A good Community Service Learning projects begin with
the question, what is an authentic need in our community?
On the small island of Harrington Harbour, Madame
Monger and in the town of Chevery, Madame Nadeau-Monger understood that
students living in geographically isolated, completely Anglophone communities
do not always see the day to day need for French that other Anglophone students
in Quebec might observe. The
two teachers asked the question, how could we change the attitude of students
towards French?
This was the start of Parlez-Vous?, a
collaborative project between the communities of Harrington Harbour, Chevery
and Kegaska on the Lower North Shore of Quebec.
The CLC schools wanted to show students that even
though people live in English in the village(s), many speak French and use
those skills for work purposes, often outside of the community. The teachers
thought if the students realized that people they know, and often look up to,
are bilingual, the students might have a different, more positive view on
bilingualism.
The Project:
Students were asked to prepare questions they would
like to ask bilingual community members. Three classes met over the
videoconference to select the best questions and picked a name for the project.
Outside of class time, the students approached a
community member to go over the questions and a second meeting to conduct the
interview. After the interviews were completed, the students and teachers used
Windows Movie Maker to edit everything together.
When everything was done, the students viewed the
video in class and then screened the video for the community using the
videoconference.
A final activity was writing thank you notes for the
'stars' (en français), and launching the videos at a community event.
What did the students learn?
Through the project, students realized that even in a
close community, being bilingual is a very important asset. Students also
discovered that there were a lot more bilingual people in their community than
they previously thought.
Madame Monger noted that students had to go outside of their comfort zone and interact with adults in the community and also speak publicly in another language. Producing a short film presented an opportunity to get familiar with Windows Movie Maker. Finally, the videoconference collaboration between the three schools allowed the students to get to know each other a little better, important because they will become classmates in secondary IV & V when they will all be together at Netagamiou School in Chevery.
Madame Nadeau-Monger
noted that some among the greatest successes was “the look on our students
faces when they saw someone they knew speaking French”.
Many thanks to the
teachers, students and community members who participated in a wonderful
initiative that promotes the importance of bilingualism on the Lower North
Shore of Quebec.
