rouge. The following year, I presented with Carole, Karen, Carole's husband Jim, and Anne Jensen at AATF in Liège, Belgium. The presentation can be downloaded here .

Here is a great blog post about the life of Carole Fredericks, links to music videos . Carole is buried at the Cemetery of Montmartre and I was able to visit her grave in the summer of 2008. Visiting Carole's grave was a special event that I will always remember. Tant qu'elle chante, elle vit.

Carole is one of my inspirations for becoming proficient in a second language, displaying incredible courage, and for her humanitarian efforts.

Who inspires you and why?

   

French Around New York

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French I Adjective Lesson Plan

The lesson plan

I had intially posted an assignment I plan to do a bit later with my French III class, but later decided to improve a blog assignement I had previously done with my French I class. Since I will be using the lesson this week with French I , thought it would be better if I could provide actual feedback by my students. I'll be adding a new post to update this lesson later in the week.

The actual lesson plan is on my blog I use with my students. When I first started blogging I made a category for teachers, but I find it more beneficial to keep the student and teacher posts in a separate place.

Embedded below is the lesson plan I updated for the Blog Based assignment. I found that the process of lesson writing was very recursive. I had to edit the lesson plan several times while I was creating the post for my student blog. I'll update it again when I actually  use it with my students.

Adjective paragraph - Get more College Essays

The student instruction page

Here is the link to the post the students will use:

http://mmehenderson.typepad.com/my_weblog/2009/02/french-i-je-voudrais-rencontrer.html

I ran into some formatting problems when I was creating the post, so there may be some difference in the fonts and sizes of fonts. I also tried to highlight everything that was a direction with the color red to make it easier for the students to see exactly what the directions were.

My other blogs

When I started my blog a year ago, I started with one general blog. I quickly learned I needed different blogs for different projects/classes. As I became more familiar with embedding and creating posts, I had my students to become student authors and they could do their own embedding. Here are my student blogs:

Mon Enfance - My French II class was working on narrating in the past with the preterite and imperfect and their created a collage of childhood memories and a comic book of what life what like when they were younger. They presented both the collage and the comic book in French using the Smart Board to aid the presentation. 

Bon Voyage-My French III class had traditionally done a travel project with a scrapbook and last year I migrated the scrapbook to blog posts. This was not an easy task... In an ideal situation I would have had all of the posts created before I got started, but it was not possible to do so. Now that I have student samples I know what to modify for this year. 

Chevaliers 3 Projets- My French III class has a separate blog for their assignemnts. I create a link from the main blog to the French III blog whenever they have an assignment. This week I started a wiki with both French III and French AP to facilitate collaborative writing.

Les Meilleurs AP- My French AP class reads the play, "Au Revoir Les Enfants."  This blog is for their projects relating to the novel, World War II, and France Under Occupation.  

Nos Projets 4 My French AP class members had to create a French identity and find an appartment in France. This is the blog for their assignements and projects. As mentioned earlier, I have recently started a wiki with French AP to facilitate collaborative writing.  

HATFL- February 23, 2008

 

Technology Tips for Teachers

Andrea Henderson and Amy Lenord

HATFL Conference

February 23, 2008

THE VISION…

Continuous Improvement Website- Cedar Rapids Community Schools.

Goal setting, mission statements, class meetings, data folders, and more. This is a GOLDMINE of information with many forms and templates that can be customized.

http://quality.cr.k12.ia.us/index_search.asp

National Certification- World Languages

http://www.nbpts.org/for_candidates/certificate_areas1?ID=16&x=29&y=8

Classroom Curriculum Connections: A Teacher's Handbook for Personal-Professional Growth professional development guide by Saskatchewan Learning encourages Collaborative Planning as a professional goal for all teachers to consider.

http://www.sasklearning.gov.sk.ca/docs/policy/curr_connections/index.html

STAYING CURRENT…

CASLS is a K-16 National Foreign Language Resource Center promoting international literacy by supporting communities of educators and by partnering with those communities to develop a comprehensive system of proficiency-based tools for lifelong language learning and teaching. Customizable newsletter once a week.

http://casls.uoregon.edu/index.php

The Canadian Association of Second Language Teachers (CASLT)- Newsletter once a month

http://www.caslt.org/index_en.ph

Teachers TV- Rich resource of instructional techniques in

Great Britain

. You can sign up for an account and keep bookmarks. Newsletter once a month.

http://www.teachers.tv/

Edweek.org. Newsletter once a week.

http://www.edweek.org

Teacher Magazine. Newsletter once a week

www.teachermagazine.org.

ONLINE PROFESSIONAL LEARNING COMMUNITIES

Yahoo Newsgroups

AP Exchanges

APexchanges-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

MFL Resources. Very active group from the

UK

. The individual message mode allows you to receive the very useful attachments. However, there can be 50 or more messages a day! For me it is worth it!

http://www.mflresources.org.uk

mflresources-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

KEEPING IT REAL AND THE CULTURAL ICEBERG…

* Yahoo, MSN, International Google are also excellent sources for “real world” information.

Sue Fenton- Madame Fifi Publications.

Excellent resources for maximizing oral communication. Sample titles-

Over 1,000 Conversation Starters for Any Language Course —A BEST-SELLER

Power Talk

You Played a Song. Now What?   

Move Your Students to a

World

City

 

http://www.madamefifi.com/pages/learning-language-products.htm

L’Internaute Magazine- French online magazine for everyday life. This is my home page and I couldn’t start my day without it!

http://www.linternaute.com/

MCM.net- Everything about contemporary French music!

http://www.mcm.net/

Dailymotion

Great source of videos to show your students

http://www.dailymotion.com/

This is an example of a playlist I created for the theme of personal relationships

http://www.dailymotion.com/playlist/x5egp_Texane08_relations-personelles

Cultural Iceberg Metaphor

Mike Berg’s Blog

When you first arrive in a foreign culture, you start at the tip of the iceberg. Above the waterline, which represents your level of cultural awareness, are the actions, thoughts, and words (observational behavior) of a culture. What you don’t see, however, until your water level lowers revealing more of the iceberg is the beliefs, values, and assumptions of a culture that motivates the observational behavior above the surface. Thus, the waterline is one of the reasons wars are fought and you can’t help but feel lost when exposed.

http://mberg.buildafrica.org/2005/06/25/cultural-icebergs/

Cultural Iceberg- One page representation

www.hsp.org/files/culturaliceberg2.pdf

Cultural Iceberg- Multi page reference created to use in ESL classes

www.babinlearn.com/pdf%20files/Cinderella/Ice%20Berg%20Culture%20Organizer.pdf

TECHNOLOGY GUIDANCE

Integrating ICT in MFL Classroom- This should be your starting point for how to integrate technology into your classroom. There are extensive podcasts, slide shows, etc. Joe Dale has done an amazing job harnessing useful resources. His blog is what inspired me to create my own. Furthermore, his students at the

Nodehill

School

have great podcasts that you can subscribe to in ITunes.

http://www.joedale.typepad.com/

http://nodehillfrench.podomatic.com/

Podcasts Foreign Language.  Podcasts are a great way to bring language into your classroom. Buying an IPod (I have the third generation Nano which has video capacity) allows you to listen and view on the go. You can also hook your IPod to the TV with a special cord.

ITunes download – You can search for podcasts in the ITunes store.

http://wwwapplecomipod.com/iTunes/

Using Podcasts to Teach Languages

Joe Dale has imbedding a You Tube Video of using podcasts for language learning

http://joedale.typepad.com/integrating_ict_into_the_/2008/02/using-podcasts.html

Podcast directories

http://www.podcastingnews.com/forum/link_31.htm

http://www.podcastdirectory.com/language/

http://www.bgfl.org/bgfl/45.cfm?s=45&m=1720&p=1083,index

Zoomerang

Creating online surveys with analysis of the results. The free version allows you to see the results for only 10 days.  10 days are enough for my purposes.

http://info.zoomerang.com/?CMP=KNC-Gbd2Zoom

SHARPENING THE SAW…

Ikeepbookmarks - My personal bookmarks. I have collected hundreds of sites useful to me. I can access my bookmarks from any computer and this has been a life saver for me!

http://www.iKeepBookmarks.com/Andrea_Henderson   

Les Chevaliers du Château des Champions- My personal blog page. It is a work in progress!

http://mmehenderson.typepad.com/

Creative Lee- Organizational tips for creative (aka right brained) thinkers. 

http://www.creativelee.com/HTML/home.htm

Motivation to move- Motivational forum and podcasts for all areas of life- Real motivation for your real life! 

http://www.motivationtomove.com/

Carole Fredericks Foundation

The Foundation provides teachers with authentic French language materials and easy to use, classroom tested lesson plans and related methodologies that engage students, teach French language skills and promote the study of francophone cultures. Carole was an African American singer who was most famous by her recordings in

France

with Jean-Jacques Goldman and Michael Jones. She is my inspiration…

http://www.carolefredericksfoundation.org/

Voix de l'Espoir- Que Serai- Je Demain?

* Although this video was created after Carole's death, her distinctive voice is ever present in the song. There is a brief clip of Carole in this video.

A larger than life figure with a generous spirit, Carole was a performer who threw herself into her live performances body and soul. She liked nothing more than getting involved in fund-raising tours with singers and musician friends. Indeed, Carole was a regular at charity concerts organized by Restos du Cœur and Les Enfoirés. On March 8th (2001)... she brought the house down at “Voix de l’Espoir [Voices of Hope]” concert organized on International Women’s Day. Taking the stage at Club Med World in Paris with a host of other female singers including Princess Erika, Jocelyne Beroard, Rokia Traoré and Lââm, Carole helped to raise much needed funds for the construction of a Pan-African children’s hospital in Dakar [Senegal, West Africa].”

- Pierre Rene-Worms for rfi.fr

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xf8qy_les-voix-de-lespoir-que-seraije_music

Les voix de l'espoir - Que serai-je ...
envoyé par Ryan71

Support documents from the HATFL Conference.

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Amy Lenord's Mission Download amys_biomission.doc Additional Resources COMIC STRIP CODE: COLLAGR http://images.collagr.com/1000/1/f19eb3d1-c419-49ea-940a-c9c28dc84b70_embed.jpg GLOGSTER – ONLINE POSTER created by Amy Lenord http://alenord.glogster.com/glog-718/