Session Information
Description
FSL Fundamentals: Strengthening our Community
VIRTUAL COMMUNITY-BUILDING EVENTS
The main goal of this virtual event series is to strengthen our community through participation in hands-on learning activities that will develop a sense of belonging to a network of French as an additional language teachers. Through a series of five sessions between fall 2023 and spring 2024, we will discover cultural elements specific to the French-speaking world. Each session will be interactive, allowing you to learn about a cultural theme through experiences. You will be able to transfer what you’ve learned to your classroom or simply take advantage of these moments to relax.
We work so hard to meet our students’ needs that we sometimes forget to consider our own emotional needs. Take some time to have fun while making connections, speaking French, and developing your intercultural skills in a relaxed environment.
Session 5: Move! Sing! Dance! Think! Chat!
Music impacts our hearts, our minds, and our speech – and those of our French learners.
Plato said that “If you want to know a people, you have to listen to their music.” Music allows our students to learn to better understand and appreciate the cultural diversity of the Francophonie. It encourages students to develop not only their literacy skills, but their understanding of francophone culture. Music also helps us build a community that respects students’ identities and preferences. Watching music videos in the classroom allows you to use texts (oral and written) as well as visual elements to develop language skills, which can also serve as triggers to examine themes, social issues, stereotypes, and identities.
In this hands-on, interactive session, participants will take on the role of students who have been given the opportunity to respond to different French-language songs and genres while developing their language and essential/transversal skills. You will leave the session with a free toolkit that can be used in your classroom to engage your students in the learning process using French-language music.
In this final session of the series, get ready to move, dance, sing, and enjoy and evaluate French-language music!
Location
Zoom
Facilitator
COORDINATOR OF THE PROVINCIAL NETWORK FOR TEACHERS AND ADMINISTRATORS OF FRENCH PROGRAMS AT THE OFFA-SFU
Shauna Néro
Shauna Néro is the Coordinator of the Provincial Network of French Language Teachers and Administrators in British Columbia at the Office of Francophone and Francophile Affairs at Simon Fraser University. She is also the French Program Coordinator for the Mission School Board. She has taught French Language, Social Studies, and Core French at the high school level and was a Vice-Principal in a dual-track immersion elementary school. With a master’s degree in education from SFU, she applies a plurilingual and pluricultural approach to teaching French in order to meet the linguistic needs of all students. She creates authentic, action-oriented learning experiences to develop students’ essential (transversal), intercultural, and language skills in programs of French as an additional language.