Every year around this time, Lycée middle-school students take us on a journey to a different place and time through the IDD, Itinéraire de Découvertes. The idea behind IDD is quite simple. Students work with two teachers in either history, drama, foreign language, or English to create and perform in a ten-minute play based on their own research to learn and teach an audience about a moment in history and important historical figures.
In January, three groups performed IDDs. Sylvain Pappalardo, history teacher, and Marie-Hélene Brabant, drama teacher, worked with the faire lords and ladies of the 7th-grade on Medieval history. Catherine Pointelet, English teacher, and Mme Brabant worked with another class of 7th graders on the “Four Freedoms” as defined by Franklin Delano Roosevelt in his 1941 State of the Union speech and painted by Norman Rockwell in 1943. Eighth-grade students of Farida Meddah Rubin, Spanish teacher, and Rachelle Friedman, history teacher, created performances highlighting links between France, Spain and the United States during the 19th and 20th centuries.
In each case, the teachers defined the topic and served as guides. It is a collaborative effort for the students, who work in teams to conduct research, as well as write and act in their own plays, choose props, design simple costumes, select music and even create multimedia presentations which serve as backdrops for each play. They (the students and the performances!) are truly remarkable.
I will long remember the pencil mustaches worn by the students who introduced us all to Salvador Dali, and the Hepburn sunglasses of the team who reported on Coco Chanel and Balenciaga, or the humor of a Robin Hood, who was brought forward in time to the 1940s to learn about FDR’s Four Freedoms and surely the one closest to his heart, Freedom from Want. Said Mr. Hood, “I never rob. I just borrow from those who can afford it.”
And, the engaging conversation with students of M Pappalardo and Mme Brabant, who answered a few questions about the experience:
Q: Do you get nervous when you’re on stage?
A: No, we become someone else on stage, so it’s less scary.
A: I feel more loose on stage and have more freedom, because the stage is far away from the audience.
A. In the classroom in front of the white board, we are ourselves. But on stage, we are someone else.
Q: What was the best part of participating in IDD?
A: We get to learn how people lived and feel what it was like to be there at that time.
A: We learned that you need to do a lot of research to be able to write a good play.
A: We learned how to work in a group, which isn’t always easy. Everyone has their ideas, but everyone contributes and that makes the group better.
Parent Robert de Rothschild came to watch his son’s performance on the La Nueve Spanish freedom fighters. He shared this review. “The performances are well researched, spontaneous, enthusiastic, and fun. Un beau projet.” Tout à fait.
About the Author :
Elisabeth King joined the Lycée team in November 2011 as the school’s first director of communications. A francophile at heart, Elisabeth spent her junior year of college in Paris, and held her first job at the French Trade Office here in New York. She brings to the Lycée over 15 years of experience in media and communications in non-profits, government, news and business. She was previously executive vice president and director of strategy at ABI, Inc., a boutique public relations agency, and she worked as associate editor on two books co-authored by Todd Brewster and the late ABC News anchor Peter Jennings.