1 INSTRUCTIONAL ACTIVITIES FOR VIDEO FIRST READING

INSTRUCTIONAL ACTIVITIES FOR VIDEO
FIRST READING SELECTION
The first page is not part of students’ packets. It represents pre-listening activities
that are done orally or on the board.
On the video, class starts with review of homework that required coming up with a
commercial using one or more of some famous phrases learned the previous day.
The goal is to provide a bridge between activities and lessons within the thematic
unit of Advertisement, and to prepare students to make associations and think
figuratively during the activities for the lesson on the song Foule Sentimentale.
FOULE SENTIMENTALE
Alain Souchon : chanteur, poète, compositeur
PRE-LECTURE
Qu’est-ce qui caractérise la société consommatrice?
• que veulent les producteurs des biens matériaux ?
•
que veulent les consommateurs ?
Comment sont les gens qui tournent de la publicité, leurs figures, leurs apparences?
Donnez-en plusieurs noms.
Sauf les produits eux-mêmes, qu’est-ce qui contribue à la vente quand on est dans le
magasin?
Quels types d’emballage connaissez-vous ? (forme et matière)
Sauf la possession de biens matériaux, qu’est-ce qui caractérise les gens ?
Qu’est-ce qui se contient dans la catégorie du spirituel ?
Peut-on vivre sans le matériel ou sans le spirituel ?
A votre avis, lequel est plus important ?
A SUIVRE : LECTURE GUIDEE ET ASSIMILATION
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FOULE SENTIMENTALE
Première écoute :
De quoi s’agit-il dans la chanson ?
Notez autant de mots et d’expressions que vous pouvez entendre.
Deuxième écoute :
Classez les éléments qui vous semblent les plus significatifs en deux catégories :
ce qu’on nous propose
et
ce que nous voudrions
Lisez le texte de la chanson et ajoutez des éléments à votre liste ci-dessus.
A votre avis, qu’est-ce qu’on désigne dans la phrase ce qu’on nous propose ?
La vie en rose, pour vous, qu’est-ce que c’est ?
Trouvez l’expression dans la première strophe qui signifie qu’on nous manipule.
Il y a une certaine tautologie dans le dernier vers de la première strophe. La dérision, c’est le
rire qui porte de la moquerie. Expliquez la phrase dérisions de nous dérisoires.
Pourquoi les gens sont-ils appelés foule ?
Qu’est-ce qui montre le côté non-consommateur des gens ?
Quelle phrase dans le refrain indique le désaccord du poète avec la manière dont les gens
sont traités ?
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Quel verbe ne représente-il pas un synonyme du verbe se dégager ?
- se séparer
- se mettre à part
- se distinguer
- s’approcher
Si l’on change de préfixe de se dégager, on obtiendra un verbe de signification contraire.
Lequel ?
Un objet hors d’usage, c’est un objet qu’on n’utilise plus. Quand l’expression hors d’usage
est employée pour des gens, qu’est-ce qu’elle pourrait signifier ?
Quels mots et expressions de la deuxième strophe indiquent-ils l’inconfort ?
Comment les désirs des gens peuvent-ils les affliger ?
Indiquez l’antonyme de l’expression faut pas déconner :
- il ne faut pas se tromper
- il ne faut pas croire
- il ne faut pas être stupide
- il ne faut pas faire faute
Indiquez le synonyme de l’expression dès qu’on est né :
- après la naissance
- avant la naissance
- depuis la naissance
- pendant la naissance
Trouvez dans le texte jusqu’ici deux façons de dire on se moque de nous.
Quelles expressions indiquent-elles le désir des fabricants d’homogénéiser les gens en
catégories bien définies ?
Qui est Claudia Schieffer ? De quoi est-elle le symbole ?
Lisez l’information à propos de Paul-Loup Sulitzer. Pourquoi pensez-vous que son nom est
utilisé dans les paroles de la chanson ?
Spécialiste international des questions financières, Paul-Loup Sulitzer a eu l'idée de mettre en
pratique son expérience du monde des affaires au service du roman. Auteur mondialement connu, ses
ouvrages sont diffusés dans près de cinquante pays. Malgré son accident cérébral, Paul-Loup Sulitzer
n'a rien perdu de ses talents de romancier. Tous ses romans: Money, Cash! (Prix du Livre de l'été
1981), Fortune, Le Roi vert, sont des best-sellers internationaux.
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Selon le poète, est-ce bien ou mal d’avoir de tels modèles ?
Quelles en sont les conséquences ?
Le mot moukère est un mot arabe et signifie une femme. Pourquoi pensez-vous qu’il est
employé ? Quelle catégorie de gens a-t-elle été parmi les plus affectées de la publicité
commerciale ?
Quelles expressions dans le texte entier indiquent que les gens sont manipulés ?
Trouvez le verbe qui n’est pas synonyme du verbe dévaler :
- briller
- tomber
- descendre
- rouler
Quel est le désir qui prend les gens ordinaires?
De quoi le cheval peut-il être le symbole ?
Expliquez le titre de cette chanson.
La chanson, vous a-t-elle plu ? Pourquoi ?
PERSONNALISATION :
Chantons ensemble !
Par écrit : En employant des phrases célèbres et des expressions idiomatiques et en se
servant du modèle de cette chanson, créez un poème dont le thème est la publicité ou une
ritournelle publicitaire.
Pour apprendre plus à propos d’Alain Souchon accédez à http://www.alainsouchon.net .
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Foule sentimentale
Alain Souchon
Oh la la la vie en rose
Le rose qu'on nous propose
D'avoir les quantités d'choses
Qui donnent envie d'autre chose
Aïe, on nous fait croire
Que le bonheur c'est d'avoir
De l'avoir plein nos armoires
Dérisions de nous dérisoires car
Foule sentimentale
On a soif d'idéal
Attirée par les étoiles, les voiles
Que des choses pas commerciales
Foule sentimentale
Il faut voir comme on nous parle
Comme on nous parle
Il se dégage
De ces cartons d'emballage
Des gens lavés, hors d'usage
Et tristes et sans aucun avantage
On nous inflige
Des désirs qui nous affligent
On nous prend faut pas déconner
dès qu'on est né
Pour des cons alors qu'on est
Des
Foules sentimentales
Avec soif d'idéal
Attirées par les étoiles, les voiles
Que des choses pas commerciales
Foule sentimentale
Il faut voir comme on nous parle
Comme on nous parle
On nous Claudia Schieffer
On nous Paul-Loup Sulitzer
Oh le mal qu'on peut nous faire
Et qui ravagea la moukère
Du ciel dévale
Un désir qui nous emballe
Pour demain nos enfants pâles
Un mieux, un rêve, un cheval
Foule sentimentale
On a soif d'idéal
Attirée par les étoiles, les voiles
Que des choses pas commerciales
Foule sentimentale
Il faut voir comme on nous parle
Comme on nous parle
Svetoslava Dimova
Reflections
Videotaped Lesson: Foule sentimentale
This lesson is part of a thematic unit on advertisement. It is one of the concluding lessons
and the students have already talked about categories of goods, consumers, and needs;
means of expression that are used in the advertisement process; they have analyzed specific
printed advertisements and read articles about the advertising methods and strategies to
incite buyers to spend money on products. The lesson preceding this one dealt exclusively
with famous phrases said by historical figures that have remained in the language and bare
specific idiomatic meaning. Creators of commercials often use such phrases because of the
nature of advertisement: rich meaning that must be delivered in a very short time. My goals
for this particular lesson were:
1). To make students more susceptible to the poetic language and the figurative meanings;
2). To teach them about the constant struggle between the material and the spiritual;
3). To enable them to use poetry, figurative language, and idiomatic expressions.
Pre-Reading/ Pre-Listening
The beginning of the videotaped lesson is a review of the homework assignment: famous
phrases that had to be used for the purpose of advertising a product of student’s choice. It
was intended to provide a bridge between what was studied previously and the lesson on the
song Foule sentimentale. I think, it worked well, because students enjoyed the storylines they
created and at the same time, they got prepared for the complicated, non-literal language of
poetry. The specific pre-reading/pre-listening activities for this song begin with the
questions about the consumer society on the first page of the packet. Students did not have
this page with written questions and they participated in the oral discussion. As it can be
easily seen, students in this class are not loud and extrovert but they pay close attention to
the activities. I intended to write more lexical items on the board about packaging, but
during the lesson I found it unnecessary.
Guided Interaction/Assimilation
Listening to the song twice without lyrics with two different tasks was quite successful.
Students were able to identify either correctly or very closely many words and expressions.
Before they received the lyrics, they already had a good idea of what the text would be about.
Nevertheless, it was not easy to quickly answer the first portion of questions. One reason for
the difficulty was the lack of punctuation. This group of students works well with a partner
or in small groups, but often it takes longer time to come up with answers when students
work with someone. I like varying individual work with work with a partner. It seemed to me
that this strategy produced the desired result: students were able to answer the questions and
to be prepared to finish the set of questions in the packet alone as homework. I thought
about playing the song again while students were working on the questions because I often
play music in such situations, but I decided it would not be a good idea since it would most
likely distract them from the reading activities. It did not seem appropriate to play a different
musical selection, maybe because I did not have any other songs by Alain Souchon, or
anything that would somehow be related to advertisement. In one of the items in the packet,
I used the word tautologie, assuming that students would know and recognize it from their
English classes. A couple of days ago, I had eliminated this word from the set of terms about
means of expression thinking that I could shorten their list of terms by omitting some
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obvious cognates. My assumption that they would know the word in English was wrong. I
anticipated however, some difficulties with words like the adjective dérisoire, or the verb
déconner, which belongs to the slang lexicon, not only because they are not familiar to the
students, but also because they were used in the text in more complex structures that were
difficult to discern for lack of punctuation. I should think about a way for the future to
prepare students to better deal with poetry without punctuation. As for the
synonym/antonym items, I was pleased with students’ ability to choose the correct answer. I
purposefully put synonyms for the choices that were not the correct answer because in these
cases, my intention was to teach the vocabulary to the students rather than to assess them.
Going over the homework items on the next day was appropriate and useful. Students
compared their answers to those of their peers. Initially, I had planned for fewer questions to
remain as homework starting from the question about Claudia Schieffer but since we ran out
of time, we could not go over the answers of the previous set, and all the section remained
to be reviewed on the next day. When creating the worksheet, I recall thinking about
indicating the sets of questions by the stanzas and deciding against. Such indication would
certainly ease the task for the students, but thinking that I have to prepare them for their IB
exam in a month and a half, I opted for the less obvious structure.
Personalization
Singing along is always a pleasure, and I think students liked it this time again. The next
homework task was to create a poem or a jingle by using the model of the song as well as
some idiomatic expressions that were to be learned in connection with specific commercials.
I did not want to include the process of creation as part of the videotaped lesson due to time
constraints. On the next day, students brought remarkable poems. I was so pleased that I
had them type and prepare the poems to be posted on the walls: something I usually do not
do. Due to the fact that I was in a hurry to videotape my lesson, to transfer it onto a VHS
tape, and to send it before I left for overseas, I did not include any student work among the
accompanying materials. (After going back to school tomorrow after the break, I could take
some work samples, scan them, and e-mail them with the hope that colleagues have not
watched and critiqued the lesson yet.) Something that is not on the tape is my showing of
the web site of the singer using a scan converter and demonstrating to the students the kind
of information they could find on the site. I did not plan any particular activities with this
web site; it was just for those more interested in the singer’s works.
Overall, I was pleased with the way the lesson went. My goals: to make students more
susceptible to the poetic language and the figurative meanings; to teach them about the
constant struggle between the material and the spiritual, and to enable them to use poetry,
figurative language, and idiomatic expressions, were met.
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