The images advertising women’s beauty and care tell a cleverly designed story intertwining social norms of desire, intimacy, and gender. Examined diachronically, these images record the emergence of a modern understanding of self-fashioning entangled in growing consumerist expectations. I’ve become interested in these archival materials while researching the construction of […]
Angélique Ibáñez Aristondo
There exist many free and user-friendly word cloud generators online (a list is offered here). They can be very helpful with getting a group discussion started. The example, below, comes from an activity revolving around the (very catchy) song “Où va le monde?” by French band La Femme (This Youtube […]
Pr. Sophie Queuniet is a Senior Lecturer in French at Columbia University. She has taught French language courses online for many years. She shares a few pieces of advice on distance learning. Conseillez-vous un enseignement à distance synchrone (toute la classe se réunit en même temps en ligne) ou asynchrone? […]
Longtime online instructor Pr. Richard Schumaker shares best practices and challenges to be aware of as CUNY transitions to distance learning. This is a difficult time for everyone – set expectations, accordingly. Avoid isolation. If possible, develop relationships with colleagues that teach the course that you are about to teach. […]
On March 11, 2020, CUNY announced that starting March 19, classes will be held in distance-learning form for the remainder of the Spring semester. As a start, we recommend the guide provided by the Teaching & Learning Center of the Graduate Center. Campus-based guidance here. The TLC also set up […]
Language Pedagogy @CUNY is now accepting contributions of language instructors across CUNY. Rebecca Raitses and Angélique Ibáñez Aristondo, both doctoral candidates from the French Program, have been developing this teaching resource website for the last few months. Their goal has been to provide a collaborative space to share and showcase […]
Pénélope Bagieu is a French illustrator whose graphic novels have received widespread recognition. Her blog BD Les Culottées, which was compiled into a book in 2016 and 2017, features a series of women with an unusual or inspiring story. The comics are short, interesting, and biographically accurate These comics offer […]
This post outlines the teaching resources offered by three NYC museums as a way to start filling your “toolbox” with visual-based activities. Many museums have developed valuable resources for educators interested in implementing activities based on artworks. With a bit of adjustment to your own teaching and learning environment, these may be fruitfully […]
This post presents a lesson designed for an Undergraduate Elective Course entitled “Focus on French Grammar”. Building on an exhibition held at the Musée du Quai Branly in 2018-2019, this content-based activity was tailored to help students practice the use of adjectives in French. As students learn about French colonial […]
Pedagogy Scholarship has emphasized that storytelling is effective in L2 learning because it is fun, engaging and highly memorable. Storytelling has been praised for raising learners’ interest in listening to stories, as well as in speaking, writing and reading about them (Claudio Rezende Lucarevschi, The role of storytelling in language learning, 2016). […]
This is a 20-minute interactive winning game in which: Students team up; They observe a set of artworks on Slides; They hypothesize the origin of each artwork among 4 options. (I usually give 20 to 30 seconds for each artwork.) We check their answers together. (Slides in French) Each group that gave […]
This is a 30-minute activity in which: Each student chooses a portrait image they like (My set here); In groups of 2, they describe their characters’ appearance; Finally, they present their artwork(s) to their classmates. Depending on the level of proficiency, the instructor may ask them to explain what they found arresting […]
This is a 20-minute interactive winning game in which: Students team up; They observe a set of artworks on Slides; They hypothesize the date of each artwork among 4 options. (I usually give 20 to 30 seconds for each artwork.) We check their answers together. Each group that gave the right answer […]
Assigning Wikipedia in higher-education courses has become increasingly popular in recent years. Since Wiki Education Foundation was created in 2010, 2,000 courses have been taught through their program, 43,000 students have taken on Wikipedia assignments, and 97% of instructors said they would do it again (as of 2018). What can […]