AP French Language
COURSE OVERVIEW
Course Objectives


to enable students to read, write, speak, and understand spoken French in
preparation for the AP French Language Exam
to enrich the students’ understanding of cultural knowledge and
experience with the francophone world
Teaching Strategies
This is a mixed class that includes Level 4 Regular, Level 4 Honors, and AP students.
Differentiation is provided by
AP specific materials in addition to those used by 4th year students
Weekly AP vocabulary assignments
Weekly AP reading or listening assignments
Every other week AP specific speaking activities in the Language Lab
Every other week AP specific listening activities in the Language Lab
Every other week AP in-class timed practice essays
Regular in-class AP specific activities such as “fill-in’s”
Differentiated test items
Sample released tests
To enhance listening comprehension:
All communication in class is carried out in French with input from both the teacher and
other students as well as from occasional outside speakers. Students are encouraged not
only to express their views but also to listen to and to react to the views expressed by
others. Regular use of dictation is another listening component of the class.
Students improve their aural comprehension by utilizing a wide variety of advanced aural
resources in our language laboratory every other week such as the regular use of the
Rejoinders and Dialogues sections of the AP French: Preparing for the Language
Examination, authentic on-line video news reports from the France 2 and video clips
from Tf1, whose target audience is native French speakers, as well as high interest online reports from adodoc.net. Current event video clips are also occasionally viewed in
the classroom where we have a computer and LCD projector.
Regular outside assignments include listening to and summarizing supplementary
“Dialogues” from the AP French: Preparing for the Language Examination.
Students also view and discuss movies such as Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme, Carmen, La
Rue Cases-Nègres that complement the college level literary works being read, and that
provide a wide variety of registers of authentic spoken language.
To enhance reading comprehension:
Reading is an ongoing activity that includes college level literary texts and a variety of
authentic excerpts contained in the Reading section of the AP French: Preparing for the
Language Examination. A major literary work as well as smaller works or excerpts are
read each semester. Pre-reading activities offer the opportunity to anticipate themes,
point of view, and tone. Reading assignments, both guided and open-ended, focus on
identifying themes and tracing character development. Class discussion focuses on
illustrations of the themes and defending opinions and positions with the inclusion of
teacher and student chosen quotations.
AP students read and respond to two articles per week from the AP French: Preparing for
the Examination workbook for the first three quarters. This includes the use of open
ended comprehension questions, multiple-choice comprehension and inference questions,
and requires that the students summarize the information and identify new words
encountered. These college level selections have been chosen from many different
sources and so include a variety of vocabulary, writing styles, and language registers.
Articles found on Internet sources during lab time provide both listening and reading
opportunities and offer the students current cultural information and up-to-date
expressions and speaking styles.
Expansion of vocabulary to enhance reading skill is fostered by weekly vocabulary
assignments and quizzes based on categories. Students create original sentences
incorporating the vocabulary and thereby enhance both reading and writing skills at the
same time.
To enhance speaking:
The AP French Language course is conducted completely in French. Students therefore
have many and varied opportunities to practice speaking French in the classroom and in
the language laboratory, both spontaneous and prepared. Class often begins with
students asking each other and answering a variety of questions about their everyday
activities and opinions changing partners quickly and often. Class often ends with an exit
question utilizing a grammar concept being studied. In class, students are regularly
asked to orally describe pictures and create stories for a partner based on the pictures. A
variation involves drawing and comparing the result with the picture. This is an
invaluable way to enhance students’ storytelling skills and prepares them for their
eventual need to tell a story using pictures on the AP exam as well as to communicate
effectively with a native speaker.
Oral participation is encouraged by randomizing the student chosen to speak at any given
time by using sticks that each has a student name. This method can also increase the
interactions between students when used to encourage students to react to or summarize
what another student has said.
Paired simulations and role playing are an important part of grammar discussions with
student encouraged to be oppositional and defend their opinions. In discussing reading
assignments with a partner, in a small group, or in whole group discussion, students are
also required to give and defend opinions and positions. They may be discussing their
own ideas or from the point of view of a character. This type of discussion is often
prepared and graded.
Every other week in the language lab, students are tested on speaking using the picture
sequences from AP French: Preparing for the Language Examination. This invaluable
practice gives the students conditions similar to those they will encounter on the AP Test
so that they can practice using all of the time offered as well as covering as much of the
story shown as possible. This lab work also includes paired activities.
To enhance writing:
Students write frequently and in a variety of ways. Personal reactions to a variety of
prompts are quick warm-up writing opportunities two or three times a week. Pictures and
objects are alternated with written prompts to provide variety and to overlap with the
need to practice responding orally to pictures and telling stories on the Speaking Section
of the AP Test. Extra-credit opportunities are given for writing that is done at odd
moments that present themselves such as finishing a test or quiz before everyone has
finished. For example, without speaking, students will write dialogues based on two
people in a picture by silently passing a piece of paper back and forth between them.
Homework assignments invariably require writing, some guided and some open-ended,
so as to offer both models of authentic patterns and accurate structure as well as
opportunities to produce language more freely. Vocabulary work always involves
students’ original use of new words and expressions.
Tests based on reading material require several levels of writing and thinking. Students
are required to identify characters, confirm understanding of content, provide facts,
recognize hidden meanings, and provide support for their interpretations and illustrations
of themes.
Twice a quarter, students write compositions that are based on one of the grammar topics.
These compositions focus on personal experience and help to build and reinforce the
kinds of examples and support that students will be able to use for the essay on the AP
Test. Two written assignments per semester based on literary readings focus either on
analyzing the literary themes contained in the readings. Students are asked to compare
and contrast characters and their motivations, relate them one to the other, and draw
conclusions as to the intent of the author and his/her success at communicating that
intent.
Students write in-class timed essays using prompts from Triangle: Applications de la
Langue Française and released AP exams every other week. This activity offers them the
opportunity to practice writing under AP test-like conditions. In this way, students
practice writing in a specific amount of time on a topic similar to the one they will
encounter on the actual test. Students are encouraged to begin their essays with an
interesting and personal statement, question, or exclamation. After offering their thesis
statement, they practice using familiar examples and support from their personal lives.
While no dictionaries are permitted, examples of advanced grammar structures and
transitional expressions to include are offered and required. In this way, the writing of an
essay becomes somewhat routine and students become more and more at ease writing in
this time frame and including the advanced grammar structures expected at this level.
Each essay that is graded using a modified AP essay rubric and that is returned to the
student, includes a circled “beautiful sentence” that is well written and becomes part of
that student’s personal writing repertoire.
Another opportunity for students to write is the first semester weekly reading assignments
in AP French: Preparing for the Examination which involve guided and open-ended
questions, and the second semester Weekly Listening Comprehension assignments that
requires summarization and inference.
To enhance the use of accurate structure grammar:
Students work daily with advanced grammar structures by combining them with
communicative activities such as role play, reaction, or debate. Daily grammar
assignments are reviewed and assessed. Written warm-up activities often involve
correction of common errors found among the students’ in-class essays. AP students are
encouraged to self-correct and to help each other in terms of structure and vocabulary
during graded speaking activities.
The workbook, AMSCO French Three Years, is used for basic grammar work. This text
was chosen over the more typical Cours Supérieur de Français or Une Fois pour Toutes
because it includes considerably more graduated practice of single structures than the
other two. This is an important way to reduce the variables and focus on each structure
before mixing it in with and differentiating it from similar structures. This invaluable
step is essential for all our students and is particularly useful to the 4th year students who
are in the same class as the AP students. The lack of any effort to contexualize in Cours
Supérieur de Français and Une Fois pour Toutes also make them less attractive choices.
I, therefore, prefer to supplement AMSCO French Three Years by creating packets of
teacher constructed exercises that require the students to differentiate how to use the
many forms within a grammar topic. This approach offers plenty of practice and helps
keep the focus on how structures are the same and how they are different in a graduated,
methodical, and analytical fashion. Assessment is, however, rigorous and includes tests
that require knowledge of when and how to use the various forms as well as opportunities
to use translation when the structure in French diverges from a similar structure in
English, as well as some open-ended original use of the structures.
AP students review and gain reinforcement of the advanced grammar found on the AP
test with regular use of the Structure and Verb fill-in sections of AP French: Preparing
for the Language Examination, alternating between in class and outside assignments. In
the two weeks preceding the test, this is done on a daily basis along with other activities
specific to the test while the 4th year students work independently on a project.
Outside of class composition assignments utilizing the current grammar topic are also
required as is the inclusion of specific grammar structures in each in-class essay.
To enhance the acquisition of vocabulary:
Students acquire new words and expressions through their reading of college level
literature, on line articles and reports, and the selections found in AP French: Preparing
for the Language Examination. The occasional use of newspaper and television web
pages in the classroom also helps the students to acquire a vocabulary that is both useful
and current and found in its natural context. Students also have weekly vocabulary
assignments and quizzes using the wide variety of vocabulary by categories in AP
French: Preparing for the Language Examination. When doing listening activities in the
language lab, emphasis is placed on the new words that are being encountered in a
particular context.
AP French Language
COURSE OUTLINE
First Semester
First Quarter
Dictée : Le Ballon rouge
L’Étranger or Candide
APF : 2 Readings per week assigned
APF : 2 Vocabulary categories per week assigned & quizzed
APF : 8 Listening : Rejoinders every 2 weeks & France 2 & adodoc in Lab
APF: Picture Sequences every 2 weeks in Language Lab
1993 sample AP Test
1) Le présent: AMSCO, Ch 1 & teacher packet
regular & irregular verbs
reflexives
pouvoir, devoir, aller, etc + l’infinitif
Depuis, il y a ça fait, voilà
Oral presentation w/famous person
2) Le passé composé : AMSCO, Ch 2 & teacher packet
avoir & être
être verbs with objects, use avoir
verbes réfléchis
3) L’imparfait: AMSCO, Ch 4 & teacher packet
Ça faisait, il y avait, depuis
4) Le passé composé vs. l’imparfait : AMSCO, Ch 5 & teacher packet
Composition : Tell a story, i.e. fairy tale or film
5) L’accord du participe passé : AMSCO, Ch 3 & 11 & teacher packet
avoir, être, réfléchis, & réciproques
Second Quarter
Dictée: Le Ballon rouge
Finish L’Étranger or Candide
Selections from
Ensemble Littéraire, i.e. Départ pour l’école, C. Laye
Panache, i.e. « Le Dormeur du Val », Arthur Rimbaud
Ensuite, i.e. « Solde», Léon Dalmas ; « Femme noire », L. Senghor
APF : 2 Readings per week assigned
APF : 2 Vocabulary categories per week assigned & quizzed
APF : 8 Listening : Rejoinders every 2 weeks & France 2 & adodoc in lab
APF: Picture Sequences every 2 weeks in the Language Lab
6) Le futur: AMSCO, Ch 7 & teacher packet
Le future antérieur: AMSCO, Ch 9
Composition : Quand j’aurai 20 ans, 30 ans, 40 ans, etc
7) Le subjonctif I : AMSCO, Ch 13 & 14 & teacher packet
volonté, désir, possibilité, émotion, doute, impersonnel
Oral presentation : Mon époux/épouse idéal(e)
8) Si #1 & #2 : AMSCO, Ch 8 & teacher packet
le futur, l’imparfait, le conditionnel
9) Si #3 : AMSCO, Ch 9 & teacher packet
le plus-que-parfait & le conditionnel antérieur
Composition : Si mes (grand-)parents n’étaient pas venus aux E-U,…
10) Le subjonctif II : AMSCO, Ch 15 & teacher packet
conjonctions, propositions relatives
superlatif, commandes à la 3e
Second Semester
3rd Quarter
Dictée : Le Petit chaperon rouge or Le Petit poucet
Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme or Le Gone du Châaba
APF : 2 Listening Dialogues per week assigned
APF : 2 Vocabulary categories per week assigned & quizzed
APF : 8 Listening : Rejoinders every 2 weeks & France 2 & adodoc in lab
APF: Picture Sequences every 2 weeks in Language Lab
1998 sample AP Test
1) Relative pronouns: AMSCO, Ch 22 & teacher packet
Definite & indefinite
2) Le négatif: AMSCO, Ch 17 & teacher packet
3) Demonstrative Pronouns: AMSCO, Ch 30 & teacher packet
4) Lequel, auquel, duquel, interrogative: AMSCO, Ch & teacher packet
Fourth Quarter
Dictée : Le Petit chaperon rouge or Le Petit poucet
Finish Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme or Le Gone du Châaba
APF : 2 Listening Dialogues per week assigned
APF : 2 Vocabulary categories per week assigned & quizzed
APF : 8 Listening : Rejoinders every 2 weeks & France 2 & adodoc in lab
APF: Picture Sequences every 2 weeks in Language Lab
5) C’est/il est : AMSCO, Ch 20 & teacher packet
6) Pronoms disjoints : AMSCO, Ch 20 & teacher packet
7) Participes présents: AMSCO, Ch10 & teacher packet “ING I”
Participes parfaits
8) Prépositions: AMSCO, Ch 23 & teacher packet “ING II”
Preceding infinitive, w/nouns, w/adjectives, w/past infinitives’
w/geography, à, de, en, par, other
9) Objets directs et indirects : AMSCO, Ch 21 & teacher packet
10) Expressions indefinies: AMSCO, Ch 31 & teacher packet
TWO WEEKS PRIOR TO AP TEST:
Intensive work on Listening, Speaking, Reading, & Writing using
APF Units 2, 3, 4, & 5
Selected writing topics
Grammar Packets
Simple & compound verb
“Si” #1, #2, #3
Futur & future antérieur
Subjonctif I & II
2003 Released AP Exam
Packet of prior years’ fill-ins
Packet of prior years’ picture series
RESOURCES USED IN THIS CLASS
Grammar Textbooks
Ladd, Richard, and Colette Girard. AP FRENCH: Preparing for the Language
Examination, 2nd Edition, Scott Foresman Addison Wesley, 1998.
Blume, Eli and Gail Stein, AMSCO Three Years, Amsco School Publications,
Inc, 1994.
Literary Texts:
Molière, Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme
Camus, Albert, L’Étranger
Voltaire, Candide
Begag, Azouz, Le Gone du Châaba, (added for 2007-2008)
Hirsch, Bettte G, and Chantal P. Thompson, Ensuite, Ch. 20, Random House,
New York, 1989. Poésie du mouvement de la Négritude
Rickey, H. Wynn, Editor and Margaret Shriver, Carmen, Opéra Comique,
National Textbook corporation, Lincolnwood, IL, 1966.Carmen (when
performance for students is available at Lyric Opera)
Comeau, Raymond F. and Normand J. Lamoureux, Ensemble Littérature, 4th
Edition, Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc, Fort Worth, TX, 1990.
Comeau, Raymond F. and Normand J. Lamoureux, Ensemble Culture et Société,
4th Edition, Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc, Fort Worth, TX, 1990.
Baker, Mary J, and Jean-Pierre Cauvin, Panache littéraire, 2nd Edition, Harper
Collins Publishers, New York, 1990.
Additional Sources:
National French Contest Level 5, 2000-2006
Released AP Exams, 1993, 1998, 2003
On-line sources:
www.Adodoc.net
www.france2.fr
www.paroles.net
http://videos.tf1.fr/video
Supplementary Sources:
Amiry, Laila, How to Prepare for the AP French Advanced Placement
Examination, Barron’s, New York, 1998.
Demaray, Carolyn F. and Josette J. Smith, Triangle, Wayside Publishing, MA,
1990.
Whelpton, Tony and Daphne Jenkins, Picture Composition: French, Longman
House, UK, 1986.