Written by Hello Cohort, I need your help!
My resolution this year is to provide as many opportunities as possible for my students to learn French in an authentic way. Typically, I think of an authentic end product or performance that I want students to work toward, but over the past few weeks my students have been getting ready to interview a francophone who lives in Toronto but was raised elsewhere. The idea was to expose students to francophone culture that exists on their doorstep; to find out what those who weren’t raised in Toronto think of our city, our cultural habits, what they like and dislike about life in Toronto and what, if anything, they miss about their hometown. I think it’s so valuable reflecting on one’s own culture at the same time as learning about other cultures. Speaking strictly from our current curriculum perspective, this give students a chance to speak and listen in an authentic way in French.
My initial focus has been on the interview itself and finding enough connections (when some of my students were unable to do so themselves) so that all 26 students will be interviewing a francophone. This process has put me in touch with the president of Canadian Parents for French, someone who works at the Centre Francophone, and someone who is connected to TFO – I’ve discovered amazing resources at my fingertips! My secondary focus has been on what to do with the results. Students know that they will be recording their interview to share with me, analyzing their results and putting together a presentation, which exposes the class to their interviewee’s background, perspectives and connection to Toronto. Once the presentations are complete I’d like the students to reflect on the results of the interviews as a whole.
I know this isn’t the way it should normally work (i.e. students should have a much clearer idea of what they’re being evaluated on) so I’ve delayed the roll-out of interviews until next week. Should I be evaluating their interview performance, and ability to ask spontaneous as well as scripted questions? Should the evaluation end there, and the rest just be a follow-up activity? Is there a more interesting way to bring their research together and make connections? *this is where I think technology might play a role, and why I’ve posted here!
Any suggestions you might have on this project would be greatly appreciated!
This sounds like a very immersive and rich project Jen! I like that you’re using interview skills, and I wonder if you could ask them about what they think the purpose of this activity is. Why do these organizations exist in the first place. With that in mind, what about getting them to follow up and write, en francais, for these organizations’ publications? Authentic audience, reflective learning, and reflecting on their culture, but also contributing to it as well…
Likewise, they could write a blog posting for RSGC, or an article for your newspaper in French. But I like the idea that they are dealing with authentic Francais, and then would be put in front of an authentic audience at the end.
In terms of evaluating the spontaneous questions and and follow up questions (i.e. non-scripted), you would need to review the true purpose of the project. What learning are you evaluating? Spontaneous language, or comprehension of cultural position?
I hope this helps, and I can’t wait to hear how it goes!
Bonne Chance!
garth.
Thanks for this, Garth! I wanted the students to reflect on their experience and on the results of everyone’s interviews, and your ideas are a great way to achieve this in an authentic manner. I’ll let you know how it turns out.
Have you looked at http://voicethread.com/
Some of our teachers are using it to provide their students an authentic practice space while challenging them to develop their oral skills.
Other teachers are using it to have students from different classrooms collaborate and talk about an idea. You might find a use here.
Some other interesting links here from some other teachers doing interesting things with it :
http://blog.web20classroom.org/2012/05/soyou-wanna-use-voicethread.html
This is going to be awesome. So many ideas brewing already, but definitely planning to use voice thread with this project. Thank you!
Jennifer,
You bring up an interesting question. Sometimes I come up with a neat idea around integrating technology but then struggle with figuring how to assess or evaluate the experience. That struggle sometimes leaves me to abandon the idea. Other times, I decide to use it as an assessment “for” or “as” learning, and not to evaluate it at all. I will have students write a reflection in their blackboard journal around their experience for example discussing whether or not they found it to be a valuable learning exercise or not. At the end of the year, there is a mark associated with their journal entries that revolves more around completion of the entries than evaluating the entries themselves. My goal for today to actually write a blog entry about gathering evidence on assessments that are not evaluated.
Hi Jennifer,
That sounds like a great project! I am currently wrapping up a similar project with 10 students, only mine are interviewing a francophone person within the school community (they’re in grade 9, so we’re keeping it safe!). What grade are yours in?
Feel free to contact me at [email protected], I could send you my detailed lesson plan with all the assessment pieces.
Elise