Welcome to Cloe’s Inquiry Project! I will share and create my inquiry French teaching.
This being a living inquiry, the best place to start it is wherever one finds oneself existentially. One looks inwardly into one’s own thoughts and feelings, while facing the world, noting how one reacts with conditioned thoughts and feeling responses. Usually we are too busy reacting that we do not stop to reflect and examine our response. Inquiry starts at this point of stop. From this place of stop, we question the necessity of “the way things are,” and address the possibility of seeing the world and the self differently and hence relating to the world differently. “What if I were to…?”
—Heesoon Bai, 2005, p. 47
5 replies on “Bonjour :)”
Hi Cloe,
What a wonderful idea for a project! Just reading through it made me imagine what this class would be like and I think it could be really fun. In your “Other key questions” section in Phase 1 you ask the following question of your students: “Could you please tell me more about your emotional behaviors in schools or at home?” I am curious what that means in terms of what do you hope to hear from the students? After reading the content in Phase 2, I am assuming that students would describe the emotions that they typically experience and try to use French words? If so, that is an innovative way of incorporating lived experience/emotion and learning the vocabulary in a new language.
I am very curious about the incorporation of Yoga for emotional regulation. Is this something that kids practice? I am not at all familiar with this so would love to get your perspective. Would you need parental consent to practice yoga?
Thank you for sharing your ideas! I hope to hear from you soon 🙂
Hi Cloe!
STAR: You are implementing an inquiry approach and using imaginative learning in your proposal. I think that connecting physical activity, hands on learning and introduction of a foreign language is a fun way to learn! And this would most likely increase retention as students will be able to recall words associated with actions.
WISH: I wish there was a description of whether parental consent would be required for the students to participate in yoga practice. Based on the class discussions, yoga has a spiritual origin and some religions may not want to partake in the practice.
QUESTION: In your lesson plan, when students are to introduce themselves “including your name, educational background, your profession, hobby and anything related to French”. I wonder if professional and educational backgrounds would not apply to your audience.
Reading your work made me want to participate in your class! I think that I would really enjoy it!
Iliana
Hi Cloe,
I think you have a very detailed and organized unit planned, and it is an excellent idea! You have closely connected the literature to your planning, and it is well supported throughout your unit plan. Having this kind of learning environment is certainly something I would register my children in as it seems both fun and learning centered. I especially liked the place based element to support learning as well as connection to the environment.
One thing I would suggest is to perhaps consider including members of our French speaking community. Kamloops does have 2 french immersion schools, but we also have a french private school and I think it would be an excellent learning and support opportunity to connect with teachers from the schools to see if you could get someone to join in on some of your activities.
I enjoyed reading your unit. I think it is a great idea and I hope to see something like this offered to young children in Kamloops.
April St. Louis
I really enjoyed reading your curriculum project on French conversation! You developed many varied student activities such as conversation, self-introductions, going outdoors, yoga, game (emotion dice), and sharing cycle! These activities would be so engaging for young learners! I also liked the varied assessments for four lessons! Kahoot, worksheet, journals, exit tickets, and drawing are good ideas to see what students have learned.
You should give more instructions before students do yoga, because they probably do it for the first time and they are not familiar with it. In addition, in lesson2, you asked students to watch an online video and finish a quiz at home which is a good idea, but it is too difficult to gauge what they know.
Could you get the kids to link the yoga pose closely to your class or you just want to release their stress and help them to emotion regulation?
Yu.
Hi Cloe! Thanks for your lovely lesson and website. My comments are below:
Star:
Quote from Lesson Plan:
Sharing Cycle – the teacher begin this sharing cycle. -Which parts are you interested in this French class? Why? -How do you share your happiness in French learning to friends or parents?
My Comment:
Throughout your lesson planning process, I can tell that you’ve got a keen pulse on interesting prompts that engage a student’s interest! Your desire to inquire about a student’s happiness as it applies to French is reminiscent of principle 2 from Friesen’s work. You are crafting questions that honour a child’s emotional attachments to language and, thus, strengthening those bonds between language and positive emotional responses. In the article “Finding Humanity In Design” the authors suggest that “when teachers use design thinking as an approach to planning for learning, they consider students’ needs, desires and interests, as well as the essence of the topic.” You are crafting an approach to language acquisition that merges the interests of students with an element of humanity, communication. Additionally, I find your encouragement to connect learning to community through parental and friend engagement also a demonstration of your expanded concept of design thinking lessons. As also noted by the authors in “Humanity in Design” they suggest that “design thinking is not just a method of planning; rather, it allows us to loosen the constraints of traditional planning methods and connect our learning to the world.” You are connecting the art of language to life and you are showcasing how language is best learned when encompassed in one’s life processes.
Wish:
Work from Lesson Plan:
*How to foster children’s interests in French learning?
*What are the main differences of expression when saying hello and good-bye in French and in English?
My Comment:
When I observed your lesson plans, I really liked your interesting prompts. Perhaps my suggestion would be to see how you could a) merge those prompts so there’s a clear indication of how they scaffold to lead to an ultimate goal or learning outcome and b) perhaps root those fantastic prompts in more actionable procedures for students to investigate and explore on their own (could be a part of point A – scaffolding concept).
As stated in principle 3 of Friesen’s work, it’s important that students understand what their learning goals are when designing your lessons. So, I might tweak your ‘goal’ with your lesson questions in the following way:
Goal: How to foster children’s interests in French learning?
Lesson Question: How can students discover their enjoyment of French through discovering expressions that they may find helpful to communicate their emotions in more profound ways using French as their vehicle of expression.
OR
How can students discover the way French can assist them in crafting modes of expression that are unique to the language and thus provide them with additional tools or skills that become options for their self expression?
Question:
Work from Lesson Plan:
*Teacher will translate their pose and draw to French and help them memorize these vocabularies through yoga practice and their drawings
My Comment:
I really think your engagement with your students has a profound impact on the way they understand the role of a teacher in their learning process. I was inspired by your instructional plan to include the teacher using a student idea and creating something new off of that student concept. You’re empowering your students by showing them that their ideas are not only valid, but also a means of creativity. You are demonstrating principle 5 of Friesen’s work, whereby the teacher showcases an interdependent relationship with their classes to perform and conduct their lessons. You want student involvement in order to bring your lessons to an imaginative climax – using nature, meditative bodily acts and language in a lovely, student driven mix.