AP® French Language and Culture Section LR

VHS Catalog 12-13

Course Title:	AP® French Language and Culture Section LR
Course Code:	guapfrlr
MA NCES Code:	06132
Discipline:	Foreign Language
Grade Level:	10, 11, 12
Level:	Advanced placement
Offering:	Full Year (Fall: 25 Seats; Spring: 25 Seats; )
Duration:	33 weeks
Prerequisites:	Students must have completed a minimum of French III with a grade of B or better. Successful completion of French IV is preferred. Technology Requirements: Students will need access to Power Point, Quick Time, and Real Player. This course requires students to have access to a computer with headphones, microphone, and software to record voice and save in WAV format. Students must also be able to download MP3 files to school computers. Instructions will be provided for Sound Recorder, used in Windows. Audio recording requires Adobe Flash 10.1 or later. Other software may be substituted, as long as it has the ability to record up to 2 minutes of voice in the WAV format.
Additional Requirements:
Accredited by:	Certified by NCAA for initial-eligibility (VHS School Code: 221356); Middle States Commission on Secondary Schools; Northwest Accreditation Commission
Course Requires a Media Kit to be Shipped to Students: No
Course Requires a Media Kit to be Purchased by Course Sponsor (see additional details below): Yes
Description: The AP® French Language and Culture course is designed to promote proficiency in French and to enable students to explore culture in contemporary and historical contexts. The course focuses on interpersonal, interpretive and presentational communication, encourages cultural awareness, and incorporates the six themes of global challenges, science and technology, contemporary life, personal and public identities, families and communities and beauty and aesthetics. By using these six course themes outlined in the AP curriculum, students will increase their cultural knowledge and experience with the Francophone world through a comparison with their own cultural experience. Instructional content will include the arts, current events, literature, sports, and more. In addition to textbooks, materials will include websites, podcasts, films, newspapers, magazines, and literature. The course helps develop language skills that can be applied beyond the French course in further French study and everyday life. AP® French will enable advanced French students to improve writing skills and problem-solving techniques in preparation for the AP French Language Exam. Students will explore the French-speaking world through a variety of perspectives based on authentic and up- to- date materials and the use of French media like TV5 Monde, while gaining a better understanding of themselves. A variety of assignments and activities will be included. For example, students would read and discuss poetry, create their own poetry and showcase their poems in a class magazine. Another example is that students might participate in an online mock trial after researching France’s role in the slave trade and which key figures were involved. They would assume the roles of those figures who lived during that specific time period. Also, students will read an important work of classic or contemporary literature, write an essay that focuses on a specific theme or aspect and then participate in a discussion that addresses comprehension, stylistic techniques and relevant historical or situational background. Current events in French society, politics, culture, education, etc. would also drive assignments and activities regarding discussions, debates, written work and research that encourage students to consider their own views, in oral and written formats as well as those of their peers. Students enrolled in Advanced Placement VHS courses are required to take the AP exam, and are required to report their AP examination scores to VHS (note: students who are failing their AP class are not required to take the exam). Upon receipt of the student's exam score, each score will be recorded by VHS and assigned an anonymous tracking number to ensure student anonymity and confidentiality. By enrolling in an AP VHS class, the student authorizes their school site coordinator and school administration to report AP examination scores to VHS. Exam results will not affect the student's VHS grade or future enrollment in VHS courses. This course has recommended summer work. All summer work for AP French can be found here: AP Summer Work

MediaKit Contents:
Allons au-dela: La Langue Et Les Cultures Du Monde Francophone eBook
E-book: AP French: Preparing for the Language Examination (2012)

Syllabus:

Unit 1
Theme: Global Challenges
Grammar:
Comprehensive review of verb tense formation: present tense, imperative mood, passive voice; all past tenses: le passé recent, le passé composé, le passé simple, l’imparfait, le plus-que-parfait. Review of all rules for past participle agreement.
Readings:
Les bijoux de la Castafiore, Hergé
Jacques Prévert;
Le recyclage en France
Excerpt from Mineurs et vaccines, Alain M. Bergeron
Connaître MSF page from the Médecins Sans Frontières website.
Oral:
Discussions and oral presentations; debate of readings; class blogs
Assessment:
Interros on verb tenses. Writing : Persuasive essay

Unit 2
Theme: Science and Technology
Grammar:
Subjunctive mode
Readings:
Excerpts from:
La lance de l’hyène, Birago Diop
Article about an invention from the Concours Lépine:
Un appareil qui retranscrit du texte en Braille consacré au Concours Lépine
Oral:
Discussions and oral presentations based on the readings.
Assessment:
Interros on Subjunctive mode, journal writing, picture sequence from AP French vocabulary acquisition, listening exercises from AP French
Student presentation comparing science and technology in various parts of the French speaking world and contributions to the class blog

Unit 3
Theme: Contemporary Life
Grammar:
Pronouns: direct and indirect object, stress, possessive and demonstrative
Readings:
99 Francs, Frédéric Beigbeder;
Apple introduit le blocage des publicités dans Safari, journal article; Excerpts from
Lettres persanes, Montesquieu; excerpt from
Le tour du monde en 80 jours, Jules Verne
Oral:
News “actualité” on the theme presented by students for discussion and debate.
Vocabulary and idiomatic expressions related to the theme
Assessment:
Interros on pronouns, journal writing, picture sequence from AP French, vocabulary acquisition, listening exercises from AP French, contributions to class blog

Unit 4
Theme: Personal and Public Identities
Grammar:
Negatives
Readings:
Excerpts from Béni ou le paradis privé, Azouz Bégag
Immigration—Ces étrangers, élèves modèles, article
Aux champs, Guy de Maupassant
Oral:
Class discussion of the readings, presentations of student autobiographies, discussion of film excerpts: Jean de Florette, Le fabuleux destin d’Amélie Poulain, La Gloire de mon père, Au revoir les enfants
Assessment:
Interros on negation, journal writing, picture sequence from AP French, vocabulary acquisition, listening exercises from AP French, contributions to class blog
Student recordings

Unit 5
Theme: Families and Communities
Grammar:
Adjectives and adverbs, Prepositions and conjunctions
Readings:
Excerpt from Le Gone du Chaâba, Azouz Bégag
Le petit Nicolas: On a eu l’inspecteur, René Goscinny
<<Driss>> tiré de Shérazade, Leïla Sebbar
Le Mariage de Manon, tiré de Manon des sources, Marcel Pagnol
La Foire de la Sainte-Catherine
Oral:
Discussion of readings
Assessment:
Interros on adjectives, adverbs and conjunctions. Journal writing, picture sequence from AP French, vocabulary acquisition, listening exercises from AP French, contributions to class blog

Unit 6
Theme: Beauty and Aesthetics
Grammar:
Infinitive, present participle, indirect discourse.
Readings:
La ballade des pendus, François Villon
Mignonne, allons voir si la rose, Pierre de Ronsard
Le corbeau et le renard, Jean de la Fontaine
Il pleure dans mon Coeur, Paul Verlaine
Oral:
Presentation/Sharing of magazine articles on the theme.
Assessment:
Interros from Une Fois pour toutes, journal writing, picture sequence from AP French, vocabulary acquisition, listening exercises from AP French, contributions to class blog.

Unit 7
Review for the AP Exam

Course Objectives:
By the end of the course, you will be able to do the following:
Comprehend extended audio selections of an advanced nature
read unedited texts
Write a substantial essay on a given topic with few grammatical and idiomatic errors
Communicate orally with a native speaker used to dealing with non-native speakers
Develop and refine an extensive vocabulary, including idiomatic expressions
Use accurately all of the major irregular verbs, compound tenses, the subjunctive mood, the passive voice, conditional sentences, the infinitive, and common prepositions.

This catalog description was last modified on 08/02/2012