1 Advanced Placement French Language Syllabus Course

Advanced Placement French Language Syllabus
Course Description
The AP French Language course is the fifth year of a sequential program. While the
course is open to all interested students who have successfully completed French 4,
students are recommended to complete the French IV Honors before entering the
French AP Language course. The course uses authentic materials and resources along
with required texts. The resources and texts used for this course are in accordance with
those suggested by the AP French Language Course Description as found on the College
Board website, www.collegeboard.org .
The class meets five times weekly, and may occasionally require extra after-school
sessions or student-teacher conferences. Students should plan to devote extensive
homework time throughout the week as this is rigorous college-level course with
significant reading and writing outside of class time.
This course emphasizes the five domains of learning found in the national and state
World Language Standards: Communication, Cultures, Connections, Comparisons and
Communities. These five domains of learning involve the skills of listening, speaking,
reading, writing and developing cultural awareness appropriate to the course level.
Course Purpose and Goals
Students are expected to:
 use French as the language of communication in the classroom.
 become proficient in the French Language in reading, writing, speaking and
listening in accordance with the National Standards
 enrich and develop their cultural knowledge and awareness of the Francophone
world, in particular to compare it to the United States.
 comprehend French that is intended for native speakers in a variety of contexts.
 understand written text from a variety of authentic sources in French.
 improve vocabulary, fluency, pronunciation, and intonation through
circumlocution activities, debates, and directed or free class discussions.
 present oral projects in groups and individually.
French AP Language material
In order to provide students with multiple opportunities to read, write, speak and listen
to French in many contexts, a variety of materials are used throughout the course.
 Une Fois pour Toutes, deuxieme edition by Hale Sturges, II , Henry L. Herbst & Linda
Cregg Nielsen ©1993
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AP French - Preparing for the language exam. 2nd edition by Richard Ladd & Colette
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Triangle : Applications Pratiques De La Langue Française, 3rd edition by Carolyn
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Released AP exams from 2000-2006
Controverses by Larbi Oukada, Didier Bertrand, Janet L. Solberg ©2006
A Toute France by Lucia Bonato & Franca Bruera ©2002
Cinema for French Conversation, 2nd edition by Anne-Christine Rice ©2003
Quant à moi: Témoignages des Français et des Francophones, 2nd edition sby
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Girard ©1997
F. Demaray & Josette J. Smith ©1998
Jeannette D. Bragger & Donald B. Rice ©2000
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Articles from on-line newspapers such as Le Monde, Le Figaro, Paris Match
Articles from print and online French magazines such as Phosphore, Okapi &
Français dans le monde
Champs-Elysees Audio Magazine and CD
Audio tapes and CD’s such as songs and poetry
Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmond Rostand
Manigances by Pierre Boileau & Thomas Narcejac
Video clips of current events and issues from on-line French TV5, Le Monde and
24heures.ch
Audio clips from Radio France Internationale and musique.ados.fr
Full length and clips from movies, including: Le Retour de Martin Guerre,
Ridicule, Merci pour le chocolat, Une grande séduction, La veuve de Saint Pierre,
Cyrano de Bergerac, Bye-Bye, Chocolat (w/ Claire Denis)
A Picture is worth 1000 words - Visual aids
Thematic vocabulary and terminology reviewed from variety of sources
Teaching Strategies
When planning instruction, every effort is made for each student practice all skills every
week. In order to emphasize particular skills and facilitate student preparation for the
exam, one of the skills of the AP Language exam is emphasized each day. For example,
one day of each week begins with a correction of an activity or paragraph similar to the
grammatical fill-in sections of the exam, with a discussion and review of the various
rules of grammar. Review of grammar thus becomes tied to the areas of concern for a
particular student or group of students. There is heavy emphasis on building and
enriching vocabulary and idiomatic expressions through authentic listening and reading
material. Students maintain a personal notebook of new vocabulary words in order to
incorporate newly acquired vocabulary in their discussions and in their writing.
Thematic units are used to link the core skills, and generally include a quiz on thematic
vocabulary acquired and grammar points reviewed, as well as a major oral presentation
or debate and a written assessment such a composition or a timed, in-class essay on a
related AP-style prompt.
Speaking 25% of grade
In the classroom, all forms of communication are carried out in French. Each student’s
participation grade reflects their use of French and their involvement in discussions and
conversations. Speaking is a daily activity that takes a variety of forms. In order to build
confidence and increase the amount of speaking that takes place in a class session,
students are either grouped in pairs, or in small groups, depending on the assignment.
The AP French Language course provides students with daily opportunities to develop
their speaking skills in a variety of settings and types of discourse. Summarizing
readings or explaining news articles, discussing difficulties or questions about grammar
work, debating issues, answering questions, responding to spontaneous situations or
discussing the reading of the night before are just some of the frequent opportunities for
students to hone their speaking skills. Students also give regular oral presentations to
the whole class, as well as recording responses to pictures sequences in the language lab,
or using an I-Pod to simulate the speaking portion of the AP Language exam.
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Reading
25% of grade
Reading texts come from a variety of authentic written sources that develop students
reading abilities. Such sources include literature textbooks, short stories, novels,
newspapers and magazines in hard copies and from the Internet, and previous AP
exams. Weekly readings of these fiction and non-fiction selections are generally focused
on a theme chosen by the teacher and the students from the course texts. This theme
forms a 2-3 week focus for readings and discussion. Students are expected to complete
“free” reading, using magazines, novels, poems, and non-fiction material from the class
library or from online resources, keeping a journal of new vocabulary to share with their
peers. Students also practice reading comprehension from the AP French Language
practice books (Ladd & Triangle) and released items. Students are frequently assessed
on their comprehension through practice tests and quizzes, as well as being expected to
incorporate information from the readings to support their debates, discussions and
compositions.
Writing
25% of grade
Students in the AP French language course are frequently asked to write in a variety of
formats such as summarizing reading material, writing a new scene or ending to a novel
or video clip, analyzing characters in a play or a novel, critiquing a movie or
paraphrasing news articles. To prepare for in-class discussions and debates, students
regularly use E-Schools for online discussions to present and discuss facts, questions
and suggestions with their classmates and instructor. In addition, students regularly
write compositions, both at home and in-class based on AP practice exams without the
use of dictionaries. Before writing an essay, organizational approaches are discussed.
Students are taught how to self-assess, peer edit and are expected to correct their own
errors that I have highlighted in their own composition. A heavy emphasis is placed on
using a variety of transitional words and expressions taken from Controverses, Quant à
moi and the lists in Ladd’s AP French text, as well as from their vocab notebooks.
Students are expected to demonstrate the use of a variety of tenses and sophisticated
grammatical structures in all of their writing.
Listening 25% of grade
Students are regularly exposed to listening of recorded material from a variety of
authentic sources. These range from audio and video clips of the news and other TV
programs, to interviews, to songs, to movies, to a variety of audio and video recordings
that develop listening abilities. These activities also serve as springboards for
discussions of cultural historical and current events.
Occasional use is made of dictées and cloze exercises to improve listening
comprehension and connect to writing with awareness of adjective agreements and verb
endings which sound the same.
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Sample Thematic Unit A (4 weeks)
Le monde d’aujourd’hui et de demain
 Students complete a pre-test on uses of past, present, and future verb tenses to
determine weaknesses.
 Students use Une fois pour toutes and other self-selected sources to lead short
reviews for the class of previously learned verb forms, targeting rules and differences
between usage in French and English. A test of verb conjugations and usages is
given at the end of the unit. Emphasis is placed on the importance of accuracy.
 Students independently read poems and short stories from pre-Revolutionary times,
such as La Farce de Maître Pathelin, the fables of LaFontaine, poetry of François
Villon and Ronsard, and original versions of well-known French fairy tales such as la
Belle et la Bête and La Belle au Bois Dormant. They create written and oral
presentations of these readings to share their images of la vie quotidienne du passé
in France.
 Students view Le Retour de Martin Guerre, using the movie as a springboard to
explore how technology has changed daily life.
 Students complete listening comprehension exercises modeled after the AP Listening
Exam, using short excerpts from Martin Guerre.
 Students independently complete character analyses which are orally shared in class.
 Students examine quotes from the movie, using grammatical context clues to help
identify who the speaker is.
 Students listen to interviews presenting the advantages and disadvantages of using
technology. (Quant à Moi, chapitre 7)
 Students read and discuss a variety of fiction and non-fiction excerpts regarding
technology (Quant à Moi, chapitre 7)
 Students write a composition, exploring how the plot of Le Retour de Martin Guerre
would be different in the 21st century, based on today’s technology.
Sample Thematic Unit B (3 weeks)
L’immigration et la question des colonies francaises
 Students read and discuss the cultural identity of being « French » or « American »
using the poems « Poème à Mon Frère Blanc » by Léopold Sédar Senghor &
« L’homme qui te ressemble » by René Philombe
 Students individually complete readings from Chapter 6 of Controverses, including
online activities to guide research on current immigration laws in France
(heinle.controverses.com)
 Students read and individually present excerpts from "Le Racisme Expliqué à Ma
Fille" by Ben Jellou.
 students listen to selections from http://www.rfi.fr/actufr/pages/001/page_121.asp
a dossier on les émeutes dans les banlieues
 Vocabulaire de l’immigration et les mots pour identifier quelqu’un from articles
and from Quant à moi, Chapitre 6: Questions sociales. (Students should consider
how Chirac could have chosen words differently to avoid youth riots) :
Circumlocution /Taboo activities to develop skill of using synonyms and FrenchFrench dictionaries to define new vocab from student generated lists
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Students listen to songs from Zebda, including Motivés, Je crois que ça va pas être
possible, and Le bruit et l’odeur , using dictée and cloze activities to focus on key
words
students individually read current articles chosen from Le Monde, Le Figaro, RFI
and other online sources as available, as well as Religion et Société, Français dans le
monde numéro 342
Journal entries and Eschools discussion “what it is to be Muslim in France” “what is
racism” “what is the cultural identity of an American? of a French person?
Students view the Karim Dridi movie Bye-Bye with and without subtitles. Eschools
& in-class discussion of how students’ definition of the identity of a “French” person
has/has not changed after seeing movie
Using supporting details from readings, listening and discussions, students split into
small groups to prepare for and present a formal debate “L’immigration, met-il en
péril la culture d’un pays? »
Grammatical areas of concern using Une fois pour toutes: use and agreement of
adjectives , use of past and present participles
Final assessment : «Le multiculturalisme: Enrichissement ou perte d’identité?»
Formal essay written outside of class, using quotes from readings and listenings
completed.
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