37 Days

I have only 10 minutes before I go to the "conseille manicipale" so this is gonna be quick. I had Latin this morning, the French, followed by a short pause which I spent with Sabrina in the CDI. Then we had English. We continued talking about a text, and then class was over and Sabrina and I went around school taking pictures. I wanted to get pictures of different places around school before it's over. Awhhhh! I can't believe I only have one week left with everyone :(!

But anyways, at one, we met up with Marion at the cantine and then found Virginie and Laureen at a table. We all ate together, and then Sabrina went with Marion into town, and I went to the CDI. I had a really bad stomach ache, and was not in the mood to walk much.


SORRY! GOTTA GO.
Okay, today I've got some time, so I will finish up.

I went to the CDI for a while and then went outside and sat on the benches with Wendie, Joy, Alice, and Alexandra. At the end of the hour, Sabrina came back and all of us went to English again. This time, we got our grade averages for the trimester. I didn't have one in French or History/Geo, so I didn't think I'd get one in English either, but I did! I have an 18.6or7something. Haha, everyone was like "That's ittt?! You don't have a 20?!" :P! I know majority of you don't have any idea what that means, so I'm going to attempt and explain the French grading scale to you.

The French are graded on a scale of 1-20 (1 being terrible and 20 being outstanding). The average is 10, so if you have anything from about 1-9, that's not very good; 10-13 is normal; 14-16 is really good and anything over 16 is awesome. All the tests, assignments, and final grades are ranked on this scale. There is no such thing as FERPA, so the teachers read off trimester grades in front of the whole class. I noticed the average person has an 11.something or 12.something this trimester in French and English (I didn't hear the history ones). The highest grade in French was a 16.something, and the second highest grade was a 15.something. In English, the highest grade after mine was a 15.something. Each number and decimal really makes a difference, and it's nearly impossible to get a 20. I honestly don't know if they even give those. Even on assignments and tests teachers are just as hard. To 'get' their Bac, students need at least the average (10). If the don't score high enough (or if their grades aren't very good), they have to retake the whole year over again. That is a lot more common here than in the States. There is a girl in my class who is on her third time around her Première year, and after that, she still has to get through Terminale.. :/! Then I believe there are a couple other people in my class working on their second year.

Most of the students here have much better work habbits and better attitudes toward school, though. You don't find people who come to class, put their head down, and sleep; they all pretty much take notes and listen. If people don't plan on working in class, they skip it (which does happen frequently with some people). People here generally put a lot more time and effort into their assignments and tests/essays (DSs). They are required to put a lot more detail and write a lot more than Americans in order to get a decent note. You can't just slide by with the bare minimum. On DSs, you need to have an outline, an introduction, a 'problematique' (question you will answer in your paper), a 2-3 paragraph body discussing that problematique(with transition sentences and all), and then a conclusion. It's not written exactly the same style as I'm used to, though. In French, (normally) you can choose between a Commentaire, a Disertation, or an Ecrit d'Invention. All of those are written with the same general essay format, but each one has its style and different requirements. For example, in a commentaire, you read the extract and you write what you know about it. You create a problematique from the text (I've never been very good at those, because they can't be too general or 'easy.') and then you just write about it and what you understood. In a Disertation, you get a topic related to the extract, and then you write about that and you come up with outside examples. This one reminds me more of an American essay. Your problematique relates the text you read to something else (for example, How does this extract demonstrate the qualities of classicism? or something like that). This is a little harder, but it kind of depends on the topic and the text. It helps if you really like or dislike the reading, because you can come up with a better arguement. The Ecrit d'Invention is your creative writing. The format isn't quite as strict and usually is the most lineant with grading (although, not by a whole lot). You get a topic that is related to the text, but you don't actually write about the text, you just write your own work that is in the same style or somehow relates to it. This can either be really hard or kind of easy, again depending on the topic.

But anyway, I'm out of time so I've gotta go. I will update you on my day later on.
BYE!
<3Miranda
Word of the Day: redoubler = to repeat a grade