Last updated: July 29, 2019
Lesson Plan
LESSON 5 - HEY NOM: FIRST LANGUAGE LESSON
- Grade Level:
- High School: Ninth Grade through Twelfth Grade
- Subject:
- Literacy and Language Arts,Social Studies
- Lesson Duration:
- 90 Minutes
- Common Core Standards:
- 9-10.RI.4, 11-12.RI.4
- State Standards:
- LOUISIANA
HISTORICAL THINKING SKILLS.
US.1.5 - Additional Standards:
- National Council for the Social Studies
Ia, Ib, Ic - Thinking Skills:
- Remembering: Recalling or recognizing information ideas, and principles. Understanding: Understand the main idea of material heard, viewed, or read. Interpret or summarize the ideas in own words. Analyzing: Break down a concept or idea into parts and show the relationships among the parts.
Essential Question
What is the benefit for an individual in speaking a foreign language?
What is the benefit for society in having members who speak more than one language?
What is the benefit for society in preserving minority languages?
Objective
Hear Zydeco music.
Learn basic information on the Kréyol language.
Learn some useful Kréyol phrases
Have a break from heavier reading analysis assignments.
Develop student appreciation and understanding of the Louisiana Mississippi Delta’s rich cultural resources, complex history, and diverse lifeways, customs, and traditions as reflected in the Creole (Kréyol) culture of Louisiana.
Introduce students to the Louisiana Creole language.
Background
This is the first of the language lessons in this unit. The lessons are designed to be delivered by teachers with no knowledge of Kréyol, French, or the teaching of foreign languages. They are not designed to make students fluent speakers, but instead to familiarize them with the language.
Students will hear the song HEY NOM, sung by native Kréyol speaker Leroy Etienne. Explain to them that LeRoy’s first language was Louisiana Kréyol, so the accent they hear is authentic. They will then use the lyrics to learn some basic Kréyol phrases.
This lesson can stand alone for teachers whose primary focus is teaching basics of the language.
Preparation
By completing the earlier lessons the students should have gained an understanding of the cultural and historic underpinnings of Louisiana French and Kréyol. Students do not need any back ground in Continental French for this lesson or subsequent lessons.
MATERIALS REQUIRED.
- Textbook
- See the page DISCUSSION HINTS to help you as students engage in discussion.
- Recording of the music. CD by LeRoy Etienne’s Creole: Let Me Explain Something to You.
- Means of playing and amplifying music.
- Board or projector.
- Note cards and rubber bands if you do the group activity or recreating lyrics order (see below)
- HANDOUT of lyrics IN ENGLISH ONLY.
Materials
Kréyol and English language lyrics. This is a handout for students.
Download Lyrics to the song HEY NOM.
This page provides assistance to the teacher in conducting a discussion about the lyrics to HEY NOM.
Download HEY NOM discussion hints
This is a handout for students in which they are given the lyrics without the Kréyol translation.
Download Hey Nom lyrics in ENGLISH ONLY
This sheet gives additional activities for students to work with the phrases. They are designed to be fun.
Download ADDITIONAL ACTIVITIES-HEY NOM
This is an activity/game in which students use note cards they write to recreate the correct order of the phrases in the song. Teachers will need to thoroughly familiarize themselves with the directions to properly conduct the activity.
Download GROUP ACTIVITY HEY NOM
Lesson Hook/Preview
Point out to students that they will be learning phrases to a rapidly disappearing language, phrases that they could decide to use as a secret language between themselves and their friends.
Procedure
1. Activation of prior knowledge.
5 minutes.
- Ask students what they know about the language KRÉYOL. Write their responses on the board or in a projected computer document. CLASSES WHICH HAVE NOT DONE THE PREVIOUS LESSONS CAN SKIP STEP 1 AND MOVE DIRECTLY TO STEP 2. The discussion after hearing the song will give them the needed information.
- Students who have completed the previous lessons should have some basic knowledge.
- It arose from the process of CREOLIZATION.
- It has roots in primarily French, Spanish, and African languages.
- It has primarily been an oral rather than a written language.
- Most of the words are of French derivation.
- Louisiana Kréyol is an endangered language, yet has thousands of speakers.
- Kréyol influences can be heard among non Kréyol speakers in places such as New Orleans who use certain words or phrases that originated in French or Kréyol.
2. HEY NOM (Hey, Man).
10 minutes. (The song takes 4 minutes to play.)
-
Play the song HEY NOM for the students. Do not have them look at the lyrics. Tell them just to relax and listen.
- Ask them what they thought. Do not criticize or judge their responses, other than suggesting it is best to keep an open mind. If you have French speaking students, ask them what the song was saying.
- FOR CLASSES WHICH DID NOT DO LESSONS 1-4: Have a quick class brainstorming discussion. Ask students what they know about Creole Culture. Record student responses by writing them on the board or in some other way so students can see responses. In particular, ask if they know any Creole words of phrases.
- Provide this basic focus statement:
Over the next few lessons you will be learning about the Louisiana Kréyol language. Creoles are not the same as Cajuns, though there are some similarities. Creoles are a particular culture with a history and language of their own. When we have finished the lessons you will have learned Kréyol language phrases that you can use in your daily life (maybe as a kind of secret code with your friends.)
- If these terms were not covered in STEP 1 OR IN THE DISCUSSION ABOVE, write them on the board and ask students what they mean:
- Creole
- Creoles of Color
- Creolization
- Creolité
- Zydeco
- Free People of Color.
- Provide definitions.
- Have students turn to text p. 9 and review this section on pronunciation.
- We hope Le Kér Creole will be helpful in learning how to listen to and read Louisiana Creole. With a beginning understanding of how to read the vowels, you can follow along with the lyrics of the songs to tune your ear to hearing the pronunciation of the words. The guide below was developed in consultation with the dictionary for English-readers to be able to interpret the vowel sounds of LC, and can serve as a guide to listen to the lyrics of the songs and develop a more working knowledge of the language.
- sa a short ―o‖ sound like in stop
- kèk with or without the ―`‖ has a short ―e‖ sound like in beck.
- se at the end of a word has a long ―a‖ sound like in may.
- si a long ―e‖ sound like in see
- kouri an ―oo‖ sound like in cool
- mo a long ―o‖ sound like in so
- dòn an “o” sound like on
- Nasal vowels sounds in LC (LOUISIANA CREOLE) come from words that end in “en,” “an,” and, “on” such as “dan,” “gen” or “alon.” Other vowel sounds are sometimes made with the use of “y,” as in “vyeu;” “w,” as in “bwa;” and “ui,” as in “nuit.”
- We hope Le Kér Creole will be helpful in learning how to listen to and read Louisiana Creole. With a beginning understanding of how to read the vowels, you can follow along with the lyrics of the songs to tune your ear to hearing the pronunciation of the words. The guide below was developed in consultation with the dictionary for English-readers to be able to interpret the vowel sounds of LC, and can serve as a guide to listen to the lyrics of the songs and develop a more working knowledge of the language.
- Tell students that while they should try to pronounce correctly, they should not overly stress about pronunciation at first.
3. INTRODUCTION TO LYRICS.
5 TO 15 MINUTES.
- Hand out copies of the lyrics in Creole and English, or use text.
- Play the song again. (4 minutes)
- Ask them what the song is about. (See Discussion Hints for help.)
- Do not give the students the information below unless they seem way off track. Let them figure it out for themselves.
- The composer, who also sings and plays percussion, refers to this as a work song. It is about a typical day of a South Louisiana working person who needs to get up and get the day going.
- He is about to go to work. He also plans to get some money and go to town with his wife or girlfriend and buy something.
- Point out that the lyrics are quite simple, and that by learning this song they can learn some phrases to use.
- Have the students attempt to sing along. If they seem receptive and are having fun, you can do this several times. Remember. One goal of this lesson is to have fun.
4. LEARNING KREYOL PHRASING.
(Remainder of period)
- Tell students that they are now going to learn ONE Creole phrase EACH.
- Write or project on a screen the following English phrases. (This should be prepared before the lesson.)
- Hey man.
- Got to go
- To work
- It’s time to go
- Time to get up.
- To town
- Got to buy
- Something in town.
- Got my money
- And my woman
- Everywhere
- It’s good
- Way over there
- For work
- It’s so so (OK)
- Let’s go.
- Get over there
- Count off the students. They are to learn the phrase that matches their number. Depending on the size of the class, students will have more than one number OR several students may have the same number. Give them a short time to memorize.
- Play the song again and have the students sing along. At this point they are reading the lyrics in the text or handout. Tell them to use this as a way to try to get the pronunciation correct, but emphasize the fun of singing. They should sing the entire song, not just their phrase.
- Write or project on a screen the following English phrases. (This should be prepared before the lesson.)
- WHOLE CLASS ACTIVITY: Matching the words. Tell students that they are only to answer when their phrase is chosen, but to use the activity to try to learn other phrases.
- As you point to a word in English a student who has that matching phrase in Creole should say it.
- In other words, if you point to the phrase IT’S GOOD, a student should respond SÉ BON.
- See your matching list so you can aid them.
- Approach this as a game, not a test.
- Do several times. First in order, then mix the order of the phrases..
- Have students put away their lyrics sheet. Play the game again to see if they have learned their phrase.
- AT ANY POINT IN THE GAME YOU MAY STOP AND PLAY THE SONG AGAIN.
- Continue the game, allowing ANY student to answer when you point to any phrase, but require them to raise their hands.
- If the class is going well and you wish to continue the game, divide the room into teams.
- The object is for a student to correctly match as many words as possible. One point per correctly matched word. Choose a student to be scorekeeper so you can focus on the key.
If you wish for a closing assignment or an ASSESSMENT, have students write from memory as many matching English and Kréyol phrases on paper as they can remember.
ADDITIONAL ACTIVITES AS TIME ALLOWS OR ON LATER DAYS are found under LESSON MATERIALS as ADDITIONAL ACTIVITIES-HEY NOM
Vocabulary
- CREOLE: Something with Old World roots that is created in the New World. A culture created in America from Old World African and European, and New World Indigenous people and cultures.
- CREOLES OF COLOR: A group especially notable in Louisiana consisting of people of Multi-ethnic French and African ancestry, especially those who remained heavily influenced by French language and culture.
- CREOLITE/CREOLIZATION: The creation in the New World of a new culture from the clash of European, Indigenous, and African cultures. Creolite as a noun: Cultural forms created by Creolization, such as “Cuban Creolité” or “Haitian Creolité”. ADDITONAL INFO: “Créolité movement in the Caribbean claimed creoleness as a continuous process of hybridization (“Neither Europeans, nor Africans, nor Asians, we proclaim ourselves Creoles”)”.
- CULTURE: The customary beliefs, social forms, and material traits of a racial, religious, or social group.
- DIVERSITY: The inclusion of different types of people (such as people of different races or cultures) in a group or organization.
- FREE PEOPLE OF COLOR: People of African ancestry living in the United States in the ante bellum period who had their legal freedom.
- KRÉYOL: Alternative spelling of CREOLE, specifically referring to the language and culture.
- MULTICULTURALISM: The presence of, or support for the presence of, several distinct cultural or ethnic groups within a society.
- ZYDECO: A folk music of southern Louisiana that combines elements of French, African, and Caribbean music, and the blues, and that features accordion, washboard, and guitar.
For additional terms and definitions, see HEY NOM WITH ENGLISH TRANSLATION under Lesson Materials.
Assessment Materials
While there is not a formal assessment for this lesson, under PROCEDURES you will find an activity that can be used as an assessment if you with. See step 4: LEARNING KRÉYOL PHRASING.
Supports for Struggling Learners
The best assistance to such students is individual attention, or assigning them a partner or group.