Cassoulet in Carcassonne: A Symbol of Competence and Independence

We ordered take out from a Belgian restaurant in Madison, (Brasserie V...I’m probably the only one who thinks of it as Brasserie Cinq). I got cassoulet, one of my favorite French dishes. It’s a great restaurant but the dish fell far short of expectations. But that isn’t really its fault. It’s hard to compare to 2 of the best travel memories EVER.

 
The last time I had it in France was 2014 in Paris with my French parents. It was the end of May or early June and totally out of season but worth it. It was close to our hotels and had classic dark, southern decor to go with the menu.

 
The best cassoulet I ever had was more or less the home of the dish in Carcassonne. I hope to take students to France at least one more time to take them there. I’m earmarking a recent windfall for plane tickets to Europe for our family and this is my top place to take the girls in France (no offense, French parents in Nantes). I traveled there by myself the fall of 1998 when doing Semester Abroad through UWRF (best undergrad study abroad program EVER). I stayed at the hostel IN THE WALLED CITY and ate dinner at one of the tourist trap restaurants inside. Their cassoulet was rich and the beans had a creamy quality that made the sauce thick and savory. I was squeezed next to another table (as is typical in France) and a French couple next to me joked with me about what I ordered for dessert-asking if they could have a bite. I called the man’s bluff and handed over my plate. Navigating the train there, then the city bus, then navigating the cité, then securing shelter and an epic dinner made me feel wildly competent and independent.

 
After numerous small challenges that cumulatively made for a hard week, I needed a dinner that symbolized competence and independence I guess.

Target Language Use When Discussing Assessments

I drafted this post over 2 years ago and even then, instinctively I felt like it was unfair to talk about anything related to grades in French. As I write this now, it's February 2021 and I've spent most of the past year teaching totally online, first asynchronously after the abrupt pivot due to Covid in March of 2020 and then in the fall synchronously. SO MUCH of the research, teaching blogs, and social media posts between March and December 2020 rightly noted the inequities in educational access that already existed but were made infinitely worse because of the pandemic. 

In 2018 I wrote "In the interest of being learner-centered and collaborative I talk about expectations, rubrics, and the pedagogy behind assignments in my classes. I don't want language to be a barrier to those discussions, particularly for weaker students, so we do them predominantly in English. What would ACTFL say about that? Probably:

• Ask them to look at the rubrics and materials in English on their own time (but will they actually do that? Probably not.)
• use 10% of the class period to do this in English and avoid English at all costs for the remainder of the period (what if they have so many questions that it takes 25% of the class period?)
• rely on cognates and other clues (%, numbers of points, etc) to get the point across in the TL (but is that enough?)"

As I reread it in 2021, I wonder if my ACTFL instincts are still correct. A quick Google search just now of "ACTFL target language use" yields this undated resource from ACTFL that cites sources from 1981-1994. This one from Ohio (2014). And finally this 2019 ACTFL statement on diversity and inclusion which is silent on grading and assessment inequities. 

After the pandemic, the George Floyd protests and subsequent ones worldwide, I think the official position of 90% target language use needs to be reconsidered. Perhaps "90% most days" is more reasonable. 

And this doesn't even get into THE emerging diversity, equity and inclusion trend of 2020 which is "decolonizing the curriculum." 

Beyond the Textbook: Authentic Materials Integrated Into FREN 103 Fall 2018

Here is a rough map of the authentic materials I integrated into each unit.

French 103

Unit	Resource	SLO	Interpretive, interpersonal or presentational?
00-01 greetings, classroom, je me présente	Evernote Un tour du monde-classrooms from around the world	#3 listening #4 reading #5 culture #2 writing (chp exam)	Interpretive listening Presentational writing (on exam explain what is in different classrooms)
02 Families, time, passe-temps	CI my family-traditionnelle	#3 listening then #1 speaking	Interpretive then interpersonal
	CI Macron-recomposée	#4 reading then #1 speaking	interpretive then interpersonal
	Stromae Papaoutai-monoparentale	#3 listening then #1 speaking	interpretive then interpersonal
	Organiser une réunion(worksheet)	#2 writing #3 listening #1 speaking	Interpersonal then presentational
03 Weather, seasons, geography, activities	L’amour idéal worksheet	#4 reading #2 writing #1 speaking	Interpretive then Interpersonal then presentational
	M Pokora On danse-passe-temps worksheet	#3 listening #2 writing	interpretive
	Les loisirs pratiqués par les Français-reading	#4 reading #5 culture	interpretive
	Graphic organizer-talk about passe-temps	#1 speaking #3 listening	Interpersonal then presentational
	Worksheet Français interactif SNCF plan a weekend	#4 reading #5 culture #2 writing	Interpretive then  interpersonal
04 Professions, routines, natural resources	CVs français Oliver et Thierry et questions	#4 reading #5 culture #2 writing	Interpretive then interpersonal
	Gestion et utilisation des ressources-reading and questions	#4 reading #5 culture #2 writing	Interpretive then interpersonal
	Routines and resources in francophone country	#4 reading #5 culture #2 writing	Interpretive then Interpersonal then presentational
05 Food	What the World Eats website and comparisons	#4 reading #5 culture #1 speaking	interpretive
	Photos dishes from Quebec	#4 reading (viewing) #5 culture #1 speaking	interpretive
	Les repas scolaires en Francereading and questions	#4 reading #5 culture #2 writing	interpretive
	Repas-différences culturelles	#4 reading (viewing) #5 culture #1 speaking	interpretive

Reflecting on FREN 379 Francophone Literature and Cinema spring 2019

5/8/2019 and 2/4/2021 

I had grand aspirations for this upper level course that mixed literature and film. I really wanted to focus on an input/output model like I'd been working on for our ACTFL presentation, but it didn't work out AT ALL as expected. 

Here was the course map:

FREN 379 Francophone Literatures and Cinemas

Start of the course:

1.intro to basic literary terms/techniques (see analyse d'un passage and the 310 text for ideas)

• at the start give an ungraded quiz to assess where they're at
• ask them to apply them to texts they've already read
• give them a quiz
• mid-semester quiz again

2.Quick review passé simple

3.Provide links to Tex's French Grammar for p.c. vs imp, conditional and subjunctive

Une si longue lettre first since it’s a little easier structurally

For the first text

• INPUT: historical/cultural context: me provide basic info and ask basic comprehension questions (T/F, multiple choice) based on them. Do as homework and turn in directly in Canvas.
• preview/predicting activity
• INPUT literary techniques me provide examples and ask them basic questions using the lit terms myself "is this passive voice or active voice"? Is this 1st person or 3rd person?
• INPUT to OUTPUT build on examples from previous activity and ask them to generate theories about deeper meanings. Ex: why use the passive voice? What impression does the 1st person narrative give you?
• OUTPUT small groups they have to produce the literary vocab and examples in the text that illustrate them
• OUTPUT small groups each create list of T/F statements, exchange with another group and answer the questions
• OUTPUT individual students identify more examples themselves-they have to produce the literary vocab and examples in the text that illustrate them
• OUTPUT reading portfolio 
• OUTPUT summative assessment (choice from a list, see below)

Each text:

• INPUT: historical/cultural context: me provide basic info and ask basic comprehension questions (T/F, multiple choice) based on them. Do as homework and turn in directly in Canvas.
• preview/predicting activity
• OUTPUT they identify lit technique examples-they have to produce the literary vocab and examples in the text that illustrate them
• pause/post like Anne ACTFL 2018
• COERLL collaborative reading. Or do something similar in Canvas or Padlet?: me post an excerpt and ask each to react to it then ask them to discuss their reactions with each other online
• reading portfolio 
• summative assessment (choice from a list, see below)

Summative assessment ideas:

• rewrite a scene: ex different gender, time period, genre, country, etc then present it and lead a discussion how the text and language changed
• create a trailer for the book (see Goodreads and YouTube for examples)-what would you choose to highlight and why?
• adapt a scene for the movie version and film it: add costumes, background music, makeup, props, etc and explain how you chose to represent the text
• write an analysis of a theme in one or more texts and what literary techniques are used to represent the theme

Final Project idea:

Turn one of the books/short stories into a film.

Part 1 write:

• ·      Who will you cast?
• ·      Where will you film? What historical, political, economic, social variables will you have to account for?
• ·      Target audience? How will you market to them?
• ·      Who will help fund it? (See target audience)
• ·      What 2 key issues in the book will you focus on?
• ·      What film techniques will you use to show them?
• ·      What 2 scenes will you have to leave out?
• ·      What 2 thinks will you have to adapt to make the film cohere? (think Hunger Games book vs film. In book Katniss’s perspective dominates. She doesn’t know there is a game designer watching the game unfold and unleashing new challenges. In the film the audience sees Katniss and the players AND we see the control booth where the game designer is manipulating everything).

Part 2 present (day of final exam) an overview of your proposal:

1. ·        Each student is a possible producer with $10,000 to spend.
2. ·        You need at least $20,000 to make your film
3. ·        As you listen to each pitch decide how much money you will spend on the film
4. ·        At the end, do you have enough to make your film?

_____________________

• propose award categories for the texts we studied this semester (each student propose 1 or 2 categories?)
• solicit nominees for each category from your peers
• lead a discussion to persuade your classmates to vote for your nominees
• vote: how persuasive were you?

How it turned out:

There were only 4 students. One was a native speaker. One had only one semester of accelerated first year French. There was often at least 1 person absent and at least 1 person who hadn't done the homework so they couldn't interact effectively with each other. 

The steps from input to output hinged on them working consistently every day, but most couldn't. Those that did were overwhelmed by the workload. 

Like many things I tried after reading extensively about them in ACTFL publications and from other experts, it proved impossible to do with the students at that institution with the limited resources and support it offered.