WEB EXCLUSIVE The Year 2 International Baccalaureate Standard Level French students practiced Paper 1, an exam they will take in the spring, by writing a persuasive essay on any movement of their choice.

“For paper 1 in the IB diploma assessment, students are required to have a piece of writing that uses different types of texts,” French teacher Pascal Parra said. “Types of texts may be things like an essay or a speech, in this case, an email or a brochure, and for this particular one students are practicing the speech as a text type.”

The students chose their own social movement they felt connected to before they wrote speeches about the cause, according to senior Sonia Alazraie. 

“I chose Calexit as my topic and I am trying to promote people to believe in it and then to participate in the cause,” Alazraie said. “I can always improve speaking skills in French but the speech is different than just talking because you have to be persuasive.”

The speeches are in preparation for the IB French Paper 1 Exam in May, where French SL students will be graded by the International Baccalaureate Program.  

“What I love about Mr. Parra’s class is that he really focuses on social justice issues, as we have been learning about Climate Change but in french,” senior Miley Sherman said. “I chose the issue of sex trafficking because I think it is really important going to an all-girls school to know about the signs as it is the fastest-growing criminal industry in the world.”

The class presented their speeches and gained feedback from Parra on their language and aspects of presentational skills to improve upon. 

 “Each student has their own areas of growth, for some students, the struggle is that they need to research their topic, or work on very specific writing issues like sentence structure, or conjugation,” Parra said. “It is also interesting because we use a lot of writing mechanisms like hyperbole metaphors because it is another way for them to learn those mechanisms which are also valued in English.