As part of its artist-in-residence program, the Lycée Français de New York invited youth author Jean-Philippe Arrou-Vignod to spend a week with the fifth-grade students from March 12 to March 16. What an honor! The author of A Fine Collection of Bananas, Middle School Investigation, and the Story of the Jean-Somethings is a prize-winning writer in France, where he received the prix Renaudot des Lycéens in 1997. A collection director for Gallimard Jeunesse and a TV series writer, Jean-Philippe Arrou-Vignod remains at leading writer for young readers who adore all of the “Jeans” (the three brothers of Jean-Philippe, all with double-barreled names, served as models) and flock to book signings of their favorite author.
For this extraordinary residence, supported in particular by the Primary Library staff led by Damien Renon, the fifth-grade students with their teachers, and cycle-3 head, Gaëlle Le Mercier Rossi, tried to be as creative as this author of “The Sugar Omelet” himself. Gaëlle describes how the school prepared for his visit with much creative input from students.
This residence reflects a Project-Based Learning (PBL) approach, a teaching technique being used more and more at the Lycée. We asked our students how we could best prepare for Mr. Arrou-Vignod’s residence. The students stepped up their creative efforts to suggest activities. In order to tap their excitement and energy, each class was assigned different activities to prepare depending on their interests: spoofing Arrou-Vignod’s book covers in Harold Gretouce’s class, writing a song from the author’s words in Daphnée Marchini-Block’s class, rearranging the classroom in order to receive the guest at Hervé Megras’s home, voicing characters from text excerpts for dioramas at Carlyne Laurent’s, and making a comic strip with Pierre Choux.
For us teachers, this residence is an opportunity to incorporate the teaching of writing into a project that is more fun and more authentic to our students. We are also helping them to explore writing as a profession, a discovery greatly facilitated by an exchange with Mr. Arrou-Vignod these past few weeks. He even sent a video to the students.
In the week ahead, our fifth graders will work on an original text based on the “Jean-Somethings” series who, to mark the occasion, will be out and about in New York. The final projects of the residence will be shown to the parents on Friday, March 16 in the auditorium. Students will read their texts aloud, and then everyone is invited to an exhibit of the students’ dioramas, a reception and a special book signing in the gallery. We are exploring the idea of creating one book per class at the end of the week.
The Cultural Center’s Artist in Residence Program is a key moment of the year for us, which highlights the collaborative environment of the Lycee. It is a joint project for our French and English teachers, as well as with our music and art teachers, and our library team.
More broadly, the artist-in-residence program – we were fortunate enough to have the Paris Philharmonic last year, allows us to have another outlook on culture thanks to this extended contact with artists. For the final project, we are working together with the entire Lycée community–a great deal of pleasure and emotion for us all!
About the Author :
Gaelle is originally from the Paris region. She has taught grades 1 to 5 in Paris since 2001. Passionate about her work, she wishes to share her teaching approach and discover new ones. Joined by her husband and daughter, she moved to New York in 2013 and has been working at the Lycée since 2014.