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!
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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?