Our rules and values indicate how we interact with each other. Our world must have rules that are fair, that support and protect the community we are building and the values necessary to thrive in the community. From an anthropological standpoint, it is helpful to think of what the value system is that makes our language-learning and – loving community possible, as well as how we will institutionalize those values. Another way to approach this is from the standpoint of the Common Good – what is it here, and why?
This work refers heavily back to the following sections of the unit: What is a Language-Learning Community? and What does a Language-Learning Community Require? The understandings from those sections should inform the rules and values established in your classroom community. Below, I offer an example of how to reinforce the values you wish to see reflected in your language-learning community.
Strategy: Affirmations
I have a 7
th
grade homeroom class. We say the U.S. Pledge of Allegiance in French every morning. A while back, I saw a video online in which a celebrity (Tyrese Gibson) was teaching his young daughter about confidence. He made a series of statements like the following, and asked her to repeat them: I am smart. I am great. No one can stop me but me. I immediately thought of my homeroom class, and how nice it would be to start their day off with some positive, confident statements. And we had already established the routine of saying the Pledge, so this would fit in perfectly right after that.
As I was deciding what the affirmation should be, there were several things I considered. I knew I wanted to repeat the phrase Je suis (I am) so that students would start to develop an automaticity with this building block phrase. I wanted to choose adjectives that were written the same in both the masculine and feminine forms, so that our daily recitation would be uniform. This was not the time to practice and illustrate the different endings for boys and girls, although next year when these students are in the 8
th
grade I will. (At that point they will already have built this strong foundation and will be ready to use the activity to demonstrate differences at the same time as they reinforce our established unity.)
I knew I wanted to have three similar but different phrases, building in degree of difference. I also wanted to choose words that were similar to English without being direct duplicate cognates, so students could have that gift of an aha moment when they made the bridge from the French to the English as they built their vocabulary. Lastly, I chose words for how they sounded, since if you are going to say something every day, I believe it ought to have a nice ring to it, a nice mouth feel as it is uttered and a pleasant aural flow to the ear.
Here is what I came up with. The first sentence is the most basic: Je suis magnifique (I am magnificent.) Sounds great, strong positive message, and introduces the –ique adjective ending and the gn consonant blend. The second sentence illustrates the concept of elision, linking up what is normally a silent final consonant in suis with the vowel sound of the proceeding i: Je suis incroyable (I am incredible.) Also, although incroyable isn't a direct cognate, once students know what it means they will thrill at the similar-but-different-ness of it to its English counterpart. The third sentence is the most complex; instead of using another adjective to complete its thought as the previous two sentences do, it uses a noun phrase: Je suis le maître de mon destin (I am the master of my destiny.) Here we have two cognates of different degrees and an example that can be used later in describing or showing possession with de, as the linguistic structure of le maître de mon destin can be applied to things like le livre de français (the French book, as constructed like "the book of French") and le stylo de Sophie (Sophie's pen, as constructed like "the pen of Sophie.")
The effect has been lovely; students say the affirmation with enthusiasm and I can see the smiles on their faces as they do so. Even the ones who clearly think it's a little corny are also showing evidence in their smiling little semi-smirks that they are enjoying it a little! I think affirmations that we all say together at the start of class are a great way to establish a positive attitude, a sense of common order, and a shared connection, and this is definitely supportive of our community-based framework.
In addition to starting our class with a general affirmation, I would also like to see each activity done in class start with a brief affirmation, to re-introduce expectations and reframe students for the task ahead. It is a great way to set students up for success as they negotiate transitions between activities, processes, and goals.
Affirmations: Variations and Extension Opportunities
In addition to the thought process explained above as a way to think through the creation of classroom affirmations, application may vary by experience level. For my 5
th
graders, especially at the beginning of the year, we may have one statement and start like Tyrese Gibson did with his daughter, where I would say it and the class would repeat it. Then we could move to repeating the 1 statement together three times. But in 8
th
grade, I would change the statements to reflect verb changes from Je to Tu to Nous (I, You-familiar, We), also getting more purposeful about the idea of a community reflecting a "we" and not just a collection of you's and/or I's.
Students haven't expressed interest in changing the affirmation, but if they did, I would seek input and check for support from the class. Alternatively, we may wish to change our affirmations to reflect challenges or needs we face; for example, we may have a set we say on test days to reinforce our preparation and focus, or early dismissal days to reinforce our ability to not get distracted or off-task.
I offered students the option, as an extra credit assignment, to make a poster that we could post for reference. A few did, and everyone seemed pleased to see the affirmation made visual by their classmates. We might in the future put our affirmation to a beat, although I tend to prefer keeping it pretty slow and measured for clarity of group choral recitation. Depending on your level of functional technology, it would be fun to video individuals leading the affirmation and play those to guide the class.
