The Impressionist Contest

The 2006-07 school year began by preparing in class for a contest organized by the Educational Service of the French Embassy, in which about 100 elementary schools, middle schools, and high schools participated. This event provided an opportunity to discover the Impressionist movement, its context and its works on both a visual and literary level, and to measure its influence on present-day creations – notably via the works of certain Africans and Haitians painters.

This project was also a chance to learn how to "read" a figurative painting in terms of subject composition, colors, etc. Finally, the paintings lent themselves to comparison and creative exercises, such as imagining the continuation of a "scène de genre" by Renoir, writing a poem in the style of Verlaine, and explaining what one would paint if he or she was an Impressionist painter; these activities lent themselves to grammatical and lexical corrections. On November 3, 2006, the awards ceremony for the Impressionist contest was held at the French Institute-Alliance Française.

The Porfolio and Blog Projects

During the second quarter of the school year, the students worked on portfolios that included presentations, interviews of a family member and essays on subjects such as the cultural differences between the United States and their countries of origin, historical events, traditions, music, religion, education, or sports.

In addition to the paper version of their portfolio, the students also got to publish part of their work online in a blog that was especially created to become a space where they can express their opinions on a variety of topics, while their readers can post reactions.

Please take a look at the students’ blog at
http://www.afriblog.com/blog.asp?code=fhlp1

The Litterature Project

In March and April, the students, grouped into teams, got to work on books by three different authors from Haiti and Africa: 15 contes du Sénégal by Jean Muzi; L’Odeur du café by Dany Lafferière; and Le Monde s’effondre by Chinua Achebe. These books have in common a universe of wisdom, magic and youth, all shown in different perspectives.

While we study these books students were given the possibility to play a different role in their teams every week. They summarized, illustrated, explained key ideas, imagined follow-ups, stated opinions and formulated hypotheses. Finally they were asked to link what they had read to their personal experiences or to the realities of today’s world. Eventually, panels were made to enable them to show their work in the schools.