Week 2...I'm actually teaching!

     It is the week of October 22nd. My contract with the French government began on October 1st. It only took 22 days for me to lead a class on my own. Success! What did we talk about? Halloween and the presidential elections! Both are pretty scary subjects in France in my book.

     Here's my lesson plan for the week:

- I start every class off with a volunteer. One person writes the day as we would in America. In France the date is written day/month/year, and it is said, "le 23 octobre." Another volunteer draws the weather, le meteo, and everyone says something they did the day before or over the weekend. It's a warm up to get everyone in English mode and allows them to use both present and past tenses within the first five minutes.

- Halloween- I wanted to incorporate an introduction and description element to my Halloween lesson plan. I also wanted to talk about Halloween with each class, and because the levels of English are quite varied I made the lesson general and fairly simple.

Citation.

     * First, I asked the class what holiday was fast approaching in both France and America. Halloween! La Toussaint- All Saint's Day- is the French holiday, which falls on November 1st. Traditionally people visit cemeteries to lay flowers on loved ones' graves, and they pray to their patron saint. It's a Catholic tradition that is also celebrated in Mexico and other Latino countries, Dia de las Muertas. Louisianians paint tombs, clean cemeteries, and lay flowers to pay their respects as well. 

     * Next I described the history of trick or treating in America. Do you know why we wear funny costumes and ask people we don't know for candy? Halloween is actually a tradition brought to us from Ireland with the wave of Irish immigration in the 1840s. It was a pagan holiday celebrated around harvest time and the changing of the seasons, and people believed that at this particular time of year spirits roamed the Earth. All Hallow's Eve, Hallow E'en/Hallow Evening, is that witching hour of midnight on October 31st when the dead rise and grim grimmy ghosts come out to socialize. The religious holiday eventually replaced the pagan ritual, but people continued to leave offerings of food and drink outside their doors to appease the spirits. Everyone caught on to this and many decided to disguise themselves in an attempt to get some free food. Trick or treat.

     * I had to teach the kids the trick or treat poem, but I taught the non-"I'll pull down your underwear version." It goes:

Trick or treat. Trick or treat. Give me something good to eat. Give me candy, give me cake, give me something good to take.

     * Once everyone had that down, I passed out slips of paper with traditional costume names- black cat, bat, witch, ghost, vampire, werewolf, mummy, etc. We played a little game where each student had to visit "my house," recite the poem above, and then describe their costume. If I guessed what they were then in theory they got a treat. I brought Reese's along from the States, but I decided not to give them out for fear of peanut allergies. 

     * Halloween was popular in France for about ten years in the 90s, but it's lost popularity. Most of the kids had never dressed up, but I asked them to think of a costume idea anyway. A blue chicken was the most interesting response I heard.  

-Presidential Elections- We had a little time at the end of my first class to discuss the elections. Everyone knew Obama's name, but Mitt Romney was a little harder to pull from them. The French, adults, are super interested in the elections. I've read fully translated transcripts of each debate in French the morning after all three. I have yet to meet anyone who isn't a fan of Obama. They also want to know who I'll be voting for, but that I'll never tell. 

     

     As a lagniappe, in browsing for lesson plan ideas I found this gem. Scared Canadians, grown men and teenage boys for the most part, caught on hidden camera. Click here immediately. I especially like 11, 13, 20, and 28 (date night gone wrong?). Made me laugh out loud in my apartment.