Christina Clifton: Gone to Jean Vilar, Be Back Soon
Stepping off the tram at Station Jean Vilar for the first time, I realized that not all of Angers was like its center. Though only 10 tram stations away from my apartment, I felt like I had entered a different city, one in which the subtle hum of activity I had associated with Angers was absent, not noticed until it was gone. I could not find any of the fountains, statues, or cobblestoned roads I’d grown accustomed to seeing; the buildings appeared smaller, closer together, and more plain. It was only when I arrived at Collège Jean Vilar (CJV) that I found any semblance of what I had expected to find on my visit: typical pre-teen students.
I arrived at CJV and met my professor, Dr. Sloan, and my classmates.
Special Education major Christina Clifton works with Peter
We were led into the school and upstairs to Mdm. Thareau’s Sixième SEGPA class, which is the French education system’s equivalent of a Special Education class. Though I couldn’t understand what the students said to each other, they reminded me of their American counterparts, shouting across the room to their friends and speaking in undertones to their neighbors. The students seemed excited for me and my classmates to be there, sneaking looks at us in between bouts of listening to their teacher, Mdm. Thareau, introduce the plan for the day’s activities.
When it was time to begin working with the students, I introduced myself to Peter, a student who immigrated to France 2 years ago from Guadeloupe. When I later asked Mdm. Thareau why Peter was in the SEGPA class, she explained that he had fallen behind the curriculum and had displayed behavioral problems, including a lack of discipline and concentration. Peter was friendly, listening to me with interest and collaborating with me to create an iMovie about his life. We spoke in English and gave his iMovie English subtitles, which proved to be difficult at times:
“Pfffh.”
I looked up from the iPad in my hands. “What?”
“Je comprend pas.”
I tried to explain again. “Write this” I gestured to the words we’d just typed on the iPad “down on your paper” gestured to his worksheet “so that you can practice reading them at home. Ummm practice. Revise? Tu écris ça et étudies dans chez toi?”
“Pfffh. I don’t understand.”
Several other similar miscommunications arose between Peter and I before the end of the class, and I began to understand some of the challenges and frustrations of having multiple languages inside one classroom. As Dr. Sloan explains in his blog post, 5 different countries are represented in Mdm. Thareau’s class of 12 students. As Bruce Marlow and Marilyn Page explain in their essay Making the Most of the Classroom Mosaic, it is important for a teacher to be able to “[focus] on the ways you can help your students connect content to the most important factors in student learning−the students’ experiences and prior knowledge.” Each student brings his or her own perspective to the classroom, and these become even more diverse when you have students from multiple countries. Marlow and Page argue that teachers need to ask the questions: “How do students learn? How can I spark their curiosity, facilitate their learning, and get out of their way?” I think that the iMovies are proving to be an excellent solution to this question of how to individualize learning for the students. The students are giving the opportunity to bring their personal lives into the classroom and collaborate on a project they can take pride in, while at the same time improving their English. I look forward to spending more time with Peter and his classmates, learning more about their lives and practicing my French. We have a lot we can learn from each other.
