FREN

Spring 2025 UConn ECE French Workshop

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On Friday, March 14th, UConn ECE welcomed 37 of our French instructors to the Storrs campus for an invigorating professional development opportunity!

The morning consisted of a lecture on the theme of childhood and its manifestations in French cinema, led by Assistant Professor in French Studies, Dr. Raphaël Koenig. Then, in the afternoon our instructors were given the opportunity to visit UConn’s Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry for a tour and a lecture on puppetry in France and French-speaking countries led by Dr. John Bell, Director of Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry and Associate Professor in the Dramatic Arts Department.

Many thanks, as always, to Dr. Florence Marsal, our faculty coordinator for French, for her tireless efforts to support our ECE Allied Health community.

French courses available through UConn Early College Experience.

Spring 2025 UConn ECE Earth Sciences Workshop

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We’re back from Spring Break, and onto the final stretch of the Spring semester! This past Monday, March 24th, ECE welcomed our Earth Sciences instructors to the Storrs Campus, in collaboration with Dr. Robert Thorson, our wonderful faculty coordinator for ECE ERTH.

This year’s workshop was titled Connecticut’s Sense of Place, and consisted of two educational activities (described below), followed by a brief walking tour of key teaching sites that Dr. Thorson (“Thor”) utilizes to teach his introductory geoscience classes.

A brief overview of each workshop session:

PART A – Our Land

A dialogue slide show featuring ten places in CT that, taken together, provide an solid overview of how the geology influences our sense of place. This approach was summarized in an article in UConn Today by Elaina Hancock titled “Appreciating the Bones of Connecticut’s Landscape.” This article covers a series of ten mini-essays published together in a cover issue of Connecticut Magazine titled Our Land.

PART B – Teachers Responses to Connecticut’s “Sense of Place.”

The teachers were assigned a series of four short essays that collectively narrate how the Connecticut landscape came to be. These are: Part 1 – Making Connecticut and Part 2 – Connecticut’s Glacial Gifts and Part 3 – Exit Ramp Culture and Part 4 – Losing Ground. During this part of the workshop, Thorson highlighted each essay before the teachers shared their responses with each other.

Many thanks to all who joined us for a wonderful morning!

Earth Sciences courses available through UConn Early College Experience.

Spring 2024 UConn ECE French Workshop

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Spring 2024 UConn ECE French Workshop

On Friday, March 1st UConn Early College Experience, and the UConn ECE Faculty Coordinator from French, Florence Marsal met with a group of 30 UConn ECE certified French Instructors for a professional development workshop.

Joëlle Vitiello, Professor of French and Francophone Studies, Macalester College shared her presentation “Enseigner les trésors d'Haïti” (Teaching the Treasures of Haiti).

Later Mary Catherine Decoteau, Career Consultant from UConn’s Career Services spoke to teachers about enhancing and highlighting career competencies in ECE French classes. Completing the morning, ECE Instructor from Avon High School Geneviève Brand discussed “L'eau dans la littérature”(Water in Literature). All Instructors who registered also received a free e-copy of  "Laquelle de nous était Eurydice".

UConn FREN courses offered through ECE.

Spring 2023 UConn ECE French Workshop

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Spring 2023 UConn ECE French Workshop

On Friday, May 5th Early College Experience French Instructors participated in their annual professional development workshop. The day included the following sessions:

Podcasts in French: UConn ECE Faculty Coordinator for French, Professor Florence Marsal, spoke to teachers about different podcasts in French, and brainstormed ideas for activities in the classroom. Examples of interesting podcasts: « L’Heure du Monde », « une vie une œuvre », « French voices », « pile ».

Multimedia Medievalisms, Elisabeth Buzay, Visiting Assistant Professor in French: Elisabeth talked contemporary adaptations of medieval stories in a variety of media, and how they can be integrated into the second language classroom.

“La laïcité” Mary Beth Allen, Visiting Assistant Professor in French: Mary Beth talked about the concepts of secularism and multiculturalism in France.

“Booktube”, Nada Elshabrawy,Teaching Assistant - Graduate Student in French: Nada talked about the differences between Booktube channels in the US and in France, common topics found on Booktube, and how to employ Booktube/Booktok techniques in the French language classroom.  

Participants also received e-copies of “La bande dessinée” by Annie Baron-Carvais, and “Le Multiculturalisme” by Patrick Savidan.

UConn French courses offered through Early College Experience.

Spring 2022 UConn ECE French Workshop

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Spring 2022 UConn ECE French Workshop

On Wednesday, April 27th, UConn Early College Experience, and the UConn ECE Faculty Coordinator for French, Prof. Florence Marsal, met with ECE certified French Instructors for their annual professional development conference.

Presentations included:

  • “Le mentir-vrai et l’authenticité de la traduction littéraire”

(The true lie and the authenticity of literary translation)

-Dawn Cornelio, Professeure et Coordinatrice de la Maîtrise en Études Françaises, University of Guelph | Guelph, ON Canada

 

  • Une autre modernité: le contre-flâneur dans le Paris du XIXe siècle”

(Another modernity: the counter flâneur in 19th century Paris)

- Pauline Levy Valensi, Editorial Assistant for Contemporary French and Francophone Studies: SITES

 

  • “La face "caché" de l'occident: le français postcolonial”

(The "hidden" face of the West: postcolonial French)

- Hassanaly Ladha, Associate Professor of French and Comparative Literature

Graduate Director, French and Francophone Studies, UConn

 

After a short break the group reconvened to hear from Aaliyah Castleberry, Career Consultant, College of Liberal Arts & Sciences, Center for Career Development, UConn who spoke about: “Articulating the Value of a French Degree to Various Audiences”

 

UConn French courses offered through Early College Experience.

Spring 2021 UConn ECE French Workshop

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Spring 2021 UConn ECE French Workshop

On Thursday, April 29th UConn Early College Experience and the UConn ECE Faculty Coordinator for French, Florence Marsal (Associate Professor in Residence) met with certified French Instructors for their annual professional development workshop. Instructors received a copy of L’art de perdre by Alice Zeniter and participated in a discussion about the novel.

After the book discussion, the group listened to parts of the music album “Pili pili sur un croissant au beurre”, by Gaël Faye. Which reference exile, nostalgia, and dual identity.

Prof, Marsal shared that both the novel and the music album can help us teach history (wars in Algeria and Rwanda, France’s military actions there) with a more personal and human approach, thanks to the young narrators. But these two resources can also start discussions with our students about childhood and youth, about family origins and one’s sense of identity, and about writing one’s own story to make sense of it.

 

 

After a short break the group reconvened to hear from Adrienne Eldredge, (French Adjunct Faculty, UConn) about “The Italianization of les passions in 17th-century France.” Adrienne Eldregde’s talk focused on emotions in Italian theater, through the lens of French and Italian philosophy, theater treatises, and plays.

At the end of the meeting UConn’s French 3250 and 3251 were discussed by Elisabeth Buzay, (Visiting Assistant Professor, UConn). Elisabeth Buzay spoke about the two recent culture and conversation courses she taught in a hybrid format: her 3251 syllabus focused on the “10 arts of the 21st century”, and the final project was to create a digital story. In her 3250 course, she implemented a crowd-sourced syllabus, and students created a final project in one of the following formats: a TV newscast, a radio show, or a podcast.

UConn French Courses offered through ECE.