The below guide, created for New York's francophone population, explains, through broad strokes, the opportunities for bilingual education for French and francophone students within the context of the American K-12 school system. The guide also includes alternative ideas for bilingual education geared toward younger children.  

Cette note, à l’attention du public francophone, expose les grandes lignes du système scolaire américain K-12 et regroupe les possibilités d’éducation bilingue pour les enfants français et francophones. Principalement orientée vers l’enseignement scolaire, la note regroupe également des idées alternatives pour permettre l’apprentissage du français aux plus jeunes.

Guide pratique education bilingue.pdf

The latest U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey reports that 1,203,941 people in the U.S. speak French at home.This includes speakers of French Patois and Cajun.  These individuals are over 5 years old (count another 4.6% if you want to include children under 5, or 55,380 children). Despite a drop since my last count, French is still the fifth most common non-English language spoken in U.S. households, after Spanish, Chinese, Vietnamese, and Tagalog.

Francophone communities in the United States have many different historical and geographic origins.Some Francophone communities trace their lineage as far back as the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, when settlers and refugees immigrated from Europe and Canada. These groups, such as the Acadians of Maine and Louisiana have passed their language down through the generations.The US Census reports 7,997,196 individuals with French ancestry, and an additional 2,109,242 reporting French-Canadian ancestry (2013-2017 American Community Survey).

Other communities of French speakers arrived in the U.S. more recently, mainly from France, Haiti, Senegal, Mali, Côte d’Ivoire, the DRC, and other African countries. It is interesting to note that 824,884 individuals over the age of 5 report speaking Haitian at home (1,202, 251 report Haitian ancestry). Also, 484,415 individuals report speaking West African languages, and 213,484 report speaking Central/East/South African languages. Many of these individuals are multilingual and can speak, read, and write in French, and in other languages.

Franco-American communities long-established in New England and Maine, most notably the Cajuns and Houma people of Louisiana, and the Franco-Americans in Maine, have begun to revitalize the French language after years of neglect due to prolonged discrimination within their local communities. Meanwhile, French parents within expatriate communities have managed to create bilingual programs and promote French after-school instruction in public schools in urban centers such as New York, Miami, Houston, Boston, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and other areas which stand out on the map above. Together these groups form a diverse community of heritage language speakers who maintain a strong connection to the French language, making it one of the most vibrant languages spoken everyday in the United States.

Fabrice Jaumont

Dans quelle langue doit-on commencer à lire ? Quelles sont les bonnes pratiques d’enseignement de la lecture et de l’écriture en contexte bilingue ? Quels conseils donner aux parents qui n’ont pas accès à une école bilingue pour développer le bilinguisme. Voici quelques questions abordées dans ce nouvel épisode de Révolution bilingue avec Marie Bouteillon, une pédagogue passionnante et engagée dans le développement de l’enseignement en deux langues.

Présenté par French Morning, Révolution Bilingue est soutenu par la fondation CALEC (Center for Advancement of Languages, Cultures and Communities).

Ecoutez l'épisode 13 sur Spreaker ou iTunes

Comme un Lion (Little Lion)
Directed by Samuel Collardey

Length:1h42min | Recommended age 10+
In French with English subtitles

Mitri is fifteen and lives in a Senegalese village. Like all boys his age, he plays football and dreams of Barça and of Chelsea. When a recruiting agent picks him up out, Mitri believes his chance has come. But to get seen by the great European football clubs, one has to pay. His
family chips in and puts itself into debt to help him. Once in Paris, everything collapses: Mitri finds himself abandoned, without a dime in his pocket, and unable to imagine dealing with the shame should he return to his village. An odyssey which will require all his resourcefulness hence begins. But his football dream will soon catch up with him...

Presented by:

More information: https://k497.org/french-cine/

Here is an updated Map of French speakers in New York in support of parents, educators, community leaders, and elected officials actively engaged in creating more French dual language programs in New York City.

“La Petite Ecole”, école d’immersion francophone située dans le Greenwich Village, recherche un(e) Enseignant(e) de Maternelle à temps plein.

Inspirée par la philosophie Reggio Emilia, l’école intègre un curriculum d’art dans un projet éducationnel basé sur les intérêts de l’enfant.

Qualifications :

• Formation bac +3 dans le domaine de l'education
• Langue Maternelle Française (ou Maîtrise Complète de la Langue Française)
• Maîtrise de l'enseignement de la petite enfance ou en éducation spécialisée
• Expérience avec les jeunes enfants avec ou sans besoins spécialisés
• Formation et/ou expérience dans le domaine de l’orthophonie appréciée

Fonctions et responsibilités

• Travailler avec 12 enfants dans une classe âgés entre 2 et 5 ans
• Travailler dans un milieu éducatif inspiré par la philosophie Reggio Emilia
• Créer un environnement adapté aux âges des enfants qui encourage le développement des enfants et des familles.
• Faire preuve de connaissances et de compréhension des besoins individuels des jeunes enfants: creation d’objectifs personnalisés
• Créer un programme et un environnement semblable à celui de la maison.
• Participer aux journées de formation professionnelle.
• Prise de notes quotidiennes pour les enfants qui ont des difficultés d’apprentissage.
• Travail en coopération avec les parents d'élèves.

Merci d’envoyer vos CV et lettre de motivation à info@lpeny.com

159 West 82nd Street, #1 
New York, NY 10024

Join us for one of our mini-camp sessions!

Bonjour NY offers fun-filled camps during school breaks and holidays! Our mini-camps provide a FUN, ENGAGING, and SAFE place for children to spend their day.

Register Now Spots are limited! 

Modeled after our popular Summer Day Camp curriculum, our mini-camps incorporate various arts and craft, sports, songs, cooking and recreational activities to keep your child active, learning, and moving all day - en français. 

Mini-camps are available for kids ages 3.5 to 11. Children are split into 2 age groups.

Camps take place from 8:15am to 5pm at our BROOKLYN location (9 Hanover Pl). After camp care is available until 6pm.

It's going to be a blast! 

Boerum Hill School for International Studies is an International Baccalaureate and dual language  public middle and high school in Brooklyn, NY. We emphasize equity, student voice, and real world inquiry.  Our students are challenged and supported to think creatively and critically as socially conscious global citizens in a warm and dynamic school community.

JOIN US!

Teaching Position Available: Two French Teacher Positions.  

Grades 9-12 and  Grades 6-8 

To Apply:  Please send resume and cover letter to samantha.schmoeger@k497.org

Our Mission Statement 

The Boerum Hill School for International Studies is committed to creating a learning environment that develops inquisitive, knowledgeable, and compassionate young people who work to create a just and peaceful world through intercultural understanding and respect. As an International Baccalaureate World School, our classrooms are rich with authentic, project-based, and interdisciplinary learning. We emphasize intellectually challenging, culturally responsive curricula, and robust dual-language courses which empower our students to become active, engaged, and socially conscious global citizens.

 We are looking for talented and committed educators to join our school.  We offer many exciting opportunities for teachers, including:

• A deep commitment to equity, social justice, and on-going anti-bias work.
• An intentionally inclusive and diverse school with several ICT (integrated co-taught) classes per grade, heterogeneous classrooms, and admissions policies in place to maintain socio-economic diversity. 
• Student centered classroom environments that cultivate confident, powerful, and curious thinkers.
• International Baccalaureate trainings and the support of International Baccalaureate Coordinators at both the Middle Years Program (grades six through ten) and Diploma Program (grades eleven and twelve) levels.
• A collaborative, intellectually engaged staff who deepen their practice together through co-planning, inquiry, and inter-visitation.
• Opportunities to design deep units of study framed by International Baccalaureate principles, including interdisciplinary units in partnership with colleagues from other subject groups.
• Robust peer coaching and a wide range of professional development opportunities to support teacher development.
• A well developed Restorative Justice Program that includes dedicated Restorative Justice faculty and a school-wide Advisory Program.
• Distributed leadership and a variety of teacher leadership opportunities.
• Active collaboration between teachers and school leadership.
• Dual language for all students regardless of their current level of foreign language proficiency.   
• Exemplary Visual Arts, Graphic Design, Dance, Culinary, and Physical Education Programs.
• Partnerships with a wide range of community organizations.
• Joyful collaboration with families.
• International student trips.
• Location in vibrant Boerum Hill, Brooklyn.

Ideal applicants will demonstrate:

• Unwavering commitment to students and to addressing their instructional and socio-emotional needs through differentiation.
• Ability to integrate small group instruction, rich investigations, and interdisciplinary connections into curriculum planning for heterogeneous classrooms.
• Flexibility, comfort with self-reflection, and a problem-solving stance.
• Interest in collaborating with teachers and administration around instruction and school-wide policies.
• Certification to teach in the NYC public schools.
• Excellent communication and organizational skills.
• A commitment to teaching as an act of social justice.
• Excitement for ongoing professional development.

Check us out at http:www.k497.org

The Big Bad Fox & Other Tales
Directed by Benjamin Renner & Patrick Imbert
France, 2017, 1h20
Rated G. Recommended age 5+ | In English

From the creators of the Academy Award®-nominated Ernest & Celestine comes another hilarious, heartwarming tale of animal misfits destined to become a classic. The countryside isn’t always as calm and peaceful as it’s made out to be, and the animals on this farm are particularly agitated: a fox who mothers a family of chicks, a rabbit who plays the stork, and a duck who wants to be Santa Claus. If you think life in the country is a walk in the park, think again!

Doors open at 2pm, screening at 2:30pm. Arts & crafts activities before the film!

"Wacky, heartwarming and wise... Lots of fun!"
—The Hollywood Reporter

CinéSchool: PS110 Film Series!
Discover World Cinema and International Cultures through Film!
ps110k.org | #CineSchool

Plus de 100 personnes ont assisté à la réunion d'hier soir pour soutenir davantage de programmes bilingues en français à Manhattan, réunion organisée par Stéphane Lautner, un parent franco-américain qui a travaillé sans relâche pour créer un programme dans le district 2 (j'encourage tout le monde à le contacter et à l'aider). Le conseiller municipal Ben Kallos, la présidente du CEC2, Maud Maron, la principale de PS84 Evelyn Lolis, la surintendante Donalda Chumney ont partagé leurs points de vue sur cette possibilité. Je crois que tous ont été impressionnés par le taux de participation énorme et par la détermination des parents. J'ai rappelé à tous que les parents organisés ont du pouvoir et qu'ils ont également le droit d'accéder à des programmes bilingues. La loi est de leur côté. En outre, l'enseignement bilingue est un bien public qui devrait être proposé à tous les élèves. Les programmes bilingues peuvent transformer positivement une école, une communauté, voire une ville comme New York. #révolutionbilingue

Over 100 people attended last night's meeting in support of more French dual-language programs in Manhattan organized by Stephane Lautner, a French-American parent who has worked tirelessly to create a program in District 2 (I encourage everyone to contact him and help). Councilman Ben Kallos, CEC2 President Maud Maron, PS84 Principal Evelyn Lolis, Superintendent Donalda Chumney shared their views on this possibility. I believe all were impressed by the huge turn-out and by the parents' determination. I reminded everyone that organized parents have power.They also have a right to gain access to dual-language programs. The law is on their side. Furthermore, dual-language education is a public good that should be offered to all students. Dual-language programs can positively transform a school, a community, even a city like New York. #bilingualrevolution

Fabrice Jaumont

French-speaking, early childhood education teacher needed at P.S. 5 Dr. Ronald Mcnair, in Brooklyn. This teacher would need to have an early childhood certification, and be bilingual in French and English. Contact Principal Lena Gates lgates@schools.nyc.gov

Parents interested in helping to develop a French Dual Language program in NYC DOE District 2 are hosting a meeting on Friday December 13. This will be a public meeting for all interested. Councilman Ben Kallos is attending, as are Maud Maron (CEC D2), Fabrice Jaumont (Embassy of France), and Evelyn Lolis (Principal, PS84)

Date: December 13
Time: 5PM
Location: Stanley M. Isaacs Neighborhood Center, located at 415 E 93rd Street (at 1st Avenue).

Please register via Google Form so that we can have an accurate count of the number of people attending.

https://forms.gle/EkfoHKdGuWf1ZQZE8

Now firmly established in the New York educational landscape, the 2019 Bilingual Education Fair, organized by French Morning, is expanding its offer for its sixth edition, which will be held on Saturday, November 23, at Fordham University (get your discounted tickets here now).

Schools, extracurricular activities, booksellers, publishers and other exhibitors, some sixty in all, will be there to help you navigate the available offers in bilingual education (see the list of exhibitors here). About ten languages will be represented. On the French side, all the schools in the New York area will be there, public or private. It’s the opportunity to ask all your questions about bilingual education in one place.

Conferences and roundtables

As every year, the conference program will provide parents and educators with an opportunity to learn and discuss, including about controversial topics in the world of bilingual education. Bilingualism and multiculturalism in public schools (at 10:30 a.m.) will host elected officials and representatives from the New York City Department of Education to discuss the challenges facing public schools.

Later in the day, Mariam Ottimofiore Navaid, a specialist in third culture kids, to whom she has just devoted a book (“This Messy Mobile Life”), will lead a round table, Raising Happy Kids Between Cultures and Languages (at 1:30 p.m.), where we will discuss strategies and advice for families with kids of one culture raised in another.

Other conferences include: Navigating Special Education in New York City and the Bilingual Child with Special Needs (11:30 a.m.); Trials and Tribulations of maintaining minority languages alive: the example of Sardinian, Catalan, Alsatian and Breton languages (11:30 a.m.); Singing and speaking: reciprocal influences of music and language in early childhood development and learning (2:30 p.m.). Sign up for conferences for free here.

Bilingual education awards

For the first time, the Bilingual Fair will recognize six people whose work has contributed to the development of bilingual education in New York. Nominations are open until October 30 in the following categories: Leader, Trailblazer, Visionary, Student, Parent, Patron. A jury of experts will select the winner of each category. The trophies will be presented during the ceremony (1 p.m.) presided over by Gale Brewer, Manhattan Borough President.

Hip hop workshop

This year, the programme of activities and conferences has been enriched. For children and teenagers, in addition to a multitude of free activities with our partners, we’ll welcome the French rapper Hippocampe Fou. The inventiveness and creativity of this singer-songwriter’s texts, a combination of rap and slam poetry, earned him a loyal audience in France. Twenty lucky children and teenagers will be able to participate in a two-hour session led by “Hippo” himself, which will culminate in the creation of a group song performed in front of the Bilingual Education Fair audience. The first workshop is from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. for French-speaking children aged 8 to 11 years; the second workshop is from 1:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. for French-speaking adolescents aged 12 to 15 years. Free registration required (register here).

Conference organized by Normandy for Peace and Columbia University as part of the "The Problem of Peace" seminars on Thursday 21 November at 6 pm.

This debate at Columbia University in New York will highlight the investment of civil society and local authorities alongside States and international organizations to build sustainable peace. This will be an opportunity to review the actions of the Normandy Region and its partners in the framework of Normandy for Peace. Prof. Katrina Fischer Kuh, professor of environmental law at Pace University, will present the work of the Normandy for Peace Chair of Excellence and Pace University on the protection of the rights of future generations and in particular their environmental rights.

The seminars "The Problem of Peace" is the oldest lecture series of Columbia University, started in 1945 after the Second World War. Since then, more than 400 conferences have been held on peace issues. Columbia University, engaged on the subject, is among the eight oldest and most prestigious universities in the United States. 101 Nobel Prizes were awarded to university students or staff.

A cocktail and a time for discussion with the panel will be proposed after the conference.

For more information :
https://www.normandiepourlapaix.fr/en/agenda/problem-peace

Science, Language & Arts International School is a full immersion Nursery through Grade 8 school located in Downtown Brooklyn. Significant scholarships are available for incoming transfer students in Grades 3-5. Children must have been in a French dual language or immersion program for at least 3 years, or speak French at home. 

Scholarships available: 25-75% tuition reduction.

Scholarships are non-need-based (need-based financial aid is ALSO available).

Contact our admissions office at admissions@slaschool.org for more information.

Current availability, or January 2020 start. Also available for fall 2020.

FALL TOURS happening now! 

www.slaschool.org

718-636-3836

PS 110, located in historic, dynamic Greenpoint, Brooklyn is seeking a qualified French-speaking bilingual teacher or substitute teacher to fill the following position immediately: Second Grade Side by Side French Teacher.

Candidates should possess native-like French fluency, and be willing to work with colleagues on the grade as well as within the FDL department.

PS 110 is honored to be the recipient of the NYS ASCD Educating the Whole Child for the 21st Century Award. Performing and visual arts, The Leader in Me program, as well as Sustainability and parental involvement play an important role at PS 110. These initiatives combined with a collegial and nurturing staff, help grow the hearts and minds of PS 110 students.

Interested candidates should send their resumes to Dana Raciunas, Assistant Principal, at draciun@schools.nyc.gov

Music Box Films is proud to annouce the release of François Ozon’s BY THE GRACE OF GOD, based on the gripping true story of three adult men who band together to expose the code of silence in the Catholic Church that continued to empower a priest who abused them as boys. BY THE GRACE OF GOD is scheduled to open in New York on Friday, October 18 at Film Forum, and in Los Angeles on October 25 at the Nuart followed by a national roll out.

Alexandre (Melvil Poupaud, Laurence Anyways), lives in Lyon, a bastion of the French Catholic bourgeoisie, with his wife and five children. A fervent churchgoer, he learns that Father Preynat (Bernard Verley), the priest who abused him when he was a Boy Scout, is still working with children. He decides to take action, soon to be joined by two other victims of the priest, François (Denis Ménochet, Custody and Inglorious Basterds) and Emmanuel (Swann Arlaud, Bloody Milk). The three go to great lengths to denounce the perpetrator and the institution that has protected him, a risky endeavor that endangers relationships with their loved ones, and compromise their own fragile selves.

The film is based on Ozon’s extensive research and interviews with Father Preynat’s real life victims, who fully supported the director’s project. The explosive investigation and subsequent trial of Cardinal Barbarin became a French media sensation, covered widely around the world.

Father Preynat was indicted in January 2016 and placed under judicial supervision for sexual assault. On July 4, 2019 he was defrocked by a church tribunal, and faces trial in a French court next year. In March of 2019, Cardinal Barbarin was found guilty by a French court of covering up decades-old sexual abuse by Father Preynat and received a six-month suspended sentence which he is appealing.

The drama marks a departure for François Ozon, one of French cinema’s most prolific writer-directors whose career has spanned the last 20 years. His credits include See The Sea, Under the Sand, Hideaway, In The House, Swimming Pool, The New Girlfriend and Frantz. He recently finished filming his twentieth feature film, Summer ’84. BY THE GRACE OF GOD won the Silver Bear at the 2019 Berlin International Film Festival.

"A thoughtful, fast-paced, and immaculately acted procedural that unfolds with the urgency of a newspaper deadline, “By the Grace of God” zips through the facts of this horrid case, while also shaping them into a lens through which to examine the uneasy relationships between mercy and justice — between faith and the flawed institution that exists to preserve it.” Indiewire, David Ehrlich

“There's of-the-moment cinema and then there's on-the-moment cinema, ripped so freshly from the headlines that the filmmaking still bears a few ink smudges.” Variety, Guy Lodge

At this point in human and geological history, dealing with climate chaos is a race: can we move fast enough to prevent civilization-scale collapse? —Bill McKibben

Festival Albertine 2019, curated by environmentalist and author Bill McKibben, will take on climate change. For three days, leading thinkers, politicians, activists, artists, and authors will come together to discuss the urgency to act, environmental justice, local policy, the food we eat and produce, and how to motivate people to change their ways.

All events are moderated by Bill McKibben.
Events are in English and are free with RSVP.

FRI, NOV 8, 7PM
THE CLIMATE MOMENT
We need to understand the particular gravity of this moment in time. What does it feel like to live amid both despair and hope, and what are the keys to implementing change?
With Naomi Klein and others.
Click here to RSVP.  

SAT, NOV 9, 2PM
HOW FAST DO WE NEED TO MOVE—AND HOW FAST CAN WE MOVE?
To hit the targets set in Paris, it appears we’ll need to have cut fossil fuel use in half by the end of the next decade. But is it technically possible, and is it politically achievable?
With Romain Felli, Mark Jacobson, and Priscillia Ludosky.
Click here to RSVP.

SAT, NOV 9, 4:30PM
LOCAL GOVERNMENT & POLICY MAKING
As national governments fail to move at the necessary speed, cities are trying to fill the gap. Can local governments and other stakeholders really step into the policy-making void?
With Cherri Foytlin, Clément Guerra, Jade Lindgaard, and Bryan Parras.
Click here to RSVP.

SAT, NOV 9, 7PM
WHAT WE EAT, AND HOW WE GROW IT, MAY NEED TO CHANGE
From France’s attempt to increase carbon in the soil to great chefs working to make their menus responsible, how can this most basic of all human actions help in the climate fight?
With Perrine Hervé-Gruyer, Raj Patel, and Matthew Raiford.
Click here to RSVP.

SUN, NOV 10, 2PM
ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE
Climate change is hitting some harder than others. What politics, policies, and new economies might hasten progress?
With Mustafa Santiago Ali, Malcom Ferdinand, and Marie Toussaint.
Click here to RSVP.

SUN, NOV 10, 4:30PM
HOW DO WE GET PEOPLE TO CARE
Artists and activists will be called upon to discuss how to change people’s minds and amplify the call to action.
With Irina Brook, Lauren Groff, Fabrice Hyber, and Paul D. Miller aka DJ Spooky.
Click here to RSVP.

Most events will begin with a short reading by Climate Change Theatre Action (CCTA) and other artists.

Festival Albertine is presented in partnership with The Recanati-Kaplan Foundation, the family of Susannah Hunnewell, Van Cleef & Arpels, Air France, Institut français, Chantecaille, and Green Mountain Energy. Generous support is provided by Carnegie Corporation of New York, Champagne Pommery, and InterContinental New York Barclay.

Image: Bill McKibben © Nancie Battaglia.