Famous Francophones
Can you identify the Francophones above? Go to the foot of the screen to see how many you correctly identified.
Untitled Document

A WEBQUEST FOR MIDDLE SCHOOL FRENCH STUDENTS

Designed by Barbara Kornrich at Sligo Middle School

 

 

INTRODUCTION

Because of your extraordinary enthusiasm in promoting the French language and culture, you have been chosen to serve on the planning committee for the Bastille Day celebration at the French Embassy. As you know, Bastille Day, July 14, is the French equivalent of our national holiday Independence Day. This celebration will be one of the most prestigious social events of the year with national and international media coverage. Guests will include representatives of the French and American governments, Francophiles, students, educators, and celebrities from Who's Who? As for the French Embassy in Washington, this site is known for its beauty, technology, and unforgettable receptions.    

TASK  

On this day, you will honour five famous Francophones – an artist, musician, writer, scientist, and political leader – with a special presentation and award for their outstanding achievements. As there are hundreds of worthy nominees in each area, choosing the recipients is quite a challenge. That is why you will be given the necessary resources, instructions, and sufficient time to work alone and in teams with equally distinguished committee members. Congratulations on your being chosen to prepare this exceptional celebration.

As you embark on your quest, never lose track of your key question: Which famous Francophones (living or dead) should be honoured at the Bastille Day celebration at the French embassy and why? In order to make a well-informed choice, you will need to research background, factual information on candidates as well as judge the relative importance of their contributions to their native country – and ideally – to the world at large. Given the expense and prestige involved in this organizing this special event, you must be able to justify your choice.

Due to the limited time you and your fellow committee members have to organize your presentations, you will split into 5 subcommittees related to each category: artist,  musician, writer, scientist, political leader.

  • To ensure a wider selection of candidates, each subcommittee member should focus on a different person.

  • After each member shares his/her reasons for choosing a certain Francophone, each subcommittee needs to reach a consensus about the person to be honored.

  • Then each member will work on a specific part of the presentation celebrating the achievements of that famous individual.

  • All completed presentations will be given in front of the entire committee (class.)

  • The members will not only evaluate the choices and presentations of each subcommittee but also choose one Francophone for a special award.

PROCESS

STEP 1: Each student chooses a famous Francophone to research.

  • Choose the subcommittee you are most interested in: artist, musician, writer, scientist, or political leader. (Each subcommittee must be approximately the same size.)

  • Sign up with the teacher on her subcommittee list.

  • Consult your subcommittee instructions to choose your top three choices for a specific individual you would like to research.: artist,  musician, writer, scientist, political leader.

  • Skim quickly the resources to familiarize yourself with several candidates on that list.

  • Meet with other subcommittee members to decide which Francophone each member will research.

STEP 2: Research your Francophone in depth.

  • Complete factual chart using suggested web sites supplemented with other resources as needed.

  • Write a convincing explanation of why your subcommittee should choose your candidate by answering the defense questions. Be sure to use specific references to biographical details and achievements.

STEP 3: Your subcommittee agrees on one candidate.

  • Each subcommittee member presents their research and defense.

  • The subcommittee must reach a consensus on the one candidate to be presented.

STEP 4:The subcommittee agrees on the type of presentation to be made and assigns individual tasks.

  • Members may choose to create a PowerPoint presentation, a panel interview, a skit, a puppet show, or a cartoon strip to present their candidate. All presentations must include the information required by the chart and the defense questions.

  • To create and present a successful group project, each member must choose a specified role in his/her subcommittee.  Members must follow the guidelines given for each role in order to ensure cooperation.

STEP 5: All the committee members (class) view and evaluate the subcommittees' presentations.

  • Each committee (class) member takes notes on each subcommittee presentation in order to evaluate them.

  • After each presentation, the subcommittees meet briefly to evaluate the presentation by filling out a copy of the appropriate rubric to be given to the presenting group.

  • Each class member votes on the most deserving candidate.

  • Each class member hands in a short written paragraph defending his/her vote. This paragraph will both answer the defense questions and explain what aspects of that group's presentation led him/her to vote for that candidate.

  • The committee chair (teacher) announces the winning candidate and fills in the Outstanding Francophone Award certificate. Copies of this award are given to members of the winning subcommittee and also posted in a prominent location in the classroom.

RESOURCES  

After beginning with the one site linked with your chosen Francophone directly on the subcommittee instructions, you should extend your research by using other resources.  Some of the most helpful are listed below, but you are encouraged to experiment with additional resources.  Use your favorite search engine or try Google.com.

Remember to give credit to your sources by handing in a typed list of the resources you used along with the completed group project.  Check with your teacher or media specialist if you need help with correct bibliographical formats. 

Additional Web Sites

Artists

List of French artists - http://www.artcyclopedia.com/nationalities/French.html

Ingres - http://www.geocities.com/ingresweb/#bio

Watteau - http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/watteau

Daumier - http://www.bampfa.berkeley.edu/press/Honore_Daumier.html

Renoir - http://www.mcs.csuhayward.edu/~malek/Impression/Renoir.html

Rodin - http://www.stanford.edu/dept/ccva/rodin.html

Monet - http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/monet/

Matisse - http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/matisse/

Buffet -http://hepwww.ph.qmw.ac.uk/~pd/buffet/buffet.html

Magritte - http://www.artchive.com/artchive/M/magritte.html

Musicians

General lists -  http://www.rfimusique.com/gb/index.html

Lully - http://www.vanderbilt.edu/htdocs/Blair/Courses/MUSL243/lullbio.htm#His Life

Berlioz - http://home.pon.net/dougie/berlioz.htm

Bizet - http://www.geocities.com/CollegePark/3722/BizetGeorges.html

Brel - http://www.jacquesbrel.be/index03UK.htm

Debussy - http://public.srce.hr/~fsupek/debussy.html

Piaf - http://msms.essortment.com/edithpiafbiogr_rgwj.htm

MC Solaar - http://www.islandia.is/~arnorg/solaar/biography.htm

Kaas- http://www.sonymusic.com/artists/PatriciaKaas/bio.htm

Political Leaders

General lists - http://www.chateauversailles.fr/en/210.asp    

Kings of France - http://www.beyond.fr/history/kings.html

Charlemagne - http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/03610c.htm

Charles de Gaulle - http://econ161.berkeley.edu/TCEH/charlesdegaulle.html

Jeanne d'Arc - http://perso.wanadoo.fr/musee.jeannedarc/indexanglais.htm

Louis XIV - http://www.bcpl.net/~cbladey/loo.html

Louis XVI - http://www.hillsdale.edu/dept/Phil&Rel/Biography/01/21b.html

http://www.lucidcafe.com/library/95aug/napoleon.html#related

Mitterand - http://lego70.tripod.com/fran/mitterand.htm

Scientists

General List - http://www.france-in-india.org/textonly/sci/breakthr.html

Pascal - http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/11511a.htm

Descartes - http://es.rice.edu/ES/humsoc/Galileo/Catalog/Files/descarts.html

http://www.knuten.liu.se/~bjoch509/philosophers/intros/des-intro.html

Curie - http://hum.amu.edu.pl/~zbzw/ph/sci/msc.htm

Pasteur - http://www.labexplorer.com/louis_pasteur.htm

Cousteau - http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/9706/25/cousteau.obit/

Montagnier - http://www.qc.edu/Biology/fac_stf/montag.html

Becquerel -http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02382c.htm

Lumière - http://www.cinescene.com/dash/lumiere.html

Writers

La Fontaine - http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/08739c.htm

Voltaire - http://www2.lucidcafe.com/lucidcafe/library/95nov/voltaire.html

Molière - http://www.imagi-nation.com/moonstruck/clsc35.html

Rousseau - http://www2.lucidcafe.com/lucidcafe/library/96jun/rousseau.html

Hugo - http://www.ewl.uky.edu/~achico/hugolife.html

http://members.aol.com/cpntresan/hugo.html

Sand -http://www.geocities.com/inkybrown/george.html

Camus - http://www.websyntax.com/camus/biography/

Sartre - http://www.nobel.se/literature/laureates/1964/sartre-bio.html

Senghor - http://web.uflib.ufl.edu/cm/africana/senghor.htm

EVALUATION   

Both individuals and groups should make evaluation an ongoing process. As you are working, check frequently that you have included the factual information and convincing defense of your opinions required by the chart and defense questions. Although content is vital, don't forget that the presentation and delivery of your ideas must be coherent and appealing.

Your grade will include your self evaluation of your individual and group work as well as the teacher's evaluation of both.  Your teacher will add her scores and comments to the rubric sheets you hand in.  Before presenting your candidate to your subcommittee, use Individual Rubric 1 to evaluate your work and improve it if necessary.   Hand in this rubric with your written work after your subcommittee has chosen its final candidate. 

While you are working on your group's final project, check the Group Project Rubrics frequently: Comic Strip, Power Point, Panel Interview, Skit, Puppet Show. Each member of the group must hand in a completed copy of this rubric immediately before your subcommittee presents its candidate to the complete committee (class.)

After each subcommittee presentation, the other subcommittees will fill out a Group Project Rubric to be handed to the presenting group.  In this way, each subcommittee will receive feedback from the others.  Finally, written and/or videotaped reports of these presentations should be made available to students and staff outside the classroom - perhaps by including them in announcements or school publications.

CONCLUSION

Thinking back over your individual and group work in this WebQuest, can you recognize differences between your activities and the traditional reports you've done on famous people?  Hopefully, you've found this work to be more exciting and challenging than  ordinary encyclopedia based research.  Yes, surfing the net does give you a wider, more appealing collection of resources; but that's only the first of many differences. You've also discovered that creativity can enhance understanding and learning by making use of new ways to present your research.

Furthermore, you've been asked to take a personal stand not just to rehash biographical facts.  You've had to judge the meaning of celebrities' lives and the value of individuals' contributions to their countries and the world at large.  In our society, there are many occasions where citizens have the opportunity to honor others whether by giving awards or naming buildings and streets after them.

  More importantly, you've had to work with others to reach consensus and to produce a coherent, original presentation.  You've had to convince, encourage, and support others and appreciate how different talents and roles are needed in a team project.  In the real world outside of school, too often individuals rush into and out of the spotlight for their "fifteen minutes" of fame.  Perhaps now you will be better equipped to appreciate the  strengths and the contributions of those around you who will become our true heroes.

TEACHER PAGE

Preparing for a WebQuest 

1.  If you feel that you and your students need practice with the research and organizational procedures required by a WebQuest, it might be a good idea to walk through and model the steps by researching a different category of famous Francophones - perhaps actors or athletes.

2. Before beginning a WebQuest, make sure that your students are comfortable with the basics of navigating inside and between web pages. Remind them that they are not to click on any commercial links that may pop up.  You can easily invent a type of game or race to stress the importance of following directions.

3. Encourage students to get into the habit of jotting down helpful websites or sources they discover before leaving them.  In that way, they have these references ready for additional research or giving credit for their sources.

4. If your students have not done many cooperative learning activities together, it is vital to read and discuss the roles assigned before reaching that part of the WebQuest. 

5. Be sure that students are familiar with both the individual and group rubrics before they begin working on their final projects. 

6. Remind students that they can print up additional copies of all the documents you hand out for notetaking and evaluation from the WebQuest site.

Scheduling activities in this WebQuest

Depending upon your students' familiarity with computers and the length of classes, you can vary the amount of time allotted to each part of the WebQuest.  However, it is important to make your scheduling expectations clear in advance.  For example,  I would allow a maximum of 15 minutes for the students to explore three candidates on their subcommittee lists.  Students should then meet together for a maximum of 5 minutes to decide which student will research which Francophone in depth.

SOURCES

ONLINE IMAGES

ARTISTS

Picture of Monet downloaded 7/19/01: http://silcon.com/~brita/bio.htm

Picture of Renoir downloaded 7/19/01: srd.yahoo.com/drst/32787035/*http://www.seanet.com/users/mfost/ren/ren00.html

Picture of Watteau downloaded 7/19/01: http://www.artchive.com/artchive/W/watteau.html    

Picture of Matisse downloaded 7/19/01: http://matisse.hypermart.net/biography.html

Picture of Magritte downloaded 7/19/01http://www.magritte.com/2.cfm

MUSICIANS

Picture of MC Solaar downloaded 7/24/01: http://www.islandia.is/~arnorg/solaar/biography.htm 

Picture of Edith Piaf downloaded 7/25/01 : http://msms.essortment.com/edithpiafbiogr_rgwj.htm

Picture of Patricia Kaas downloaded 7/24/01 : http://www.sonyclassical.com/artists/kaas/   

Picture of Debussy downloaded 7/24/01: http://public.srce.hr/~fsupek/debussy.html

Picture of Berlioz downloaded 7/25/01: http://home.pon.net/dougie/berlioz.htm

WRITERS

Picture of Molière downloaded 8/23/01: http://www.imagi-nation.com/moonstruck/clsc35.htm    

               Picture of George Sand downloaded 8/23/01 http://www.viewimages.com/viewimage/?imageid=803926&promotionid=1&partnerid=2&type=results

Picture of Victor Hugo downloaded 8/23/01   http://www.viewimages.com/viewimage/?imageid=804779&promotionid=1&partnerid=2&type=results

Picture of Senghor downloaded 8/23/01: http://www.rdl.com.lb/1918/helou.htm    

Picture of La Fontaine downloaded 8/23/01   http://www.viewimages.com/viewimage/?imageid=804801&promotionid=1&partnerid=2&type=results

POLITICAL LEADERS

Picture of Charlemagne downloaded 8/24/01: http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/03610c.htm 

Picture of Charles de Gaulle downloaded 8/24/01   http://www.viewimages.com/viewimage/?imageid=778411&promotionid=1&partnerid=2&type=results

Picture of Joan of Arc downloaded 8/24/01 http://corbis.altavista.com/referrals/av_image_details.asp?linkid=2623&imageid=11148783

Picture of Louis XIV downloaded 8/24/01 http://www.viewimages.com/viewimage/?imageid=725139&promotionid=1&partnerid=2&type=results

Picture of François Mitterand   downloaded 8/24/01 http://www.viewimages.com/viewimage/?imageid=116186&promotionid=1&partnerid=2&type=results

 

Barbara Kornrich - Sligo Middle School

e-mail    Barbara_Kornrich@mcps.k12.md.us

 

Charlemagne
Piaf
Molière
Renoir
Curie