Glastonbury Foreign Language Program
Curricular Unit: The Little Prince (French)
Grade: 8
Subject/Topic Area(s): meaning of "foreign", "foreigner"
Key Words: Little Prince, foreign, Saint-Exupéry

Standards:

Major standards— 1.1, 1.2, 3.1, 4.2, 5.2
Supporting standards—

Brief Summary of Unit (including curricular context and unit goals):

In this unit, students will explore the underlying theme of cultural misunderstandings among "foreigners" in Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's Le petit prince. More specifically, children are considered "foreign" not necessarily because of possessing a different nationality but because of having a different way of thinking. Therefore, the conflicts and successes relating to this theme are quite relevant to this age group. Students will watch the unanimated version of the movie in English which serves to expose them to the theme and to use as background knowledge to aid them to complete assignments in French. They will translate quotes, write guided expository paragraphs summarizing the story, read 3 selected chapters, and recount a trip the Little Prince took to a planet that he didn't take in the original story based on this theme of foreign. The primary goal of this unit is to provide students with an awarness of the importance of being tolerant of cross-cultural differences, and to gain a new perspective of the benefits that such a challenging effort provides.

Number of days for activity: 10

Materials and resources (including technology and multimedia):

Film, The Little Prince (unanimated version)
12 calendar pages of The Little Prince, cut out and laminated
English and French version of the novel
Teacher-edited chapters of the novel (i.e. passé simple changed to passé composé)
Sketch pad and colored pencils

Identifying Desired Results

•  What essential questions will guide this unit and focus teaching/learning?

What does a person feel when he/she arrives to a new culture? What is culture shock?
What are possible consequences of cultural acceptance and denial?
Have the underlying messages that the author confronted in this work created a new awareness for you or enriched you as a person?
Do you ever feel that you and your parents are "foreigners" because they don't understand you?

•  What enduring understandings are desired?

Student will understand...

- why it can be difficult to understand people from different "worlds".
- the special friendships that can result from crossing cultural, political, and linguistic barriers.
- feelings of frustration that lack of sympathy for "foreigners" can create.

•  What key knowledge and skills will students acquire as a result of this unit?

Students will know…

about the author and become familiar with his most famous piece of literature. Students will gain an empathy for feeling foreign and be able to relate to the experiences of the Little Prince.

Students will be able to…

recognize and distinguish present, past, and future verb tenses in the novel
translate famous quotes from story using pictorial and contextual clues
write an expository paragraph
create their own chapter

Vocabulary:

Grammar:

•  What do they already know that will help them learn new information? Where and when did they learn it?

They know what it feels like to not be understood by adults.
They know the present and past tense paradigms but with a limited amount of practice using authentic text.

Determining acceptable evidence

•  What evidence will show that students understand?

Performance Tasks:
- read for understanding and grammatical recognition.
- select learned vocabulary that is pertainant to retelling of story or part of story.
- write original story based on major theme of novel and act it out in French.
- reflect on how theme of novel is relevant to them and to today's world in general.

Quizzes, Tests, Prompts, Work Samples:
- quality of personal vocabulary list to be used for creating story
- short story complete with sketch of make believe planet
- skit
- expository paragraph
- self reflective essay

Unprompted Evidence (observations, dialogues): classroom participation and attentiveness
Student Self-Assessment: Students will write down 3 things that they learned from this unit and 3 questions they still have. Comments and questions will be centerpiece for class discussion.

Lessons:

Lesson 1: Film-Intro to content and themes
Lesson 2: Calendar quotes
Lesson 3: Chapter discoveries
Lesson 4: Written creations

Links to Relevant Web Sites:  

http://www.cim.mcgill.ca/~sbouix/petit_prince/html/lppindex.html

Assessment Blueprint (Performance Tasks)

Task Title:
Approximate Time Frame:
Standards:
Purpose: check those that apply Formative – Summative –
Description of Task:



Evidence of desired understanding:

Criteria of judgment:

Evaluative Tools: check those that apply
Analytic Rubric –
Holistic Rubric –
Criterion (performance) list –
Checklist –

Assessment Blueprint (Other Evidence)

•  What is being assessed?

•  Describe the assessment.  

•  What is the purpose of the assessment?      

•  Criteria of judgment/evaluative tools: