12/7/2007

Throughout the month of November, the beautiful and timeless strains of the memorable song Vois Sur Ton Chemin (See Upon Your Path) from the film Les Choristes (The Chorus) could be heard emanating from Madame Brigitte Silkin’s classroom. By singing the French song by heart, her Seventh Grade students learned to pronounce French words with hardly a trace of their American accents.

Click here to view a video.

Madame Silkin skillfully uses songs in her lessons to increase her students’ French vocabulary and to improve their enunciation and pronunciation of this second language that is introduced to Viewpoint’s students in Kindergarten. For example, during the fall curriculum unit that pertains to school-related words and imagery, Madame Silkin introduces Vois Sur Ton Chemin. Her students learn and memorize the song and come to love it for its message and melody.

“The beauty of the melody enables them to feel free…the students forget about the rigidity of the language; they try to reproduce to perfection the sounds they hear,” says Madame Silkin. “As a French Native, I have to say the result is quite extraordinary.”

Her class watches the film at the end of their unit as a culminating event. The film, Les Choristes, tells the tale of a school of underprivileged young men who get a new lease on life when a new teacher introduces them to music. It is an inspirational story of hope and renewal, leaving Viewpoint’s Seventh Grade French students with improved linguistic pronunciations and hearts full with optimism.

Vois Sur Ton Chemin

Vois sur ton chemin
See upon your path

Gamins oubliés égarés
Children lost and forgotten

Donne leur la main
Take their hands

Pour les mener
To lead them

Vers d'autres lendemains
Toward other tomorrows

Sens au coeur de la nuit
Feel in the heart of the night

L'onde d'espoir
The wave of hope

Ardeur de la vie
Ardor of life

Sentier de gloire
Pathway of glory

Bonheurs enfantins
Joys of childhood

Trop vite oubliés effacés
Too quickly forgotten, erased

Une lumière dorée brille sans fin
A golden light shines steadily

Tout au bout du chemin
At the end of the path