This web site is packed with information! Watch this 5-minute video guiding you through the resources you can find on this web site.
Café of the Arts is March 6
Join French 3, 4 and AP for a free evening of francophone films, art, music and cuisine. We will also be accepting donations and auctioning student art in order to continue to pay for shipping solar lanterns to our partner village in Senegal. The event will start at 6:00 p.m. and will be held in the cafeteria and room Q-8 (located inside the cafeteria). Although the event is free, advance reservations required: please contact Nicole Naditz via email at nnaditz@sanjuan.edu to reserve your space. Put "Café reservation" as the subject line and tell us how many will be coming.
This event was generously sponsored by a grant from the San Juan Foundation.
New web site for French 3/4/AP Belgian epals exchange
Now, in addition to emails, the students involved in the email exchange can share photos, music, favorite videos and even chat online. Go to http://bvhs-ath.ning.com/ to see the site. If you are in French 3, 4, or AP you are invited to join the site and participate!
BVHS students hosted a 24-hour live streaming TV broadcast for Discover Languages Month
In honor of Discover Languages Month (February), the French Club organized a 24-hour live streaming webcast from my classroom.
Almost 500 people tuned in live 9:00 a.m. Feb 17 - 9:00 a.m. Feb 18. If you missed it, you can view recorded segments http://www.ustream.com. Type "Discover Languages" in the search box.
The event featured students interviewing authors, executive directors of national organizations, two national language teachers of the year, local business owners and others. In addition, the student "hosts" provided information about the importance and benefits of world language education, current jobs for language speakers, and we even tested your knowledge about the languages of the world! Fox 40's morning show came out live to speak to two of the student hosts and showed their viewers footage of our webcast!
Keep sharing the link: the more people who view our programs, the further the message will spread about the importance of language learning.
French 2: connect to Voice Thread here for your poem analysis
Remember that you must first create your account on VoiceThread in order to comment. Include your name in order to receive credit! Please use a microphone to make your comments. Remember you can sign up to use the classroom computer. Video comments are not required. Due date is February 1!
French 1, 2, and 3 to broadcast on Ustream
On January 22, French 1 will broadcast a show featuring interivews, information about French-speaking countries and French music.
Parents now receive "feedback forms" for each assessment
Starting December 1, each student in my French classes will receive a feedback form for each in-class assessment (quiz, test, or project). This form will go home to parents and will indicate the following:
the specific skills on which the students were assessed
the degree of proficiency you (or your student) achieved in each skill area
the alignment of the assessment to the World Language Content Standards for California Schools K-12
the alignment of the assessment to Bella Vista High School's vision and mission
I hope that by sending this document home with each assessment, you will have a more complete picture of the purpose of the work we are doing in class and your own (or your student's) achievement in each area. You are asked to sign the document (students and parents) and return it to me. You are free to write additional comments and questions on the feedback form.
French 4/AP students receive grant for project they designed last year
Several students in French 4/AP met last year to design a project-based learning event. Their concept, the Café des Arts, was awarded a grant which will allow them to fully complete the project they envisioned. The project includes:
A field trip for French 3, 4, and AP with our art teacher, Katri Uno, to visit the deYoung Museum in San Francisco. During the visit, they will examine art from French-speaking countries around the world looking for connections to the culture of the artists.
A Saturday evening cooking class for French 4/AP with a local French chef
Lessons from the the art teacher, as well as the foods teacher, Donna Ward, to prepare for the culminating event
Classtime to explore all of the arts of various French-speaking countries: visual arts, performing arts, film and music, and culinary arts. In addition, students are studying the history of the same countries in order to better understand cultural products, practices and perspectives.
Purchase of materials and food for the preparation leading to the culminating event as well as for the event itself.
Opportunities for French 3, 4, and AP students to specialize in a specific area of interest:
visual arts (they will study art, choose an artist and create their own work influenced by this artist as well as a second work that represents the influence of their own culture on their perspectives
performing arts (they will study dance, music and theatre and choose pieces to perform at the culminating event)
culinary arts (they will study cuisine from various French-speaking cultures; identify cultural aspects of the cuisine; and select recipes to prepare for the class. The class will decide which recipes will be featured at the culminating event)
Public relations/graphic arts (they will design the logo for the event and all print materials associated with the event; they will also coordinate all advertising).
Each of the above categories will have one student manager overseeing the category. This student ensures the quality of all aspects of that category that will be presented at the culminating event and oversees the budget for the category.
Finally, in early spring, there will be free event for the public: the actual Café des Arts, which will feature student artworks, cuisine, and performances along with explanations in French and English for each segment.
You can learn more about the grant by reading the application, which is attached as a file at the bottom of this page.
Guest speaker: Former BVHS French student returns to talk about experiences with Peace Corps in Sénégal
Mary Haviland, who studied French at BVHS, is now serving in the Peace Corps. She is stationed in a small village in Sénégal (a French-speaking country located in western Africa). She has been corresponding with the French 4/AP class since September. She is home on vacation and visited all French classes on December 11.
We have been sending solar lanterns (purchased last year with a grant from SMUD) to the village where Mary is stationed in order to help the families there, who live without electricity or running water.
As a surprise bonus, we received letters from a class of 12-year-old students in Mary's village just after our winter break. French 4/AP students will reply to each student who wrote to us.
The class aired the second episode of its ongoing TV show, "Télé-4" live, December 16 at 11:45 a.m. This show streamed on the internet and now is available as a recording. Look for a new episode every month. Each episode will have a different student director choosing the theme and the roles for all of the other students. Episode 2 focuses on the culture and history of the French-speaking country of Morocco. Click here to watch the episode! You can also watch previously recorded episodes at the same link.
You can also download a copy of the purpose of the TV show, its alignment to content standards and the BVHS vision and mission, and a sample rubric for the evaluation of each episode. The file is located at the bottom of this page.
National French Week Broadcast recording available online
On Monday, November 9 at 6:30 p.m., my French students hosted a live 30-minute broadcast online in honor of National French Week. Students will share why French is important to them, and we will also share information regarding the importance of French in our society and in our global business climate. You can view the show here. And...stay tuned: to celebrate all languages, we will be doing a 24-hour marathon broadcast in February for Discover Languages Month. We will be looking for community members, parents, students and other teachers and speakers of all languages to participate!!!
Join my e-mail distribution list to receive announcements about events and projects. Click on the tiny envelope in the upper right hand corner of this page to get started, or click on the "Join distribution list" link in the menu on the left.
Listen to Mme Naditz and others discussing the importance and benefits of language study on Capital Public Radio March 17, 2009.
This year's online projects on wikispaces :
Over the course of the year, each class will build at least two wikis. The "monespace" wikis will consist of pages designed and edited by each student using the vocabulary and structures they are learning. The "francophone world" wikis will require students to work in groups to upload information about a French-speaking country or region of their choice. Visit them frequently to see them grow (or use the "notify me" tab on each wiki to be notified when they are updated--go to the pages your student is working on and click on the "notify me" tab to be notified of changes to those pages).
College credit from CSUS for French 3 and 4 students
Once again, the French 3, 4 and AP students will all be eligible for college credit through Sacramento State University. For more information, contact me!
PowerPoints available online
You can view PowerPoints used in classes. The PowerPoints are useful for review or to provide extra help if a student has been absent.To see the PowerPoints I have created to teach new material to my students, click on "Resources" on the left, then scroll down to view uploaded files. If you haven't yet downloaded the patch from Microsoft allowing you to save, edit, and view documents created in Microsoft Office 2007 (files with the extention .docx and .pptx), you can get the patch here.
Other resources on this site
Remember that the textbook has a companion web site. Students can find additional practice and quizzes (with immediate feedback) and also flash cards (with pronunciation). Click on "My Links" on the left and then scroll to your class and click on "Classzone" (for levels one and three). Level 4 students have already created accounts on the web site that accompanies their textbook. They will at times be assigned homework that is submitted directly to me via this web site.
Additional resources are also available at "my links", including streaming audio and video to perfect students' listening comprehension.
Contact me!
Feel free to contact me with questions, comments, or concerns.
