French
The Serviam Shield, a symbol of our commitment to serve, is worn on all student uniforms. Serving others is a component of every class curriculum. More importantly, the active engagement in service, from Pre-Kindergarten through our expanded middle school community service program, not only plants the Serviam seed in all Mount Merici students toward a greater likelihood that they will become leaders and good stewards in the world as adults but also instills in young children a belief in their own abilities to influence positive change and compassionate improvements in the world around them.
Whether our youngest students are collecting food to benefit the local ‘Weekend Backpack Program’ or contributing their own precious dimes and dollars to the ‘Rice Bowl Program’, they recognize that they are capable of helping to feed children less fortunate than they are and that with some compassion and effort, they can make a difference.
Our 6th and 7th-grade students work diligently every week at the area soup kitchen, food bank, the Muskie Center for elders and disabled adults, here at school, and on a multitude of fulfilling service projects.
Our 8th-grade students draw from the wealth of their previous years of service work to create a year-long senior service project based on their own individual interests. so that they leave Mount Merici Academy with a clear understanding of their abilities to extend their hearts and hands by contributing their own individual gifts in their communities and in the world-at-large. At Mount Merici Academy, every child learns what it feels like to make a difference.
Learn About the French Curriculum
A sequential FLES (Foreign Language in the Elementary School) Program is used at Mount Merici Academy. It is approached as an introduction to the language in the lower grades (K-2) with a focus on understanding and speaking. A sequential development of language skills (listening, speaking, reading, and writing) begins and expands in the middle grades (3-8), with an increasing emphasis on communication that is comprehensible and authentic within the francophone world. Because of the time allocated to our course of study, moderate fluency (intermediate mid on the ACTFL proficiency scale) can be expected of students who have been with our program for the full nine years.
Early levels of French begin with the basics of communication in social settings: introducing oneself and meeting others in the target language, exchanging pleasantries, expressing feelings, likes and dislikes, and questioning others to learn more about them. Constant, varied repetition of material is necessary in the study of any language, especially at the elementary level. There is a good deal of conversation in French in every class, and basic vocabulary such as as numbers, colors, calendar talk and weather talk all enter naturally into the classroom as part of our communicative approach to French.
In grades three, four and five, students acquire language via a storytelling method known as TPRS: Total Proficiency through Reading and Storytelling. There is no textbook involved, but rather limited lists of target vocabulary that students acquire via physical gesturing, the telling and dramatizing of silly stories, and the reading aloud of stories familiar to the students. In this storytelling method, vocabulary is not learned in list form, but rather acquired as it is used in context. Students are exposed to grammar at this level, but grammar is not taught explicitly. As students progress through the middle grades, there is an increasing emphasis on the four skills of language: listening, speaking, reading, and writing.
A textbook series and corresponding online platform are used in the upper wing grades (6-8). Entre Cultures Levels 1 and 2 from Wayside Publishing in Freeport is the new series to be implemented during the 2021-2022 school year. It aligns with ACTFL’s proficiency standards (ACTFL: American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages), and the interactive online platform, The Learning Site, provides rich authentic materials for the development of all language skills with a focus on understanding and communication across cultures.
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Kindergarten – Grade Two
Kindergarten, grade one and grade two meet for French once each week for thirty minutes. Songs, role play, games, visual aids, and manipulatives all help bring the language to life. Emphasis at this level is on the interpretive and interpersonal communication skills of listening and speaking.
Grade Three – Grade Eight
Grades three, four and five meet for thirty minutes, twice per week. This weekly hour gives the students a greater opportunity for growth in the language.
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In grades three and four, the TPRS method, as referenced above, greatly develops aural and oral skills and gives the students the opportunity to begin communicating in French in a very natural and fun way. TPRS is known alternatively as CI (Comprehensible Input) within the field of world language instruction. Within TPRS/CI method, classes are conducted as close to 100% as possible in the target language, but in such a way that the input the students receive is made comprehensible to them using a variety of techniques. Grades three and four class activities are based on the Raconte-moi TPRS curricular series from Fluency Matters. Story vocabulary is presented at the start of each “episode” using physical gestures to establish meaning, rather than English translation. This vocabulary is then used in-context within a series of silly mini stories that student volunteers dramatize for the class while guided by the teacher “director.” Students learn to recognize question words in French early on as they are asked both to contribute details to the stories and to confirm their understanding of story characters and events that have already been established. The mini stories culminate in an episode story involving a rather bizarre cat. Across grades three and four, reading and writing are introduced gradually, and activities are always based on material that is very familiar to the students. The children quickly demonstrate a strong understanding of spoken French using this method.
In grade five, students continue acquiring French via TPRS/CI with the more advanced curricular series Raconte-moi Encore! These silly stories also serve as a collective springboard to using the language to communicate more seriously about oneself and one’s family and friends. Grammar is presented seamlessly within the stories as part of the fabric of communication, rather than as an entity in and of itself to be learned, rather than acquired. Acquisition over learning is the overriding emphasis of a TPRS/CI program. Class activities are designed to give students the opportunity to build on the aural/oral skills they started developing in previous years, as well as more in-depth reading and writing in French.
Students in grades six, seven and eighth will be introduced to a new language resource this year (2021-2022) as mentioned more generally earlier on. Entre Cultures 1 and 2 from Wayside Publishing is an exciting up-to-date series (Level 1, 2019; Level 2, 2020) that is standards and proficiency-based. As described by Wayside Publishing, “The standards-based Entre Cultures program is all about teaching French language and culture to novice through intermediate learners through the lens of interculturality. Students discover appropriate ways to interact with a variety of perspectives by exploring the lives of teens across the francophone world.” (https://www.waysidepublishing.com/titles/french/entrecultures-1)
The textbook’s corresponding digital Learning Site is sure to bring an exciting dynamic to our French program as students access authentic resources using their new Chromebooks.
Additionally, upper wing classes experienced the introduction of a pen pal exchange program with a middle school in France during the 2019-2020 school year. Our goal is to continue this program each year to the extent that it remains feasible with the English program of our partner school in Laval France, Collège Pierre Dubois. This program is an excellent cultural exchange that generates a great deal of enthusiasm among students.
By the end of their nine years of continuous exposure to French at Mount Merici, most MMA students are able to move into a French II program or to study another Romance Language with relative ease and success in any of the area high schools.