Summer French Language Teacher Workshop

Engaging classrooms: Literature, Films, Culture and Project-based Learning

Presented by Anne Lair, PhD

Invitons la culture dans la salle de classe! Two days will be devoted to culture.  

1) Gaining cultural and language proficiency. Culture is often taught separately as an added resource, presenting a traditional cultural product to students. Teachers will see how they can use a cultural item in creating their daily lesson plan to immerse students in the target culture and stirring their interest, and how culture is at the core of the lesson while incorporating cultural frameworks. Students will gain cultural and language competencies and will move from Culture 1 to Culture 2.

2) Culture through Project-based learning. Using Project-based learning, a dynamic classroom approach, students actively explore real-world problems and challenges in order to acquire a deeper knowledge. Based on different topics covered in the French curriculum (WL and DLI), participants will develop PBL using Products, Practices, and Perspectives, and the Iceberg theory of culture.   

Auteurs francophones d'ailleurs & Identité française vue à travers deux films récents

Presented by Jeanine Alesch, PhD

Become (re)aquainted with French-language authors from beyond the Hexagon.  Selections will include short works or excerpts from at least 3 of the following:  Mohammed Dib, Assia Djebar, Leïla Sebbar, Anne Hébert, Michael Trembley.

Recent popular French films offer varied reactions to the expansion of French identity through immigration and incorporation into the European Union.  We will focus especially on Bienvenue chez les Cht’is and Qu’est-ce qu’on a fait au bon Dieu? 

Participants will improve their ability to interpret a variety of culture, and historical texts, and learn how these materials and resources will be of use in their classrooms.