I am creating a forum for discussions between some French students in their first year of English and my students in their first year of French, where the main goals will be exploring cultural differences and reading their target language.
Anyone have ideas for interesting topics for these students? They will be between 13 and 15 years old. I would sincerely appreciate any ideas!
--Mary Kaplan
Can you say McDonalds? 
Some recent articles I have read about teens in France sounds like our dispicable American eating habits are gaining ground! But we'll try that!
mk
What about MUSIC for one thing? I am sure the French have a law stating that a certain % of airplay on radio stations has to be devoted to songs either in French or by French people. That should definitely give you something to compare as (I guess) your students may never have heard of the bands that the French students will be able to listen to.
Books too would also of interest as many French authors are never published outside France, so again the likelihood is that your students may never have heard of some of the authors that the French children will be reading.
Music will definitely be one thing we discuss. Thanks for the reminder about that French music-on-the-radio law. I need to find a link to be able to present it to the students so we can possibly discuss why/if that is necessary and then listen to some of the music from what both groups of students listen to.
As far as books, I guess we could discuss types of literature they read, since unless things have been translated, there won't be much common ground. We may be able to create some interest in new authors, which the students could read as their French improves!
--mk
Wow! What a lot of terrific ideas! This definitely moves my forum ideas to a whole new level! The integration of various fields should motivate students and also teachers even more effectively. I might be able to entice a science or English teacher or two to help as well.
Thank you so much, Kevin.
--Mary
Whew! Thanks, Art. The French language police are at it again!
Actually, I personally agree with the lawsuit, even though it is against Mike's alma mater. If they are going to have a school in a country, and a website related to that school, I think it should, just for the purposes of politeness alone, be available in the language of that country. They could get lots of good will by having it available in several languages, like many forward-looking sites are now-a-days. Maybe I'll get Mike to write them a letter. 
Thanks for the idea, though. I was thinking about those "French language police" anyway. They are pretty relentless, but you've gotta love them. "Baladeur" is so much prettier than "Walkman"! And I don't want the whole world to speak only English! Diversity rocks my world!
--Mary
Discussing what to discuss - a survey...we could build it and they would come! OK. we can do that! I like the idea of clothes, too.
Of course, my problem is any of these things would be interesting for me to discuss. I can't ever remember getting to do this in school!
Thanks to all for the food (and clothes and music and politics) for thought! It will get us moving pretty well, I think!
--Mary
Clothing trends, we could make a good discussion with that, too, N. Hansen! I don't know the word for bellbottoms, but I'm looking around for it!
--Mary
I have been thinking about this, Mary... I think that one difference that might be interesting to explore is the extent to which religion plys a role in daily life in South Carolina. It is my understanding that this is a hot-button issue in France, especially in the schools.
Let me ask you this: What is it you actually hope to accomplish in this new forum?
-- Art
For these first year students, I just want them to be able to read some well-written French, and for their counterparts in France to be able to read some well-written English. The cultural appropriate issues we discuss will just be the icing on the cake! If we can get interesting topics that will spur each group to WANT to participate and to do it out of interest and not just for a grade 
that would be wonderful.
--Mary
I've a daughter in HS French now; have often thought about an approach like yours.
How do you recruit the French students?
Also, I admire your optimism re: "well-written French." It may happen, but having looked over a number of young shoulders as they corresponded on line, I'd expect to see a good bit of slang & non-standard language also - and that's not all bad. Getting them engaged to begin with is probably the most important piece.
Re: ideas: It may already have been suggested, but have you tried getting them to post images/photo's as conversation starters? My daughter corresponds with a French ex-exchange student she met here and photo's seem to help the connection.
Thanks,
WB
Dear Worth,
The idea of pictures is a good one! We'll try it.
The well-written will be a "requirement" -- we will probably give them some sort of grade for their activity to make sure they take it seriously.
We are just starting up anew for the year, and getting new ideas off the ground. Our counterpart French group is talking about the hurricanes, so we will play with that topic for a while, hopefully getting some variety in discussions there, and move into other things. This is my biggest problem, you never know what will hit the kids and get them talking! And what will get one class talking doesn't work with another.
I met these people through a Robotics competition in Atlanta, in a fluky accident. But I would suspect we could set something up to join groups of students from all over the world by just putting notices up here on moodle. We have people from everywhere here at moodle.org, innovative people, who will see the value of this interactivity.
This is our second/third year with international forums at Aiken High. We are all still learning and re-developing our process, like all things in life.
--Mary
Thanks for your reply Mary.
The hurricanes seem like a good connection point, especially given New Orleans' French heritage. We've had a fair number of "hurricane transfer" students entering schools here and I expect they could tell some stories.
I had another thought - my wife teaches at a high school that is just beginning an international studies "magnet" program. (You may have run into another local Atlanta magnet school - Wheeler HS - at the robotics competition. They're heavily into that and, coincidentally, that's where my daughter met her French (now ex-)exchange student friend.)
It strikes me that your experience at Aiken High could be useful to them. Their only online systems at the moment are e-mail and a Typepad blog, which they are just now implementing. However, I put up a Moodle site for my wife and am hopeful that this seed might take root there.
Your idea of a kind of Moodle exchange program is a good one - do you know if the community here has addressed this in any kind of a deliberate way as yet?
Thanks again for your insights,
WB
PS - Sorry - had another thought about the class - have you considered creating PodCasts, videos, or using Skype-miniconference calls to get your kids engaged with their counterparts? Might not help the writing aspect, per se, but could get them connected...
Worth,
Interesting you would mention "Skype", as my counterpart in France just mentioned it today! I suspect we will check into that possibility as well.
The Faculty Room (teachers using moodle) has the beginnings of a blueprint for an online forum, but there will be lots of modifications this year and in years to come. You/your wife could look at it here: http://facultyroom.org/mod/wiki/view.php?id=262&page=French+Exchange
There are other ways to do this, this is just one of many. Please keep in touch, as brainstorming together is always fruitful!
--Mary
Hi Mary,
try Skype and Festoon (Video). You can make it with 4 kids und 1 Tutor. At the same time the chat can be on, so they can speak and see each other, and by problems (French can be a difficult language) they can try to write it.
Greetings from Portugal
Maria
Maria,
Greetings to Portugal! Sounds like you have tried this online chatting! I am still new to this, but sounds like it might be feasible. Thanks for the suggestion and encouragement!
--Mary
WOW! I feel like I have hit the jockpot! A gold mine of ideas! Thanks!
--mk
Dear Mary,
While you teach French, I teach English (ESL) in an engineering school in Brittany, France, my question, is how did you get started using Moodle and what suggestions have you for me to get stated and working?
Fredrick
Fredrick,
Sorry I have missed your comment and did not respond to you sooner. If you would like to see a specific site in action, we can put you in some of our courses. They are not engineering, but they are language, and they can possibly help you see what kinds of things can be done. If you will sign up on our site: http://ahshornets.moodle.com/login/signup.php then go to your e-mail and click on the link to accept your enrollment, then e-mail me at mkaplan@aiken.k12.sc.us to tell me you are in our site, I will put you in my course to poke around.
Again, sorry I missed this earlier.
--Mary
Hi Mary,
I saw this discussion late. The idea you have to combine kids and languages in forum discussions is excellent! The topics already suggested are great! But I would like to make a procedural suggestion. I think when two language groups get together, one language (usually English) begins to dominate. My recommendation would be to make TWO forums, one in English and one in French. The topics can be the same or different, your choice, but the balance between language learning opportunities for both groups can be better monitored with two forums.
Almost all the topics already suggested lean toward authentic communication, excellent! Of the photos, I've heard there is a MacDonald's within site of the Eiffel Tower. Is that true? Get a photo of that!
That's about as bad as looking down from Mexico's Pyramid to the Sun at Teotihuacan to to the Walmart parking lot. I don't know about how 13-15 year olds would respond to discussions about cultural domination, but I know it's a hot topic among my Mexican university students.
Have fun with your project!
Hi Erlyn,
Thanks for both the encouragement and the comments. The project is going OK, and unfortunately one language is dominating, but not English, French is actually dominating our discussions. It is frustrating in some ways, but your suggestion is interesting. I had thought to do the same thing by separating different blocks and having some topics done in English and others in French. I will consider this possibility and I appreciate your suggestion. These sorts of projects are always an ongoing thing, growing and changing to meet the needs of future students. Creative input is always welcomed!
--Mary
