Curriculum : French Regular in Grade 9 and Grade 10

GENERAL | GRADE 9 | GRADE 10

I - GENERAL AIMS
Grade 9 and Grade 10 Curricula complete the chronological survey of French literature undertaken in Grade 7 and Grade 8. The purpose of these two years is to progressively refine technics of text analysis and critical thinking while securing a basic knowledge of French cultural heritage. The students are prepared to face the demands of the IB diploma in French B Higher Level, French A2 and French A1. The course encourages the development of self-expression and creativity in oral and written productions, promotes the reading of classics of French literature and intends to improve the student's understanding of the French speaking people. Texts, songs, videos and internet resources are used in order to achieve these goals.

II - WORK FRAME AND CONTENT AREAS
Meeting times: 5 periods of 64 minutes per 8-Day Cycle.
1 - Grammar
2 - Literature by excerpts (chronological survey)
3 - Vocabulary / writing technics
4 - Works studied in their entirety
5 - Oral expression

III - HOMEWORK and CLASSWORK
There is a weekly written assignment either in the form of an exercize, a quiz, test or essay :
- Grammar: one quiz at half of the chapter and one test at the end of each chapter.
- Literature: review test at the end of each chapter.
- Essay writing: formal and informal writing. Once every two months, an essay is written in class.
- Oral: class participation is recorded. Individual presentations take place once a term.

IV - ASSESSMENT
50% written work : quizzes, tests and essays
20% oral work : class participation and oral reports
10% daily homework
20% final exam

Grade 9 - French Regular

A. SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES:

1. To develop writing skills in literary compositions, commentaries and argumentative essays using analysis and synthesis.
2. To reinforce oral expression (debates and text analysis).
3. To study excerpts from a chronological survey of the 17th and 18th Centuries French literature.

B. COURSE CONTENT:

1. GRAMMAR
Teaching resource : Sturges, Cregg Nielsen et Herbs : Une Fois pour Toutes, Longman, New York, 1992
Students concentrate on an intensive and comprehensive review of all French grammar, wich includes :
- gender and number of the nouns
- tenses of the indicative mood
- tenses of the conditional mood
- personal pronouns
- relative and interrogative pronouns
- conjunctions
- negations

2. LITERATURE
Teaching resource : Hirsh et Tompson, Moments litteraires, D.C. Heath and Compagny, Lexington, Massachusetts - Various literary excerpts provided by the teacher.

Students continue their chronological survey of French literature. They read, discuss and comment on excerpts from the17th and 18th Centuries writers including LaFontaine, La Bruyère, La Rochefoucauld, Molière, Blaise Pascal, Montesquieu, Voltaire, Rousseau, Diderot and more.
Excerpts are studied as groups from the perspective of various themes such as :

- Moral writings : vice and virtue, social interactions and personality as presented and judged by literary works.
- Farce and comedy of the 17th Century: focus on acting.
- Idea of perspective : shifts in sense and sensibility between the Classical literature and the philosophy of Enlightenment
- Voltairian irony ; the satire and the parody - literature as way of criticizing the institutions.

3. ESSAY WRITING
Students are expected to master the art of essay writing on topics ranging from the personal to the abstract, to current events, as well as literary summaries and commentaires on the works we study.

4. READING COMPREHENSION
In addition to chosen excerpts in Moments litteraires, three works are read in their entirety over the course of the year ; the selected works vary from year to year but typically include such titles as :

L'Avare, Le Bourgeois gentilhomme, Les Précieuses ridicules or Le Malade imaginaire by Molière.
Fables by La Fontaine
Le Jeu de l'amour et du hasard by Marivaux
Candide by Voltaire

5. DEBATES AND ORAL REPORTS
Students present oral reports and organize debates on topics approached in literature class. There is also a strong emphasis on textual analysis (learning how to comment on ideas and style).

Grade 10 - French Regular

A. SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES:

- To develop writing literary compositions, commentaries and argumentative essays using analysis and synthesis.
- To reinforce oral expression (debates and text analysis)
- To study excerpts from a chronological survey of the 19th and 20th century French literature.

B. COURSE CONTENT:
Students in the 10th grade will progress sufficiently during the year to be prepared for an I.B syllabus in French B Higher or French A.

1. GRAMMAR
Teaching resource : Sturges, Cregg Nielsen et Herbs : Une Fois pour Toutes, Longman, New York, 1992

Students concentrate on an intensive and comprehensive review of all French grammar.This includes
- all moods and tenses (subjonctive included)
- interrogative and exclamative adjectives
- adverbs
- personal pronouns
- relative and interrogative pronouns
- conjunctions, adverbs
- indirect speech

2. LITERATURE
Teaching resource : Hirsh et Tompson, Moments litteraires, D.C. Heath and Compagny, Lexington, Massachusetts - Part II

Students comment on excerpts of literary works by significative writers such as Lamartine, Hugo, Balzac, Stendhal, Flaubert, Baudelaire, Verlaine or Rimbaud for the 19th century, Prévert, Sartre, Camus or Perec for the 20th century.
Excerpts are studied as groups from the perspective of various themes such as :

- Being a Romantic: beyond the cliche
- Symbolist poetry
- Society and social problems as presented in 19th Century literature
- Paris in literary works and paintings.
- Existentialism and the redifinition of moral values.

3. ESSAY WRITING
Students are expected to master the art of essay writing on topics ranging from the personal to the abstract, to current events, as well as literary summaries and commentaries on the works studied. They acquire precise methods based on French rhetorical tradition.

4. READING COMPREHENSION
In addition to chosen excerpts in Moments litteraires, two works are read in their entirety over the course of the year ; the selected works vary from year to year but typically include such titles as :

Contes et Nouvelles by Guy de Maupassant
Trois Contes by Flaubert
Nadja by André Breton
Huis-Clos by Jean-Paul Sartre
L'Etranger by Albert Camus

5. DEBATES and ORAL REPORTS
Students present oral reports and organize debates on various topics. There is also a strong emphasis on textual analysis (learning how to comment on ideas and style).

Pascal Saura

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