Creating Community with Class Names
We have A and B days but I find calling my class 6A or 7B so boring. And why be boring when you can be fun?
I needed a way to label my classes to tell them apart but I did not just want to use A or B. I am always looking for small ways to bring culture into my language classrooms. I want my students to find a connection to the target culture. One way I do that is through class names.
Each of my classes has their own city name but I have also done regions or countries. This year my classes are:
I label each class’ drawer with an image and class name
Paris & Lyon (6th grade)
Reims & Orléans (7th grade)
Strasbourg (8th grade)
When choosing names I tried to be very strategic. I wanted cities that were particularly interesting or historic and I knew we would learn about during the year.
Paris - This one is an obvious choice. I do a Paris monument project to learn more about cool places in the city.
Lyon - Lyon is such a cool city with the Roman ruins that students find interesting. We also learn about la Fête de Lumière in December.
Orléans - We learn a little about Jeanne d’Arc and how she liberated Orléans. In 8th grade we usually learn more about the 100 years war.
Reims - When learning about Jeanne d’Arc we talk about how she saw Charles VII coronated in the Cathedral of Reims, where French kings were traditionally coronated.
Strasbourg - We study regions of France in 8th grade and we learn a lot about the Grand Est so of course we can’t leave out the Christmas Capital.
I wanted them to make a connection to their city, I didn’t want it to just be a random name. This year I was more purposeful in building that connection. Since describing places is part of my curriculum in 6th and 7th grade I added in virtual field trips to their cities. At first, students who were not in the Paris class were saying their city was boring and lame. But after our field trip, and they learned what their city had to offer, they thought it was really cool!
If you’re looking for a way to build more connections to the target culture and class community I highly recommend naming your classes after places in your target culture and incorporating those places into your lesson.
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