My students need ten small personal laptops and a karaoke system to practice their French using interactive websites to learn lyrics and then sing their French away!
This project is part of the Black History Month celebration because it supports a Black teacher or a school where the majority of the students are Black.
My Students
I teach a large number of students, most of whom come from lower income families. Despite my efforts to have them to use their French in conversation, most of them shy away from using foreign language as they feel they do not pronounce their words right and the sentences will be less than correct.
My students are sweet, eager children who often lack exposure to the world of foreign cultures and languages.
We teach mostly high poverty children who are curious and inquisitive, but not necessarily involved in many extracurricular activities. Many of them have beautiful voices that may never be discovered, unless we teach them how to use their voice in singing in French.
Singing in a foreign language is extremely helpful not only in speech fluency, but also in brain development; as the children use phonetics of a foreign language that are different than native language making their brain adjust to a new situation. Since my students enjoy singing, I thought that a karaoke machine would be a great way for them to practice their French speech, speed and fluency. The combination of words, music and rhythm makes the language just roll out of their mouth in a more natural way. The students will also practice their fluency in reading the lyrics in their own language as well as French.
My Project
The students will use the ten mini laptops to create a mini language lab using software instead of an expensive console that many schools offer. Our school has no funds to install a fully operational language lab, yet we teach French to children everyday. The result of teaching without a language lab is that the children never have the opportunity to practice their communication skills through listening activities and recording their own voice on the computer. The teacher is never able to fully evaluate the communication skills unless she listens to every child's voice which can be achieved through a language lab software that allows children to have a conversation with a computer and also practice their phonetics skills through imitation of a model they hear on a computer. This kind of repetitive practice contributes greatly to erasure of a foreign accent and gives boost to self-esteem of our students.
The donations in a shape of small personal laptops will make a difference in several ways.
First of all they will help the students express themselves through music, develop fluency in reading in both French and in English, as they will have to keep up with the beat while singing. They will develop long term memory as the lyrics to songs will have to be memorized, develop new vocabulary and stimulate correct pronunciation through interactive authentic language situations.
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As a teacher-founded nonprofit, we're trusted by thousands of teachers and supporters across the country. This classroom request for funding was created by Mrs. Herndon and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
