French Thematic Unit by Marie-Laure Hoffmann Westfield High School Westfield, NJ Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Les Elections Présidentielles: Comparing and contrasting Presidential Election Systems in the United and France.

French Presidential Elections 1st round: Sunday April 22, d round: Sunday May 6, 2007 NICOLAS SARKOZY 53.06% SEGOLENE ROYAL 46.94%

Uniteds States Presidential Elections: Tuesday November 4, 2008 BARACK OBAMA Electoral vote: 365 Popular vote: 52.9% JOHN MC CAIN Electoral Vote: 173 Popular Vote: 45.7%

NJCCCS: Standard 7: Communication & Culture for the 21 st Century All students will be able to communicate, to understand and be understood in real world contexts, in at least one world language in addition to English. Students will use language to understand and interpret spoken and written language (interpretive), engage in meaningful conversation and negotiate meaning (interpersonal), and present information, concepts and ideas (presentational) as they gain understanding of the perspectives of the culture(s)while experiencing its products and practices, make connections with other content areas, compare the language/culture studied with their own, and participate in home and global communities in or outside a school setting. \ Strand: Interpretive Interpersonal Presentational Essential Questions: What is democracy? How does the US system compare with another country? What are the differences and what conclusions do we draw from them? Enduring Understanding: How our election system works and how it compares to another country’s; the advantages and drawbacks of our system; what democracy means to me; what the ideal system would be like. Content: Election system and democracy, social needs and priorities, personal identity, geography (Social Studies connection).

The Process Interpretive mode: Set the context: Concept Mapping (bubbl.us) to visualize the objectives of the unit. Watch French TV news clip on the US elections. Scaffolding: Build a vocabulary bank. Identify elements of the US and French electoral processes. Read, discuss, compare and contrast US and French electoral systems from blogs, web sites (delicious) and other media sources. Interpersonal mode: Groups of students will: Identify and choose vocabulary for the vocabulary bank. Identify and discuss elements of the electoral process in the US and France. Compare and contrast both systems. Presentational mode: Present groups reports on other countries/ ideal candidate (Power Point or Voice Thread embedded into Wiki).

Interdisciplinary/Assessment Implementation Strategies Interdisciplinary Connections  Geography: Location of countries.  Social Studies and Government: How to elect a president? What does democracy mean?  Language Arts Literacy: Comprehension and Communication strategies. Technology Integration INTERPRETIVE:  Web search (delicious.com)  INTERPERSONAL:  Wiki  Google Docs  Doodle  Voice Thread PRESENTATIONAL:  Wiki  Doodle  Voicethread  Power Point Global Perspectives  Explore electoral systems from different countries  Research products and practices of target cultures.

Final Assessments Interpretive: Demonstrate an understanding in oral (class discussions/ oral questioning) and written assessments (cloze paragraphs) of the vocabulary necessary to describe and discuss the election systems in both countries. Demonstrate an understanding in oral (class discussions) and written assessments (paragraphs/ essays) of how the US and the French electoral systems work. Synthesize information by highlighting strengths and weaknesses in both systems, and creating a description of an ideal system/ candidate (class discussions/written comparisons entered on wiki/in-class essay writing) Interpersonal: Q/A w/ whole class or group. Q/A using voice thread. Students share information on the Wiki (vocabulary, differences between both systems, web site from delicious, opinion poll using Google Docs). Presentational: Create a new page on the wiki for a group Power Point presentation, Voice Thread presentation, or video.