Upper School Curriculum

Grades: 9, 10, 11, 12
Full-Year

PREREQ: Students are offered placement into WL ADV courses by their current teacher, in consultation with the department. Performance in previous courses, end-of-year assessments, overall language proficiency, and student skills are factors in offering placement to students.

What does La Francophonie mean? This course explores the French-speaking world both through fiction, poetry, film and journalistic texts, and video. This class develops French proficiency from the Intermediate Mid to the Intermediate High levels, touching on the Advanced Low level, according to ACTFL proficiency guidelines. Students will read fiction and nonfiction from authentic sources, such as literary short stories, plays, poems, news articles, and essays. Throughout the course, students will develop a vast vocabulary and advanced grammar repertoire, which will be regularly assessed. Classes will consist of interpretive (audio, viewing, reading) activities, class discussions frequently led by students, and detailed presentations. Students will write frequent short essays drawing connections about the class fictional and nonfictional materials. The course will conclude with a project about a particular French-speaking culture; this project will bring together — in a creative and multi-sensory way — what students have learned from the literature, news, and people of a particular region, while demonstrating proficiency growth at the interpretive, interpersonal, and presentational modes of communication. This course will be taught exclusively in French.