Sixth Grade
The Sixth Grade French program aims:
- to teach students to communicate in French with reasonable accuracy at this level and to teach them word recognition and spelling in French
- to give students an appreciation for the culture of France and the French speaking world
Through group work and student-to-student dialogue, students in Sixth Grade French are provided ample opportunity to learn to speak the language with more fluidity and greater accuracy in pronunciation. Whereas the Fifth Grade program is conducted with a predominately audio/visual/lingual approach and an introduction to the written language, students in Sixth Grade French are expected to read and write all of the vocabulary that they learn to use orally.
Students are presented with aspects of French culture through readings, projects, map study, videos, including the video component of their textual program and activities geared to their age level such as games, songs and skits.
Seventh Grade
Through repetition and audio-visual stimuli, students continue to learn basic conversational expressions and mannerisms inherent to everyday life in France. As written material becomes more complex, grammatical structures and sentence patterns are observed and analyzed.
One of the most important components of the program is the time spent on daily oral practice of new vocabulary. Along with all the listed grammatical structures, students are actively engaged in the memorization of a significant number of new words. Students must be able to use these words in context with accurate pronunciation and understanding. The most common forms of practice are student-student and teacher-student. Students will also occasionally group in larger groups for presentations and mini-skits as well as for poetry (Foreign Language Week). As students continue their pair and group oral/aural interaction, they become accustomed to fluent conversation. They could have individual evaluation on oral assignments, or they might receive a group grade at the end of a project. By working together, students learn to communicate more effectively.
By the end of this course, a student should be able to initiate and comprehend a simple conversation, write a paragraph in grammatically correct French and have a firm understanding of the fundamental principles of the language.
Eighth Grade
Eighth Grade is intensified as the student increases his/her use of French as a means of communication. Reading comprehension exercises are completed after students have read short stories, poems and historical articles. The articles on French history range from the approximate dates of 100 B.C. to 1700 A.D. As students continue their pair and group oral/aural interaction, they will converse fluently.
By the end of this course, a student should be able to initiate and comprehend a conversation, write a paragraph in grammatically correct French and have a firm understanding of the fundamental principles of the language.
Ninth Grade
As Ninth Grade students advance in their ability to use the French language with a tremendous emphasis on vocabulary, so do they advance in their cognitive ability to use critical thinking skills. Among the skills that students are now learning to articulate in French are the formulation of their own questions, the observation of language patterns, the clarification of problems and the weighing of judgments. Students are also able to make cross-cultural observations and to analyze how language actually functions.
Ninth Grade students will also study and discuss Le Petit Prince, a modern French classic. As they read Le Petit Prince, they will learn new vocabulary and grammar, be introduced to basic literary analysis and their study skills will be expanded well beyond the level of simple comprehension.