Submitted by Written by Pam Wesely. Updated by Laurent Cammarata and Diane J. Tedick, with additional updates by Pam Wesely.

Language: French Unit Cultural Theme or Academic Content Area: Target Audience: Traditional Middle School Year of Instruction: 4 Proficiency Level: Intermediate Low

Standards: Communication:    1.1, 1.2, 1.3 Cultures:    2.1, 2.2 Connections:    3.1, 3.2 Comparisons:    4.2 Communities:

Unit Timeframe:

At least eight full 40 minute class sessions and several evenings of 20 minute homework assignments.

Unit Overview:

This unit comprises four major lessons which are distinct yet cumulative. In the first lesson, the students will lay the groundwork for their examination of French stereotypes by generating those stereotypes themselves. They may draw, write, or find examples of what they think are "typical" French things. In the second lesson, they will be required to change perspective -- instead of being the examiners, they will be put into the role of the examined culture. Students will look at various examples of stereotypes of Americans, as shown through websites and books about Americans. Thus, in Lesson 2 they will begin to examine stereotypes and their relationship with truth. In the third lesson, they will shift again to the role of examiners of French culture – the teacher will show movies, books, pictures, and websites which might reflect the same stereotypes the students generated in Lesson 1. This lesson will demonstrate concretely to the students that the image that they have of French people is created and maintained by strong forces in American culture. In the fourth lesson, learners will explore those French stereotypes in order to understand their origins and relationships with daily life and reality in France today. These lessons will culminate in a final multimedia presentation project in which small groups of students working collaboratively will be asked to examine a cultural myth, generalization and cultural reality of French people and show their relationship to French society today.

Context:

These 4th-year students are in the eighth grade and have essentially completed the equivalent of one year of high school French. This means that they have mastered much general and basic survival vocabulary, including but not limited to colors, numbers, clothing, food, geographical terms, parts of the body, the house, and the town. They can recognize simple cognates. They can write sentences in the present tense without much prompting. They are familiar with grammar concepts central to basic French like gendered nouns, subject/verb agreement, adjective agreement, and correct word order.

General Unit References and Resources:

This unit was developed by Pam Wesely for CoBaLTT in 2001. The unit was significantly revised and expanded by Laurent Cammarata and Diane Tedick for inclusion in the 2007 publication of the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) entitled National Educational Technology Standards for Students (NETS-S) Curriculum Series: Foreign Language Units for Grades K-12 and was reposted on the CoBaLTT website with permission from ISTE. The unit was updated by Dr. Wesely in 2015.

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Unit GOALS

Students will:

• Begin to develop an awareness of how preconceived notions impact the way human beings live and experience the world that they inhabit
• Reflect on the many ways in which stereotypes are created and maintained
• Begin to develop a sensitivity to issues related to cultural diversity and become more aware of the many prejudices that we human beings all carry within us.
• Identify common stereotypes Americans hold regarding other cultures and explore their insidious remodeling of actual realities.
• Use the present tense and past tenses (passé composé and imparfait) to engage in a variety of reading, writing, and speaking activities
• Use a range of learning strategies to organize information, work cooperatively and expand critical thinking skills

ISTE Standards: Students Addressed

1. Creativity and innovation

a. Apply existing knowledge to generate new ideas, products, or processes

2. Communication and collaboration

b. Communicate information and ideas effectively to multiple audiences using a variety of media and formats.

3. Research and information fluency

b. Locate, organize, analyze, evaluate, synthesize, and ethically use information from a variety of sources and media.

4. Critical thinking, problem solving, and decision making

c. Collect and analyze data to identify solutions and/or make informed decisions.

5. Digital citizenship

a. Advocate and practice safe, legal, and responsible use of information and technology.

6. Technology operations and concepts

b. Select and use applications effectively and productively.

Technology Resources Needed

Hardware:

• computers with Internet access

• optional but desired: sufficient web space available on a network to be able to upload and showcase students’ projects to the rest of the world

Software:

• Internet browsing software

• TrackStar (free online software)

• Microsoft PowerPoint software (or other software with similar capabilities)

Web and Literature Resources Needed

ISTE Student Standards: http://www.iste.org/standards/iste-standards World-Readiness Standards for Learning Language: http://www.actfl.org/publications/all/world-readiness-standards-learning-languages

Links or files for unit content:     A new window will open for each lesson.

Lesson 1: Stereotype Simulation
Lesson 2: Stereotypes of Americans
Lesson 3: America Views France
Lesson 4: Truth and Stereotypes
Unit Assessment