Margaret Hall was inspired to use the project-based learning method with her French 2 students to allow them a chance to learn about more than just the modern language.

She surveyed her students and said the results were eye-opening.

“They’ve studied the language, but they shared with me that they are interested in so much more about France and the Francophone culture.”

Hall created a three-week PBL unit that allowed students to study a topic they were passionate about on their own and then present it to the class.

“You very rarely have the opportunity to just research what you want to learn about,” she said. “This freedom gave them a chance that’s not given to students a lot in school.”

Junior Emma Artelt said the assignment let her study the holidays celebrated in France. 

“We haven’t talked about them a lot in class, and I kind of wanted to look more into that topic,” she said. 

Artelt said choosing her own topic was a nice change in class. 

“It was liberating because I could be in control of what I wanted to learn about.” 

All of the students collaborated on creating a grading rubric to be used in class. 

“They graded themselves on depth of knowledge, presentation skills, creativity and productivity,” Hall said. 

Each individual or pair of students shared their lesson with the class at the end of the unit and included an assessment activity.