Reading and Writing - Compass Spring/Summer 2013

Compass SPRING / SUMMER 2013

m a g a z i n e

and writing

Reading

American S ec tion LycĂŠe International St G ermain-en-Laye

Illustration by Ben Ghiglione, Terminale

i

Compass

COMPASS ASALI - American Section of the Lycée International

4 Director’s Corner

Rue du Fer à Cheval - BP 70107 78100 St. Germain en Laye, France Phone + 33 1 34 51 74 85 Fax + 33 1 30 87 00 49

5 Primary School A New Way to Teach Reading

www.americansection.org

6 Middle School

The magazine is distributed without charge to current parents, alumni, former faculty and staff, parents of alumni, and other friends of the Section.

Director: Kelly Herrity kelly.herrity@americansection.org Editor: Margaret Jenkins margaret.jenkins@americansection.org Graphic design: Judy Loda, Newwalk Design Printer: Imprimerie Jasson-Taboureau Editorial Committee: Alison James, Sonia Lee, Catherine Reed, Tiffany Snel-Wark Contributors: Megan Behrent, Hannah Blanning-Leloup, Christel Capéran, Christophe Chevaugeon, Amy Crist, Jeremy Da, Melissa Da, Agnès Fruman, Ben Ghiglione, Jonathan Hall, Judith Hamery, Josephine Hebert, Kelly Herrity, Scot Hicks, Charlotte Jarquin, Sonia Lee, Barbara Moross, Mathilde Piard, Wendy Piquemal, Catherine Reed, Ana Sanchez-Moreno, Mathieu Simeral, Tiffany Snel-Wark, Alice Tirard, Caroline Zimmerman Photography: Louis Austin, Judith Hamery, Celia Heudebourg (cover photo), Margaret Jenkins, Donna Le Joncour Vol. 2, Number 2

WORDYBIRD - The Online Magazine 8 Upper School - The OIB 9 The Secondary English Curriculum

The core of what we do in the American Section is about the written word: reading examples of great and relevant

Copyright 2013 by ASALI. All rights reserved.

We have made every effort to ensure the accuracy of this magazine. If you have any questions, corrections or comments please contact the editor, Margaret Jenkins, at: margaret.jenkins@americansection.org.

literature and producing

Founded in 1952, the American Section provides an American educational and cultural experience of exceptional quality within the unique context of the Lycée International, where 13 national sections are represented.

that emulate all that is

The American Section prepares students to become lifelong learners and global citizens by fostering intellectual curiosity and self-confidence that help students realize their full potential and developing students’ leadership abilities and sense of responsibility towards others. The American Section pursues this mission through a rigorous and rewarding American curriculum which culminates in the French Baccalaureate with International Option, as well as through a broad and enriching co-curricular program including such activities as drama, community service, sports and student publications.

Please address admissions inquiries to Director of Admissions, Mary Friel, at admissions@americansection.org.

written assignments

excellent in our study of books. We ask students to research and report,

10 The Art and Science of Writing in Primary School 11 Write to Learn, Learn to Write 12 Student Voice: Ten Years of Writing in the American Section 13 Student Voice: Why Creative Writing?

14 Student Writing Samples 20 Using Technology in the Classroom 22 Reading & Writing Extra-Curriculars 24 How Much Reading is Enough?

to analyze and critique,

26 Alumni Focus: Working with Words

and to generate beautiful

30 Board

and moving works of creative writing.

31 Window on the Lycée: Introducing the Russian Section

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C One of my greatest pleasures is to find myself completely lost in a book. I love all sorts of genres – from memoirs and historical fiction to biographies and short stories.

I don’t have a favorite author (although I really do love Alice Munro’s short stories) and I am always looking for book recommendations. Many of the books I have most enjoyed have been recommended by students. On Friday mornings, I frequently find myself in the Roby library. Thanks to our amazing Library and Tech Team – Amy Crist and Charlotte Jarquin – new books and/or books related to a chosen theme are prominently and appealingly displayed. I love taking a few minutes to see what is included in our growing collection. I also will ask a student for a recommendation and in my experience, this always leads to a great conversation about books and a list of must-reads. Plus it offers an instant connection to the student. Books are a window to other worlds, other experiences, and are so wonderful at sparking conversations!

Ask any teacher and he or she will easily promote the benefits of reading – it builds fluency, vocabulary, exposes students to different writing styles and sentence structures, and although a passive activity from the perspective that one can be curled up on the couch reading a book, reading actively engages different parts of the brain and stimulates learning. The core of what we do here at the American Section is about the written word – reading examples of great and relevant literature, learning about issues across the US and the world through non-fiction, and appreciating and understanding the art of poetry.

Simultaneously, we ask our students to produce written assignments that emulate all that is excellent in our study of books. We ask them to research and report, to analyze and critique, and to generate beautiful and moving works of creative writing.

This fourth issue of Compass demonstrates how reading and writing are at the very core of everything that we do with our students from their early years through graduation. You will find examples of writing across the different grade levels, projects and assignments that inspire our students to write and read both within the program but also beyond the classroom, and how we are fusing technology with our unwavering commitment to developing fluent readers and writers. And maybe even more importantly – students who love to read and write. Happy reading!

Kelly Herrity Director

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P S Focus on: A New Way to Teach Reading Every reader has a reading life. Why you read, what you read, when you read, how you learned to read, and how you share what you read are just a few of the ways to define a reading life.

And just as every person is unique, every reading life is unique, too. From the time children begin reading, they are developing their reading lives.

They are getting to know themselves as readers - their strengths and weaknesses, their likes and dislikes - and practicing to become better readers all the time.

With this idea in mind, the American Section Primary is moving away from an approach to reading instruction that requires all readers to read the same text. We are putting in place a differentiated approach where reading skills and strategies are taught in mini lessons. As part of the instruction the teacher reads aloud to the children.

This permits the teacher to “think aloud” or demonstrate a strategy. It also provides a common text that can be discussed and analyzed for character or theme, for example. Then each student practices with reading materials at his or her own level. This allows children who are very strong readers to continue to grow as the students who are weaker develop their reading abilities by reading at their true level. The more enjoyable the reading experience, the greater the chances young readers will spend time reading. The more they read, the better at reading they will become and the faster they will improve. In the United States, this type of reading instruction is fairly common practice today, and its popularity is growing.

Over the past two school years, the primary faculty has been exploring this approach to reading instruction and how it could work in the American Section.

We decided to begin by experimenting in one class. That is why this year my third grade class is not using the reading book and practice book. They are all reading books that they can read and enjoy.

“Every reader has a reading life.”

“The greatest, and most visible difference we have seen with this program is the desire of our son to read. His reading at the end of grade two was okay, but he did not want to read. Now he is an enthusiastic reader who has found pleasure, and enjoyment in the world of books. This is the most important result for our family (his reading has also improved markedly!).” -Siun O’Sullivan “The reading program has helped our son make the transition to independent reader with confidence and enjoyment.” -Eliza Shah At the beginning of the year individual assessments were done to determine the reading level of each student. With the help of a system that evaluates and groups the books by level, the students know which books in the library are just right for them. Students keep logs of what they are reading as well as how much they read. They have a reading partner with whom they share their thoughts, and they write a letter to the teacher every other week to talk about some aspect of their reading lives. Students are reassessed periodically, but sometimes just by conferring with them and listening to them read, it is obvious that they are ready for a new challenge.

We have combined elements from three different programs to make this work. The main program we are using, however, comes from Columbia University’s Teachers College. Led by Lucy Calkins, her team of reading

experts and teachers has developed both reading and writing curricula to support differentiation. This summer four American Section teachers will be attending Teachers College for a week long course taught by experts in the field. In this way the teachers will be well prepared to use the reading workshop and a differentiated approach as we phase it in over the next two years.

There is still much work to be done, yet we believe that this change will be extremely beneficial to our students and therefore worth the challenges that it brings. After all, a reading life is a precious thing that never stops growing and changing. Nurturing every student’s reading life is one of our most important responsibilities as educators and a way that we can make a real difference in a child’s life.

Barbara Moross Primary School Principal SPRING / SUMMER

2013

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M S Focus on: WORDYBIRDthe Online Magazine

Above: Student editors work on WORDYBIRD in the Roby Library

On Wings of Words This year the Middle School has a new online magazine, The WORDYBIRD (wordybird.pbworks.com). Inspired by my very vocal parrot, Poppy, this creativity-zone is proud to feature the gentle African Gray as its logo. After that, however, all connection to the world of teachers and academia stops short. The WORDYBIRD is one hundred percent student owned and run. It is styled, written, illustrated and edited by the student body of the American Section’s Middle School. Its primary aim is to be a showcase for students to share their creativity. Most submissions are poems and stories, but any creation appears here, from watercolors to photography and musical compositions, by way of the occasional cartoon.

The WORDYBIRD was launched in October 2012, and for the first five issues, I appointed five to ten students to be Editors of the Week. Any student on either campus could become an editor, simply by signing up. By the sixth issue this became impractical and unnecessary, as the students could all understand the software and edit their own contributions. As of March 2013, Poppy announced that all students would henceforth be official editors.

The editing process works on the same principal as Wikipedia, working on the assumption that “knowledge will out.” Any student who notices a mistake can correct it. They can also insert an illustration for a piece of writing. The page always reflects the last person to make a change, so the author of a piece knows who has helped. This keeps the procedure honest and transparent, and ensures editors receive credit for their changes.

Another feature students enjoy is the ability to comment on anything published.

Comments are not anonymous, which encourages commenters to reflect and be judicious in their remarks. It is heartening to see how complimentary and encouraging the comments are! For me, the biggest satisfaction is seeing how a sixth grader on the Lycée campus can post a new page, say a poem illustrated with a drawing, and minutes later receive praise from an eighth grader at Marcel Roby.

Here is one example of the “up to the minute” nature of The WORDYBIRD. The week of the terrible school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, we took time out for necessary class discussion time. Without prompting, some of our students went home and wrote what they felt. A day later, several pieces appeared in the magazine. Here are two of them on the facing page. Each received many comments from their peers.

Judith Hamery Middle School English

Left: A limerick about Poppy, by Amélie Clark.

Right: Original artwork posted on WORDYBIRD “Shoes” by Amélie Clark, 6ème and “Sunset” by Zoé Lambert, 6ème.

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The Man in Black He got up and grabbed his guns Put some black on Left in his house His dead mum He walked to a looming school And entered through the gates Silent as a shadow He slipped Down the halls He stopped in front of a classroom He opened the door Walked in and closed it There was banging and crashing Then all was quiet The door opened And inside Lurked death Misty-eyed children Lying on the floor Limp bodies of teachers Leaning against the walls And in this bundle of death Lay the killer His expression unknown But his heart gone Along with those of his victims Magali O’Brien, 6ème

Once, I wondered why and how a person could kill innocent people. Now I know that person left life a long time ago. He died away a long time ago and was building up rage until, one day, he exploded.

Leaving that single flame of happiness to switch off. No more sadness; only anger. To get revenge he decided that he would take it out on others. Not only on adults, but also on young six-year-old children. Did that make him guilty? NO, of course not. Was it the six-year-olds’ fault? NO! Imagine those childrens’ parents. That single ball of anger killed all of the people who could have been there for him.

Why? No one knows. Did he ever feel guilt? I don’t know, but he should have. That’s why, if someone is alone, you should say hello. That “hello” could save one life or more. I know this sounds really stupid, but writing this, I am crying. Because I know that when one child dies, before Christmas, the child’s family dies too. And no way that this can be forgotten. That scar will stay there, forever and ever until the flame goes out.

This is in memory of all the victims who died because of one person.

Lauren Bleynie, 5ème SPRING / SUMMER

2013

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U S Focus on: The OIB

The OIB (Option Internationale au Baccalauréat) was created in the early 1980s as the French answer to the International Baccalaureate, which was becoming increasingly dominated by English. (The Lycée was in at the ground floor of both the IB and the OIB in fact, as our 005 IB registration number indicates.) The idea was to give students the full benefits of the French bac while simultaneously giving them a high-level university entrance qualification in the language of their Section. It remains the only secondary school program in the world to offer a fully bilingual and bicultural diploma, and currently does so in 15 national sections. We enjoy the fruits of that project today as top classes de prépa in France and universities worldwide have come to recognize the quality of our students’ preparation. For students interested in attending university in North America, a convenient if somewhat dated description of the OIB and French bac for the benefit of university admissions officers is available at: www.asiba.info/pdf/collegeboard-advancedplacement-frenchoib.pdf.

After many years spent ‘below the radar’ in France, the OIB received renewed attention by the French Education Ministry subsequent to the ‘décret crisis’ of 2004 and has been in a period of rapid expansion since. The number of American Option baccalaureate candidates worldwide has been increasing at an annual rate of 15%. A ministry directive has called for the opening of two new sections per Académie. New schools have joined annually in France and North America, while sections have also opened in Shanghai, Dublin, Johannesburg and Hong Kong. This year there are over 600 candidates in France and almost 800 worldwide; we expect that number to be well over 1000 by 2015.

An official description of the OIB and its participating schools is available at: www.ciep.fr/en/oib/index.php.

The American Option involves the cooperation of the Franco-American Commission and the Collegeboard and is directly administered by the French Inspecteurs Généraux in English and History-Geography, who work with Inspecteurs Généraux Déléguées appointed by the Collegeboard. OIB teachers and examiners worldwide meet at least once a year as a group to discuss changes in the programs and preparations for the upcoming examination session. The examinations, one for France Métropolitaine and one for North America, are composed by the Inspecteurs Généraux in conjunction with the Inspecteurs Généraux Déléguées on the basis of subjects proposed by the examiners of all OIB schools in November. Examiners then meet with the Inspecteurs Généraux Déléguées again for moderation sessions in June after the written examination and just before the orals, and extraordinary sessions take place at other times to deal with extra changes to the exam or to train new examiners.

At the Lycée International, the OIB is required of all students in Première and Terminale (with the exception of allemand spécial). In the American Section, the OIB syllabus undergoes revision on a yearly basis in both subjects. Syllabi and other timely information, like copies of past examinations and current grading rubrics, are made available to students and their parents at the beginning of each year.

The OIB written examinations typically take place in early June, roughly a week before the French bac, and OIB oral examinations follow the French bac, typically in the last week of June.

The examinations seek to test and reward those skills which students have exhibited and developed, in general terms since Maternelle, but in terms of specific written and oral exercises since entry in Seconde.

Preparation for the examination intensifies in the Terminale year with two bac blancs in each subject administered on Saturday mornings and with mock orals throughout the year. At the end of Terminale, students write 4-hour examination papers in LanguageLiterature and in History-Geography. The Lang-Lit paper consists of either two essays treating four works (two each) from the OIB syllabus or one essay and a commentary on an unseen prose passage or poem.

The H-G paper consists of one subject in history and one in geography. In both cases the candidate is asked either to address an essay topic or to study and respond to questions on a group of documents. Our students typically produce 10 to 20 pages of knowledgeable, well-reasoned prose on a written examination and demonstrate mastery of their program and independent literary or historical judgement on their orals. They have every reason to be proud of what they have accomplished in school and should feel well prepared and eager for the challenges of a top-notch university.

Scot Hicks Upper School English & OIB Coordinator

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The Secondary English Curriculum The American Section English department has a threetiered curriculum and most of our projects, papers and in-class conversations lead to pursuing excellence in these domains: reading, writing, and speaking. Though this is in part because the final frontier of the Lycée’s program in Enseignement National de Langue et Littérature is a four hour written exam and a thirty minute oral exam, it is also because we are trying to teach our students to aim for the same level as their peers in outstanding American schools.

Needless to say, we have many other goals in addition to these. We want our students to have a strong sense of American culture and ideally, to feel that they are part of it. We want them to learn to make moral and ethical decisions by reading books and writing papers about ethical dilemmas. We want them to apply the lessons they learn in books to their own lives. We hope to be encouraging ethical, courageous and compassionate behavior in all of our students. We also want them to be creative, imaginative and able to solve problems with ease and finesse. These are lofty goals, and we meet them with varying degrees of success. We try to choose books and create assignments that will stimulate their curiosity and lead them toward becoming enthusiastic lifelong learners.

Students read novels, plays, poems and essays. They learn to analyze by coming up with arguments about texts and defending these with evidence (examples and quotations) that they find in the text. This process of being able to understand a writer’s mission, to say what it is and to be able to prove your case is at the heart of the English program. The OIB essay asks students to answer a big question about literature (What is the role of setting?

What is the purpose of flashback narration? What role does the past play in the work?) with a text. During their time with us, students learn to figure out what style is (everything in the writer’s toolbox) and to be able discern the meanings of texts through the study of writing technique.

Our students write a great deal. Students write letters to the author, produce character analyses, create pamphlets to show theme and setting, craft strong persuasive essays about themes or views expressed in the text and write personal essays to show their own reaction to what they read. They write plays, short stories, poems and essays “in the style of ” the writer in question. The two principal analytical approaches to critical writing, though (and increasingly so in the older grades) are the critical essay and the text commentary. The critical essay, in its best incarnation, gives an argument about the text’s meaning that is compelling and original and richly supported with examples and quotations. These Illustration “The Pen is Mightier than the Sword” by Alice Tirard, Troisième

papers conclude with a message to the reader about the true meaning of the text when seen via the lens the writer has chosen. A text commentary is a close examination of thirty to forty lines of text (prose or poetry) which the student may or may not have seen before. Occasionally, these are selections from longer works studied in class, but they can be works students have yet to encounter.

The goal with the commentary is to show the meaning of the passage through the literary devices at play therein.

Students in Première and Terminale practice writing these kinds of essays all year long. The best effect of this kind of work is that students learn to talk about a text with a nuanced understanding of what goes into the production of a work of art. They also learn, we hope, to develop their tastes and knowledge about literature and life.

Finally, students in American Section English classes learn how to say what they believe to be true. They are asked every day to participate in the class discussion. There are very few lecture classes, even for the older kids, and all of our students learn that their participation in the daily exchange about texts prepare them for sophisticated dialogue and conversation in all domains. It is not always easy to be the sole person talking in a room of twenty, so there are opportunities for shy people to excel when the small group discussion includes just three or four students. In addition to these back-and-forth talks about the texts (daily, in every grade), students are expected to make their contributions reflect their own beliefs about the texts.

Our best students steer clear of idées reçues and forge ahead to say something new about even the most classic, well-worn texts. Classes can be noisy, as you can imagine. Our students, we hope, feel that their perspectives, both in class discussions and on paper, are valued and celebrated for their freshness and originality.

We provide the tools and materials we believe will help them to refine and develop their ideas; they provoke and assist each other in this pursuit. When they graduate, American Section students have a remarkable ability to analyze literature and writing, but even more, they take the ability to read with ease, write with confidence and speak with conviction with them into all of their other future endeavors.

Catherine Reed Head of English SPRING / SUMMER

2013

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The Art and Science of Writing in Primary School “Effective writing is both an art and a science. The ability to generate interesting ideas and a pleasing style characterizes the art side; mastering the craft and its conventions characterizes the science side. Good instruction judiciously attends to both.”

-Dorothy Strickland, author and educator.

Writing is one of the most difficult yet most important skills we learn in school. When you think about it, you realize writing requires that you are able to do several different things quickly, smoothly, and simultaneously. You need good motor skills to move a pen or depress a key to render letters. And, of course, language is an essential ingredient. There can be no writing without the vocabulary to express ideas and the ability to organize those ideas into words and sentences. You draw on your memory to remember rules of grammar, spelling, capitalization, and punctuation as well. And, as if that were not enough, you must have the ability to stay focused in order to orchestrate all these brain functions.

In the American Section Primary, we start the writing process in the Pre-K class where children do many activities such as coloring, drawing, painting, cutting, and writing their names to develop their graphomotor and other fine motor skills.

By Kindergarten the students are dictating their ideas and stories to an adult who writes them down. In that way, children come to understand that writing is simply speaking that has been encoded and recorded. By the end of the year, children are copying and generating words and short sentences.

Students in Kindergarten through Grade 5 celebrate their writing accomplishments each year by “publishing” a book. This is a hard cover, 14-page, bound, blank book that 10

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each of our young writers turns into something unique and personal. They go through the various stages of publishing from putting their ideas down on paper to completing the book. At the end of their primary school years, students and their parents have a set of these books to treasure.

Several years ago, the primary faculty adopted a model for teaching writing called The Write Traits. This framework has specific vocabulary to help teachers discuss writing with students and give them feedback they can understand.

Basically, this program divides writing into six characteristics or traits: Ideas, Organization, Voice, Word Choice, Sentence Fluency, and Conventions. Presentation, although not an official trait, is always considered part of the writing process. As students move up through the grades, they are taught to review their work through the various lenses of these traits and to revise it. They learn that for any given piece of writing there will be strengths and weaknesses.

This program, with its common language at all levels, helps students see what is good about their work and what needs improvement from piece to piece and from grade to grade. Teachers often use a rubric or a chart divided into the six traits to report to students on their work.

The science of writing, or what we refer to as the Conventions trait, is given special attention in primary school. It is what primary students need to practice and acquire over the course of their formative years. Spelling accurately, using good grammar, and applying the rules of capitalization and punctuation are the basic skills that all writers need to have. However, the art of writing is what makes it fun and motivating. Experimenting with words and writing forms and sharing your ideas with other writers make for rich classroom and personal experiences.

From poetry to expository writing and from personal narrative to folktales, students have ample opportunity to write often and to try many forms of writing as they move from grade to grade. Ultimately, the goal of our program is to send students to middle school with both a desire to write and the skills to do it well.

Barbara Moross Primary School Principal

Illustration by Luke Doladille, CM1

Write to Learn: Learn to Write In this school, our students learn how to write convincing analytical essays right from the start of Middle School.

Long before they are acing the four hour written ENL bac, they are crafting lean, well-defended critical papers on each of the books they read for class. The literary discussions and the teachers’ instruction deepen the convictions students have about the texts. They can then launch their interpretation, splicing each paragraph with the requisite indeeds, moreovers and the (dreaded) thuses.

Eventually, they can take forty lines of any text and perform surgical operations to show the reader the significance of each dash, period and semi-colon. Ask any Terminale why parentheses matter and he or she is likely to ask you whether you prefer to hear about Elizabeth Bishop’s or Virginia Woolf ’s. They might even ask you to clarify: did you really mean parentheses or might you have meant brackets? They are different, you know. In partnership with our colleagues in French literature, we have taught our students to analyze with great skill and confidence. On that front, they are usually at the top of their game by the time they graduate.

What we are trying to do more of is to teach them to write for pleasure and from their own experience. There is a strong tradition in American schools of creative and personal writing. Creative thinking can and often does lead to more sophisticated critical thinking. Here, perhaps because the students’ final ENL destination is a four-hour critical essay exam, or perhaps because there is not a major focus on creative work on the French side, attention paid to writing works of pure imagination (short fiction, poetry, play-writing, personal essay and even persuasive essay) can be given short shrift at the Middle and Upper School levels.

In the last few years, though, teachers from our program have been including more creative writing than ever before. Students write poems in certain forms (sonnets, sestinas) or on certain themes (spring or the sea). Middle Schoolers write for our new online magazine, Wordybird.

Upper Schoolers write for Ink. They write screenplays. In some classes, when they read short stories, they write short stories. They send works into contests in France and in the United States. And in Premiere and Terminale, they write more personal essays, college essays and creative responses “in the style” of the OIB writers.

The rationale for having students write from their heads and hearts about material which is all theirs is complex.

First, in today’s world, one could argue that the most important skill students require is the ability to problem-solve in an imaginative and effective way. Creative writing teaches

students to shape their own experience into a form that makes it available to others. Mark Twain said, “You cannot depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus.” Our students yearn for more opportunities to use their imaginations. When they do, they understand that their mission is to “Make visible what, without you, might perhaps never been seen.” (R. Bresson) When teachers ask students to write about literature taught in class, the material is ours; we chose it, we have studied it and we speak as though our view were the view about the text. When students write creatively from their own experience or imagination the material is theirs. What a difference this makes in terms of learning! Our school is a good one, but if I had to identify one area we might be able to improve upon, generally, it is teaching kids to be independent thinkers, confident about their own unique and legitimate points of view. We can afford to urge them to be willing to say how they see the world and themselves in it to an audience that starts here in school, but which becomes much wider once they walk through the gates for the last time. Creative writing can help them learn to do that.

Another good reason to have students write creatively is that it forces them to question their own points of view.

They must imagine and be sympathetic to lives and visions of the world that are very different from their own.

American educator John Dewey said that in order to have a democracy we have to be able to imaginitively put ourselves in other people’s shoes. He also urged teachers to have students create the work rather than merely absorb other people’s thoughts about an existing work: “Give the pupils something to do, not something to learn, and the doing is of such a nature as to demand thinking; learning naturally results.” For some students accustomed to taking notes on a lecture and packaging them up neatly for the teacher, writing about what they care about most can be a real challenge. Still, the results are occasionally stunning.

This year, some of the Premières studied Much Ado About Nothing and they wrote their own plays afterwards. The only rules: four characters, a shift in power at the end and the last stage direction had to be “a doorbell rings.” It is true that the students mastered all of the elements of comedy.

They now know how to employ stage direction, write effective dialogue and understand the major components of drama. More importantly, they also shared their personal visions of the way things work when they wrote, cast, staged and performed these original works for each other.

Students are more invested in the work that they create “from scratch.” This is in part because it requires them to SPRING / SUMMER

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say what they care about (challenging for many people going through adolescent ennui), but also because they learn about each other when they hear and edit each other’s work.

Students who throw themselves into the process of writing from their own experience and from their imaginations find such riches there! Not every student can do this; some will write a version of a story that they have heard before, or an essay that does not mean much to them, but follows the rules. However, they still benefit from hearing what their classmates have found in this journey. Every teacher in the Section can tell a story about the time a student in class perfectly expressed something true, what matters to them, how they see the world, in a poem, story

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or personal essay. So can every student. To be “moved” means to be transformed, changed by one’s experience, in this case writing. In order to hit those high notes of language and learning, to make work in the classroom real and not just preparatory, we need to respect the experience, understanding and even flights of fancy our young people have. Teachers in our school work to help kids to shape their vision into something lasting, something vital, knowing that it is having that vision in the first place that counts most. We believe that writing creatively is one good way to do this.

Catherine Reed Head of English

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Ten Years of Writing in the American Section Mathieu Simeral, now in Terminale, started the American Section in 2002 as a 2nd grade Plus student.

Student writing evolves a lot in ten short years, as you can see here!

One of the first stories Mathieu wrote in his 2nd grade writing notebook: When Julius came to my house When Julius the big fat pig came to my house, we had a lot of fun.

We decided to paint. Julius painted on the wall instead of paper. He wrote with the paint: “Hello, ugly mommy.” My mother got very upset.

To calm her down Julius thought to give her flowers. Unfortunately he took the flowers from the neighbor’s garden. Another time Julius and I decided to make a cake. First, Julius put flour everywhere. He also broke 12 eggs on the floor and dropped the milk bottle. The kitchen was all messed up. And Julius forgot the cake in the oven. There was smoke coming out of the oven. Another day we wanted to plant a tree. Julius wanted to plant a peanut butter tree. He got mud all over himself and me too. At night we sneaked outside to watch the stars and invented scary stories about aliens. We took baths together. The water in the bath was always gray because Julius was so dirty. Julius stayed with me.

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An excerpt from one of his Terminale bac blanc essays, in response to the following question: The past often has a frightening power over the present reality of characters.

Examine how authors show how the personal, familial or societal past shapes the present.

“This conflict between Jason and Medea is really the manifestation of a deeper conflict that is between Medea and herself.

Medea is trying to have a family with Jason and leading a normal life is acting against her very nature. She is the descendant of gods. This divinity in her is the source of conflict in the play. Medea tries to fit into human society, trying to limit her divine self to the life of a woman but she fails to constrain herself and that failure results in the events of the play. She is in a way denying her origins, denying her familial past until this turns against her. Her divinity is made clear by Euripides in several different instances. The way she treats her children and kills them shows her possessive nature towards them as if they were not individuals but only extensions of herself. The chorus, who up until she decides to kill her children has been siding with her, says they cannot take action such as that against “the laws of nature.” The fact that Medea can and does transgress these laws shows she is in a way above them. The witch imagery that Medea is described with only reinforces her divinity by ascribing her supernatural powers.

“Her well-established divinity is bursting out through the play from the shell of human life she inherited from her time with Jason. It is only when she finally accepts her divinity and embraces it that the conflict is resolved. This is most evident in the deux ex machine ending where Medea’s grandfather, the sun god, allows her to escape into the sky on his chariot. Euripides is making a point that one cannot deny one’s past and origins because these are one’s very nature.”

Why Creative Writing?

All through high school and hours of ENL classes, thanks to a creative writing summer program at Emerson College, I’ve been learning about what it means to write. I’ve learned that it isn’t only about putting one word next to the other and adding punctuation where it belongs, and it’s not about filling a page with the required word count.

One Monday morning, at Emerson, as some friends and I shuffled into the classroom, our teacher, Molly, sent us right back out and told us to spend one hour in the Boston Common eavesdropping. We had to walk around, listening, searching for an interesting story. I followed families, couples, tourists and Bostonians and ended up writing a story about Jeffrey, the homeless man who chases pigeons out of the park.

Another day, she brought in a few issues of Found magazine, which compiles hundreds of notes people have discovered in the streets, in Starbucks or even in cemeteries. We worked on creating stories around these “finds.” This time, I wrote a story about a flight attendant whose only way of making it through her last trip home is locking herself up in the toilet with the mini-bar. This is one of the most valuable skills I have learned from writing: looking around at the small and insignificant things and finding the story behind them.

The American Section does encourage creative writing: all through Middle School, we had assignments such as the poetry project in which we wrote our own poems, or various other short stories. The EN part of the Brevet asked for a creative piece. For me, though, it was in Seconde that I really started taking writing seriously, thanks to the many writing assignments or in-class pieces we did.

In the American Section, we now have the Creative Writing Club, open to Premieres and Terminales, led by Mrs. Reed. Most of our writing is either fiction, or personal essays. Each of these styles is special to me in different ways. When writing a short story, you can embody a totally different character. You can use the lives you’ve created from mundane objects and make them real. As for personal essays, it can be very cathartic to set some of your stories free. Going through a past experience and sharing it with people has a very liberating feeling.

As much as I like to share stories I’ve written with other people, it is also great to hear other people’s stories. As a writer, it is really inspiring to see how others have used their imagination to create these stories.

Every story has a sentence, a paragraph, or maybe just a word that triggers something in your brain, that makes you want to write in the same way, or leaves you thinking about it even days later. Sometimes, it’s the idea: it’s a way of seeing the world you had never thought of before. Other times it’s a voice that is completely foreign to you, or a character you had never met whose story enthralls you.

Creative writing isn’t something that is typically endorsed in the French educational system, which is a pity. Last year, in Premiere, I didn’t have much time to do any creative writing, and some days I really missed it. I’d sometimes think of a story I wanted to write and even go as far as writing down the idea on whatever was hanging around: a metro ticket stub, a napkin, a receipt… But I never wrote them. I always felt like I had too much work or something more important to do, and I could never quite justify creative writing in my spare time. This year, thanks to the Creative Writing Club, I feel like I have an excuse, or a reason, to write.

One of the main goals of creative writing, though, is to have fun. In a way, writing is like traveling to a world you get to create.

It’s like meeting someone who fascinates you and exploring different facets of their personality. It’s like creating the life you Above: In class and wish you’d had or the one you’re glad you never had. There’s hanging out with classnothing else in the world that gives you the opportunity to do mates at the Emerson that. Nothing else gives you the power to create a life that might College Creative Writing never have existed.

Summer Program.

I’m not saying I wouldn’t be able to live without writing, or that I Below: Examples of need it to stay sane. What I am saying is that it’s one of my only outlets “Found” notes that help me cope with the stress and pressure we sometimes feel at this school. For some, it’s dancing, or singing, or bike riding; for me, it’s writing.

S

V

Josephine Hebert Terminale SPRING / SUMMER

2013

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Student writing samples

With the ultimate goal of graduating students with outstanding writing skills, capable of exceling in top-notch university programs worldwide, the American Section requires all pupils to write often and intensely.

Starting in the primary grades, both creative and expository writing are explored. What follows is a selection of written work crafted by our students, from our preschoolers to the Terminales, over the course of this academic year.

John-Liam Burke - CP

CP (1st grade) First graders start writing regularly in the second trimester. Most of their writing is based on personal experiences and feelings, such as a favorite friend or food. They develop a writing web, which is used to answer specific questions to develop content around a precise idea. Their writing is edited and copied into their notebooks, then illustrated with a picture.

Sophie Srouji - MS

Moyenne Section (PreK) PreK students are expected to recognize and to learn to write their own first name in capital letters, and are in this way introduced to the written word.

In the “Farm Book” project, students begin working with words.

They start by drawing a farm animal, then copy the animal names (‘cow,’ ‘bull,’ and ‘calf ’) as well as the sound the animal makes (‘moo’).

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Alexandra Dalrymple-Roth - CP

CE2 (3rd grade) Schnapper 3rd graders wrote their own mysteries after reading Nate the Great. They discussed voice, the elements of a mystery, clues, and solution. Then, always thinking of the Write Traits (Ideas, Word Choice, Sentence Fluency, Voice, Conventions and Organization), the students wrote their mysteries.

The stories were organized into a book called Third Grade Mysteries by their teacher, Mrs. McCarthy.

The Big Case Of The Missing Dog

The Missing Pumpkin

“Where is Frenchy?” asked my dad.

“Oh, I don’t know, but I can be your detective. I will be Emilie the Excellent,” I said.

“Well, hurry, because it is almost night time,” my dad said.

I went and found a big mess. All of the chocolate was missing! So I went and found more clues. One of them was that my mom was missing, too! I also saw some throw up!

My dad asked, “Are you almost finished?”

I said, “No!” “I’ll call Mom and see if she knows,” said my dad.

But she didn’t answer the phone. “That’s weird. She always answers her phone,” I said. I went into my room and thought a minute. “Hmm,” I said out loud.

“Dad, I know where Frenchy is. He’s at the hospital, because dogs cannot eat chocolate!” I screamed.

“Are you sure that he’s at the hospital?” he asked, walking up the stairs.

When I saw the chocolate on his lips, I said, “No.” He said, “I ate the chocolate!”

I answered, “Then WHERE IS FRENCHY!!!!!!!!!” I asked, “Can I borrow your car? Please, please, please, pretty please?!”

“Heck no!” he answered.

So I said, “This is complicated.” Then I heard the door open and I saw Mom… WITH Frenchy! I said, “Where was Frenchy?!”

“Oh, he was at the hospital,” my mom answered.

I said, “Oh, great! I solved the mystery. But if Frenchy didn’t eat the chocolate, why did he go to the hospital?”

“Well, actually, he ate my phone,” she responded.

“So that’s why you didn’t answer it!” my dad and I said at the same time.

Emilie Fahber - CE2

It’s Halloween evening; the sun is pale and the air feels spooky. The farmer is checking his pumpkin patch. He notices that something is wrong. His rare golden pumpkin is missing! He decides that he should call Sam, the great detective, and his assistant, Dog Dog. Sam arrives at the farm and questions the farmer.

The farmer says hello and explains that his pumpkin is missing.

“When did you last see the pumpkin?” asks Sam. “At 5:30pm today,” says the farmer.

“Where did you get the pumpkin?” asks Sam. “It is a special pumpkin. I had to order it from the North Pole. I have to find it because there is a pumpkin contest next week,” the farmer explained.

“Let’s go look at where the pumpkin was growing,” said Sam. Dog Dog becomes excited and starts sniffing around.

“Hmm, interesting. The thief had a sharp knife and made a neat cut,” says Sam. “Look, I see that some of the vines are crushed. Let’s follow them,” says Sam. They lead to the old abandoned mansion next door.

Next, Sam and Dog Dog notice a chunk of pumpkin on the steps. “It must be here,” says Sam. He turns the knob and quietly enters.

They look around and climb the stairs. They keep climbing, but it seems to take forever to reach the top.

The stairs seem to never end. After climbing a long time, they spy a hallway with many doors. They open each door and look inside. Nothing is interesting except for the last one. There they see the golden pumpkin!

They notice that it is whole.

The farmer explains that it is a magic pumpkin.

“No matter how often you cut it, it grows back,” says the farmer.

They run down the stairs but are chased by a ghost.

Finally, they reach the front door of the mansion and close it as they run out. “Whew! I think we escaped from the ghost,” says Sam. The farmer is very happy to have his golden pumpkin back. He thanks Sam and Dog Dog. Sam Lambert - CE2

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Student writing samples CM2 (5th grade)

Schnapper Grade 5 students in Mrs. Crichton’s class are experimenting with creating Digital Stories. How can a story be told, about something important to the author, using few words, a voiceover and images? Sparse, direct, but most of all, sincere - will it resonate? A work in progress!

Here are a two scripts:

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Believe

Secret Love

Everyone tells me to believe in myself, but what does that really mean? Does it mean that I shouldn’t question myself? Does it mean that I have to think I’m the best no matter what? No. It means that I must stand strong and be proud of who I am, mistakes and all.

Should I let someone else control my life? That’s another, ‘no’!

But how will I achieve that?

When someone seems stronger, more sure of themselves, it’s hard.

Hard to step away and show them that I’m not a little puppy that will follow them around.

I can’t let what people think about me change the way I am.

No. I am a person. A real person with feelings, a soul, and a heart.

No one is allowed to make me feel weak, inferior, or dumb.

No one is any of these things.

If you have too much self- doubt, just step back for a minute.

Take a deep breath. Look around and see what’s going on.

Just look…and watch.

Have courage.

Believe in yourself.

Believe in life Céline Perthuisot - CM2

I have a secret love.

Something very special.

Something I am addicted to... a sort of drug in a way, but a great one.

But most of all, it’s something I have lived and believed in since the beginning of my life.

This is swimming, or just, water.

When I am in water I feel my whole body coming to life.

Underwater is the world of silence.

There is a place for me to relax for a few seconds.

When I am in water, I do not have anything to think about but holding my breath.

And you can do any kind of movement without touching anything but water.

Am I part human and part dolphin?

This is a mystery that will stay with me all my life.

Well, maybe not. (laughter) The feeling of freedom in water.

This is what matters to me.

Darius Foodeei - CM2

C O M PA S S M A G A Z I N E

Cinquième (7th grade) After reading Lois Lowry’s The Giver, Mrs. Hershey’s 5èmes were asked to write an essay explaining what they thought should be done to make the world a better place. They needed to identify three concrete problems and to put forth possible solutions. Here are two excerpts:

The Problems of our Imperfect World “…Another problem on earth is the lack of education. 774 million people are illiterate on Earth, of which the majority are women. Many children who are supposed to be going to school are actually working to help their families to gain money. Many of these children long to go to school, they should have the opportunity.

With a school certificate they have higher chances to succeed and enhance our dear world. To improve this we should: set up local schools with time schedules adapted to their spare time, make education easily accessible, and schools should stay clear of controversial subjects in the local societies. This would make our wonderful not so perfect world much better. You are strongly encouraged to take this advice and help make this world a better place for all.”

Casseopia Van den bussche - 5ème

How to Make the World a Better Place “One of the major problems in this world is pollution, a problem that is causing global warming and killing off the animals. The problem needs to be solved if we plan on keeping our planet a hospitable place, instead of a toxic wasteland. There are quite a few ways to solve this problem, but our race shows negligence to try (apart from a few organizations). One way is to try and stop dumping toxins into the waters and sending poison gases into the air. Or we could try and develop our technology so it is more eco-friendly while being safe at the same time; nuclear technology is ecofriendly but an accident could have dire consequences, and turn the sector into a nuclear wasteland like those depressing post-apocalyptic movies and games.”

Erdogan Deniz - 5ème

Quatrième (8th grade)

As part of their Romeo and Juliette unit, Mrs. Hamery’s 4ème students tried their hand at writing quatrain sonnets in the style of Shakespeare.

Examples of quatrain sonnets The snowflakes fall onto the frozen grass, The winter breeze is blowing on my face.

I start to walk along the mountain pass, To run away from life and have some space.

The leaves I will walk on scream and cry so loud, Their shades remind me of gold and copper jewels The sky becomes grey and I see a cloud, The thunder breaks the perfect and calm souls.

The flowers start to grow under my feet I feel the earth take life and breath again I lie down in the field and feel complete I will not open my eyes once again.

The agitated waves draw back and forth I now know what life holds for me henceforth.

Chloe Lemarechal - 4ème Throughout our life we have often been told That time’s a precious gift that has a cost And that onto the present we must hold For years fly by before we know they’re lost.

Juliet de Smet - 4ème

Here are some samples of 8th Grade Wordly Wise sentences, composed in class for a vocabulary quiz. The class was studying Romeo and Juliet, and was told to write sentences about the play to illustrate the meaning of the underlined vocabulary words.

Note: By 8th grade, students are consistently using the present tense in expository writing.

- When Mercutio is killed, some viewers may find the scene so harrowing they might ask to leave the theater. (Madeleine Tabary) - Tybalt uses his intuition to decipher the love between Romeo and Juliet but this has pernicious consequences. (Felicien Robert-Vassy) - Romeo seeks solace from the friar after killing Tybalt. (John Cambefort) - Friar Lawrence marries Romeo and Juliet because he has an intuition that their union will bring peace to the Capulets and Montagues. (Alex Guiot) - The play Romeo and Juliet by Shakespeare demonstrates that love can be a harrowing adventure. (Adrien Juillard) - The reader can empathize with Romeo when he feels sorrow about being exiled.

(Sophie Jolivet-Habiby)

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Student writing samples Troisième

As part of the newly reform Brêvet requirements, Trosièmes have been working on a poetry project. They each chose a theme and collected ten poems relating to their topic. A twenty-minute oral presentation about these poems will comprise their Brêvet oral grade. Below are excerpts from Mrs. Hamery’s students’ introductions, which explain why they chose their themes.

“Dream” is a word that has many definitions. It can be a noun or a verb. It can mean a goal, images flashing through our mind while we sleep, a wish or a daydream. In this anthology I have grouped poems that are about all the different types of dreams and the different ways in which they can be perceived. I have chosen all of these poems because dreaming takes up a big part of my life.

There is a world inside my head that nobody else knows about, where I create characters and make up stories that can go from tragic, to funny, to drama, to cheesy endings in the wink of an eye. While I daydream, I can just as well think about myself and who I want to turn out to be. …I have always wondered what other people dream about but the only people who talk about dreams are usually poets. They express what they think with symbolism which can be interpreted in many different ways. You could spend hours contemplating what some poems mean. The poets explain the unknown in dreams but sometimes not even they could tell you the answer, and they just leave you with more questions that you would never have thought of on your own.”

Isabella Mandic - Trosième “I realized war could be a subject and an inspiration for art in many forms long before I made the leap from art in any form to poetry, but I had never read any “war poetry” until one of my teachers assigned my class the task of reading “Flander’s Field” by John McCrae, “Dulce et Decorum Est” by Wilfred Owen, and “The Soldier” by Rupert Brooke, and writing our own war poems. I remember scanning the lines, awestruck, reading again from the top, mechanically standing up, walking over to the table, taking pen and paper out of my bag, and writing. I wanted to capture the burning, bitter desperation and the heart-thumping urgency of the cry of “GAS! Gas! Quick, boys!” in Wilfred Owen’s writing, the fervent loyalty that permeates Brooke’s “The Soldier,” the longing ache and gentle sadness of “Flander’s Field.” I loved that Rupert Brooke and Wilfred Owen both spoke of the same subject, war, and yet their views could not have been more different. I loved that Brooke’s evocative words could change my moue of disgust at what I thought was his simpleminded, blind nationalism to a small, sad smile at what I realized was actually love for a country that raised him and that he found beautiful. I loved the manifold ways the war poets expressed themselves, from the quiet, lyric lullaby of Sophie Jewett’s “Armistice” to the hammering, incessant battering accusation of Allen Ginsberg’s “War Profit Litany.” I loved that, even as decades and centuries passed, poets still felt the compulsion to express their feelings for war through verse.”

Anita Youngblood - Troisième 18

C O M PA S S M A G A Z I N E

Seconde

Terminale

The following are excepts from a one-hour in class writing assignment. Students were asked to write a critical essay about a short story of their own choosing from Kate Chopin’s collection The Awakening and Other Stories.

The following are excerpts from the April OIB bac blanc. The OIB exams lasts four hours.

Students choose from four essay and two commentary topics, and must write either two essays or an essay and a commentary.

“A second symbol that show an entirely contrasting aspect of growing up is the blooming of chrysanthemums at Toussaint, at which point Maman-Nainette says she will join her goddaughter out in the world. We do not feel the same tone of excitement as we did with Babette, in fact it is the contrary. Chrysanthemums are typically associated with death and funerals, and this connotation is not to be lost on the reader, as it is the element that forms the reversal Chopin wishes to make at the end.

This symbol of life representing death is a powerful one, though subtle, and it shows an interesting side of a mother-daughter relationship, in which after waiting with her goddaughter for her to grow up and leave, all she has to do now is to wait for her death to come, the next approaching event of life.”

Julia Dakhlia - Seconde

Essay: “Man is the cruelest animal.” Frederich Nietzsche.

Literature is often a study in human cruelty and malice.

Examine cruelty and its consequences in two works.

“Cruelty is without a doubt one of the most essential cornerstones of a literary work; in both novels and plays, it acts as an origin of conflict and tension which then pervade the texts until resolution is achieved. What is most interesting, however, is how the origins of such cruelty can differ, and how we, as readers who are aware of the full context at any given moment, react differently depending on these varying origins. In some cases, the roots of cruelty lie in the conscious mind: characters have personal ambitions that they want to attain, and react spontaneously to certain situations. In other cases, the origin of a character’s cruel or malicious actions is buried deeper, ingrained in the unconscious, the very personality of a character, by manner of upbringing, of childhood, and of surroundings. William Shakespeare, in Hamlet, and Toni Morrison, in The Bluest Eye, explore these two cases, causing separate and very notable reactions in readers. The difference is Manichean: upon witnessing cruelty borne of the conscious mind, we as observers tend to judge and determine if such actions are justified by any contextual information. Upon witnessing cruelty of a more controlled or unconscious kind, the situation is all of a sudden much harder to judge.”

Scott Lechleiter - Terminale

“The contrast between controlled mother and eager child is further highlighted using the difference of point of view in the story. The sentence “Not that the ripening of figs has the least thing to do with it, but that is the way Maman-Nainette was,” is clearly told in Babette’s point of view: she represents the child who doesn’t understand parental restrictions and simply believes “that is the way parents are.” Another interesting aspect is the two characters’ view on the passing of time. While “it seemed to Babette a very long time to wait,” Maman-Nainette exclaims: “Ah (…) how early the figs have ripened this year.” The contrast reminds us of the timely parent-child conflict: while children are always eager to try out new things and believe their parents are too strict, parents always see their children grow up too fast, and have a hard time letting them be free. The contrast is also emphasized by the similar spoken sentances: “Oh, (…) I think they have ripened very late.” The onomatopoeia changes and the two views are opposite, but the identical rhythm intensifies this contrast.”

Bilal Choho - Seconde

Commentary: a forty-line prose passage from The Monster (1899) by Stephen Crane “Martha Goodwin embodies several quite contracting identities. While the first paragraph exemplifies Martha by a woman who must work very hard to even earn the “privilege of existence,” the rest of the excerpt reverses this image and places her in a position of power. In fact, Martha is at first defined by words and expressions commonly employed to describe weakness. She is “single” and therefore lonely; she is “well along in the thing years” and therefore old; she is a widower and a servant; she is a victim and seems to be placed at the very bottom of the social ladder.

However, this vision is quickly put to an end when we are introduced to her as a “woman of great mind.” Taking on the role of a defender of humanity and peace, Martha is suddenly given a significant importance. Using the vocabulary of government: “the reform”, “sovereign”, she is elevated to the very top of society. Thus there is a discrepancy in this character’s identity, which presents an unbalanced duality between impotence and absolute power. The contrast is moreover emphasized by Martha’s relation to her peers. Although she objectively serves the others, it seems that she is nonetheless presented as the leader. The vocabulary of force permeates the passage with words such as “conquered” or “ferocity”. Therefore the reader is somewhat disoriented by the evident contradictions of the character.”

Flora Weil - Terminale SPRING / SUMMER

2013

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There’s a lot of talk about technology today. New devices are coming out at break-neck speed and transforming the way we interact, work... and play. Students starting Pre-K this year have never known a world without the Internet, touch screens, iPads, and smartphones. We’ve all seen the images of the baby frustrated by the fact that his magazine is not a touch screen.

These technological advances, which are ubiquitous in society, are also impacting education... but our interest should not be in technology just for technology’s sake but for the new learning opportunities it can provide.

Many years ago, schools raced out to equip classrooms with desktop computers or to create computer labs. Most purchased carts with laptops, which permitted greater mobility and sharing among different classrooms, but the devices were cumbersome and slow to boot up, taking away from precious learning time with the students. This is crucial because regardless of the tools employed, it’s never about the technology--it’s about how technology can enhance our students’ learning experience. The Internet, iPads, Smartphones, computers are all just tools--much like pen and paper-- that 21st century educators can use to engage students and promote learning.

As the American Section adapts and develops its curriculum to reflect new thinking about reading programs, we have a responsibility to incorporate 21st century tools into that process. Tools such as iPads are mobile devices, boot up quickly and can be easily stored in the back of the classrooms. These tools give teachers the flexibility to use different assessment methods and teaching apps, and to create digital content with their students in a way which was not previously possible. The students are engaged in different ways instead of being limited to pen and paper. The advent of these tools in the classroom opens up a plethora of possibilities for teaching and learning. Teachers may create classroom blogs where students share, promote and show their understanding of assigned texts. Students may create websites which serve as digital portfolios for showcasing their work. Teachers might assign the creation of digital comic strips or podcasts to extend student understanding or reflection of studied books. Or they may use apps like Creative Book Builder or Book Creator to encourage creativity and storytelling. Other possibilities include the use of apps like Script Designer and Comic Life to retell a story or create dialogues among favorite characters. And, let’s not forget the creation of presentations to promote public speaking or making videos to educate peers, share knowledge or perhaps connect with the larger world.

The apps available for literacy education and digital creation are numerous. This is just a sampling of the possibilities purchasing mobile devices open up to our students. None of this was previously possible. Will the technology improve student learning? We believe so- which is why we are purchasing devices for our classrooms. These are just baby steps to creating a 21st century learning environment for our students. Does this mean that teachers will radically change the skills taught in their classes? No, it’s just that now we are doing it differently.

We are using 21st century tools to teach 21st century kids.

Amy Crist Director of Libraries and Technology 20

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Using Technology in the

Classroom Above: Mrs. Jarquin teaching research skills Below: Mrs. Hamery assists her students Right: A few of the resulting brochures

“

Creating a brochure with an online template was a novel experience for me. As well as enjoying the process, I acquired a new skill and feel confident to put together brochures for other purposes.”

Juliette Odolant - 6ème

“

The brochure project is cool, we got to have so much fun by going online and putting on whatever picture we wanted. We also created our own penal colony, that was really cool! All I’ve got to say is COOL!” Zachary Gaouod - 6ème

Using Google Docs in the Classroom: The Penal Colony Research and Technology Project While 6ème students were reading Holes, Mrs Hamery assigned a research paper on “Penal Colonies.” Students were asked first to write a short research paper on a real penal colony, and then to imagine their own penal colony for young people and create an upbeat brochure for Public Relations purposes.

Assignment Excerpt: The technology portion of this project should be a slick, attractive brochure aimed at the TARGET GROUP, ie: the teachers, parents, social workers or judges who might decide to send young people to your Penal Colony. Present the colony in the most positive possible light.

Over a period of three consecutive weeks, Mrs. Hamery brought her class to the library for lessons. The first class was spent going over the assignment, discussing the research skills needed and doing research. At the second meeting, we discussed the importance of bibliography and how to do a work-cited sheet. Finally, our last meeting consisted of showing students how to create a brochure using an online template. Students worked in pairs, collaborating on one single shared Google doc. They quickly understood what was asked of them and were impatient to start creating their brochure.

Boys and girls were eager to teach each other how to perform particular tasks. Their enthusiasm was contagious.

We witnessed a perfect example of collaborative learning.

“I don’t like the research bit but I love creating the brochure,” said one student. To which we were quick to point out that the latter cannot happen without the former! Research skills are not easy to acquire. However, students were motivated to find the information for the first part of the project so that they could get to the “fun” part. We stressed the importance of applying The BIG 6, the necessary steps to elaborate a proper research paper. The Synthesis part of the assignment is often the most challenging one. Using technology gave students extra incentive to do proper research, synthesize the information in a creative way and enjoy themselves in the process. After our last library lesson, students were rushing to the library in their spare time to continue working on their virtual brochure.

They continued exchanging questions and comments related to the assignment via Gmail and Google docs.

Technology does allow learning to expand beyond the classroom walls! Mrs. Hamery and I were able to monitor the progress of each team from home, and even found ourselves making suggestions, which were being carried out while we watched.

Research and information literacy skills are at the essence of our students’ learning. In the classroom and in the library, we stress the importance of reading and processing the information students gather toward concrete understanding of a particular topic. The technology/ creative component of Mrs. Hamery’s assignment associated with the more demanding skills needed to do the research made for a successful learning experience.

Using Technology in education has become essential for this younger generation. Faster than ever, with the right guidance, students are able to become autonomous learners.

Charlotte Jarquin, Media Specialist with Judith Hamery, Middle School English SPRING / SUMMER

2013

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Reading & Writing Primary Book Club The Primary Book Club is a group of avid fourth and fifth grade readers who enjoy sharing their feelings, impressions, and questions about books. The Book Club met the first Wednesday after each vacation to discuss a book that everyone had read ahead of time.

It was a pleasure to meet and exchange ideas with these readers.

Their enthusiasm and insights made the sessions fun and interesting.

-Barbara Moross

6ème Book Club Our 6ème Book Club typically meets six times a year and the books chosen cover a variety of genres. Encounters take place in the library at Roby, and in the CDI at the Lycée during their lunch periods. It is a unique moment for students and librarians to exchange on topics relevant to the book we have read and on how that may or may not relate to their reality. At times, it is difficult for some of them to keep up with the reading because of their demanding academic curriculum.

However, they all know that they can easily come to me and ask for extra reading time. The goal is to instill pleasure in reading and not discourage them from it!

-Charlotte Jarquin

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The Living Poets Society: The 8th Grade Creative Writing/Reading Group In Peter Wier’s Dead Poets Society, an English Teacher named Mr. Keating inculcates a love of poetry and language in his students. Quoting Walt Whitman, Keating shows them that their voices matter and that they too “will contribute a verse” to the “powerful play” of life.

The 8th Grade Creative Writing/ Reading Club I began this year gives its members an opportunity to “contribute” their “verse” by doing creative writing in a fun, supportive environment. Members of The Living Poets Society meet on a bi-weekly to monthly basis to write and talk about great books. While nibbling on sandwiches and cookies, the club’s nine budding poets generate poetry and stories that explore the wondrous highs and lows of the human experience in different ways.

Then after our lunch-hour sessions, group members post their writing on The Living Poets Society blog, giving us all an opportunity to reread and comment on each piece.

I am continually amazed by the inventiveness and beauty of each member’s writing! What a pleasure and honor it is to guide their creative explorations as they each compose a “verse.”

-Hannah Blanning-Leloup

The Creative Writing Club This year, several eager creative writers banded together to call themselves “The Creative Writing Club.” The group meets every other Monday for an hour or so and each person reads aloud from works created from prompts. Each piece is critiqued by everyone and then edited. Sometimes students follow the prompts to the letter, but they also change and adapt to their tastes and whims. Mostly, short fiction is the order of the day, but recent topics have included a personal essay in the second person point of view, a short story using the words “banjo,” “zipper” and “drown” and a description of one’s hometown. Occasionally, we use the time to write instead of reading aloud. The club is open to students in Upper School. As their advisor, I am continually amazed by the dedication of these young writers and there is something really wonderful about hearing such remarkably fine writing, produced for the love of the craft, in the quiet of the classroom after the busy school day is done.

Each one of us is inspired and we all leave feeling replenished and eager to put pen to paper again.

-Catherine Reed

Extra-Curriculars Writing Fellows, 2013

Ink The Upper School’s literary magazine, Ink, is in its final stages of production. Editors have been busy collecting student creative writing submissions for publication.

The magazine, produced and distributed by and for students at the end of the year, showcases some of the finest works our students have produced (for class or on their own). Ink’s editorial board designs the cover, lay-out and “look” of the magazine, but their most important work is choosing which pieces will make it in this year. Earlier in the year, Ink sponsored a poetry contest and received nearly forty fine submissions. Winners received iTunes gift cards.

-Catherine Reed

Writer-in-Residence The Writer-in-Residence program in the American Section was begun six years ago to provide an opportunity for our students to meet and learn about craft from an American writer.

Organizing and running this program is a joint venture between the English department and the librarians. Our goal is for our guest to spend up to a week on our campus to share his or her techniques, to show students what is possible when one can write well and to inspire our students to want to use their fine skills for creative purposes.

The Writer in Residence spends time in one division (next year’s rotation

will be Middle School) and English classes are turned over to him or her for the week for discussions about craft, narrative or poetic strategies, storytelling and inspiration. Because these creative people are with us for the entire school day, there are many opportunities for students to speak informally with them, to have lunch with them and to hear them read from their own work.

Past Writers-in-Residence: Laura Numeroff, Pat Schneider, Neal Shusterman, Jon Agee, Scott Carney, Ben Crystal.

Short Fiction Contests In addition to writing for our in-house magazine, students in the American Section have published work in the American magazine, Teen Ink and with National Public Radio’s sponsored show, “This I Believe.” During the last five years, they have also won many of the awards for fiction in the short fiction contest sponsored by the American Library in Paris. Several of our students have been admitted to the very prestigious New England Young Writers Conference at the Breadloaf campus of Middlebury College in Vermont. For this, top writers, mostly from the US, but not exclusively, spend five days writing, reading aloud and listening to published authors read and discuss their work in a bucolic setting.

Schools are allowed to recommend only a few exceptional students in the

eleventh grade and occasionally one is admitted. For that lucky writer, the experience is unforgettable.

Writing Fellows The Writing Fellows group here in the American Section at the Lycée is currently a team of fourteen exceptionally talented readers and writers who ably assist other students (from Sixième through Terminale) in the Section with their writing assignments. They can and do help writers at any and every stage of the process. Première and Terminale students who are interested in this kind of community service submit applications for admission at the beginning of the school year and are selected by the members of the English department for training. Writing Fellows work on papers for history classes and English classes, but they also review college essays, contest submissions and letters of interest. The majority of the work is done at a time convenient to the Writing Fellow and the student seeking assistance, and most of the exchange occurs online.

Ultimately, the goal of the project is to make vital connections between writers and good editors in order to advance the quality of the writing in the school; a secondary, less anticipated gift is that the Writing Fellows program has served to strengthen and deepen the ties within our American Section community.

-Catherine Reed SPRING / SUMMER

2013

23

How much Reading is enough?

For ideas on what books have made a difference to writers writing today, read the “By the Book,” column in the New York Times Sunday Book Review.

“Out of school reading habits of students has shown that even fifteen minutes a day of independent reading can expose students to more than a million words of text in a year.”

(Anderson, Wilson and Fielding, 1988) If you are interested in the statistics and research on this topic, please read the National Literacy Trust’s excellent 2006 report on Reading for Pleasure or the even more compelling National Union of Teachers’ document, also called Reading 4 Pleasure.

In the latter, reading for the sake of interest is described as the best way to “leverage social change.”

It is clear that students who read only the books they are assigned to read are not reading enough. It is well documented that students who read on their own do better in school, are more knowledgeable, feel more confident intellectually and verbally, have rich and varied vocabularies and have the inexpensive opportunity to travel far away from their occasionally harried lives in the real world. Reading is a way out of the stress of daily life and a way into worlds one can only truly discover with a good book.

Many of our students read many, many more works than they must, and we have some real reading fanatics (“heavy users”) who are leading the way to showing us the changing tastes for student readers. Not surprisingly, these students are often our high achievers. Some of our students read a bit during vacation or in the summer. Unfortunately, some kids opt instead to spend many hours staring at their illuminated Facebook pages waiting for new posts or trudging over the well-worn paths of their video games.

Reluctant readers often have not yet become comfortable enough reading to draw its full benefits. Their experience with reading has the sour schoolwork flavor. The only way to get there is to practice. And our students have other things to do, of course.

Given the heavy schedule here, is it fair to ask kids to read more?

The answer is a resounding “yes!” Our experience with the optional reading program (English teachers require a book, students choose for themselves, and then they reflect upon its value and impact) is that students are delighted to have been required to read for fun. They have miraculously made the time where there was none. And they are reading a lot more. This year, students are borrowing upwards of two thousand books each month!

Of course, there have to be a few guidelines to make optional reading what it should be: delightful and instructive. First, kids must be able to choose their books. For kids who do not have that habit of mind, there is plenty of help. Students’ past and present English teachers and the librarians are trained and eager to help with book selection.

We encourage kids to pick books that they will like, even if they seem easy or have a lot of pictures or have pink and purple covers. Although the optional reading program is a class requirement, there is no pressure to choose a particular book. The librarians and English teachers have been building the collection to include works that are not just “school books, “ but books that kids of all ages will want to read.

To determine whether a book is at the right level, we urge kids to read the first page.

If there are five or more words they do not know, they should select a new work. While it is appropriate to introduce very challenging works in a classroom setting, reading for fun depends on being able to move easily through the pages. For visual learners, graphic novels and photo-essays might be the way to go. For students who are auditory learners, plays and monologues might be more interesting. And, of course, there are many readers who prefer non-fiction. Our library offers plenty of those.

Second, there must be enough time to read the books that kids pick out. Teachers usually include a week before and a week after the longer breaks for students to finish the books they have chosen. The follow-up in class might be a book report of any stripe, Manga style illustrations for a Manga graphic novel, monologues in the voice of a character, writing up a new ending or a missing chapter, writing a film proposal or convincing others to read the book. One fun follow-up is to have kids write up “why you should read this book” cards with their name and graduation year. The cards are tucked into the books and returned to our library’s shelves.

Bringing kids to hear about books or to comb through the stacks is to start a literary conversation that does stretch into the classroom, but perhaps more exciting is the exchange that happens when a book that a student has read goes “viral.” It is wonderful to hear kids urging each other to read the books they have read, to expect “readerliness” of each other and to delight in their new selections at the end of class. There are books in our library, never taught in a classroom, that are now well-read favorites in the Section.

Catherine Reed Head of English

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Tips for parents of Middle and Upper School students who want to encourage reading: - Read yourself and have books, newspapers and other print materials readily available to your children at home.

- Share what you are reading with your children. Tell them about content, and if appropriate, urge them to read your favorites.

- Allow your children to select their own books.

Parents often worry that their kids will be shocked by reading works that are too mature for them, but kids have a powerful ability to ignore what they cannot handle. Plus, what better way to talk about challenging topics than through the pages of a book?

- Avoid judging their selections. Too often, our kids worry that the books they choose are not “sophisticated enough.”

When they select books that are too advanced, or are merely part of the literary canon, they do not enjoy them and the project fails. Students who seem stuck in a seemingly endless series (vampires, etc) will often jump into other, more challenging works later.

- Whenever possible, remind kids that social media is designed to keep their attention from other, often more important, things; that is its purpose. Staring at a screen and texting inanely for hours is the easiest and most common way for our kids to waste time. (They know this, too.)

- Encourage your kids to always carry a fun book to read when they head out for the day; one never knows when there might be a good time to escape to another world.

The number of books that have circulated so far this school year: 1562 Roby 5897 Lycee Primary 3311 Schnapper 3835 CDI Books borrowed in a typical month: 225 Roby 800 Lycee Primary 480 Schnapper 300 CDI (does not include students or teachers from other sections who borrow our books OR the books our kids borrow from other sections)

Illustration by Pedro Sanchez-Moreno, CM1

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Alumni Focus

Working

withWords

By Tiffany Snel-Wark

Jeremy Da

Deciding on a future career is one of the hardest choices for many students. And even if a student has some idea about what they might like to do in life, finding the best route to achieve their dream can be confusing to say the least… which is why Compass has decided to highlight different careers through our focus on LI alumni. We’re kicking off the series by looking at nine alumni who work in professions involving reading and writing.

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Megan Behrent (’93) is a high school teacher at a large public high school in Brooklyn, teaching five classes a day of 34 students each. She is also a tireless activist on behalf of public schools – Google her and you’ll find countless links to her appearances in televised debates and to articles she’s written. Megan graduated from Brown University with a B.A. in Women’s Studies, and while pursuing a Ph.D. in English literature she decided she loved teaching. “I never planned on being a teacher, but I always loved literature and wanted to pursue a career in the world of the artsalthough at the time I wanted to write. The Lycée definitely nurtured my love of literature and theater and gave me the tools to succeed in the field.

“Prospective teachers should be aware of the current conditions. The profession is under severe attack and we’re hanging onto job security by a thread. We are soon to be evaluated based on test scores despite all available research cautions against using such measures. The way teaching is depicted in Hollywood with a teacher as superhero magically overcoming all odds, or its opposite, the ‘bad teacher’ who is blamed for every failing in education, can lead people to impossibly high expectations of teachers.

“But despite all the problems with public education in the United States, I love teaching. I genuinely enjoy spending time with teenagers. I enjoy talking about literature Megan Behrent with them and being privy to their thoughts, dreams and aspirations. I’m continuously astounded by their creativity, compassion and original thinking. What I enjoy least is the Department of Education. The paperwork.

The testing. The lack of funding. Overcrowded classrooms.

The ‘blame the teacher’ rhetoric of politicians and the media.

Having said that, would I do again? Yes!”

Jeremy Da (‘99) is a legal and financial translator. Although translation isn’t Jeremy’s profession of choice, his bilingualism enables him to support himself while he breaks into his chosen career: music management. Jeremy attended Williams College in Williamstown, MA, and started playing and touring in bands after graduation. “While I was struggling to stay afloat financially I travelled to France to visit my family and ended up being hired as a paralegal. Part of my job entailed reviewing legal and financial translations and the experience I gained prompted me to start a translation business. I always knew I’d be able to use my bilingualism to my advantage some day, I just didn’t know what that would be while I was at the Lycée.

“I don’t find the work particularly enjoyable but it’s a means to an end. I do what I do out of necessity because I am a musician at heart but I did not want to live the life of a “starving artist.”

If you’d like to become a translator, work on translating stuff in your free time, going back and forth between languages.

Translating is like exercising your brain...the more you exercise it, the more you feel comfortable and confident at it. Most of all, my advice is: do what you love, or do anything you can to get there. If you want it that badly, you will get there.”

Wendy Piquemal Wendy Piquemal (’95) worked until recently teaching academic research writing courses at the University of California. She has a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature.

“My doctoral studies offered plenty of practice in teaching writing since this was my main job as a TA in graduate school.

“Now I am what you could call a writing expert or “text doctor” - an academic editor and translator. My editing and translating work is 100% academic: I work with graduate researchers or professors who are preparing an article or a book for publication. The pace is quite variable since I agree on a deadline with the client… it can range from very relaxed to absolutely frantic.

“I think my entire experience at the Lycée inspired me to go into this line of work. The American Section in particular fostered my love of reading and writing.

Although I appreciate the rigorous writing training we received on the French side and regularly drew upon it to teach American undergraduates, I feel that my American Section teachers did more to encourage me to develop as a critical thinker and to try to articulate my own ideas. They afforded me a particularly solid foundation. They also gave me a deep appreciation for the power of language and what you might call textual beauty. Academic research articles can be extremely dry, technical and filled with jargon, so it’s a real labour of love to make them compelling and pleasing to read!

“Writing isn’t just for people who love literature: no matter what you love doing, excellent written communication skills will probably help a great deal (and any lack of such skills will most certainly hold you back).

“There are so many professional outlets nowadays for people who love writing and textbased work, it can be hard to picture which career will be right for you, especially when you’re still in secondary school. My advice is to try your hand at a number of different things before you commit to a particular career path. It’s easier to do this in communications-related fields because they tend to be quite interconnected, so take advantage of this.

“Also, expect fairly long studies, with at least some graduate school. The trend nowadays is for employers to want highly skilled writers with excellent critical thinking skills and the ability to analyse and/or synthesize complex material. Graduate studies in almost any field offer the opportunity to hone these skills.

“One thing you can do to prepare for a writing-intensive field is to talk to your teachers or mentors about your writing and ask for their feedback. Even if you’ve always been told you’re a good writer, there is more to be done! Learn to take a step back from whatever you’re working on. Talking to someone else about the choices you made in that piece of writing, and thinking about it critically, will really help you mature as a writer and develop your own voice.”

Christophe Chevaugeon (‘79) graduated from the Ecole Normale d’Instituteurs in Paris and was a Directeur d’Ecole of a maternelle for five years in one of Paris’s fairly challenging neighborhoods. He now lives in Great Britain and works as a behavior support teacher, part-time French teacher, and freelance photographer.

“As behavior support teacher, I am part of a team of specialists and my main role is to work with young people who are struggling to behave appropriately in school and help them improve their behavior. Practically, I meet with carers, carry out home visits, observe my clients in and out of lessons, interview them, work with them in one to one sessions, attend any number of meetings when other agencies are involved, give feedback to teachers, hopefully see a change and write reports! I spend a lot of time behind the wheel: I might start my day in an isolated farm or school in the northern hills and finish it in a deprived neighborhood of a coastal town. My other role is to deliver Christophe Chevaugeon training on behavior management skills to teachers, assistant teachers, and lunchtime staff. As a team, we can also offer schools behavior audits and tailor behavior management training to address specific concerns like bullying.

“To get anywhere in this line of work you need to be able to connect and communicate with all kinds of people from very different walks of life, you need to be a very good non-judgemental listener, you need to be very humble, willing to learn constantly, reflective and creative.

“My Lycée years were trying ones and not just for me and not just because of puberty!

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Working

withWords

Christel Capéran

Angry times for me but good times too. What stays with me is the warmth and intelligence of my American teachers, Mr. Rochester in particular. I sensed he wanted us to develop our sense critique more than anything else; I was sure he valued intelligence and academic success but even surer that he valued success at becoming a good human being more; that meant everything to me. So having hated school, the next best thing to do was to become a school teacher, probably inspired by the likes of Mr. Rochester, because of course I would be a good and fair teacher! How naive can you be! I thought kids, especially of primary age, would just sit there and enjoy the ride so to speak if you were kind and well-intentioned; I was absolutely clueless about the realities of teaching and I had a few difficult years getting my head around the harsher realities of the job.

“What I love about teaching is witnessing something click in pupils, an understanding grow, a capacity develop. What I love about my behavior support job is working with people of all walks of life and helping them help themselves to get to a better place; sometimes you get nowhere though and that’s a hard thing. What I hate about teaching, especially here in the UK is the constant testing and evaluation and grading of pupils and what I hate in my behavior support teacher job is the paper trail we have to keep!

If you are going to get into teaching, go visit schools to see what it’s really like; don’t become a teacher because you love this or that subject but because you love the idea of teaching this or that subject, therein lies the secret to happy teachers.”

Christel Capéran (née Tessier) (’89) is a language learning consultant who completed her studies in the US with an MBA in International Business at Baruch College, NYC, and then went on to work in the marketing team, amongst other jobs, of Burton Snowboards in Austria (after a couple of years as in Colorado as “a snowboard bum” as she puts it). “As a student I taught French to toddlers, an amazing experience. These babies, who could not yet speak their mother tongue, would react to a foreign language! That memorable job, plus the wish to promote bilingualism, pushed me to start my own business distributing fun methods to learn languages – such as Jolly Phonics - as well as offering consultancy and training in digital marketing.

“When working in international marketing, languages and the choice of each single word have an incredible importance. Mastering several languages at the Lycée definitely helped me to understand the cultural differences and to use adapted vocabulary and tone in marketing materials for more than 20 countries… Today I wish to promote bilingualism to as many children as possible.”

Mathilde Piard

Caroline Zimmerman

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The easiest way to describe Mathilde Piard (’02) is a journalist and social media guru – but she hastens to add that doesn’t mean she spends her days on Twitter! “I work at Cox Media Group, which owns local newspapers, TV and radio stations in the US. I advise on the best ways to use social media and technology, and communicate that throughout the company. Post-Bac I studied international relations at St. Andrews, and then attended Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in New York, specialising in digital media. On completion I applied to the Dow Jones Newspaper Fund which pairs students up with newspapers looking for their skill sets. This led to a job as a web producer at the Palm Beach Post, which in turn led to my current role.

“Anyone interested in becoming a journalist must know that it is still an industry in turmoil. They should ask themselves what it is about journalism that attracts them and then figure out if journalism is the only field in which you can achieve that. In fact, that’s advice I would give regarding any profession: it’s easy to assume that all jobs within an industry are all the same thing, but if you keep an open mind, you’ll find wonderful surprises along the way – not to mention avoid ending up in a career that’s not what you thought it would be. I recommend building up your résumé by picking up extracurricular activities and doing summer internships related to the field you’re interested in. Lastly, if I had to do it again, I’d listen to my dad’s advice about taking economics or stats university classes - it would have made things easier along the way, and would come in handy even now in my career. With the importance that data and data analysis is taking in pretty much every single field in this digital age, it’s useful for almost any career you want to get into. And I’d also try to take some introduction classes to software development or computer science.”

Caroline Zimmerman (’02) worked until very recently as a literary agent. “To publish a book with a major US publisher, an author must work with an agent who will sell the book, at auction, to an editor. On any given day, I’d scour magazines, blogs, websites, newspapers, and university faculty pages to find promising writers and thinkers. For writers of non-fiction, I helped her or him craft a book proposal; for fiction and memoir writers, I edited the full manuscript. Once a project was ready for sale, I compiled a submission list of editors at different publishing houses, created a dynamite pitch, and sent

the project out. Usually, more than one editor was interested in acquiring the project, so I’d run an auction and sell the project to the editor that made the most attractive offer. Once the manuscript was sold, I negotiated clients’ publishing contracts (with the US publisher, but also with foreign publishers interested in the translation rights, and production companies interested in TV and film rights). After the deal was complete, I interceded regularly on the author’s behalf - whether to negotiate calendar rights to the book, mediate a conflict between the author and her editor, or drum up publicity upon the book’s publication.”

Caroline studied English Literature at McGill, where she was the arts editor of the student paper. She had several journalism internships as an undergraduate, and worked part-time as a writer for Newser.com. After graduation she worked part-time as an editor for a website and interned at a literary agency, and that led to a full-time job as an editorial assistant. Two years later, she was promoted to literary agent.

“My advice for students interested in becoming a literary agent is read, read, and read.

It makes for the best writers, and the best editors. Also, start interning as soon as you can – that real-world experience will help you get a job far more than a degree alone. Go to literary events – readings, book launches – and get involved in the cultural life of your community. You’ll start building connections and an understanding of the cultural landscape that will help you in the future.” Caroline is currently applying to MBA programs in Europe and plans to work for a media company upon completion.

Agnès Fruman

In conclusion, if there is one point that comes over loud and clear from all these alumni, it’s this: do what you love, or put another way, follow your passion. Many advocate internships or work experiences as an excellent way to explore different options and finding out what you really enjoy. Perhaps the most gratifying aspect of hearing from these alumni is that, when asked whether they’d do it all again, they were unanimous in saying that, yes, they would - and in Caroline Zimmerman’s words, “in a heartbeat!”

Agnès Fruman (’82) works in publishing – to be precise, she is the Secrétaire Générale Éditoriale at Albin Michel. As such she is in charge of authors’ contracts and all contracts relating to intellectual property and litigation; she programs the book releases of the publishable manuscripts; she negotiates digital agreements on behalf of the company; and attends the Syndicat National du Livre on pricing and VAT issues. While Agnès studied Political science and Law in Paris and London, she wasn’t initially sure she was cut out to be a lawyer. Armed with a love of reading and books, she parlayed a few summer internships and a DESS d’edition into a job in publishing and says, “What is funny is that most of my time today is dedicated to related legal work… and I find it very interesting!

I do think the subject matter is important and I don’t think I would have enjoyed being a tax lawyer as much as I enjoy intellectual property law.” For those who want to enter the world of publishing, Agnès says: “Jobs are not easy to come by in the book industry, but if that’s really what you want to do, you should go for it. Being bilingual is a great advantage and can help you get your foot in the door. My first stage at Albin Michel was translating the catalogue of books for the Frankfurt Book Fair, and I use my legal English every day when we acquire licences (Dora the Explorer, Barbie…), or sign contracts with Apple, Google or Amazon.”

Melissa Da (‘94) is a school library media specialist in a Baltimore City Public School, working with grades PreK-8. She teaches literature appreciation and information literacy and collaborates with teachers on projects. She also runs school-wide literacy events and does fundraising for the library. Melissa graduated from Wesleyan University with a degree in anthropology and dance, and began working as a second grade teacher at the French American International School in Boston, MA. She earned a Master in Library and Information Science and a Teaching Certificate in Media at the University of Pittsburg, and has since worked at FAIS in Boston, in a Chicago public school, and, for the past eight years, in Baltimore.

What does Melissa enjoy most about her line of work? “Getting kids connected to books. I enjoy working with teachers, designing collaborative projects and being part of a school community. I like working in the public school setting because kids don’t always have the same luxuries and opportunities than in a private school but they deserve them just as much as any other kids. It’s challenging to be an advocate for your profession all the time.

“Having in-depth reports and research projects at the Lycée involved a lot of work and I learned, from the American Section especially, how to sharpen my critical thinking Melissa Da skills. The focus on writing and application of knowledge offered by the OIB, made me a better thinker. Also, the wide range of activities offered by the American Section made me more worldly. Being in a class with students from different parts of the world made me a more sensitive and understanding person. I feel these Lycée ‘gifts’ serve me well in my job.”

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B The “New” American Section Board of Trustees From left: Kimberly Mock, Debbie Bloch, Craig Bradley, Sonia Lee, Jonathan Hall, Ina De Witte, Marc Fournier, Marisa de Belloy, Jonathan Marsh. Absent: Roman Bereza, Jonh Mathieu

ASALI Board of Directors 2012-2013 Jonathan Hall President Debbie Bloch Vice President Marc Fournier Treasurer John Mathieu Secretary Roman Bereza Craig Bradley Marisa de Belloy Ina De Witte Sonia Lee Jonathan Marsh Kimberly Mock

Board Committees Communications Committee Strategic Planning Committee Finance Committee - Development Sub-Committee - Tax Status Liaison - Financial Assistance - Friends of ASALI Communications Committee Human Resources Trustee Committee Post BAC Task Force 30

C O M PA S S M A G A Z I N E

Following last November’s AGM, there have been several changes in the composition of the Board. Some “new” faces have been voted in and several key long-serving members have stepped down.

I would like to express my gratitude on behalf of the entire American Section community to Betsy Farhi, Marie-Anne Aymerich, Robert Youngblood and Jean-Michel Bouché for their years of devotion to the Board. The time and energy that they individually and collectively gave for the good of the Section cannot be measured, offering years of caring, pro-active volunteering to help make our community great.

A special word is needed to thank outgoing President Beth Heudebourg. During her four year tenure as President, Beth steered the Board towards new heights of professionalism, championing key projects for the School including the design and implementation of the strategic plan, and leading the recruitment of Kelly Herrity as Director of the Section. Beth’s involvement in the Section goes way beyond her Board Presidency, with several earlier years of active volunteering in various capacities on and off the Board. On behalf of the whole community, I sincerely thank Beth for her incredible dedication, giving her time, energy and talents to the American Section community.

Finally, I would like to welcome two new faces to the Board: Marisa de Belloy and Kimberley Mock.

The “new” Board will pursue and consolidate the objectives previously set and continue to work “hand-in-hand” with Director Kelly Herrity to ensure that the best decisions are taken for the future of the American Section and in the interest of our children.

On behalf of the American Section Board of Trustees, Jonathan Hall President

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PHOTO COLLAGE BY MME ZAWADOVSKI LILIA

Introducing the Russians... the Lycée’s 13th section In the fall 2010, the Russian Section became the Lycée’s 13th national section with six Seconde students.

Now in its third year of operation, the section has 25 enrolled students across the three levels in Upper School. This 2012-13 academic year is an important milestone as the Lycée will graduate its first Russian OIB class!

There are about 200 russophile families in our area and 90 of our students at the Lycée (including partner schools) currently study Russian. The opening of the Russian Section is the result of several years of lobbying from a handful of passionate individuals including Natalia Grebenkova who now serves as the Section President. There are three other OIB Russian Sections in France: Strasbourg, Valbone and Bordeaux. The section’s demographic profile is diverse, with families from Russia, Bielorussia, Moldavia, Ukraine, Georgia, and Uzbekistan. They also have a native French student who excelled in her Russian class at her local French school.

Similar to other sections, the Russian Section aims to give a double curriculum, the standard French high school curriculum and eight hours per week of Russian Literature and History taught by native Russian teachers. Today, the Section employs two teachers and a part-time assistant.

Although the Section would like to have more students across all levels, there are no immediate plans to expand the Section beyond Upper School.

The Russian Section is unique in that it is neither private nor public. The first two years, the Section was entirely funded by France, and starting this year, the funding is split 50:50 between France and Russia. Another difference with the other sections is the fact that RUSAPELI (Parent’s Association) includes both current and future families with younger children who wish to join the Lycée when they reach Seconde level. Currently over two thirds of the association consists of future families!

Despite its small size, RUSAPELI is very active and organizes many different activities: concerts, plays, cocktails, Russian opera, trips, and of course, fully participates in all the Lycée-wide events (Holiday Sale, Lycée en Fête, APELI, etc). It also maintains a small section of Russian books, movies and CDs in the CDI (Lycée library) that students can check out.

Beyond the Lycée walls, the Section offers a series of Russian language classes for 3-14 year olds in Saint Germain (at La Soucoupe and Agasec). These classes are open to everyone and not limited to Lycée families.

Additional classes were recently added to tutor Russian LV2 students who need extra help.

For more information on the Russian Section, please consult www.section-russe.com or send an email to section.russe.li@gmail.com. You can also stop by the Section’s office located in the entrance hall of Batiment E. Sonia Lee American Section Trustee and APELI Representative SPRING / SUMMER

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Illustration by Ana Sanchez-Moreno, Seconde