Your French teacher says, "Show your work!!!!"

    I don't want to jinx myself, but I really must say that my AP French class this year is top notch.
They are hard-working and constantly work toward improving their French in everything that they do.  They are energetic and fun.  I have made some changes to how I teach the class this year (and how I taught them last year) and I think that it has made a world of difference. Or maybe I am disillusioning myself and they are the difference that I see this year.  They were, after all, a pretty great class last year.

     Many years ago, I started integrating technology into my language classes.  This was an important move because it brings the French speaking world to them.  I cannot take every one of my students to France each summer, even though I would really like to, so I needed to bring it to them.  Their textbook is electronic, they complete open-ended speaking exercises on lingtlanguage.com, they write presentations and business letters in Google docs, and they watch videos and read articles written by and for French speakers on various websites from the Francophone world.  The use of technology in my classes allows me to give students personal feedback on their progress and allows me to give them a variety of activities to show their progress.

     Their practice workbook comes with access to the activities online so they know immediately which questions they missed and why.  In years past, I have trusted that they are spending the necessary time to do the activities and have not done more than check off the work in the gradebook after reviewing their answers to see where they are having trouble.  This year, I am requiring them to show their work in their paper workbook.  They must underline and define words that they do not know.  They must show where they got the answer in the readings and take notes on the listening section.  Doing so encourages them to interact directly with the document.  It intensifies concentration and encourages good habits of the mind.  They are performing better on these activities than students in years past.  I believe this for 2 reasons.  I am holding them accountable for their own learning by showing their work and they are focusing on getting the answers correct instead of simply getting them done.

     I require the same amount of interaction in their business letter responses.  They must identify the reason the sender has written to them.  They must identify any questions or requests in the letter.  They must underline and define words that they did not know.  This helps me when grading because I can grade their response and then look at their workbook to see where they went wrong with their response.  Did they not understand vocabulary?  Did they misunderstand the sender's request?  I can then give them feedback on how to improve their second draft.  On free response sections, I allow them to turn in a second, third or even fourth draft.  It rewards effort to improve.

    Similarly, on the presentational sections, 2 minute spoken presentation or 5 paragraph essay, I require them to outline the main points they are going to make.  This encourages organization and discourages stream of consciousness responses that do not seem to make a clear point.  For both sections, I also require them to tell me where they found their information.  In the oral, they must cite it in their response.  In the written presentational, they must cite the source and show where they found the point in the sources with underlining, asterisks or note taking.  They must also cite any words they looked up in a dictionary for use in their presentation with the word they searched in English and the dictionary they used, which discourages plagiarism.

    Finally,  I ask them to code their presentational written essays so that I can easily see that they have included a variety of sentence structures and vocabulary in their essay;  Green for subjunctive, purple for si clauses, blue for vocabulary, red for places where they had difficulty and want me to concentrate.  As we move on through the year, I introduce more colors for more elements.  This encourages them to be more mindful of what they are expected to include in their writings.  It holds them accountable for their learning.  One girl drew a sad face on her paper and said that hers was not very colorful, then asked how she could make it more colorful.  Coding their writing facilitates my ability to give them feedback in a timely manner.  I can see what they know and what they need to work on more.

    I have seen a great deal of improvement in this class in just the first marking period.  Their writing and speaking is superior to where it was at the beginning of the year and classes in years past.  Their grades are better than in other classes I have had in years past.  They have worked hard and it shows.