Madame Van Zandt – French 1st Year
Course Overview & Objectives
Course Overview
This course is designed to meet the needs of motivated students interested in French language and culture. French I is taught in French and English and encourages students to use French as much as possible. By the end of French I, students will have a strong foundation of basic French grammar, vocabulary, and expressions. Students will practice skills in reading, writing, listening, and speaking. In preparation for Advanced Placement courses, students will begin to compare and contrast Francophone cultures and regions with their own.
Primary Texts
Holt, Reinhart and Winston (2008) French I Bien dit! ISBN # 0030398886
Primary Workbooks
Holt, Reinhart and Winston French I Bien dit! Cahier d’activités and French I Bien dit! Cahier de vocabulaire et grammaire ISBN #0030797217 and ISBN #0030797187
Supplementary Materials
French children’s books, short poems, songs, and short stories
McDougal Littell (1999) Images I, II & III ISBN # 0-669-43524-4 and #0-669-43539-2
Holt Rinehart and Winston (2003) Joie de Lire 1, 2 and 3 ISBN # 0-03-065626-5, 0-03-065627-3 and 0-03-065628-1
Current French magazines and online French articles
Available Films
Le Petit Nicolas, Tintin, Être et Avoir, Hugo, Une Vie de Chat, La Belle et La Bête
Course Objectives
At the French I level, students will begin to:
Listening
- Identify and summarize the main points and basic details and make appropriate inferences and predictions from a spoken source.
- Identify and summarize the main points and basic details and predict outcomes from an everyday conversation on a familiar topic, a dialogue from a film or other broadcast media, or an interview on a social or cultural topic related to the French-speaking world.
Speaking
- Describe, narrate, and present information or persuasive arguments (such as preferences) on general topics.
- Initiate, maintain and close a basic conversation on a familiar topic.
- Formulate questions to seek clarification or additional information.
Writing
- Write emails, journal entries, greeting cards, letters, poems, and short paragraphs on basic topics such as hobbies, family, and school activities.
Reading
- Identify and summarize general points and details and make appropriate inferences and predictions from a written text.
Culture and Social Register
- Recognize and explore cultural elements in oral and written texts, and interpret linguistic cues to infer social relationships.
Course Outline
The principal text for French I is Bien dit!, which will be supplemented by authentic materials such as: art, broadcast media, grammar lessons, cultural resources, drama, literature, poetry, music, news, and magazines, etc. Material from Bien dit! chapters 1-8 is covered. Each chapter provides students with opportunities to increase their vocabulary, read authentic texts, study elements of literature, write paragraphs and present about various familiar topics, participate in basic authentic topical discussions and, as a result, learn more about the culture of the French-speaking world. Focus is on family life, sports and leisure, school, cafés, and current events.
Assessment and district common expectations
French I students will consistently demonstrate that they are achieving the course goals as stated in this syllabus. They will demonstrate these course goals in daily achievement, unit/chapter achievement and semester/year achievement using the ACTFL Progress Indicators. French I will include a comprehensive final assessment. Students and teacher will use French as the language of communication for a part of each class. Course time will be devoted to a variety of activities that enable French students to increase their spoken and written fluency.
Formative assessments: Formative assessments will include daily use of French in the classroom, and completed homework and classwork.
Summative assessments: A variety of summative assessments will be given for each chapter, and include (but are not limited to) quizzes, tests, projects and presentations.
All courses will include a semester final that will comprise roughly 15-20% of the student’s overall grade, depending on the progress of the individual class, and can vary from year to year.
Topics covered by the end of French I include:
- Family and school vocabulary
- Adjectives and their agreement
- Sports and leisure activities, hobbies
- Food: ordering and opinions
- Present tense forms of regular and irregular verbs
- Object pronouns
- Common French expressions
- Clothing