Lesson Plan: Five personal projects on Candide

Areas of interaction: Approaches to Learning - Health and Society - Homo Faber - Environment

Subject : Language A French

Grade: 9th Language A French

Estimate of time required: NA

Sources:

Voltaire, Candide

Also, web sites such as :
http://cedric.cnam.fr/ABU/BIB/auteurs/voltaire.html
http://www.microtec.net/~pcbcr/voltaire.html
http://www.voltaire.ox.ac.uk/default.html
http://francite.net/education/cyberprof/index.html
http://tuna.uchicago.edu/homes/jack/writers/candide.illustrations.html
http://www.arts.uwaterloo.ca/FREN/pleiade/html/candide.html
http://globegate.utm.edu/french/lit/century.18.html

Objectives:

Follow-up or companion activities on Candide

Outline:

1 - Making of a portfolio on one of the following topics : "censure" - "Inquisition" - "esclavage" - "Jésuites" - "L'optimisme comme doctrine philosophique" and so on... The results may be used as a background for oral presentations. (Approaches to learning - Health and Society)

2 - To extend the understanding of Voltaire's tale by searching information on environmental oriented topics : means of transportation in the eighteenth century - war - ecological disasters (cf. Désastre de Lisbonne) - the American wilderness in the eighteenth century - the design of the cities (cf. El Dorado) (Environment)

3 - To search the net for an ancient map then, to track Candide's travels in Europe and South America chapter by chapter. To display the result of this research as a poster for the class. To explain the meaning of the different locations (Eastern Europe was the actual scene of numerous battles during the "guerre de sept ans" ; settlements in the Americas were questioned in terms of slavery, religion, health (cf. La petite vérole) and potential progress for the civilization. (Homo Faber)

4 - To rewrite a chapter by using a different viewpoint (eg : Chapter19 told by the slave) / to add a chapter about an issue of our century by adopting Voltaire's way of thinking (Approaches to Learning - Health and society)

5 - To illustrate a chapter by a set of drawings or a comic strip. (Homo Faber)

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