Français IV
Class Description

Bonjour et bienvenue à la classe de Français IV! I’m so glad you’ve decided to take
French 4. It will be a little different from your 1-3 classes. For one thing, it’s
technically an “independent study.” This means that you will be sharing class time
with my French 3 class, and you’ll have to work quite a bit on your own. However, I
hope you will have time to get help and ask questions if you need it. We’ll get into
that in a bit.

The work you will be doing in French IV is higher-level than your previous French
classes. You’ll learn advanced grammar, you will do a good bit of reading and
encounter a lot of new vocabulary, and you will be given several writing assignments.

Your grade will be comprised of 50% classwork (including your weekly assignment
packets) and 50% projects (including your scrapbook/children’s book, your Petit
Prince project, and your pronunciation recording project).

Like I said, this is technically independent study. However, I will be able to give
you some time during class, and during 5th period I would like each of you to come in
at least one day each week to receive help, one-on-one instruction, and feedback on
your work and projects.

The materials we’ll be working with will be the textbook Trésors du Temps, French
fairytales, a poem/short literature excerpt of your own choosing, and the short
novel Le Petit Prince.
Tentative schedule

le 28 août-le 4 septembre: Première Etape de Trésors du Temps (Early French
history and basic geography of France/review of basic verbs)

le 4 septembre-le 11 septembre: Deuxième Etape de TdT (early Middle Ages and
Roman era; reading Astérix/review of –er, -ir, and –re verbs)

le 11 septembre-le 18 septembre: Troisième Etape de TdT (Middle Ages; Norman
conquest; reading excerpts from La Chanson de Roland and Tristan et Yseut/review
of the two past tenses)

Le 18 septembre-le 25 septembre: Quatrième Etape de TdT (late Middle Ages/The
Crusades/Joan of Arc; reading two poems, “La Ballade des Pendus” et “Le Lai du
chèvrefeuille”/review of direct and indirect pronouns

Le 25 septembre-le 2 octobre: Cinquième Etape de TdT (Renaissance/Les
Châteaux/short nonfiction reading about the Renaissance castles/future and
conditional tenses)
o
Project 1: Reading a French fairytale and designing a movie poster or video
trailer for a fairytale of your choice (à rendre le 9 octobre)

Le 9 octobre-le 16 octobre: Sixième Etape de TdT (17th century/Louis XIV and
Versailles/discussion of 17th century French theater/Jean de la Fontaine and
reading “La Cigale et la Fourmi”/the subjunctive)

Le 16 octobre-le 23 octobre: Septième Etape de TdT (18th century/reading
excerpts from Candide/reflexive and pronominal verbs)

Le 23 octobre-le 30 octobre: Huitième Etape de TdT (heading towards the French
Revolution; reading a description of Marie-Antoinette and a description of Benjamin
Franklin in the court of Versailles/adjectives and negation)

Le 30 octobre-le 6 novembre: Neuvième Etape de TdT (the French
Revolution/nonfiction readings about the Revolution/pronouns and interrogative
expressions)
o
Project 2: Choosing a poem/short excerpt and record yourself reading it,
then listening to it and writing a self-assessment of errors in pronunciation,
then re-recording with attention to errors (à rendre le 12 novembre)

le 13 novembre-le 20 novembre: Dixième Etape de TdT (Napoleon and the 19th
century/reading excerpts from Victor Hugo/watching Les Misérables)

le 20 novembre-le 27 novembre: Onzième Etape de TdT (19th century/Romantic
poets/passive and infinitive)

le 27 novembre-le 4 décembre: Douxième Etape de TdT (20th
century/Existentialism/Francophone poems/grammar review packet at the end of
the workbook)

le 4 décembre-le 20 décembre: Project 3: Scrapbook Project (or you may choose to
translate/illustrate a children’s book into French)

le 23 décembre-le 20 janvier: Reading Le Petit Prince

le 20 janvier-le 31 janvier: Project 4: Working on Le Petit Prince projects
(TBD…may be an essay, or preparing/acting out a scene from the novel, etc)