Marquis de Lafayette Contest

On the occasion of the Marquis Lafayette’s 250th birthday, the French Embassy, in partnership with the American Association of Teachers of French and the New York Historical Society, organized a school-based contest entitled: In Lafayette’s Footsteps: Spreading Freedom and Equality. The 2500 participants were asked to produce a piece of art on the theme of the French-American friendship, liberty and equality. We would like to congratulate Faya MARIANA and Stéphanie MILLIEN, both Heritage program students, who were awarded prizes.

The Media Project

While developing their reading and communication skills, the students reflected on how the media reports on events. They analyzed authentic press articles from Francophone news websites as well as TV and radio segments from TV5 and Radio France Internationale. The students also familiarized themselves with cultural, social and political phenomena of their countries and of today’s world. The ultimate goal of this project is to sharpen students’ analytical and critiquing skills.  As a result students become mature readers, as well as alert members of the community.

The Litterature Project

During the third part of the school year, students studied the works of three African and Haitian authors : L’Odeur du café by Dany Lafferière; L'Aventure ambiguë by Cheikh Hamidou Kane and La belle histoire de Leuk le lièvre by Senghor. Using different angles, these books all approach the themes of wisdom, magic and youth. Studying these books allowed the students to play particular parts in their different group work each week: book reports, illustrations, finding key ideas, inventing a sequel, express and opinion, or even relating a passage to a personal experience, or current issue.