Submitted by: Elham Aboulhosn
Collaborators: Tracy Lancaster
School: Henrico High School
Summary
Students read the novel “Monsieur Ibrahim et les Fleurs du Coran” in French. During the reading, students generated their own guiding questions for the novel study and shared them in classroom discussions. In addition, students designed their own blog, learned how to use it, and created blog entries using these questions. Students responded based on the reading and research done inside and outside the class, their life experience, and personal feelings. Students reviewed their peers’ blog responses discussing aspects of plot and theme and relating their ideas to modern societies. With the guiding questions:”How has society benefited from the wisdom of older people?” and “How can one avoid judging others based on known qualities?” Students were tasked with designing an authentic product that would best express primary themes of the novel. They decided on two products: a film and a mural incorporating the idea of a collage to express the plot and themes in the novel. Students formed their own groups, designed an original a story and script, and produced and edited their own films. They took each individual film and combined it into a larger message. They also produced mural describing the main character of the novel and the message of their movie.
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Using websites that they vetted for validity and reliability, students independently researched cultures and various religions in different parts of the world to understand major themes and conflicts in the novel. From the researched information, students drew conclusions and produced new understandings that that helped them generate questions and responses that were communicated using the blog. In addition, student research was synthesized to complete the authentic task that they chose. Students also researched unfamiliar vocabulary in the target language in order to understand the contextual meaning of certain words the story.
Students worked together in and outside of class generating guiding questions while reading the novel. They posted their questions on the blog, responded to each other’s questions, and shared their own experiences in relation to some of these questions.Lively discussions were generated in class which promoted new questions and responses to be added to the blog. For the final product, the film and the mural, students formed their own groups and each student designed and took on a specific role. Students reflected together on the product and its effectiveness in communicating the intended message.
Students stretched their thinking by researching and discussing the value of wisdom, and how society has benefited from the wisdom of older people. They also addressed how to avoid judging others based on known qualities. In addition, students pondered how the themes of this novel relate to modern society.They formulated and posted questions and responded with their own thoughts to their peers on the blog. Students used these questions and responses from the blog to help plan and design the film and the mural.
This novel allowed students to apply critical thinking and research methods to create their own original final product. Students were asked to find an authentic way to create a public service message to sell their ideas regarding the themes of this novel to the school or the community. The students decided to create a film that would exhibit the novel’s themes and a mural that would illustrate the films message. The themes of the film are: relationships, love, friendship, identity, the symbol of travel, and how to live happily. Students selected a theme and worked in groups of two assigning roles to each other according to strengths. They wrote, directed, filmed, and helped in the editing process of their own scenes. After students created their own filmed thematic excerpt, the groups convened and combined the video clips to create a film of approximately five minutes in duration. They then worked on a creative mural that would illustrate the message of their movie and describe the character traits of the main character in the novel using a few quotations extracted from the book “Monsieur Ibrahim et Les Fleurs du Coran.”
