ISN Nice's 'spotlight series' highlights the work of our teachers and staff.

This week, read our interview with Karine Nicolini, the French coordinator for the Primary School, to find out more about her approach to teaching French to native and non-native speakers at ISN.

 

Please could you introduce yourself and your role at ISN?

My name is Karine Nicolini, I am a French teacher, and I teach full time in the Primary School. I am delighted to be able to invest myself fully in this learning process by working closely with the Primary School teaching team. As the newly appointed French Coordinator for the Primary School last year, I meet several times a week with Mrs Spina, the other full-time Primary French teacher, to ensure that the French programme covers the essential needs of the children, according to their age and level, but also their needs and expectations. We are each keen to respect the balance of the children, and our pure language lessons (grammar etc) are offered more in the morning, with vocabulary lessons, projects and reading more in the afternoon.

 

Could you tell us a little about your background?

I left the Var region where I spent my childhood to begin my studies in Modern Literature in Nice in 1995. Since I was a child, I wanted to be a teacher to have the chance to accompany children in their first learning experiences, to develop a complicity with them, to exchange ideas, and to live a rich and precious year where every child comes out stronger and better prepared for the next stage of their lives. I therefore studied Modern Literature, and then, once I had obtained my degree, I chose a more specific path which corresponded perfectly to what I wanted to do with my life: French as a foreign language. I obtained my Master's degree while starting to work at ISN! That’s when the fairy tale began - teaching French to young foreigners!

 

How would you define your approach to teaching and learning?

I favour the use of a communication-based method. I make sure that every student can express himself/herself fully on the subject we are studying, and a twenty-minute oral session will always be set up at the beginning of the course. Using a visual or audio document, I establish contact with the children and guide them towards the essential points to remember by asking them questions. I write and draw a lot on the blackboard, and I have them take notes, because I believe that taking notes helps them to memorise. As far as FLE lessons (france langue etrangere) for beginners are concerned, games, dialogue and songs are precious tools that create good humour and interest among the most shy. Once all of this is in place, some writing will be proposed to consolidate the learning. Once a week, I adapt the course to the current PYP unit of study according to the learners’ needs.

 

If we stepped into your classroom, what would we see?

A lively, welcoming, joyful and dynamic class where everyone expresses themselves freely while respecting the instructions!

We could see children grouped together on a carpet or cushions, with their hands raised, others answering using the vocabulary suggested by an image or a projection. There could also tables all facing the board where I would move around according to the children's questions. There could be exchanges in small groups, collaborative note-taking, observing a coloured board with the date, a title or an essential notion and drawings, keywords of various colours. We could also hear music, see lyrics hummed by motivated pupils on the screen, but also see pupils reading, or playing a little role-play, others doing research on an iPad, some writing answers on a slate.

 

How would you define the community at ISN Nice

For many years, ISN has been a respectful, tolerant and ever-developing environment, where everyone finds their place. From the administrative team to the teaching team, from the students to the parents, a benevolent atmosphere allows everyone, I think, to feel listened to, invested, and consequently, everyone works, learns, and informs themselves according to the contacts, meetings, courses, and assemblies. I would say that ISN has always been an almost family-like microcosm where benevolence reigns and where it is possible to exchange in complete confidence. As a teacher, I am happy to contribute to the development of an educational programme that is constantly being updated; I appreciate that children and parents communicate their interests and that together we can best support the students in their education. The development of the child is at the heart of our community at ISN; we do everything possible to ensure that the child is fully involved in his or her future by offering a wide range of activities and knowledge.

 

What is your proudest achievement?

I am proud to have realised my dream as a little girl! Teaching was a vocation for me, I think, and I was lucky enough to get into a great school very quickly where I learned a lot. Being a mother also made me aware of the needs of children for support. Every day I am happy to be that person who teaches and cares for the little ones. I still enjoy it; children bring so much to us!

 

In your field of teaching, how do you bring innovation and inspiration to your students?

For some years now, I have been using themes from everyday French life to teach the essential vocabulary needed for basic communication to non-French speaking students. I like to use the calendar to introduce French culture. I add international events to the French calendar and in this way, from week to week, we learn from each other.

As a travel enthusiast, I like to give non-French speakers the opportunity to show us their origins and their way of living particular events. For the youngest, I use little cartoons related to the holidays and traditions of the world.

For the French speakers, I try to get them to write and illustrate a type of text; this can be a collection of Christmas tales for the older children, a poem about spring with an illustration in the style of an international artist...

Before the holidays, I create little word games for my pupils depending on the time of year (baccalauréat, charades, crosswords).

 

What are some ideas you would like to put in place for the future?

I would like to propose small cultural outings linked to the themes studied, in order to make the lessons more concrete, and to allow French speakers to attend more small shows: theatre and cinema outings for example. A school trip at the end of the year for the older children to a different French region to discover a little geography, history and gastronomy would be wonderful too!