Final Reflection: How might we use Harkness in the Core French classroom?

At LCS, we have started to use the Harkness methodology in our English classrooms but many of us in modern language have also been experimenting. Because of this, I altered my action plan slightly to align with the direction of the school’s as well as my own interests.  Before the last face-to-face session, my HMW question was: How might we marry Harkness methodology and TPRS to encourage and foster more authentic and spontaneous communication in the Core French classroom? However, I quickly realized I was trying to take on too much and decided to just stick with Harkness.

 

The week before school ended for the Christmas break, I was fortunate enough to have one of those goosebumpy moments in my classroom where I thought to myself, Wow maybe I actually am a good teacher! The moment was a result of a discussion with my Grade 10 Core French students around religion, customs, and traditions. To begin, I knew I had to scaffold the discussion because of the varying abilities in my class. To do so, I provided them with what I thought would be essential vocabulary and essential questions to get the discussion started. We read through all the vocabulary and the questions prior to starting the discussion to ensure that everyone understood. Next, I gave them some time to develop a few of their own questions to ask because for a successful discussion to take place, having some questions for those quiet moments is always helpful. I then reminded them that that in French, they needed to be more patient, ask clarifying questions and try to find the words they knew versus always trying to directly translate from English.

 

As we sat in a circle, I tracked the discussion using the manual tracking system but instead of writing down the types of contributions they made, I wrote down the words they were missing and needed help with.  Because I have such a mixed group of students in my classroom, it was wonderful to hear about their different religions, customs, and traditions. All of them were very eager to share, which rarely happens with my 10s.  What was most impressive, however, was to hear one of the students explain to her classmates the difference between Shi’a and Sunni Muslims. She, of course, needed my help with many words, but nonetheless, she was able to give a detailed explanation that her peers could understand. The students continued to ask furthering questions because they were so genuinely interested; this gave me the courage to continue to tackle challenging questions. After the discussion, we reviewed the new vocabulary together.

 

This was not my first time experimenting with Harkness in a foreign language classroom. Last year, I was amazed at my students’ abilities to discuss gun laws in French after reading several articles about shootings in the States. However, what I have found most challenging is maintaining the enthusiasm in a second language because they find it so draining. However, what I experimented with this year was having them develop the discussion material. I ran a few discussions with articles from the news in French and we worked on using the same phrases to share their opinions and challenge the opinions of others, and I always built in time to teach challenging vocabulary pre-reading.

 

For a couple of weeks, my students brought in an article a day with prepared discussion questions, key vocabulary, a summary of the article, and useful expressions. What made all the difference (I think) was them getting to choose the material because they were so keen to discuss their passions. The topics ranged from Formula 1 racing to a self-combustion (it’s gross!) to Youtube’s censorship of pornography. I had them reflect on their ability to speak fluently by the end of the two weeks and I was pretty amazed by what they had to say. One student from Germany said initially it had been “so awkward” and there were many quiet pauses, but by the end, the discussion was fluent and they relied far less on me for help. Others said they really surprised themselves with how much they were able to say in French.

 

What I’ve learned is that repetition is essential. They need to be having discussions often, revisiting the same words and phrases often for them to become a part of their lexicon. They also need to be interested in the subject matter so having them select the articles was a great start and I initially thought they would have trouble understanding articles online but it seems that when it is a passion, they will already know the gist of the meaning or they will actually take the time to understand it.

 

Last year I used the novel, Une tournée d’enfer, which some of my students loved while others found it far too challenging. I would love to hear what other teachers have read with their high school Core French classes. I plan on trying again with the same novel but more structured discussions.

 

I know this is simply the end of the beginning! A huge thank you to Cohort and its amazing members for all of their support. A big thank you to @erinimrie for asking the right questions last F2F. I thought I had the answers to them at the time, but when implementing the plan, I realized that no, I needed to re-think the plan.

 

My final reflection :