Who are we really? What media projects or someone far more nuanced? Reading and deconstructing French American stereotypes.

Put 41 correspondent students from France paired with their 41 American counterparts, deconstruct French and American stereotypes and blog.  That was our morning.  Our students discussed how media, particularly Hollywood movies, constructs stereotypes that too often go unexamined. Then Jackson remembered this cartoon found in his French Histoire Geo text that clearly mirrors many of the French stereotypes of Americans that our French students encounter in France.  Indeed, even an eighth class textbook suggests stereotypes can be learned in school, and can be in fact rooted in a statistical reality-- by extension, individuals can be the embodiment of statistical realities whether we like the negative portrayal or not. 
Visit our French vs. American Stereotype page for our extended discussion on the topic.

Lit Circles Launched

Our eighth grade classes are now simultaneously reading, discussing and blogging about eight different novels for the month of March.  The students had eight texts to choose from, so their selections were limited.  Nevertheless, they wrote about why they chose the text they chose and wrote predictions for each text based on reading one or two chapters.  You can find the predictions and summaries of lit circle talks in the pages listed above.  Their essential question for the unit: How has the text contributed to the world of ideas?