Life is for learning

While I have already been in front of a half-dozen or more classes full of French students, today was the first day I had to plan lessons and handle the students myself without a prof present. I'll admit I was a little nervous going in. I had planned what I thought would be enough stuff to fill an hour, but I wasn't sure it would be enough. I was afraid it might be too easy, or maybe too hard, or that the kids would be disinterested or confused. Fortunately, it went better than I had even hoped.

I had two classes of 15-16 year-olds this morning, so I figured it was important to make sure I had enough stuff up my sleeves to fill the time. I didn't get to everything I had prepared to do in either class, but that was much better than running out of things to do. I started the classes off with introductions: Name, Favorite Hobby, Favorite Animal. I learned that "paresseux" is the French word for "sloth" in addition to being the adjective "lazy."

The activity that filled most of the classtime however, was "Woodstock" by Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young. I had the song to play and handed sheets with the lyrics out to all the kids. I had removed some of the words, leaving blanks spaces to be filled in as they listened to the song. After they had all the words and had heard the song twice I split them into pairs and assigned them each a stanza to summarize for the class. This was where they really impressed me. They picked right up on themes of dissatisfaction with modern society, metaphoric references to the Vietnam War ("bomber death planes"), and Stephen Stills' longing to see change and his hope that Woodstock was a sign of the change he had been waiting for. With a little prodding they even picked up on references to Eden and were able to postulate what the "land" and the "garden" that the narrator wants to "get back to" might represent. I was really pleased with their level of comprehension and engagement. I ended the class with an activity using a worksheet I was provided that forcesd them to form questions in English to uncover answers about their classmates personal lives.

I am probably going to re-use the lesson in other classes of a similar level next week, but I'm thinking we might have a Barrack Obama themed class next Friday, in light of today's news and the universal curiosity that French people have about our new president. I have Dreams from my Father on my iPod, so I think we can read an article, listen to the man himself, and probably have a pretty good discussion.

I think I'm going on a hike tomorrow so hopefully I'll have some fresh photos to post this weekend.