Creating Lives: An Introduction to Biography

Introduction and Rationale

The scene is one of glorious, golden splendor. We are in 1653 and the handsome young Louis XIV is dancing the role of Apollo accompanied by music and a spoken eulogy making it clear that he is a masterpiece sent by God as a gift to France. He is fourteen years of age, just before his consecration as the King of France. The regency of his mother over France is at an end and the dauphin of France is clearly demonstrating that he is now the King of France. The careful choreography of the piece is a strong visual representation of his power and of the glittering, golden era over which he is to reign. This is a scene from the movie Le Roi danse directed by Gérard Corbiau. ¹ This is a biographical movie, a biopic, about the life of Louis's Italian court musician and choreographer, Lully. This is a pivotal moment, the moment where Louis is about to have power invested in him and through him. Here, through the power of image, dance and music, he finds his own voice, his own expression of that power. It is also a moment that tells us about this particular time in the history of France through a biographical portrayal of Louis XIV, about the importance of pivotal moments in an individual's life and about the power of an image.

Eleventh and twelfth grade students are poised at the brink of an important moment in their lives: graduation from high school. This is a time of intense relief and celebration, an important event eagerly anticipated by high school students. Schools attempt to preserve the gravity of the occasion amidst the general hollering and jubilation through the rite of the graduation ceremony – the portentous speeches, the elevating music, the ceremonial walk across the stage and reading of each graduate's name. And thus this ceremony takes its place among the rites of passage of each student's life. It is choreographed to perfection and duly documented with photographs, autographs and articles in the local newspaper. The event takes its place in the chronicle of students' lives, a date never to be forgotten, a date that marks each student's passage through time. Most students are aware, albeit perhaps just for a moment, that they are in the process of creating the story of their own lives.

At another student milestone - the 2010 commencement ceremony at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill - John Grisham stressed a simple message to the graduating students when he said: "To be heard, you must find a voice. For your ideas to be accepted, for your arguments to be believed, for your work to be admired, you must find a voice. (…) In life, finding a voice is speaking and living the truth." ² The concept of voice and the idea of the power of a clear, individual voice is something that is notoriously difficult for students to understand and develop. Grisham specified that this voice should have three characteristics: clarity, authenticity and veracity. This requires knowledge of self, one's individual strengths and weaknesses and a vision of where one wants to fit in the world and the contribution that one wants and is able to bring.

So why does this have anything to do with French class? One of the purposes of education is for students to build a body of knowledge to prepare them for the demands of adult life. They study math and English, science, geography and foreign language and pass from class to class often with a woeful lack of understanding of how they all relate. Increasingly, teachers are asked to bring interdisciplinary components to their teaching so that different subject areas are reinforced and acquire a meaningful context. In short, the body of knowledge imparted should be cohesive rather than fragmented. French (or another foreign language) is an especially good opportunity for this kind of holistic learning. The study of French is, after all, not only a study of a language, but of peoples who express themselves in that language, of their societies, of their countries and their histories. Through a holistic sense of French, students come to a holistic sense of themselves.

I propose, with this unit, to study the lives of five individuals whose voices have had a strong impact on France, and on the world. Students will be introduced to the genre of biography, focusing in particular on the idea that some moments of a life are pivotal moments that have profound repercussions on the rest of their lives. They will see short movie representations of these moments to bring visual impact and immediacy to the idea. The movie excerpts will stress the subjects' youth and childhood. Students will then read excerpts from a biography written in the form of a graphic novel. This will be in French. Students will work in groups to consider how particular moments of an individual's youth and childhood can influence the "voice" that he subsequently developed in life. In groups, they will create a graphic novel presentation of important and formative moments of their subject's life. Lastly, students will reflect on their own experiences and think about important moments in their own lives, their own nascent "voices." Through viewing themselves as biographical subjects in French, a foreign language, they will see "voice" as something that they must create and choreograph, rather than something innate.

I teach levels of French ranging from French I up to French V AP in an urban high school. This particular unit of study is written for my French IV class. There were several reasons for focusing on this level. Levels One through Three in French have many time constraints on them due to the body of new grammar and vocabulary which must be imparted to establish sound bases for future French study. These levels are also very structured by the demands of high school textbooks that also contain cultural components. In our particular French textbook series ³ the Level III textbook has a cultural focus on French history, giving students a background knowledge that will prepare them well for looking at history from the perspective of biography. Level IV is an honors course that is often taken by high school juniors and seniors who will be able to think about the importance of their own lives and those of others with a degree of maturity. This is also a level where I often feel that students can easily lose interest. They are often studying Advanced Placement courses in other subjects during this year and sometimes their other classes can seem less important. Initial enthusiasm for French may die down unless there are interesting new challenges which allow students to feel that they have progressed in the language to new levels. They must feel the connection of French to their own lives. A feeling of expertise is a heady incitement to continue learning a language and helps students to gain confidence in their own ability to function in another language and understand another culture.

Foreign language teachers also face the challenge of answering the students' assumption – tacit or overt – that English is understood everywhere in the world and that Anglophone culture is dominant. Why learn a foreign language or anything about foreign countries and peoples? Studying these five lives will contribute to students' awareness of the existence of a larger world "out there," containing different societies and cultures. We will study individuals during their youth and adolescent years and look for early influences and important moments that have a part in the formation of the adults they will become. This study is designed to help students to relate to the contributions and achievements of individuals who have a place in the history of France and of the world and to do so in an interesting way that highlights the links of the study of French to other areas of the curriculum.

The unit is designed to be taught over a semester. It will start after an initial introduction to the course and a review and will run from mid first quarter to the end of second quarter. This unit involves some group work and students will also be required to put in some preparation outside the classroom. It is will be taught concurrently with other aspects of the curriculum so that instruction is varied and students have time to think about biography and the individual they are studying.