AP/IB French 5 

In order to prepare yourself for the level of reading expected in AP/IB French 5/Seminar classes, you need to read, read, read. As an advanced French student, you will be asked to sign a French Only pledge at the start of next year's class. In addition to any personal reading or film viewing you may do in French, and in the interest of preparing you to be an active participant in the IB/AP French 5/French Seminar class, you will be required to do the following summer assignments to help build your reading and listening comprehension skills and to inspire you to use your French from day one.

Assignment #1

Choose five articles from French newspapers or magazines, either online or hard copy. The length of each article should be a minimum of six paragraphs (not counting paragraphs of one or two sentences).

Each article should be on a different topic. Human interest, politics, travel, science, education, editorial, or sports are a few examples. Print or photocopy each article. For each article you will complete the worksheet provided. Choose one that particularly interests you. You will present it in class during the first week of school in September. Your teacher will tell you the details of the presentation. In September, you will turn in to your teacher a folder with your five articles and the five completed worksheets. Your teacher may use one of your articles in class for discussion or for an assignment.

Here are websites which may help in locating your articles if you choose to do this online. They offer many possibilities: newspapers, magazines, audio/video news, etc…

http://www2.ignatius.edu/faculty/turner/linksfr.htm  
http://www.coh.arizona.edu/french/uoa/magazine.html  

AP/IB French 5 Summer Assignment Worksheet

They may also help you with your vocabulary, culture, grammar, listening comprehension, and reading comprehension.

Assignment #2

To practice reading, listening and speaking, go the http://languageguide.org/french/readings/.  

Go to the “ Advanced Readings” section and choose one of the stories by Guy de Maupassant. Each story is accompanied by an audio file.

1) Read the story.
2) Listen to the audio file.

Students will be expected to be able to discuss the story in French. In addition, students will read aloud a passage from their selected story. The passage will be chosen by the teacher. Students should use the audio file as a model and practice tool as they will be assessed on their oral proficiency: accuracy in pronunciation and culturally correct intonation.

Seminar/French 6

In addition to the above work, students will turn in a topic and outline for their first term research paper on an aspect of the francophone world.

If you have any questions about this assignment, please contact Jane Dunlap, Head of the Language Department at jane_dunlap@georgeschool.org.