Got Books? Reading in the LOTE Classroom

For years I have been on a hunt for texts that are appropriate for the skill level of my students, but that are also really interesting and fun to read. I think that, in all honesty, unless you have the undying passion for a language that a French teacher has, you aren't willing to read just anything simply because your teacher thinks it's good for you. It has to grab you. I once tried to introduce extracts of Le Petit Prince to my students, but my best attempts crashed and burned. Was it that the text required a higher reading level than my French 2 students could reasonably manage? Probably. Was it that they hadn't had enough reading practice in my class prior to this attempt because I had such trouble locating suitable texts? I'm sure that was a factor. Was it that the subject was kind of alien and maybe kind of boring for them? Likely. 

I recently had a brainstorm: What about young adult fiction in French? When we used to have DEAR time once a week, even some of the students who were most resistant to reading got really into urban fiction. What if I could find something with relevant characters and plots, something that addressed the concerns and realities of teenagers lives today while still being an educational challenge? 

I think I finally hit pay dirt! Thank you, Brooklyn Public Library. In a recent search for "French children's books" for my son, I came across pages and pages of hits. I found the Kinra Girls series by Moka, in particular, Naïma et le Cirque de New York. I love it. I can't put it down! Although this series is likely geared towards tweens and young teens, I think it would be perfect for middle or high school French 3 and up or to be used as an independent project for heritage language students. This book fits the bill because it is written in French, of course, and especially because my students could definitely connect with the characters and the context of the story. I am a Brooklyn public high school teacher, and the title character Naïma lives in Brooklyn with an American dad who works at Coney Island and a francophone African mom from Benin. Naïma worries about encountering gang members and about being able to achieve her dreams in spite of her family's limited means. While her family doesn't have a lot of material wealth, they have a lot of love. Although I would enjoy bringing in a text that is situated in a French-speaking country, I think this story is a fabulous way to make a book in a foreign language feel a whole lot less foreign. It reflects the reality of many urban students while providing an accessible yet challenging opportunity to increase their vocabulary and ability to engage with a text in French. 

And do I even need to mention the Common Core? Although we still don't have standards for world language under the Commom Core, I'm sure that there would be a lot of happy English and Social Studies teachers if you could pull off some really top notch reading comprehension, map work and extension activities. Even better would be to adapt structures that they use to serve your own purposes. Reduce the need to reinvent the wheel...Reuse the best ideas from successful colleagues...Recycle them to achieve your objectives.