Students in Pre-AP French 2 are learning about holidays and celebrations via a project on different French speaking countries and one of their holidays. 

“I have been very pleased with the work students have accomplished in this project. I have mixed feelings about projects in language class but I felt that this project was a learning experience for everyone,” teacher Jeannie Taillat said. “Students who struggle with the language still learned a lot about someone else’s culture with the work they did and then they learned even more through the presentations in class. I have learned a lot as well; I know a lot about France but I am by no means an expert in the culture of other French speaking people groups.”

Doing a project proved to be a worthwhile experience for sophomore Emily Santoso. 

“It helped us and learn more about another person’s and even another country’s culture,” Emily Santoso said. “I really enjoyed the presentations where people brought in the food because it was so interesting to try out foods from different cultures.”

But for some students, the project was about more than food.

“We learned about cultures that are celebrated all over the world,” freshman Amula Rayabhagi said. “And even though we are different from each other, we all have the same values beliefs and it is also important to understand their hardships faced because of their culture and how they overcome these by celebrating.”

Students were also able to develop a critical thinking component by individually working on the project.

“I also liked that students were able to “self-differentiate” with their product. That’s teacher-talk to mean that each student could produce something meaningful on their own level,” Taillat said. Giving students a reflection/critical thinking component with the comparison question made the research and presentations more meaningful than if the assignment had been to simply report on another culture. I also like that the projects were short and were done individually so that partners could not exploit each other.”