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Post by ktdoesntscrap on Oct 17, 2016 21:38:41 GMT
My 8th grade daughter is taking High School French, but the class is all 8th grade students.
Her school is project based, hands on learning.
So far they have had no tests or quizes, and no homework. They have done a couple small group projects in class.
The work load seems really light for a High School class, and they will have to pass an End of Course Exam in order to get credit.
So with the first quarter almost over she has her first project..
They have to set up a Dating Profile, like for an on-line dating site, and write the profile in French.
Then they have to go around the class and match people up. There is no rubric for the assignment and very little information on what they are supposed to do.
So my daughter is basically filling out the profile as if she is a 21 year old looking for a man or woman, for "adventure" not a relationship!!
Is this a WTH project or am I reading too much into it?
The whole thing is odd.. my daughter said it was fun, but sort of made her uncomfortable....
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Deleted
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Aug 18, 2025 21:03:13 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Oct 17, 2016 21:41:45 GMT
I would be very uncomfortable with that, especially given their ages, both because of the assignment itself, and the fact that THAT kind of information is what they're learning. In my French 1 class, we learned how to order food at a restaurant, ask where the bathroom was, make tourist conversation about directions and landmarks, and exchange limited personal information such as name and age.
I would not be pleased that my 8th/9th grader was learning how to say "hookup" in French.
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Post by Sam on Oct 17, 2016 21:42:32 GMT
Of course it is odd - you didn't have to post to know that!!  What else has she been taught? how long has she been learning French? |
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MorningPerson
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 2,579 
Location: Central Pennsylvania
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Post by MorningPerson on Oct 17, 2016 21:47:18 GMT
That's not just a WTH project, it's all WTF.
I'm guessing the teacher is mid-20's to have come up with that learning experience for his/her students? Very strange indeed.
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LeaP
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 3,939
Location: Los Angeles, CA where 405 meets 101
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Post by LeaP on Oct 17, 2016 21:50:38 GMT
My eighth grader still thinks boys are icky. So she would struggle with an assignment like that... On the other, she might be able to channel some of the garbage she watches on YouTube.
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Post by kitkath on Oct 17, 2016 22:07:21 GMT
When I took French in high school we wrote a script and filmed our own Dating Game show, all in French. We also made commercials. It was a lot of fun actually.
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Post by missfrenchjessica on Oct 17, 2016 22:10:30 GMT
I'm wondering if it maybe has to do with using adjectives to describe your "ideal" date. Perhaps also including activities/pastimes to "round" it out.
I can kind of see it, but it's a weird one to have so early.
I teach beginner h.s. French in m.s. and we're working on subject pronouns and verb conjugations right now.
We won't get to adjectives and activities until quarters 2 and 3...but perhaps they are going in a different order...
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Post by 950nancy on Oct 17, 2016 22:14:34 GMT
I can see that hooking the high school kids. Maybe it doesn't translate down into junior high as well. I can see the teacher was trying to find an activity that would interest the kids.
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Post by anonrefugee on Oct 17, 2016 22:20:56 GMT
I can see that hooking the high school kids. Maybe it doesn't translate down into junior high as well. I can see the teacher was trying to find an activity that would interest the kids. Thad what I was thinking. We have the same setup here, only with Spanish. 8th grade honors 3 is eligible to receive credit as HS 1. By the time the 8th grade students are taking this class they've had two previous years of foreign language. They can handle the content of a dating profile, but maybe not the intent. |
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Post by ktdoesntscrap on Oct 17, 2016 22:28:47 GMT
Of course it is odd - you didn't have to post to know that!! What else has she been taught? how long has she been learning French? this is her first quarter.. I think they have learned typical first quarter stuff, numbers, days of the week, months. they did seem to spend a ridiculous amount of time on "le bise" The french greeting by kissing each cheek |
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Post by anonrefugee on Oct 17, 2016 22:31:19 GMT
Of course it is odd - you didn't have to post to know that!! What else has she been taught? how long has she been learning French? this is her first quarter.. I think they have learned typical first quarter stuff, numbers, days of the week, months. they did seem to spend a ridiculous amount of time on "le bise" The french greeting by kissing each cheek Ok... Now it's starting to seem very odd. |
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flute4peace
Drama Llama
Posts: 6,757
Jul 3, 2014 14:38:35 GMT
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Post by flute4peace on Oct 17, 2016 22:31:22 GMT
Not OK
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Post by ktdoesntscrap on Oct 17, 2016 22:31:38 GMT
I'm wondering if it maybe has to do with using adjectives to describe your "ideal" date. Perhaps also including activities/pastimes to "round" it out. I can kind of see it, but it's a weird one to have so early. I teach beginner h.s. French in m.s. and we're working on subject pronouns and verb conjugations right now. We won't get to adjectives and activities until quarters 2 and 3...but perhaps they are going in a different order... my daughter said they had to lists interests and what foods they like.. so maybe that is more the objective. She did say the teacher said they would have to write and then read in French. |
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Post by **Angie** on Oct 17, 2016 22:35:16 GMT
My 7th grader's class assignment was to set up a dating profile for his English teacher's beagle, so I wouldn't have been as "wtf" as I probably should have been. But, yeah, odd.
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Post by gramasue on Oct 17, 2016 22:38:08 GMT
I think I'd be a bit uncomfortable with that. I would be monitoring her progress with this assignment.
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Post by bc2ca on Oct 17, 2016 22:39:02 GMT
I'm not sure what you mean by HS French, but assume this is a class for students who haven't taken French before. DS's MS offered a Spanish class that was very different from the way I learned French with more of a whole language approach than learning a couple of new verbs every week and vocabulary lists. A typical assignment would be to write and perform a skit of people eating at a restaurant. There was a rubric for grading based on using a certain number of verbs, nouns, adjectives, adverbs, etc., appropriately. Word lists were created from the skits and students tested on that. When the students moved up to the HS they could test into a higher level of Spansh, with many coming out of the middle school going into Spanish 3. Most kids chose to start with Spanish 1 at the HS because college required at least 2 years of HS foreign language, with 3 encouraged (they didn't get credit for the MS school). The dating profile assignment could be a great way to develop vocabulary around hobbies, activities and interests. The problem is us adults have a different view of what just looking for adventure is on a dating website and don't really want our MSers heading down that road.  |
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Post by freecharlie on Oct 17, 2016 22:42:35 GMT
I'd see it as an "all about me" assignment.
The matching would be fun if nobody knew whose profile was whose
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PaperAngel
Prolific Pea
Posts: 8,843
Jun 27, 2014 23:04:06 GMT
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Post by PaperAngel on Oct 17, 2016 22:55:35 GMT
While the assignment appears a practical application of using vocabulary learned, it's the pairing students in the class using "dating profiles" that seems a poor, not-well-thought-out approach. The teacher may have unknowingly invited challenges with an uneven number of students, sexual orientation, gender identity, underlying message to date, peer pressure, teasing, & concerned parent correspondence. It appears the assignment should have easily been renamed "friend profile" to avoid these possible pitfalls...
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Post by lisacharlotte on Oct 17, 2016 23:00:34 GMT
When was at DLI (Defense Language Institute - DOD language school for the military) we learned the same way I learned HS French. Grammar and memorizing vocabulary first before more complicated sentence structure.
After I graduated they moved to whole language learning. It wasn't nearly as effective and the washout rate increased. Especially in reading/writing which is required to graduate.
I think whole language would work better if you live in a country where the language you are learning is the language outside of school and your primary mission is speaking.
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Post by ktdoesntscrap on Oct 17, 2016 23:03:14 GMT
I'm not sure what you mean by HS French, but assume this is a class for students who haven't taken French before. DS's MS offered a Spanish class that was very different from the way I learned French with more of a whole language approach than learning a couple of new verbs every week and vocabulary lists. A typical assignment would be to write and perform a skit of people eating at a restaurant. There was a rubric for grading based on using a certain number of verbs, nouns, adjectives, adverbs, etc., appropriately. Word lists were created from the skits and students tested on that. When the students moved up to the HS they could test into a higher level of Spansh, with many coming out of the middle school going into Spanish 3. Most kids chose to start with Spanish 1 at the HS because college required at least 2 years of HS foreign language, with 3 encouraged (they didn't get credit for the MS school). The dating profile assignment could be a great way to develop vocabulary around hobbies, activities and interests. The problem is us adults have a different view of what just looking for adventure is on a dating website and don't really want our MSers heading down that road. They actually get High School Credit while in Middle School. So it is the same as if she was in 9th grade taking French, to me means they would be moving at a pretty fast pace and to me they are not, and there is a required state exam at the end of the year. So more accountability. They do get credit for it can take french 2 & 3 their Freshman year and be finished with foreign language or go on to AP and then dual enroll at the local college, so it needs to be highly academic. As for the "adventure" I think that is what really caught me off guard.. then I asked a LOT more questions just to make sure I understood. It doesn't help that the teacher has not communicated with the parents at all. There has been no email, no syllabus nothing sent home but a form to sign that we agreed for our student to be in High School French. This is her first year teaching at the school, and by being nosey on FB, maybe her first job teaching in a public school. |
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Post by ktdoesntscrap on Oct 17, 2016 23:05:51 GMT
My daughter said I think she really wants to be the "fun" teacher so she was trying to do something fun, but she doesn't get what middle schoolers think is fun.
I told her about the dating profile for the teacher's dog... she said THAT would be fun!
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Post by marysue63 on Oct 17, 2016 23:07:54 GMT
I'd see it as an "all about me" assignment. The matching would be fun if nobody knew whose profile was whose This is how I saw it too unless the teacher told them directly to write it as a 21 y/o. I would write about my likes, my dislikes, maybe about my family, what I like to do on a Saturday afternoon.
Granted it seems kinda weird to present it as a dating profile but the idea behind it seems innocent to me.
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pilcas
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 3,748
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Post by pilcas on Oct 17, 2016 23:08:58 GMT
To me, and I am a foreign language teacher, the type of information you would put on a dating profile is very typical of what is usually learned at that stage: describing yourself and others, activities and hobbies you like. I think the teacher was just trying to make it a little more fun, it doesn't mean that they are learning to hook up.
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Deleted
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Aug 18, 2025 21:03:13 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Oct 17, 2016 23:22:18 GMT
If I'm reading this right, is it your DD that has called it a dating profile, not the teacher?
If the teacher has told them to set a profile for an adventure then that fits in with spending the time on the une bise explanation. Une bise is the word for a platonic kiss on the cheeks between people that they know fairly well...a bit like we would hug someone as a greeting. It has no romantic meaning at all. Un bisou can be just as informal but is used for the cheek or on the lips and could be more on the romantic level. Both words mean to kiss it depends which "kiss" is appropriate. The french have a number of words for the English word kiss.
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Post by ktdoesntscrap on Oct 17, 2016 23:31:13 GMT
If I'm reading this right, is it your DD that has called it a dating profile, not the teacher? If the teacher has told them to set a profile for an adventure then that fits in with spending the time on the une bise explanation. Une bise is the word for a platonic kiss on the cheeks between people that they know fairly well...a bit like we would hug someone as a greeting. It has no romantic meaning at all. Un bisou can be just as informal but is used for the cheek or on the lips and could be more on the romantic level. Both words mean to kiss it depends which "kiss" is appropriate. The french have a number of words for the English word kiss. No. The teacher called it a dating profile and one thing they have to complete is "who they are looking for" man, woman, age, etc. I know what un bise faire la bise is, ( I attended a French immersion High School).. they spent two weeks learning about it and had to perform a skit demonstrating it. (which seemed like a lot of time to me) |
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Post by ktdoesntscrap on Oct 17, 2016 23:36:02 GMT
Just asked the child.. they have to fill it out as if they were at least 18... and they had to choose what they were looking for:
Marriage
Long Term Relationships
or
Adventure?? (perhaps Friendship) would have been more appropriate given the age
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Post by melodyesch on Oct 17, 2016 23:46:16 GMT
I take French as an adult and in my French book that was exactly the lesson early on. We read dating profiles in a book and then did our own dating profile. It was a good way to learn vocabulary that related to our own interests. So maybe she pulled that assignment from that book? But I dont have kids so don't know if that's appropriate for that age or not.
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Deleted
Posts: 0
Aug 18, 2025 21:03:13 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Oct 17, 2016 23:59:41 GMT
If I'm reading this right, is it your DD that has called it a dating profile, not the teacher? If the teacher has told them to set a profile for an adventure then that fits in with spending the time on the une bise explanation. Une bise is the word for a platonic kiss on the cheeks between people that they know fairly well...a bit like we would hug someone as a greeting. It has no romantic meaning at all. Un bisou can be just as informal but is used for the cheek or on the lips and could be more on the romantic level. Both words mean to kiss it depends which "kiss" is appropriate. The french have a number of words for the English word kiss. No. The teacher called it a dating profile and one thing they have to complete is "who they are looking for" man, woman, age, etc. I know what un bise faire la bise is, ( I attended a French immersion High School).. they spent two weeks learning about it and had to perform a skit demonstrating it. (which seemed like a lot of time to me) Oh OK. it was just confusing with the dating profile and the adventure bit. |
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Deleted
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Aug 18, 2025 21:03:13 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Oct 18, 2016 0:01:36 GMT
Just asked the child.. they have to fill it out as if they were at least 18... and they had to choose what they were looking for: Marriage Long Term Relationships or Adventure?? (perhaps Friendship) would have been more appropriate given the age I can understand your concern. Strange request at that age. |
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Post by scrapaddict702 on Oct 18, 2016 0:03:38 GMT
As the kid who got asked out as a dare or jokes in school...this kind of assignment would make me drop the class. It is just begging for the outcast of the class to be singled out, bullied and made to feel even worse about themselves. Very inappropriate even if everyone got along.
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