Ethan Choi
Palmer
Block B
French
Ethan
For student interview questions
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What interested you to study French when you started?
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What is the highest score you had on an assignment/quiz/test?
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What's the most difficult part of the course?
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What is the most enjoyable part of the course? (which part did you like the most)?
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Why do you think studying French is important?
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Would you consider continuing studying French for the rest of highschool? (and potentially for university?)
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If you could change one thing about the grade 10 French curriculum, what would it be?
Answers to student interview:
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He was interested because French is the secondary language for Canada
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He scored a 90%
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“all parts are difficult”
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“leaving is the most enjoyable part” but also watching movies to learn french
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Similar to first question he thinks French is popularly used across the world.
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“too late to turn back” he says depends for university.
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He would change the content orders, as he think that French Curriculum should be similar to the English Curriculum
French Club Questions:
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Is the club only for beginners?
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What is the purpose of French Club?
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How can French Club improve students’ French ability?
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What are some activities that the French Club have?
Answers to club interview:
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Answers
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French Club accepts beginners
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French Club is to promote the diversity of francophone culture, and also promoting the language
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By discussions, presentations and games
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Activities may include jeopardy, Kahoot and movie nights where students can discuss with their peers.
French students are able to share their works and projects during the Modern Language Gallery. During this gallery, students could understand how a French classroom work in RC Palmer
Student interview - Tiger
Brian
French News Page - Interview Questions (cancelled)
1. What is French to you, and why is it important for students?
2. What do students get out of French class?
- What career options?
- Degrees, certification, etc?
- What can students do with their knowledge?
3. What grades do you teach?
- What are the curriculums of the grades you teach?
4. What projects, assignments, and work will the students be involved in?
5. In French class, what will students expect in terms of field trips or activities outside of school?
6. What will the students be evaluated on?
- What is the marking system (for each grade)?
7. What do you enjoy about teaching French?
8. Do you have anything to say to students interested in taking French class?
9. What do you find interesting about French?
- What do you personally like about French?
10. What do you think is the easiest part of learning French? What about the hardest part?
11. What part of French do you enjoy teaching the most? What about your least favourite part?
12. Lastly, what is your favourite French saying?
French News Page - Gr. 11/12 Course Content
At Palmer, French 11 and French 12 are often taught as a joint class. At this level, students are working independently most of the time and will get to explore opportunities on their own. That being said, students will always have someone to seek support from. Prerequisites include French 10, or you could be referred to a higher level by a teacher who is well aware of your abilities.
French 11/12 is an advanced course, which means students are already past the fundamentals. Students are expected to already know basic self-introduction, conversations, writing, and reading. Being a grammar-heavy course, students will continue to hone their French language skills like pronouns, repositions, tenses, and more, by engaging in group discussions, either with peers or natives. Students are asked to consume immersive media, such as movies, songs, and stories, so that they are fully exposed to French culture.
Major projects include script-writing, which students will eventually put into a skit. Students will act out stories and scenes, like a marketing presentation. Students will have opportunities to use the things taught in class. One that really stands out is going to a French restaurant. The class will have to communicate, order, and express themselves entirely in French. Other assignments might be analyzing songs by looking into the lyrics, rhythm, and tune.
Amy
What career opportunities can students expect to get by taking French?
-Many government jobs (engineering, healthcare field, environmentalism, public transit (airports, post office)
-Looks good on resume to have someone speak both Canada’s languages
What does a usual lesson on French look like in your class?
-Content on grammar at the beginning of class
-Class activities (only speaking French in class for a specific amount of time to get people comfortable with the language using specific themes)
-Worksheets so the teacher can provide help if needed
What do you find most interesting about French?
-Being exposed to a new culture that’s still also in Canada
-Being able to master a completely new language with a new set of grammar rules, and different pronunciation than what was in the English language
What do your students struggle most with? What do they understand easily?
-Most struggle with grammar (since it is very different from English and is used often)
-Vocabulary is decent (especially if the words are similar to that of English words)
-Certain verb tenses and future tense that connect to English are also easily understood
Is there any French learning techniques you recommend students take? If there are, what are they? And how effective is each technique for your students?
-Use a set amount of time to engage with French content outside of class (such as Duolingo, watching a variety of French dubbed or subbed movies, TV shows, books, and French songs)
-French journaling
-Practicing speaking with a friend
-(Duolingo is especially effective as it provides daily reminders, allows you to join lessons with friends, and is easily accessible as long as you have internet)
Why does Canada speak both English and French? Why isn't French widely spoken in other places besides Europe and Canada?
-Historical colonizers / both English and French settlers came to Canada (French came first but English won the most control)
-English language became prevalent all over the world
-French is also spoken in concentrated parts of Africa after the French settlers came hundreds of years ago and had spread it around
(grade 10 course outline) Is anything about the course marking or evaluation system done differently for people in Grade 10?
Grade 10 is the last junior year of high school so the course is more advanced and up to a senior level to prepare students for the following years of learning which will only become increasingly difficult.
The most notable difference is that tests becomes worth more. Quizzes are 45% and the final is worth 25% instead of the 20% like in Grade 8 and 9.
Criteria in general grammar is increased.
Justin
Gather course content information:
- Grade 8 course content: alphabet and basic pronunciations - speaking composition, numbers, greetings, basic verbs, simple adjectives, simple adverbs, preposition, and place.
- Grade 9 course content: verbs in different tenses, more adjectives, more preposition, subject agreements, and pronominal verbs.
School information:
- Introduction: Robert C. Palmer Junior High School first opened in September 1959 with 769 students in grades 7, 8, and 9. The school is named after Robert Cecil Palmer, a prominent Richmond resident and magistrate in the provincial court for 22 years. The school underwent two renovations in 1978 and in the late 1990s. R. C. Palmer was then "officially reopened" in May 2000. Also, in the late 90's, Palmer became a full grade 8 to 12 secondary school. The first graduating class walked across the stage in June of 1997.
The school colours, navy blue and powder blue, were chosen by the student council during the first year in 1959. Our Greek motto, KUDOS, can be translated as either "for valour" or "for honour" and is part of the original school crest designed by the first art department. The "Griffin" is part of the Palmer family coat of arms and is a creature of mythology with the head and wings of an eagle and the body and legs of a lion. Supposedly of gigantic proportions, the Griffin's virtues are vigilance, loyalty, courage, and strength.
The Palmer Griffins have established a rich history and developed a legacy of excellence - in the classroom, on the playing fields, and in fine and performing arts. Palmer Pride - share it show it.
- Field trips: includes grade 12's monthly field trips and incentive field trips: Camp Squamish, Camp Strathcona, Ashland Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and Science Fair.
Ethan, others
English First People 12 teacher interview
key points in curriculum - history, literature, art, music, important to know their story. Truth and reconciliation.
What are students expected to learn - started with identity, culture, identity collages, story of an indigenous man who has lost his identity, proud of ind heritage, Watching "Beans" movie about young mohawk girl who find identity while crisis. research project of history, ind act, presentation, novel study about moon-, ind poetry.
example of lit student analyzing - books in picture
how has first people aspect integrated to traditional english - separate class
how does the first people aspect stand out - student enjoying learning residential school
what is most interesting topic - culture, art, artist, music.
what is ur teaching style - first time teaching first people 12, break up into groups, quiz, traditional style
is lots of student - cannot grad if don't take this, either ss or in eng.
ELS - Teacher Interview Transcript
els- teacher int
(0:02) The most fun thing about English is that you get to discuss a lot, you get to talk about different ideas and different books and movies and really anything. (0:17) It's really good as well. (0:20) What's the hardest thing about English? (0:22) The hardest thing about English is probably grammar.Knowing what you're going to say and how to phrase it. And then also probably writing essays. (0:31) What's the easiest thing about English? (0:33) The easiest thing about English is that if you just talk a lot and you love to talk and like to sound like your own voice, then it's probably going to be a pretty easy course.(0:42) What does a typical lesson in English look like in your room? (0:47) A typical lesson looks like learning about technique or some sort of common thing you see in stories and poetry. (0:56) And then kind of looking at examples of that, exactly what I just said. So stories, books, and other books.(1:03) What are the novels you recommend? (1:04) Novels I recommend, well for high school I would probably recommend reading a lot of classic books like Animal Farm. (1:14) Maybe even something, Shakespeare, because I love Shakespeare. (1:19) But for newer books, I would say The New Yorker is really good.And a lot of good dystopian novels. (1:27) Why is English such an important subject? (1:32) It's important because you use it every day, right? (1:34) And even when you graduate high school, even if you think you're never going to use it, for example when you're going to trades, you still have to learn how to write in English. (1:42) And there's a lot of emails, and you learn how to communicate clearly, and even though English is a lot of reading, it's a lot of writing too.(1:50) Why is English taught in so many foreign countries as a second language? (1:54) That's a great question. I don't know how much time to unpack colonial history with you, plus the fact that England is probably one of the most strongest countries at the moment. (2:06) So that's probably my answer.(2:10) What benefits does English have compared to other languages? (2:13) Well just like you said, there are millions and millions of people across the world that speak most of the standard language, English. (2:20) And so even if you speak another language, English tends to be, in many cases, the standard. (2:30) What disadvantages does English have compared to other languages? (2:34) Is there any conversation for disadvantages? (2:37) Well, if you're learning English for a second language, or a third language, you know, it's actually probably one of the hardest languages to learn.(2:45) It doesn't have a lot of rules. There's a lot of languages like Spanish, French, Japanese. (2:50) Once you know the rules, it's really easy to learn.(2:52) When it comes to English, it never really follows its own rules. (2:56) And so I would say that's a huge difficulty, at least at learning English. (3:02) Disadvantage? There's not a lot of disadvantages, I would say.(3:05) Learning a language is always something that's good for you. (3:08) But only knowing English, I think, is for a lot of people. (3:12) You could have said that.We have one right here. (3:14) What's the worst thing about learning English? (3:18) Oh, reading is really boring. (3:20) I tell my students all the time, you get to choose what you read, find something you love to read.(3:26) People say they don't read. That's not true. (3:28) You read every day.You just don't read daily. (3:34) Yeah, I think that's it. (3:35) Great.Thank you so much. much. (3:36) You're welcome.