The FILA 10 course will seek to strengthen the confidence students have with speaking French to each other in class, by structuring small group discussions around a variety of topics. Students will have the opportunity to prepare and present speeches, and will also participate daily in whole class discussions and activities with their peers, based on our reading, viewing, aspects of French grammar and also our daily lives. Using French in class will be an integral part of class participation and is an important expectation of the Immersion program. The goal is to create the Immersion environment in class, to support one another, and to learn and implement strategies for communication whenever it is a struggle to find the words in a second language. Practice makes progress!
2. Listening:
This semester, we will be watching a Québec television mini-series, Ces enfants d'ailleurs, based on the first of a two-part novel by well-known author, Arlette Cousture. There will be vocabulary and comprehension questions, a test every 3 episodes, and a final test at the end of the series of 10 episodes. As this viewing will be enjoyed only on Fridays, it is important to try not to be absent and miss an episode!
In the final few weeks of the course, we will enjoy a few episodes of a family comedy that was aired on Québec television from 2008-2016. With 162 episodes, Les Parent is still a popular tv show, where dad and mom, Louis-Paul and Natalie, and their three sons, invite us to join their day-to-day life, witnessing the inevitable ups and downs of one family's relationships. Students will see more of this family as they enjoy the more recent episodes next year in French class. For now, however, it is pretty neat to see the kids when they were younger, compared to how much they grew up by the end of Season 8. The show is also available on Netflix Canada, so there is no need to only enjoy this comedy in French class!
3. Reading: This course has a textbook which is the source of a variety of articles and provides the overall theme for FILA 10, around which centers all readings and discussion, le défi.
Students may wish to read the sequel to the video series above, for their own interest. A copy of the novel, as pictured to the left, can be signed out from class. Although not for the faint at heart, the sequel is a very interesting continuation of the lives of the characters we have come to know and love in the video series!
Our primary reading will be a class novel selection (and/or a variety of novel choices) for book club meetings, where students will exchange roles from week to week and meet together to discuss the readings. The selection currently being used, La butte à Pétard, is pictured here on the left, with paper copies for use in class and an electronic copy below (click on the PDF link), for student use outside of class.
Other reading will include a selection of articles on Acadian and Mi'kmaw history and culture, to better understand the events in the novel above, and also a selection of articles on current topics, in preparation for the small group discussions above.
The FILA 10 course will seek to advance student skills in writing, by offering writing topics structured around class discussions and prior readings. There will be opportunities to revise and remit written work for practice and feedback (formative assessment) before the assignment counts for marks (summative assessment). Class instruction will include focus sessions on a selection of common grammar topics, to strengthen students in such areas as identifying parts of speech and verb tenses, using adjectives, past participles, direct and indirect objects. These concepts progress from year to year, and can be practiced through quizzes and games by clicking on Helpful Grammar Tools in the Menu bar on the left.