Topic:  Housing

Unit Rationale

Where people live and what they are used to in housing can vary from culture to culture.  Being able to talk about a housing layout and describe a room are basic tools for functioning in a culture.  It is also important to realize that people live in different arrangements for various reasons.  Students will show cultural sensitivity by learning to accept these differences.  Students also will examine the concept of “home” and the sense of belonging that is often attached to a place.  In an era when many people move for business to foreign cultures, being able to express what is important in a “home” may be a useful tool for them later in life.

Essential Questions:

• What kinds of housing do people live in?
• What makes a place “home”?
• What is your ideal living arrangement?

Students will be able to...

• Identify different types of housing
• Identify rooms and parts of a dwelling
• Describe a room and its furnishings
• Express preference for a type of housing

Students will know...

• different types of housing
• rooms and house vocabulary
• furniture and furnishing vocabulary
• expressions of preference
• prepositions of place for housing

Students will already need to know...

• Present tense of regular verbs
• Possessive adjectives
• Colors

ACTFL Standards

• Communication
  • Standard 1.1: Students engage in conversations, provide and obtain information, express feelings and emotions, and exchange opinions.
  • Standard 1.2: Students understand and interpret written and spoken language on a variety of topics.
  • Standard 1.3: Students present information, concepts, and ideas to an audience of listeners or readers on a variety of topics.
• Cultures
  • Standard 2.1: Students demonstrate an understanding of the relationship between the practices and perspectives of the culture studied.
• Connections
  • Standard 3.2: Students acquire information and recognize the distinctive viewpoints that are only available through the foreign language and its cultures.
• Comparisons
  • Standard 4.2: Students demonstrate understanding of the concept of culture through comparisons of the cultures studied and their own.
• Communities
  • Standard 5.1: Students use the language both within and beyond the school setting.

Subtopics/Objectives

• Types of dwellings
  • Identify different kinds of buildings or properties that are inhabited
  • Explain preference for one type of dwelling over another
• Rooms and building parts
  • Identify different rooms and parts of a dwelling
  • Describe the layout of a dwelling
• Furniture/furnishings
  • Identify furnishings and pieces of furniture
  • Describe the furnishings of a room
• Home
  • Explain what defines “home” individually
  • Interpret a description of Victor Hugo’s exile as it relates to feeling at home

Activities

• Web investigation:  As a class go to http://www.insecula.com/musee/M0138.html, which contains a description and photos of Victor Hugo’s house in Paris.  Students will answer questions related to days and hours that the house is open, its address, and the cost to enter.  Look at the various photos of different rooms in the house, present house vocabulary by referring to items in the photos.  As items are presented, ask students to identify them in later photos.
• House diagram:  Present house vocabulary and preposition grammar via a PowerPoint diagram of a house.  Students will then diagram their own house and label rooms and structures (roof, door, window, stairway—vocabulary from web investigation activity) and describe it to a partner.
• Picture description:  Students will look at Van Gogh’s Bedroom at Arles and describe its furnishings in pairs.  They will then draw their own ideal bedroom and write a description of it.
• Dwelling classification:  Students will be presented with different kinds of housing (chaumières, grottes, appartements, maisons, chateaux).  Individually, they will then fill out a chart, classifying each type of dwelling according to size, comfort, and cost.
• Dwelling preferences:  Students will group themselves based on which kind of dwelling they prefer.  They will then discuss why they made their choice (positives of their choice and the negatives of other choices) using expressions of preference (“Je préfère…parce que…).  Then, students will debate, trying to convince each other that their dwelling is the best.
• Exile reading:  Students will read and interpret a short description of Victor Hugo’s exile.  They will then write one page (in English) based on one of the following prompts:  1)  Describe what makes a place “home” to you; 2)  Pretend that you are Victor Hugo and that you are writing to a friend in Paris.  Describe how you feel about France (do you miss it?  what do you miss?  what don’t you miss?); 3)  Pretend that you are about to move to France for business—what will you do to make your new residence feel like home?

Assessments

Formative

• Daily observation of students’ progress during above activities
• Feedback/self-evaluation from students

Summative

• Vocabulary quiz:  rooms, furnishings, and housing structures
• Written description of ideal bedroom (from picture description activity).  Assessment based on a rubric.
• Reaction paper to Hugo’s exile.  Assessment based on a rubric.
• Final project:  Students will construct a miniature dwelling of their choice (although encourage a variety of buildings) and label key parts of the building in French.  The models will be presented in French to the class, then set up for display in a middle or elementary school, where the students can explain their buildings to the younger students.  Assessment based on a rubric.