This is where the idea of a community-based framework for language learning really takes off. As students adopt and accept roles and what they mean, they begin to develop a sense of community contribution and responsibility to each other. It becomes about more than oneself and the consequences of doing or not doing work that affect the individual; now what I do or don't do will have an impact on the people around me, in a real way. As students struggle and likely stumble at times with the implications of an integrated system of work, they will hopefully develop an internal motivation for completing a job and keeping up their end of any task, with an emphasis on follow through that can be so difficult to convey to students.
See Activity A: Establishment of Community Member Status.
Strategy: Role Creation
Some roles, like community member, will be automatic upon agreeing to participate in our community. Another example of this is the role of neighbor; everyone will have several neighbors based on where his or her desk is located, and of course every student will in turn be a neighbor to several people. I currently have students set up so that sometimes they work with their cross-table neighbors, other times their side-table neighbors. (This is sometimes for variety, other times I work it that like-level partners are cross-table and side-table partners are high-low paired.)
Teachers are used to having students take on roles ranging from paper passer outer to attendance taker to study buddy. Some roles will be, like these, established based on the need to maintain proper function of the ins and outs of classroom mechanics. Students will apply for these jobs by filling out a simple application that asks for name, desired job, reason for applying, and related experience and submitting it to the job box, or la boîte d'emploi. Some jobs may be created based on student competencies, and for these jobs we may select students and invite them to the role.
Since students will change neighborhoods and other jobs or roles over the course of the year, the information cards will not be laminated. To whom one is both cross-table and side-table neighbor will be indicated there, as well as other jobs held or roles assumed. Job/role information can also be concurrently tracked on a student resume, with jobs indicated under Les Emplois (Employment/Jobs) and neighbors or other relational roles under Les Contacts (Contacts.)
