Charlotte Teachers Institute

Ana Orduna Hummel, Spanish, North Mecklenburg High School

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Abstract

In this unit, my IB French seniors will learn about states, nations, and nationalism in general, and then focus in-depth on Québécois nationalism and separatism of the second half of the 20^thcentury, and conclude with a study of Belgium’s potential division into two countries.  This unit meets the requirements for the new IB French B course (first exams May 2013) under the theme of Social Relationships and the strand Nationalism, Patriotism, and Fanaticism.  It would also work well with an AP or similar level class.  The new IB curriculum requires content that could easily be boring and overly difficult for the students, but I have made every effort to make this unit engaging, interesting, and accessible (from an SLA point of view) to my extremely tired seniors.  In their study of nationalism, they will complete a reading Jigsaw, view and read authentic sources, make a music video synthesizing their knowledge, and apply what they’ve learned about Québécois nationalism to create a nationalist movement for la Wallonie, the French-speaking part of Belgium.

Introduction

Is it possible to make learning about French and Francophone nationalism, patriotism, and fanaticism engaging and interesting to over-tired, incredibly stressed high school seniors at 7:05am? Just hearing the title of the unit might make a 17 year old’s eyes glaze over immediately, but this is the mission I have chosen to accept. While this unit is intended for French IV or V students in the International Baccalaureate program, for which the sub-theme “nationalism, patriotism, and fanaticism” is part of the new Diploma Programme curriculum, it could also be used in an AP or similar level French class.

As a participant in Dr. Shelley Rigger’s States and Nations seminar through the Charlotte Teachers’ Institute, I have loved every minute of the seminar, but deciding how to write the curriculum unit was a big challenge. For months I tried to figure out how and what to teach my seniors about nationalism that would actually keep them awake. My students are highly motivated, but they are tired. In our highly rigorous International Baccalaureate program, they are pulled in many directions, with countless hours of homework and studying, volunteer work, extra-curricular activities, part-time jobs, and the unquantifiable stress that comes with the fear that they will not get into any college. They average 4-5 hours of sleep a night, and our class is held during first block, from 7:05 to 8:42am. Nationalism is a fascinating subject…when you can talk about it in your native language and really get into it. But if you have to learn about it and talk about it in L2, (foreign language teacher speak for one’s second language), when you may only understand 50-75% of the input and you get frustrated because you can’t express complex ideas like you could in L1, and you’re exhausted and stressed out, is nationalism really that approachable of a subject for the world language classroom? This question has loomed over me for months as I have considered various aspects of nationalism that I could cover in my unit. My standards for “interesting to a tired 17 year old” are apparently higher than most people’s. When I asked some history teachers who are also in the seminar for ideas of interesting topics about nationalism, their answers didn’t meet my standards. No matter how much they tried to convince me that Napoleon is fascinating, I know my kids, and Napoleon is not fascinating when you have to talk about him in French before the sun comes up.

In this unit my students will first study states, nations, and nationalism on a general basis, then take an in-depth look at Québécois nationalism during the second half of the 20^th century, and finish with a series of assessments in which students must apply what they have learned about Québécois nationalism to Belgium.

Instructional Context

I teach French in a medium-sized high school in Huntersville, North Carolina, which has a partial IB magnet. For the past five years, I have taught all levels of IB French, meaning that I have the same students from their freshman year in French II-IB to their senior year in French V-IB. This year (2011-2012) is a sea of change. In our district, we have written a new curriculum from scratch (not textbook-based) that is currently being implemented in Level I, and will be phased in over the next year in Levels II and III. This new curriculum, which I helped write, requires entirely different teaching methods which I have studied but have never actually implemented until now. In addition to that huge change, the IB Diploma French class (junior and senior years) went from having no curriculum to a very specific one. For the past five years I have written my own curriculum for the juniors and seniors, and my students have been quite successful on the IB exam that they take in May of their senior year. Now, there is a completely new curriculum that requires me to teach in a way that is new to me. To sum it up, this year I have to create everything I teach from scratch, in addition to adapting to new methods and new curricula. This challenge has been as exciting as it is daunting, not to mention time-consuming.

Previously in my French IV and V classes, my curriculum (which I created myself) was based on countries or Francophone regions of the world. Each unit dealt with a different Francophone nation or region to give the students a wide overview of what the Francophone world is like. After spending 5 years perfecting those units, I’ve had to throw them out because of the new IB curriculum, which is based on themes such as “social relationships” and “science and technology” which have multiple sub-themes from which the teacher can choose. The new IB curriculum requires students to have actual content knowledge about the themes that they can use as examples when they speak or write on the exam. In other words, the students need to be able to talk and write about these themes on an intellectual/academic level, which is quite a demanding task. One of the ten thematic units that I will teach during the junior and senior years will be my CTI unit on nationalism, patriotism, and fanaticism.

Because my students’ proficiency levels in French are much lower than they are in English, my unit is not going to look like the units of the history teachers who are in the seminar. Their students can delve deeply into particular topics about nationalism, read college-level primary texts, and have complicated discussions and debates about those topics. My students simply aren’t capable of doing those things in a second language. The challenge has been figuring out what they can do in French that has to do with nationalism, patriotism, and fanaticism. As such, I have written a unit that breaks down Québécois nationalism into manageable parts so that my students are capable of understanding the input with various types of help, and of producing quality French about this academic subject.

Objectives

In teaching this unit, I have several objectives. Some are content-based, some are proficiency-based, and some are intellectually-based.

Content Objectives

From a content standpoint, my primary goal is to give my students enough knowledge about Québécois nationalism that if they had to write an essay about it on the IB exam, they would be adequately prepared. The new IB curriculum doesn’t specify particular content knowledge that students must have: rather, it leaves it up to the teacher to choose how to teach the mandated unit topics. The essay questions on the exam are broad enough that students can use the knowledge they learned in my class to write the essay, while students from another teacher’s class can use the knowledge they learned in their class. In a way, this makes planning the unit more difficult, because the teacher has to figure out what to teach, as opposed to a math class where the curriculum clearly states that students must know how to do quadratic equations, graph a parabola, and find the slope of a given line.

With this freedom in mind, I focus on the concepts of nationalism, states, and nations, and then look specifically at the Québécois nationalist/separatist movement. I want my students to be able to differentiate between states and nations, and explain the elements that create a nation, including language, culture, shared history, etc. Instead of directly teaching this, I will first give the class the opportunity to brainstorm what makes a nation and see what they come up with.

Then we will turn to nationalism. My students need to be able to define nationalism and explain why nationalist movements begin and how they are created. Again, I will instruct them to figure out for themselves what circumstances would make them want to begin a nationalist movement, and then how they would go about doing that. Instead of having them think about imaginary nations, to connect with what they’ve learned in their history classes, I will ask them to think of actual nations that do not have their own states (Francophone or not) and imagine what circumstances would make those nations create nationalist movements and put themselves in the place of those national leaders, to figure out how to mobilize and inspire their fellow citizens. We will ask the question “What makes a nationalist movement become a separatist movement?” My goals here are two-fold. First, this method will get them “into” the lesson and make the learning process an active one. Second, I want to reinforce what they’ve learned in history and give them an opportunity to think about the various nations they’ve studied through the lens of nationalism, both to help them see the interconnected nature of their studies, and to help them review for their IB history exam.

From a specifically Francophone standpoint, I want my students to be able to “become” Québécois and feel what it would like to be part of a nation without a state. They will be able to explain the Québécois separatist movement and the referenda of 1980 and 1995 by putting themselves in the place of the Québécois. By the end of the unit they will have a thorough understanding of Québécois nationalism. They will prove this knowledge by completing a three-phase Integrated Performance Assessment[1] in which they must apply what they learned about Québécois nationalism to create a separatist movement in the French-speaking part of Belgium.

Proficiency Objectives

Regarding proficiency in the French language, my goal is for the students to become able to communicate in French about nationalism, which is a highly intellectual topic, especially compared to topics they’ve studied in lower levels such as how to travel in France or how to describe one’s daily routine. Their proficiency in all four skills will improve because of the practice they will get in this unit. In general, the students in my class are Intermediate-Low to Advanced-Low speakers and writers[2]. The objectives for this unit come from the Intermediate High standards, in which academic, and not “survival” language is used. For listening, I expect my students’ proficiency to increase due to the complicated vocabulary they will hear during the lectures I present and the authentic sources we use from the internet. Their ability to discern meaning from high-level input will undoubtedly improve. Lastly, their reading skills will improve as they are exposed to challenging excerpts from primary and secondary texts. Once again, I expect that they will become more proficient readers who are better able to understand the gist and some details of complicated texts in which they simply won’t know all of the vocabulary.[3]

Intellectual Objectives

Finally, I have intellectual goals for my students. First, I want their interest to be piqued by this unit, so that they will deeply ponder why humans feel the need to segregate into groups, and (ideally) decide for themselves that it is our responsibility to overcome this and strive to be as open-minded and tolerant as possible. I want them to realize that study of and exposure to “the other” is what will make this happen. Second, I want them to see the interconnected nature of the subjects they study in school, as this unit connects particularly well with history. I hope the interdisciplinary light bulb will turn on in their heads when they realize that everything they learn is related. Finally, I wish to prepare my seniors for the intellectual environment of college by pushing them to think deeply about an academic subject.

Nationalism

What is Nationalism? What’s the Difference Between States and Nations?

Merriam-Webster defines nationalism as “loyalty and devotion to a nation; especially : a sense of national consciousness exalting one nation above all others and placing primary emphasis on promotion of its culture and interests as opposed to those of other nations or supranational groups.[4]” Anthony D. Smith offers five usages of the word nationalism, “(1) a process of formation, or growth, of nations; (2) a sentiment or consciousness of belonging to the nation; (3) a language and symbolism of the nation; (4) a social and political movement on behalf of the nation; (5) a doctrine and/or ideology of the nation, both general and particular[5].” Smith then clarifies that the nationalist has three goals: “national autonomy, national unity, and national identity[6].”

After defining nationalism, it is important to clarify the definition of “nation.” In everyday conversation, we often use the words “nation,” “state,” and “country” interchangeably, but for the purposes of teaching my unit, it will be important for my students to understand the differences. A state is a political entity, with defined borders, sovereignty over its own affairs, and the ability to make its own foreign policy, for example the US, France, or Canada. A nation, on the other hand, is not a political, but an emotional thing. It is a community of people with a shared identity, history, culture, language, and a shared feeling of “who we are.” Québec, Palestine, and the Basque country are examples of stateless nations. Oftentimes “states” are made up of various “nations” that live within their borders, as with Canada which houses two nations: Anglophone Canada and Francophone Québec.

Why is Nationalism Interesting?

Nationalism is a topic that I had never previously studied or thought much about before taking this seminar. During our first meeting, I was struck by how interesting a concept it is. That people would feel an allegiance to a country to the point that they would be willing to die for that country is definitely something worth exploring. What makes people care about and feel an allegiance to their country? When I first thought about this, I couldn’t come up with any plausible answers. At first, I just thought that it was kind of stupid to care so much for your nation that you would put its survival above your own. But through discussions in the seminar, I began to test theories about why nationalism exists.

Am I Teaching My Students To Be Racist?

In particular, I am fascinated by the human need to group together. I have no problem understanding that we are a species that is not meant to be solitary, but when I thought about it and realized that throughout the course of history, every group of humans has felt the need to distinguish between their group and “the other,” in other words to have an “us versus them” mentality and to see their group as better than all the other groups, I was troubled. Groups of humans have been fighting and killing other groups of humans since the dawn of time. This “us versus them” mentality is part of what causes racism. This was deeply disturbing to me. Until recently I wasn’t willing to accept that racism is, at least in part, a natural phenomenon. If racism is natural, then it should be acceptable, right? This line of thinking is so dangerous because it justifies something that I find completely unacceptable. I saw an inherent danger in teaching nationalism because it seemed like it could be used to explain how racism is natural, which is not a notion that I want to encourage in my students. My primary goal as a teacher is to open my students’ minds and to instill tolerance in them, for I believe that knowing about other people helps you to see that people are just people. For example, it irritates me when someone who has never been anywhere else in the world says that America is the best country in the world…if you’re going to have an opinion like that, it should at least be based on actual experience. I strive to have my students discover that difference is just different, it is not good or bad, better or worse than “our way.” My passion for teaching French comes from the pleasure I get when students begin to realize that Americans are not better than anyone else and the French are not worse than us for lacking shower curtains, we’re all just different!

Returning to my fears about instilling racism in my students, learning that “us versus them” is a natural phenomenon threw me for a loop. At first I was scared to teach a unit on nationalism because it might make my students more intolerant and/or racist. It makes sense that humans need to group together for protection. It makes sense that in a world with limited resources, being a part of “us” means that you’re more likely to get to eat. It also makes sense that “us” needs to keep our food and resources safe from “them,” so if “them” get near us, we should fight them off. So far, all I’ve shown is that racism is natural! But in digging deeper into this concept, my fears were assuaged. In conversation with a friend who is a psychologist, I realized that as humans, we have the capacity (and the obligation) to rise above our base instincts. In another exchange with Dr. Rigger, I was reminded that while humans have decided to make race the dividing line between us and them, this is completely arbitrary. It would make just as much sense to decide that people with big feet are better and smarter than people with small feet and use that rationale to discriminate. Genetic research often shows that two people of different races have more similar genes than two people of the same race, proving how arbitrary choosing race as a dividing line is. Having this pointed out assuaged my fears about teaching that racism is natural. I now look forward to pointing out how arbitrary it is when it comes up in class, and allowing students to discover for themselves how ridiculous racism is. I feel that I am now prepared to teach this unit with the goal of helping my students become more tolerant and open-minded by questioning their “natural” reactions to people who are different.

Origins of Nationalism

I find several things about nationalism to be truly fascinating. First, I did not realize until I took this seminar that prior to the late-18^th century, the world was not divided up into nations. It makes sense when you think about it, but if you haven’t had a reason to think about it, it’d be easy to assume that the world has always been like it is now. (I expect that my students haven’t thought about this much and will be fascinated like I am.) The French Revolution is considered to be the beginning of intentional “nation building”[7] and the dawn of nationalism—the first time that this type of community with a collective identity had existed[8].

Realizing that the nation is a new concept naturally leads to the question of why? What changed in the 18^th century that made people want to feel an allegiance to the people who lived within the boundaries of their now-nation? How did small groups of “us”—families, tribes, villages, came to be larger groups of “us”—nations?

Benedict Anderson’s pivotal work on nationalism, Imagined Communities[9], offers several explanations. First, he argues that the decline of religion, brought on by the Enlightenment, made people feel the need to be affiliated with something.[10] Prior to Enlightenment, religion and God were not matters of faith, but of fact—people knew that there was a master plan being controlled by God, and that explained all the suffering in the world. While religious belief declined during the Enlightenment, suffering did not go away, and now there was no good explanation for it. While religion provided a continuity of life and a reason for one’s existence, a secular world offered no such explanation. In this new non-religious world, people needed something to believe in, and the nation gave them that. In essence, the nation stepped in to fill the role that religion had provided—the feeling of being part of a larger whole and being loyal to it. People went from being a part of a sacred imagined community to a secular, national imagined community.

Anderson goes on to argue that the development of print capitalism was a major factor that created nations nationalism.[11] Prior to the invention of the printing press, the uneducated European masses spoke regional vernaculars and the educated elites (mainly the clergy) used Latin, but this would soon change. With the ability to mass-produce books, publishers had to decide what language to print them in. In 1501, 88 books were published in Paris and all but 8 were in Latin, but after 1575 most were published in French (the vernacular).[12] In print capitalism, publishers were trying to make a profit by publishing books that would have as wide an audience as possible, so once they had already reached all the Latin speakers (who were few), they needed to print in other languages in order to make more money.[13] As such, Latin was supplanted by vernacular languages. Moreover, “Speakers of the huge variety of Frenches, Englishes, and Spanishes, who might find it difficult or even impossible to understand one another in conversation, became capable of comprehending one another via print and paper”[14] because print capitalism made publishers select one French in which to print, and all French dialect speakers had to learn that French in order to be able to read. Those French readers could now see themselves as part of a larger community of other French speakers, or “us” and see that the “them” is all the people who do not speak French. This was the beginning of people seeing themselves as part of a larger imagined community than just their immediate surroundings.[15]

A Brief History of Québec

To understand Québécois nationalism, one must also understand the basic history of Québec.

Early Québec—New France

During France’s first colonial empire, Québec city was founded by Samuel de Champlain in 1608. The early colonists were almost all men, with the primary occupation being hunting beavers (les coureurs des bois) to send furs to France. France wanted to populate the colony but there were too few women, so Louis XIV rounded up orphaned girls who were unmarriageable, gave them dowries, and sent them to New France to marry and procreate. As legend goes, Les Filles du Roi, or the King’s Girls, stopped in Québec city, got off their ship, stood in a line, and the local men chose the girl of their choice to marry, sometimes on the spot (the local priest being conveniently available for this service).

Life in New France revolved around the Catholic Church. Families were large because populating the colony (to be able to compete with the much larger British population to the south) was very important and because contraception was not an option for the good Catholic. During my stay in Chicoutimi in northern Québec in July 2010, I learned that up until the mid-20^th century, it was not uncommon for rural women to have between 12 and 22 children! One of my teachers recounted a story her grandmother had told her about how in those days, if a woman already had too many children and didn’t want any more, she wouldn’t leave the house much, because if she did the local priest would come running after her and remind her of her obligation to fulfill God’s will! Suffice it to say that religion was a major part of life in Québec, with parish priests functioning as de facto government.

Unsurprisingly, the French and British populations never got along very well. After losing a battle on the Plaines d’Abraham, France ceded Québec to the British in 1763. After that, many English-speakers moved into the territory.[16] In 1837 and 1838, Louis Joseph Papineau led the first round of nationalists in rebellions,[17] but they were defeated decisively by the British, leaving them again unhappy in their rather powerless relationship. In 1867 “Canada” was born as a confederation of provinces. Québec’s history under Canadian (Anglophone) rule is one fraught with strife, and the Québécois always felt like second-class citizens.

Now let’s fast-forward to the 20^th century, when Québec undergoes major changes.

Québécois Nationalism during and after La Révolution Tranquille (The Quiet Revolution)

The Québec that we know today is a product of a huge shift in national identity during the nationalist and separatist movement. Today, Québec is largely urbanized, modernized, and clearly Francophone. When I visited the small city of Chicoutimi in July 2010 I was surprised to find that it was basically like the US (or Canada) but with signs in French and people speaking French. The subdivisions, shopping centers, houses, schools, and downtown area were all basically the same as my suburban area in Charlotte, with the notable exception of PFK (Poulet Frite de Kentucky, or KFC). In researching Québec’s history and nationalist movement, I was surprised to find out how modern-day Québec is quite different than the Québec of only 50 years ago.

The Quiet Revolution began in 1960 with the election of liberal Jean Lesage as Prime Minister,[18] prompting the question, “What happened prior to 1960 that made people want a revolution?” The problems were many. Québec as a province was far behind the rest of Canada and the United States in terms of economy and modernization. Marcel Duplessis ruled Québec from 1936-1939 and 1944-1959, a period known as “la grande noirceur” or the big blackness, denoting a period of stagnation during which Duplessis prevented the modernization of Quebec.[19] Since the 1930’s, a Francophone middle class had developed, but business was run by Anglophones and French speakers couldn’t get anywhere economically because they were shut out of business. While the Anglophones were running the economy, the Catholic Church was in charge of social services such as schools and medical care.[20] The government of Québec, for all intents and purposes, didn’t exist.[21] This was all to change during the Quiet Revolution.

The Quiet Revolution was quiet because there was no actual war or even much violence, but it was a revolution indeed. During this period, Québec sought to catch up to the rest of Canada.[22] When Lesage was elected in 1960, he used the nationalistic motto “Maîtres chez nous,” to inspire the people of Québec to be self-sufficient. They now wanted to be in charge of their own “house.”[23] There were many major changes during the Quiet Revolution. The government took power into its own hands, primarily from the Catholic Church. Religious observance plummeted as the government took over control of education, creating a Ministry of Education which created a secularist, nationalist, modern curriculum; province-wide post-secondary schools; and the University of Québec system.[24] The state also nationalized industry (such as Hydro-Québec) and created funds for pensions, deposits, investments, and automobile insurance.[25] Lesage also greatly expanded the size of the public sector. Lesage did not, however, go so far as to seek independence, much to the dismay of many nationalists.[26]

Lesage’s educational policies resulted in the creation of a new segment of highly educated, skilled professionals, but again, the French language got in the way.[27] French speakers couldn’t break through the linguistic barrier because middle and upper management were all Anglos and English was the language of commerce.[28] These well-educated French speakers had to take jobs for which they were overqualified.[29]

In 1968, René Lévêsque started the Parti Québécois (PQ) with the goal of becoming an independent nation.[30] His party won power in the 1976 election, which shocked the rest of Canada and the US as it was the first time a secessionist party had won an election.[31] In 1980, the PQ had its first referendum for independence. At the time, Pierre Trudeau, a federalist, was Prime Minister and Lévêsque was leading the charge on the separatist side. Throughout Québec, people were divided into two camps: Oui and Non, to the point that even businesses displayed their affiliation outside of their shops. Eighty-six percent of the population voted in the referendum, but it was soundly defeated 59.6% to 40.4%.[32] Although a majority of Francophones voted for it, nearly all Anglophones voted against it (the Anglophone population of Québec was about 20%).[33] The second (and last) referendum in 1995 was about as close as can be. The Non’s won by a margin of 50.6% to 49.4%, with an astounding 93.5% of the population voting.[34] Since then, nationalist and separatist sentiment has declined dramatically. Talk of secession is not commonplace today, and nationalism has calmed to a whisper. When studying this in Chicoutimi in 2010, I learned that it is no longer politically correct to ask someone where they stand on sovereignty. People just don’t talk about it much anymore. At this point, I strongly doubt that Québec will become a separate country at any point in my lifetime.

The Role of Language in Québécois Identity

The French language is now the primary component of the Québécois identity, but the term Québécois wasn’t even common until the Révolution Tranquille. Prior to that, people saw themselves as Canadiens français or Franco-Canadiens, as a minority group in their country, and as second-class citizens to the Anglos who ran all the businesses. A product of the nationalist movement was to make them identify as Québécois, as a majority in their province, and allowed them to be proud of their identity.[35] A distinction was now made between “French Canada” and “Québec”—the former being a territory with no particular identity, and the latter being defined by an activist government that was working hard to do well for its people.[36]

With this new identity, language was the primary distinguisher between Québécois and Canadians. Prior to 1960, religion was also a major distinguisher, but with the drop off in religious observance, language was now the big deal. Québec’s language laws did a lot to create the Québec that we now know. The language laws passed between 1974 and 1988 were defensive moves, intended to prevent French from dying out (French was predicted to die out because the Francophone birthrate was continually dropping and immigrant allophones (those who spoke neither English nor French) were sending their kids to English schools to become English speakers[37]) and to take economic power back from the Anglos who ran business.

In 1961 the Office de la Langue Française was created.[38] In 1974, La Loi 22 established French as the official language of Québec and required allophones to educate their children in French unless they already spoke English, which backfired because parents drilled their kids in English so they could pass the test to be able to be educated in English schools[39]. La Loi 101, the most important of the language laws, also known as La Charte de la Langue Française, required all children to attend French schools unless their parents had been educated in English[40]. In addition, it required French to be the language of work, business, and communications, required all signage to be in French, and required the use of French in government[41]. La Loi 101 basically required everything in Québec to be in French. These language laws are widely credited with saving the French language and the Québécois identity. While they are controversial because they were anti-Anglophone, French would have died out without them.

Overview of the Unit Plan

This unit will last 14 90-minute class periods. The following is a breakdown of the main topics that will be covered each day. Please see the Strategies and Activities sections for more detail.

Day	Topic
1-2	Introduction to states, nations, and nationalism
3-5	Québec—history, nationalism/separatism, identity & language
6-7	Québécois nationalism-Jigsaw reading of selections from René Lévesque’s “Option Québec,” preparation and presentation of Jigsaw presentations
7-8	Assign music video project and begin in computer lab
9	IPA #1: Interpretive reading about Belgium
10	Return IPA Phase 1 assessments, verify that everyone understands Belgium; Begin IPA #2 Interpretive
11	Finish IPA Phase 2 Interpretive assessments
12	IPA Phase 3 assessment: Presentational speech writing
13	Conclusion of unit. Debate: Should Québec become an independent state? What should happen to Belgium?
	Video project due—watch videos in class

Strategies

I have two challenges in teaching this unit. First, structuring the class sessions in such a way that the students are engaged and kept awake, and second, making the information accessible. If I wrote this unit as a history teacher would, in the students’ primary language, my poor French students would simply give up for lack of understanding. As such, I am tasked with tailoring the input (both my delivery of the content through lecture and authentic reading and listening) to Krashen’s i + 1.[42] The following paragraphs describe the strategies I will use to do this.

Lecture (Teacher Input)

At various points in the unit, I will need to lecture. Lecture gets a bad rap because it is often used in boring ways, so I need to be sure to use it in ways that will help my students learn without boring them to death. Since I am the one with the content knowledge, I can’t get around having to lecture at least some of the time. I will use several strategies to keep it interesting.

Power Point

I will use PowerPoint for each lecture, so that students are getting the input both aurally and visually. PowerPoint also helps the students know what to write down during a lecture, and it’ll be important for them to have written notes for them to study prior to the IB exam. PowerPoint can be boring though, so I will infuse the presentations with audio and video clips to keep the students engaged and break up the lecturing. By using clips on YouTube I can use to give my students authentic listening practice and give them a visual of what Québec is really like.

Small-group comprehension checks

To help with my students’ listening comprehension, I will need to “read” my students’ faces to check for understanding while delivering the lecture. When I sense that they are confused, I will first try to repeat or rephrase the input using simpler language. If they are still not getting it, I will instruct them to take a minute to make sure that their neighbors understand, and I will let them to use English to do so. This allows the high-flyers to explain what’s going on to the less-proficient students. Some world language teachers are opposed to the use of English no matter what the case, but I would rather have my students understand than be confused and give up.

Using Inquiry in Pair/Small-Group Brainstorming and Discussion

Lecture can be boring, and too much sitting and listening is never a productive way to learn. In order to help my students get into the material, I will allow them time to work with a partner or a small group to brainstorm and discuss topics on their own. At the beginning of the unit, I could simply teach that the elements that make a nation are language, culture, identity, shared history, and shared idea of “who we are,” but the topic will be much more engaging if the students have to come up with these on their own. I will ask a leading question such as “What elements make people feel like part of a nation?” and “How would you make people feel a sense of nationhood?” and give them a chance to think about it and see what they come up with through discussion. This will also be instructive for me, as I will be able to figure out where the students are coming from and what prior knowledge they have about the topic.

Jigsaw

We will use the jigsaw reading strategy to read René Lévêsque’s Option Québec[43] for several reasons. First, it allows all students to learn a lot of information without having to read it all themselves. Second, it relies on cooperative learning, which is essential in L2 because it requires students to speak and comprehend the L2. Third, every student is required to participate in the presentation part of the jigsaw, which means that no one can “check out” and allow others to do the work for them.

To do a jigsaw, I will need “home groups” and “specialist groups.” The specialist groups will each become experts on one chapter of the book. They will work as a group to read and understand the chapter, and then they will prepare a presentation to teach the rest of the groups about their chapter. Once the presentations are ready, the students from the specialist groups will return to their home groups (each home group is comprised of one student from each specialist group) and present their chapter to the rest of their group.

Reading Authentic Texts

I will give my students authentic texts to read. In order to make these texts accessible, I will use pre-reading strategies such as introducing new vocabulary and asking the students to guess what the text is about by using the title, format, and any visuals such as photos. For simpler texts, I will have them read the text alone. For more complex texts, I will have the students work in heterogeneous pairs or groups so that they can collaborate to make meaning from the text. In both cases, I will ask them to first get the gist of the text, and then focus on understanding some of the details. (It would be unreasonable to expect them to understand 100% of any authentic text.) I will prepare comprehension questions and discussion questions that the students will answer with their partner/group, or with the whole class, or both, depending on my goals for that day.

Cercle Philosophique

This strategy is a modified version of Socratic Seminar which I use for discussions that do not revolve around a specific text. The purpose of this method is to encourage every student to participate actively in the discussion. To use this strategy, you need the desks in the room to be in a circle and you need a ball of yarn. After the teacher asks the first question, s/he wraps the end of the yarn around her finger and then tosses or rolls the ball of yarn to the first volunteer to speak. That student speaks and then wraps the yarn around their finger, and passes the ball to the next person. By the end of the discussion, a nice spider web of yarn has been created in the middle of the circle.

This technique is gimmicky, but it works well for various reasons. It uses peer pressure to encourage everyone to speak, because it is quite obvious which students are not participating actively. Students are encouraged to speak because they want the chance to wrap the yarn around their finger. This is obviously a gimmick, but oftentimes that’s what teaching is all about: taking an activity that would otherwise be only mildly interesting and making it fun by adding some element that encourages participation.

Note: Tell the students to wrap the yarn around a finger on their non-dominant hand so they can still take notes if necessary!

Use of song and film

In the world language classroom, using media like song and film are not only a good way to spice things up, they are also essential for providing authentic listening practice and cultural exposure. In this unit I will use a variety of clips from the internet and YouTube to give my students authentic input (especially to the Québécois accent) and put them “in” the culture.

Integrated Performance Assessment[44]

An integrated performance assessment (IPA) is ACTFL’s preferred method of assessment. The IPA method provides a framework for developing an assessment that is easy to use for the teacher and engaging for the student. A performance assessment is an assessment in which the students must complete an authentic task by performing, as opposed to a tradition paper and pencil test. An example of a novice or intermediate level performance assessment would be planning a trip to a foreign country or having to order a meal in a restaurant, both of which are real-life tasks. Traditional written tests do not require the students to perform real-world tasks–no one ever travelled to France and then had to answer multiple-choice questions about the passé composé.

IPAs involve three assessments that are thematically linked, in which students use the previous assessment to complete the next one. First, the students do an interpretive assessment, either reading a text or listening to or viewing input. They then use the information they learned from the interpretive assessment to do the next step, which is an interpersonal assessment, in which the students interact spontaneously, without any prepared notes or other resources. The final phase is a presentational assessment in which the students use all the information they learned from the first two steps to write or speak with advanced preparation and time to edit and perfect their presentation.

IB Reading Assessment

To assess the interpretive assessment from the IPA I have written comprehension questions that are in the style of the questions the students will have to answer on Paper One of the IB exam. My seniors will be doing this unit shortly before taking the IB exam, so it is important to use this unit to prepare them for the format of the exam. If you use this unit for a non-IB class, you can either use the IB-style questions I have included in the Activities section below, or you can use ACTFL’s Comprehension Guide method, which is described in the next section.

Comprehension Guide

This is another ACTFL method that is a great way to assess reading comprehension. Instead of giving multiple-choice questions to see if students understood a text or asking students to translate the text word for word, the teacher writes a comprehension guide based on the template that ACTFL provides in Sandrock’s The Keys to Assessing Language Performance.[45] The students are asked to answer the following types of questions:

1. Main idea: give the main idea in English.
2. Supporting details: given choices that the teacher has created, the students select the details that were actually in the text and then explain what the article said about them
3. Meaning from context: given several words that the students will not know in the target language, they will explain what the words probably mean in English using context clues
4. Concept inferences: the teacher writes questions that require students to infer the author’s intent
5. Author’s perspective: given choices that the teacher has created, the students select the choice that explains the point of view of the author and then provides justification from the text
6. Comparing cultural perspectives: in English, students answer questions about what they learned about the target culture from the text and make comparisons between their culture and the target culture
7. Personal reactions to the text: give your personal reaction using specific information from the text
8. Organizing principle: multiple-choice question about how the article is organized

Activities

Day 1-2: Introduction to States, Nations, and Nationalism

To begin the unit I will sit the students in heterogeneous groups of 3-4 and give them the following discussion questions to explore. While they are discussing them, I will circulate to get an idea of what they already know and to answer “Comment dit-on” questions.

After giving the students 30-45 minutes to discuss these questions, we will move into a Cercle Philosophique. I’ll ask the questions above and get answers from the whole group, passing the ball of yarn around to keep everyone engaged and participating. The goal of the discussion is to get all the students’ ideas out on the table.

Once we know what the students think about states, nations, and nationalism, I will guide a discussion/lecture in which I provide whatever information the students had not figured out for themselves. I will clarify the difference between a state and a nation and define nationalism. I will ask the students to think about why people group together and scaffold their answers to help them eventually reach cavemen times and the need to group together and have “nous” and “l’autre.”

We will then move into a discussion/lecture of how nationalist and independence movements get started. The key questions we will cover follow. I will have the students suggest stateless nations that they have studied and we will use the questions in reference to those nations.

The next topic will be specifics on how to create a nationalist movement. The question will be: “Quels éléments faut-il avoir pour créer un movement nationaliste?” The answers I am looking for include the following : language, religion, pledge of allegiance, national anthem, public holidays, remembrance of veterans, buy local campaigns, etc. I will post a large sheet of paper on the front board and have the students brainstorm in groups, write suggestions on Post-it notes and post them so we can discuss their ideas. Next we will talk how these elements come into being, whether they are authentic or fabricated by nationalists to create a sense of nationhood. By the end of the first two days of the unit, the students will have a firm grasp on nations, states, and nationalism.

Day 3-5: Québec history, nationalism, and separatism

For the next segment of the unit we will focus specifically on Québec. I will use lecture, small group discussion, and PowerPoint to teach the information in the Québec history and nationalism sections above. The following are activities that we will do.

• Watch a few clips from Têtes-à-Claques, a Québécois humor website, to expose students to the accent and dialect of Québécois French
• Venn Diagrams: Canadians vs. Québécois, Francophone Québécois vs. Anglophone Québécois
• Listen to and analyze « Gens du Pays » by Gilles Vignoble, which is the de facto anthem of Québec
• Listen to, complete texte à trous, and discuss the songs “Le coeur de ma vie” by Michel Rivard[46] and “La langue de chez nous” by Yves Duteil[47]
• Read laws produced by the Québécois government from the Quiet Revolution to the present, including

1. Charte de la Langue Française, also known as “La Loi 101” which declared French the sole official language of Québec[48]
2. Charte des Droits et Libertés de la Personne,[49] which is somewhat comparable to the US Bill of Rights, but is more extensive and deals both legal and affective subjects

• Read excerpts from Le Frère Untel[50]
• Go to the computer lab and allow students to investigate the Québec language website: http://www.oqlf.gouv.qc.ca/[51]
• Watch the film “Un Certain Souvenir,”[52] in which people around Québec are interviewed about what the Québec motto “Je me souviens” means

Day 6-7 Jigsaw with René Lévêsque’s Option Québec[53]

I will divide the students into heterogeneous specialty groups and assign each group one chapter from the Première Partie of René Lévêsque’s Option Québec, in which he explains the reasons that Québec must become a separate country. They will have most of the period to read their chapter and prepare a presentation to the rest of the class in which they explain the most essential parts of their chapter.

Once all the groups are ready to present, the students will go to their home groups (each home group is made up of one student from each of the specialty groups, so that all chapters are represented). They will present their chapter in order so the rest of the group becomes knowledgeable about the whole thing. Then they will begin discussing their opinions on whether Québec should (have) become its own country.

Day 7-8 Student-created music videos

Now that the students have learned enough about Québécois history and nationalism to have a foundation, they will write and videotape a music video in which they explain nationalism and Québécois nationalism in their own words. They will choose a song they like (mostly likely it will be an American song, but they may choose from one of our classes’ favorite French songs) and use the tune but write original lyrics. They will use video software (our school has Microsoft Movie Maker, but most students have their own software at home) to create a music video with visuals that pertain to the message of the song.

For this assignment, students may choose their own groups of 2-4. Generally I choose their groups to ensure heterogeneity and provide them with new speaking partners, but when the assignment involves technology and needs to be filmed outside of school hours, I allow them to choose their own groups to ensure that every group has the necessary technology and that they can all get to a location to film their product.

I will give the students some time to form groups and begin outlining the content of the song (which is the history of nationalism and Québécois nationalism). I will then take them to the computer lab so they can fill in any holes in the content through internet research. Once they have an outline of what they want to include in their song, they will need to choose a song and write lyrics that match with the tune. This requires not only content knowledge, but also the ability to use circumlocution to find a way to express what you need to say with the right number of syllables and a rhyme scheme that is appropriate for the song (very high-level language skills).

Once they have written the lyrics, they will storyboard the video by deciding on characters, acting, and visuals (either original or from the internet), and then shoot the video, record themselves singing the audio, and edit the video to integrate all of the components. I will give the students half of Day 6 and all of Day 7 to work on this project, and then will give them at least two weekends to complete the music video. We will watch their videos at least a week after the unit has ended, which is good because it allows for spiraling of the content.

This is a major task that will be time-consuming but fun for the students. This type of assignment is the kind of thing kids remember years later. They won’t remember the PowerPoint presentation about nationalism, but they will remember making the music video.

Day 9-12 Integrated Performance Assessment

In this IPA, the students will use what they have learned about Québécois nationalism and separatism to spark a nationalist and/or separatist movement in la Wallonie, the French-speaking half of Belgium. This requires higher-order thinking skills as the students will need to apply what they learned about one place to another place. The three assessments are described separately below.

Assessment #1: Interpretive Reading

In this assessment, the students will read the article linked here http://www.lavenir.net/extra/JDE/images/content/espaceenfants/dossiers/histoirebelgique.pdf[54] which explains how Belgium became a country and how it is a state made up of two distinct nations, le Flandres (Flemish half) and La Wallonie (French half). I have modeled the questions on the IB Paper One to help prepare the students for their upcoming IB exam.

Before moving on to phase two of the IPA, I will grade the reading assessment, return it to the students, and make sure that everyone understands the most important parts of the article. Without an understanding of this background knowledge, they will not be able to successfully complete the next two phases of the IPA.

Assessment #2: Interpersonal Speaking

For this assessment I will randomly choose pairs of students to perform the interpersonal phase of the IPA together. Since I will use the same prompt with the entire class, I will pull the pairs into the hallway so the rest of the class can’t hear, and I will require the students to sign the honor code, promising not to share the contents of the prompt, before returning to the classroom. While I am testing students in the hallway, the rest of the class will be working on practice IB exams. Here is the prompt for the interpersonal task:

Assessment #3: Presentational Writing

For the last phase of the assessment, the students will write a speech to be delivered on television in la Wallonie announcing the new nationalist/separatist movement. This mimics a possible format of the IB Paper Two they will be sitting for soon. Here is the prompt:

I will grade the speech using the IB rubrics for Paper Two, but you could also use the AP writing rubrics or develop your own.

Day 13: Concluding Debate

On the last day of the unit, we will have a class-wide discussion about whether Québec and la Wallonie should separate from Canada and Belgium, respectively.

Bibliography for Teachers

Anderson, Benedict R. O. Imagined communities: reflections on the origin and spread of nationalism. Rev. ed. London: Verso, 2006.

This is the seminal work on nationalism. It is written in professor-speak, but is undoubtedly an important work. It is best read as a whole book as opposed to looking up specific information in the index.

Barreto, Amílcar Antonio. Language, elites, and the state: nationalism in Puerto Rico and Quebec. Westport, Conn.: Praeger, 1998.

This book focuses specifically on the role that language played in Québécois nationalism.

Dickinson, John Alexander, and Brian J. Young. A short history of Quebec. 3rd ed. Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2003.

Although “short” is a questionable adjective to describe this history of Quebec, it is thorough and teachers can use the index to find the specific information they seek.

Handler, Richard. Nationalism and the politics of culture in Quebec. Madison, Wis.: University of Wisconsin Press, 1988.

Handler writes with first-hand experience of an American studying Québec and offers a useful perspective.

Keating, Michael. Les défis du nationalisme moderne: Québec, Catalogne, Ecosse. Montréal: Presses de l’Université de Montréal, 1997.

This book has two chapters specifically about Québec that clearly explain the history of nationalism during the second half of the 20th century.

North Carolina Department of Public Instruction. “NORTH CAROLINA WORLD LANGUAGE ESSENTIAL STANDARDS: CLASSICAL LANGUAGES, DUAL & HERITAGE LANGUAGES, MODERN LANGUAGES.” North Carolina Essential Standards. seclang.ncwiseowl.org/UserFiles/Servers/Server_4507529/File/WorldLanguageEssentialStandards.pdf (accessed November 13, 2011).

This PDF offers North Carolina’s Essential Standards that all world language teachers in the state must follow. They are divided by ACTFL proficiency levels.

Tourisme Quebec. “Québec’s history and heritage.” Bonjour Québec.com : Site touristique officiel du gouvernement du Québec. http://www.bonjourquebec.com/qc-en/histoire0.html#onglet (accessed November 13, 2011).

Quebec’s official tourism website offers many useful resources for teachers.

Sandrock, Paul. The keys to assessing language performance: a teacher’s manual for measuring student progress. Alexandria, VA: American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages, 2010.

ACTFL’s guide to assessment. Very useful resource with templates for reading comprehension guides, rubrics, etc.

Smith, Anthony D.. Nationalism: theory, ideology, history. 2nd ed. Cambridge, UK: Polity, 2010.

This book provides a readable crash course in nationalism, including competing theories. It is more user-friendly than Anderson’s Imagined Communities.

Reading List for Students

Gouvernement du Québec. “Charte des Droits et Libertés de la Personne.” Commission des droits de la personne et des droits de la jeunesse. www.cdpdj.qc.ca/fr/commun/docs/charte.pdf (accessed November 20, 2011).

This site is great for students to explore government documents and help for citizens.

Gouvernement du Quebec. “Charte de la langue française.” Office québécois de la langue francaise. http://www2.publicationsduquebec.gouv.qc.ca/dynamicSearch/telecharge.php?type=2&file=/C_11/C11.html (accessed November 19, 2011).

You can find the official text of la Loi 101 here. The preamble is especially important.

Les Editions de l’Avenir. “Dossier du Mois: la Belgique.” Le Journal Des Enfants. http://www.lavenir.net/extra/JDE/images/content/espaceenfants/dossiers/histoirebelgique.pdf (accessed December 11, 2011).

This PDF is from a children’s newspaper in Belgium and gives a thorough but comprehensible explanation of the history and division of Belgium.

Levesque, Rene. Option Queébec. Montreal: Les Editions de L’Homme, 1968.

In this book, Levesque lays out his reasons for sovereignty and his plan for achieving it. My students will use it for a jigsaw reading.

Gouvernement du Québec. “Office québécois de la langue française – Page d’accueil.” Office québécois de la langue française – Page d’accueil. http://www.oqlf.gouv.qc.ca/ (accessed November 19, 2011).

Quebec’s official website for the French language. A great resource for students doing research.

Materials for Classroom Use

catoche01. “La langue de chez nous Yves Duteil.” YouTube – Broadcast Yourself. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3_SWk0xe-E (accessed November 20, 2011).

Video of the song “La langue de chez nous” by Yves Duteil.

“Gens Du Pays – Gilles Vigneault – Lyrics of the song.” Lyrics Copy. http://en.lyrics-copy.com/gilles-vigneault/gens-du-pays.htm (accessed November 20, 2011).

Lyrics for “Gens du Pays” by Gilles Vignoble, which is basically the Quebec anthem.

“Le Coeur De Ma Vie – Michel Rivard – Lyrics of the song.” Lyrics-Copy. http://en.lyrics-copy.com/michel-rivard/le-coeur-de-ma-vie.htm (accessed November 20, 2011).

Lyrics to the song “Le coeur de ma vie” by Michel Rivard.

LeGermQC. “Hymne national du Québec – Gens du pays- YouTube .” YouTube – Broadcast Yourself. . http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdf9aqRk–0 (accessed November 20, 2011).

This is a video for “Gens du Pays” by Gilles Vignoble.

ouataire. “Le Coeur de ma Vie – Michel Rivard.” YouTube – Broadcast Yourself. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MPUOI7qILXI (accessed November 20, 2011).

Video for the song “Le coeur de ma vie” by Michel Rivard.

La Langue De Chez Nous – Yves Duteil – Lyrics of the song.” Lyrics-Copy. http://en.lyrics-copy.com/yves-duteil/la-langue-de-chez-nous.htm (accessed November 20, 2011).

Lyrics to the song “La langue de chez nous” by Yves Duteil.

“tetesaclaques.tv – Têtes-à-claques, clips d’animations humoristiques en ligne.” tetesaclaques.tv – Têtes-à-claques, clips d’animations humoristiques en ligne. http://www.tetesaclaques.tv/index.php (accessed November 20, 2011).

This humor website offers short, hilarious skits made with puppets. It shows both the Quebecois accent and dialect and the sense of humor. Students love this! If you buy the DVD, you can show the clips with subtitles in English, International French, or Quebecois French.

Un Certain Souvenir. DVD. Directed by Thierry Le Brun. 2002; Montréal : Office national du film du Canada, 2002.

In this 51 minute documentary, the director interviews many people in Québec, both Anglophones and Francophones, about what the motto “Je me souviens” on Québec’s license plates means to them. It’s a great introduction to Québec for students.

UQAC. “Jean-Paul Desbiens (philosophe et essayiste québécois), Les insolences du Frère Untel.” Les Classiques des sciences sociales. http://classiques.uqac.ca/contemporains/desbiens_jean_paul/insolences_frere_untel/insolences.html (accessed November 20, 2011).

From this website you can download the text of the book in various formats.