37 Instructor’s Guide Unit 4

This unit is very individualized to your French program and your students. It is meant to guide the learners toward their Francophone future. Using the CV that was started in the Jeter le pont 0 –> 1, they wrap up their semester (or year) by filling it out with plans for their ongoing studies, internships, study abroad, and career planning.  I call in the resources from my campus, the local community, the French Embassy, and beyond to help: the Career Center, Global Education and Study Abroad, former students who have done exciting things with their French degree, former students who went on TAPIF, etc.

If we as a class decided to do a semester long project-based language learning (PBLL) project, it culminates at the end of this unit. Often, we put our four units together in the project such that they present who they are, how they’ve learned French, the area of the language and culture that inspires them, and what they plan to do with the French after college. Our ‘real’ audience is often high school language classes. The students in my class really enjoy ‘teaching’ the next gen how best to use their time in high school to get the max out of using French to get where they want to go eventually. We underscore AP courses, IB programs, dual enrollment, the Seal of BiLiteracy and such. They really enjoy sharing the apps, sites, blogs, podcasts, games and other tools they use hone their skills.

I also ask students to join me in improving this ebook for the next class. I usually get anywhere from one to four who really want to support this OER. I compensate them through internships (like art students who do graphics and animations), course credit (independent study for seniors), undergraduate research opportunity program (UROP) grants for summer work with us on the project, and either work/study or hourly student jobs. Interestingly, many of the students just want to do this for free because they really enjoy the kind of work we do! Of course, they get great recommendations from me and they have all gone great places with the language study!