La Vie en Rose

    Choosing appropriate and stimulating visual supplements to enrich curriculum is key to an educator.  This is true for all educators but particularly for foreign language educators as most of our students do not have the real-life opportunities to experience foreign cultures.  Through the use of YouTube, VideoJug, TeacherTube, and other video websites, educators now have an enormous amount of resources to choose from when selecting visual supplements for the foreign language classroom.  As amazing a resource as the World Wide Web can be, it can also be extremely overwhelming.  Therefore, before approaching any online video website, it is advised to have some concrete ideas in mind, otherwise, it may take awhile to choose.

During my search on VideoJug, I came across a "how to" video related to making crepes.  This was a great find as food is a consistent topic in the foreign language classroom.  I often try to bring in unique foods for my students to try and they are always curious about making these recipes on their own.  That is why I was especially excited when I found a video related to this topic.  I could post this video on my individual teacher website and students could watch it and then make it on their own.  It included ingredients as well as step by step instructions in how to make delicious crepes.  After I found this video, I decided to keep searching for related videos on YouTube and found one of a French creperie.  There were people speaking French throughout the video and I feel that this video would give my students the unique opportunity to see the same process done in a French creperie where the equipment and timeliness of this process can be quite different.

       In my curriculum, I also do a mini-unit on "les spectacles" in which I show French videos, music, artwork, and other related topics.  Since seeing the movie, "La Vie en Rose" with Marion Cotillard as Edith Piaf, I have been smitten with showing this movie in class, at least parts of it that lend to the understanding of Edith Piaf's life and French music from that time period.  I found some footage of Edith Piaf's performances on YouTube and added that to my video list as well.   These videos would be great to show in comparison/contrast to that of "La Vie en Rose" movie.

       I think that anything that makes learning more engaging and real to learners is key to their success and finding valuable visual resources online can be so crucial to enriching students' learning.