School: Wyandotte High School
Class: French 1
Instructor: Mary Arling
Client: Travel Agent, Kelly Crank
Problem: How might we incorporate the French language into our daily life?
Summary
Students created a “New French Word or Phrase a Day” calendar for January–December 2025. This calendar features at least 365 useful French words or phrases with English translations, one for each day of the year, designed to help travelers build practical vocabulary and incorporate French into their daily lives. Each month is organized around a specific theme, such as greetings, food, travel, or emergencies, to support real-world communication needs. The calendars were designed using either paper or Canva and supplied to a local The Travel Store for distribution to clients preparing to visit French-speaking destinations. The goal of the project is to help travelers feel more confident and culturally prepared through consistent, bite-sized language learning.
Takeaways
There were many successes throughout this project! Students discovered they can be of service to others even after just one semester of French 1 and discovered how important just one French class can be. Perhaps in the future it may be beneficial to narrow down students’ vocabulary monthly theme options so as to not overwhelm them with too many ideas from which to choose. In giving them more targeted ideas for monthly vocabulary themes, it could more closely adhere to our learning targets so as to reinforce their learning.
Advice
As a French teacher, it is beneficial to be really specific with the students’ options from which to choose for their monthly vocabulary themes. This allows for reiterating their learned vocab throughout the course.
Standards
- Reading, writing, artistic expression, and work-based learning met several GVCs in our district’s curriculum.