Ambiguous reading and its place in the classroom

Hello all!  I am posting form my messy desk this morning and so I hope that I make sense!  This will be a short post about reading texts and using contextual clues to figure out the subject.  The subject in this article, freeganisme (as opposed to Veganism in English- although we say végétalien in French...) is a great way to talk about all kinds of non standard paractices related to living our lives and plus, it's just cool to learn all these new words!  Under the paragraph is the blog, which you may choose to direct students to after the activity.

We are working with Agnès Varda's Les Glaneurs et la glaneuse in my French 4 Honors class -for the record I don't like labeling courses Honors and non Honors, as it tends to make the kids internalize either superiority or inferiority, but that's the way my school works at this point!  This is a film about the concept of gleaning.  In order to get my students to think about the range of gleaners and people who repurpose - either through necessity or just being green- I do all kinds of activities.  I have them then write about the things we do in their blogs, which serve as products of individuality for the students and assessments as well.

Here is one on reading a text and figuring out what a word means.  I love doing these kinds of low-stakes, ungraded activities in pairs with all levels, including level 1.  My goal as a language teacher is to help learners be comfortable with ambiguity, in my opinion,  a necessary skill in order to be a great language acquirer.  I normally feel guilty when I use the NL (native language); but this is primarily a reading comprehension activity and so the use of the NL is ok with me.  In addition, students in lower levels who do not understand the complexities of this almost meta activity benefit from reading about what we are really doing.  Hope you enjoy!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Qu’est-ce que c’est?  Qu’est-ce que j’en pense?

This exercise helps you to become more comfortable with ambiguity, a skill that will serve you not only in language acquisition, but life in general.  Looking at this text, try to answer the questions below in English to show what you understand.  Remember to use cognates and previous knowledge to help you!  Then, when you think you have an idea of the answers, give the article a title in French and write a bit in French at the bottom of the page about your opinion.  Then, share your responses with a partner.  Did you both come up with the same answers?  Why or why not?  Use the text to justify.

Titre: ______________________________________________________________

“Je trouve que le Freeganisme est vraiment génial, pour moi c'est comme le warez mais version bouffe par excellence. Pour un petit rappel warez est une pratique ainsi qu'une communauté très active et controversé par les majors et autres gouvernements avide du billet vert sur le net afin d'avoir des jeux, des logiciels, de la musique, des films et j'en passe gratuitement et tous ça avec un esprit de partage. Le Freeganisme me fait aussi pensées aux logements vainquant que l'ont peu squatter ou encore à l'autostop, des pratiques plus belle et ingénieuse les une que les autres pour vivre sans dépensé quoi que ce soit ou presque ainsi que pour profiter d'un système qui torture les faibles rend l'homme esclave de son pouvoir d'achat ainsi du monde capitaliste.”

(http://www.elrachetcompagnie.info/2013/11/poubelle-la-vie-avec-le-freeganisme.html)

En anglais:

1.     What is Freeganisme?

2.     Who do you think practices it?

3.     What other practice does it remind the writer of?

En français: Parlez avec un partenaire

Qu’est-ce que tu penses de cette pratique?  Pourquoi?

La Soupe tonkinoise au Québec- another way to show diversity in French speakers in the classroom

When we think of concepts and culture to teach in the classroom, sometimes we come up short- short of the classics.  As a French teacher, it is really difficult to move away from the typical fare of textbooks (the Eiffel Tower, Paris, galettes de roi, Crêpes, Centre Pompidou, castles in the Loire, etc.).  It seems like the entire reputation of French class rests on fashion and Paris and Je suis Charlie.  While these are incredibly important elements of Francophone life, there are millions of people running around, living their lives and speaking French who never get air time in our classrooms, and thus our students may only find out about them by chance- not a very good strategy to ensure that these voices of la Francophonie are heard.

This problem can extended to include any world language being taught.  What about the Hakka or the Muslim population in Xi'an when teaching Chinese?  What about the differences between the Oxacans and the people who live in Puebla? What about Nicaragua as opposed to Peru?  Of course, by now I'm sure that your defenses are up and you are thinking that the world is so vaste that no one can possibly teach all of that!

Yes, that is true, but we can change the lens we look through on a daily basis to include whenever possible these "others"; this is not really something that we do once, but a way to teach that compels us to learn alongside our students while we teach.  After all, when we learn as teachers, more often than not, we are more motivated to continue our tenure in the classroom.

So, in the spirit of this post, here is an activity on food in Québec on pho, the Vietnamese soup whose name may or may not have come from the French pot au feu.  In doing this listening activity, it's also important to talk about French Indochina and its legacy.

Bonne dégustation!

Here is a link to how to pronounce the word pho:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jgX2q9WPoqo

Here is the link to the listening:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Zuv6--ryfI&feature=channel

Here are the questions:

Avec un(e) partenaire, divisez les questions en deux parties.  Chaque personne trouve la réponse à 4 questions.  Puis, échangez-les, et vérifiez si les réponses sont correctes.

1.     Il y a combien de tailles de bols?

2.     Comment ils appellent les différentes tailles au resto?

3.     La soupe vient de quelle région?

4.     La version qu’on trouve à Montréal vient surtout du sud ou du nord?  Pourquoi?

5.     Que veut dire le mot « pho »?

6.     Est-ce qu’on peut manger cette soupe au petit déjeuner au Vietnam?

7.     A quelle heure?

8.     Après un party, on s’arrête à un marchand _______________.