Mme Mclaughlinlassiter High Schoolfall 2011

***AP FRENCH***

Mme McLaughlinLassiter High SchoolFall 2011

Félicitations!

I congratulate you for being willing to rise to the challenge of advanced work. Truly the crème de la crème, you represent some of the most talented and dedicated students at Lassiter. You will not regret your decision to persevere in language study.

In this course, you will greatly increase your vocabulary, while polishing your linguistic skills. Your ability to communicate at a sophisticated level will increase exponentially. While literature is an essential part of the course because of its intellectual challenge, a variety of readings and activities combine to form the curriculum. Our goal is to develop language skills that can be used in various disciplines beyond the classroom.

Materials

These materials ARE provided by the school:

Imaginez, text and supersite
Advanced Placement French – Preparing for the Language Examinationby Ladd and Girard.

These materials are NOT provided by the school:

A good French-English dictionary for use at home and school. You can find one (paperback) at any major bookstore and should expect to pay about $10. I also suggest that you look at the used bookstores in the area.
You will receive a number of handouts and you should plan to use a 3 ring binder to organize your paperwork.

Grades

I will be working strictly on a weighted average system this semester. The percentages are as follows:

Oral Proficiency – 20%
Quizzes (vocabulary/grammar) – 20%
Writing (journals/essays) – 20%
Reading Comprehension – 10%
Listening Comprehension – 10%
Homework – 10%
Final Exam – 10%

To contact the teacher

Room 802 at Lassiter

By email:

Extra Help

I am available to help you by appointment. However, at this level of instruction, you need to become more comfortable with using reference materials to find answers to some of your questions. Use me as a last resort! 

ADVANCED PLACEMENT PROGRAM

AP IS DESIGNED FOR HIGHLY MOTIVATED STUDENTS IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS. More than 2,900 universities and colleges worldwide grant credit, advanced placement, or both to students who perform satisfactorily on the exams. This exam measures competence in listening, reading, speaking, and writing. It also emphasizes the use of language for active communication.

By enrolling in this course you are not obligated to sit for the Advanced Placement exam but I strongly encourage you to do so.

Your performance on the AP exam will depend largely on how much time you spend on the coursework outside of class. If you are satisfied with a score of a 2 on the exam I would suggest that you could get by with 2 hours of your time spent on homework/extra practice per week. If you would prefer to achieve a score of a 4 or 5 I would suggest that you plan to spend that many hours per week engaged in some sort of outside practice.

CLASSROOM RULES

Bring your book, paper and a pen every day.
Work ONLY on French during French class
Limit drinks to water
NO CHEWING GUM – it impedes your pronunciation!
Be respectful to the teacher and other students.

If a cell phone in your possession makes any noise or is visible while you are in the classroom there will be consequences.

ATTENDANCE

A student who is present and participates is more likely to be successful. However, if a student is absent, he/she has one day for each day of excused absence to make up the work. A student with an unexcused absence may ask for assignments and may choose to complete them in order to keep up with the class. However, the teacher is under no obligation to grade the work.

ACADEMIC INTEGRITY

Cheating is considered a serious matter. The parents of a student who has been involved in cheating will be notified and the student will receive a grade of zero for the test or evaluation period, and a grade of U in conduct. Please be aware that the Honor Society memberships will be affected as well as the loss of honor cards. Students displaying cell phones during tests and/or quizzes will have their cell phones confiscated, and will be given a zero for that test/quiz.

Teacher wish-list

Please note that these materials are requested but certainly not required.

Ream of light colored paper
Box of tissue
Hand sanitizer
Band-aids
Paper towels