Walking down the halls of the New York French American Charter School in Harlem, you will hear languages you have never heard before. This everyday aspect agrees with the school's mission: foster global citizenship for a multicultural society. The New York French American Charter School is in fact a bilingual school. “The school blends the rigorous standards of learning that are characteristic of the French educational system with American approaches that value individuality and critical thinking,” says their website. In class, children from K to 3rd grade are used to alternating between French and English. The teachers are multilingual and work with French interns and assistants who further contribute to establishing a French-speaking environment. Say what you will, but read this much French: “à NYFACS, on aime le français!”

Yet, it is not one single kind of French that we speak here. With children from Haiti, Algeria, Congo, Gabon, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Senegal, Togo, France and many other countries, the New York French American Charter School constantly reminds us that French is also a language of many faces. Harlem is a cradle of francophonie and there is no doubt that NYFACS reflects the cultural variety of its community.

The French Heritage Language Program is committed to helping the numerous francophone immigrant students across the United States keep a strong connection with their respective language, culture and identity. On the program’s agenda is the establishment of a curriculum that focuses on strengthening the acquisition of French and more specifically, on promoting French-speaking cultures to these minorities. It is therefore not surprising that this school has become the main partner of the program for working on establishing a curriculum that embraces the diversity of the francophone world. Indeed, since January 2012, a pedagogical team of students and professionals has met on a weekly basis to work for a common goal: developing a francophone, task-based curriculum for students aged 5 to 11 years. Bringing professionals from both institutions, French teaching assistants as well as students from Columbia’s and New York University’s Masters' programs: it is a good share of volunteering and a strong mix of professional experience of teaching French!

Four themes have been set for this curriculum: living environment, food and culinary habits, literature and arts, traditions and festivities. These themes are organized by age group into three levels of progression with an increasing difficulty in terms of language acquisition. Adding to their regular French classes, students at the New York French American Charter School can now benefit from an extra three hours of “French enrichment” each week. With this new curriculum two invaluable elements are brought to the class - knowledge of the cultures of the francophonie and task-based learning. The cultural aspect of the curriculum informs of the diversity of the francophone world in relation to the students in the class. Drawing on each student’s cultural background, the projects thus allow for children to share their own personal experience of francophonie with their peers. The task-based curriculum is a countdown in terms of linguistic and cultural learning towards a final project related to francophone cultures. Final projects vary from one age group to another, but examples may include for a class to follow the recipe of a traditional dish they will prepare for snack time, to create carnival costumes for the celebration of francophonie, or even to write a folk tale inspired by francophone African stories they will then share with another class.

While the focus of the curriculum can be French language acquisition and awareness of francophone cultures as enrichment to the program at the New York French American Charter School, this program may be the core French language class in other partner schools of the French Heritage Language Program. For the time being, the curriculum is being developed at the school so that it can be tested directly in class with the students. In a constant exchange between teachers, students and the pedagogical team, the curriculum will take shape until it can be transferred and adapted according to the needs of other French Heritage Language Program partner schools across the nation.

It is quite a challenge to turn diversity into one common language, yet this is what Francophonie is about, it is the language of sharing par excellence. By allowing young students to develop natural bilingual skills and better understand where they are from, the New York French American Charter School and the French Heritage Language Program are now simply raising opportunities for these kids to better learn and succeed where they are.

By Benoît Le Dévédec & Linda Hanssler Wenner

Benoît Le Dévédec, program coordinator and Linda Hanssler Wenner, pedagogical assistant for the French Heritage Language Program. For more information on the French Heritage Language Program, take a look at: http://facecouncil.org/fhlp/


FHLP in collaboration with Vanessa Handal-Ghenania, Supervisor of Curriculum and Teaching, Victor, Mélissa, Sandra, French assistants from NYFACS, Tina Simon, Master’s student at Teachers’ College and Grace Sutton, Masters’ student at NYU.
To learn more about NYFACS, please visit the school's website: http://nyfacs.net/

Photo credits: Jonas Cuénin.