Cultivating Allies
Connect with parents, students, colleagues and staff, and counselors
Quick Start Advancing Arguments Cultivating Allies Taking Action Universities Links & Resources
The materials in this section of the French Language Advocacy Resource Bank can help teachers connect with parents, students, colleagues and staff, counselors, and more. It is important that French teachers keep the various constituencies informed about their program--its raison d’être, its activities, its strengths, its students’ accomplishments, etc.--in order to have their support throughout the year and to have them as allies in time of crisis.
Click on the links below to access the documents relevant to your situation.
Resources for Teachers: Developing Allies
1. Gathering and disseminating information How can I find out who can be an ally for my program?
- Questionnaire to help identify colleagues who can be helpful: Survey of Colleagues and Staff
- Booklet to inform parents about your French program: Sample Parent Booklet
- A list of possible activities, which you can customize to let parents and allies know what you and your students are doing: 50 French Events and Activities
- Gathering testimonials from students, parents, and allies about why they think French is worthwhile helps you articulate the value of your program:
- Sample Testimonial Prompts
- Template: Release Form (in .docx format so you can personalize it)
- Essay: Advocacy from a Board Member's Perspective (Sugarman)
- FLES Advocacy and Promotion (Lipton)
- Marketing Your College or University French Program (Morrissey)
- Promoting Interdepartmental Cooperation (National French Week)
- Strategy: Recruiting Spanish-Language Students
- Toot Your Own Horn: Letting the World Know (Sandburg)
- What Does It Mean to Speak French (Zachary Richard)
- What to Know to Work Effectively with Guidance Counselors (Malone)
- Working Against the Odds in FL Instruction (Gramer)
- Map of the French-Speaking World
- Statistics from the Organisation internationale de la francophonie
- France-U.S. Economic Report 2025
- The World Speaks French: Video Stories (link to video)
- Strategy: The World Speaks French Topics and Themes (how you might use the videos)
Making Allies of Parents
Your program Let parents know what's happening in the French classroom, both in class and in extracurricular activities
- Distribute an introduction letter with parent response form on the first day of class. Let parents know what you are going to accomplish during the year, and seek parental involvement.
- Use the Parent Booklet at the beginning of the year to encourage parents to support their children as they study French. You can distribute the entire booklet or select materials to hand out at various times during the year. The Teacher's Guide gives an overview of what's in the Booklet.
- Communicate periodically with parents via a monthly or quarterly letter or newsletter.
The value of learning French Share selected information to help them understand why learning French is worthwhile: hand it out at Open House or use it in your newsletter
- Map of the French-Speaking World
- French Embassy Webpage: Status of French in the World
- Brochure: “French: A Language of Choice”
- Flyer: “With French YOU can”
- Presentation: Ten Reasons To Study French
- List of Francophone celebrities
- Essay comparing the ease of learning French with other world languages: The Ease And Challenges For An English Speaker Learning French (Bullock)
- 40 Surprising Facts about French
How French has impacted former students and others You might share testimonials from your former students or community members
- Get parents involved by providing them with a way to compliment their student at home in French: this document gives a translation and pronunciation guide: 15 French Compliments
- See how many English words that come from French your student can identify: Flyer: French Words in English
- The "Bonjour Parent Letter" above provides sample questions for inviting parents to contribute their time, experience, or expertise to facilitate class and club activities: Letter: Bonjour Parent
- Students can interview their parent or other family members about their French-related experiences: Interview of Parent by Student
With French-program activities Ask students to show informational letters to their parents, to have parents read and then sign those letters, and finally to have the students return each informational activity letter to you. In this way, you are sure of publicizing your activities and inviting parents to get their children involved in participating in these activities.
- National French Contest: Letter–National French Contest Invitation
- La Société Honoraire de Français Application for National French Honorary Society
- La Grande Dictée
- National French Week
- French Club (N.B. Point out that involvement in school activities is important to election in the National Honor Society and will enhance a student’s college application. This will encourage more of your students to join French Club!)
- French Exchange
- Immersion Days and Weekends
- French film night
- International dinners
- Field trips (i.e. museums, concerts, restaurants, plays, etc.)
Orientation for Incoming Students
- Present a mini-lesson to give students an idea of what to expect on the first day of class.
- Show the videos in “The World Speaks French – Video Stories” to convey to them the importance of studying French.
- Provide brochures, like French: A Language of Choice, or flyers, With French YOU can, or 10 Reasons to Study French. The brochure and flyers mentioned are provided in this kit. There are additional brochures available from the American Association of Teachers of French (AATF): https://www.frenchteachers.org/ .
- Present a video to demonstrate what current students are doing in French class.
- Suggest websites, movies, or other resources that students can use to become familiar with French before the school year begins.
- Distribute letters in Spanish to Spanish-speaking parents on the importance of having their children become trilingual. Here are model letters you can send, in Spanish and in English: Letter to Spanish-Speaking Parent (in Spanish) and Letter to Spanish-Speaking Parent (in English).
- A list of 10 reasons to study French (“With French YOU can”) is provided in Spanish: Con el frances tu podras
Open House
- Present a mini-lesson giving parents an opportunity to experience learning French.
- Show the video: The World Speaks French – Video Stories or selected video clips.
- Provide a newsletter, calendar of activities, or other welcoming handout for parents to take home.
- Provide brochures on why the study of French is valuable, for example: Flyer: With French YOU Can… and Flyer: 10 Reasons To Study French. You can also procure similar brochures from the AATF national organization.
- Bring French pastries, bonbons, pencils or other treats for students and families.
Parent-Teacher Conferences
- Bring various realia, books, flags, etc., to decorate your conference space if you cannot meet with parents in your classroom.
- Show the video: The World Speaks French – Video Stories.
- Prepare an “assignment” for parents. For example: Ask them to post a copy of an irregular verb conjugation somewhere unexpected in their home for the student to see.
- Encourage parents to become involved in an upcoming class project or activity. Have a sign-up sheet available. (It helps to be specific in what you need.)
- Ask for parent e-mail addresses and keep them up-to-date with a mailing or newsletter.
- If parents have ties to the Francophone community, find out if they would be willing to share their experiences with the class. (See the “Bonjour Letter” response sheet.)
- Provide brochures on why the study of French is valuable. Several of these are located in this “Making Allies of Parents” section, for example With French, YOU Can... and 10 Reasons to Study French. You can also procure similar brochures from the AATF national organization: https://www.frenchteachers.org/.
End of Year
- Distribute an End-of-Year Letter to summarize your students’ accomplishments and activities and to suggest French-related summer activities.
- Distribute a Year-End Parent Survey from which you will get feedback.
General
- Use your school’s online communications system to let all parents know what is taking place in class or what special activities are planned for the near future.
- Invite parents to attend special classes, club activities, the French Honor Society induction ceremony, etc., by creating your own special invitations in both French and English. Conduct the ceremony in both languages also.
- Maintain a class web page detailing assignments and providing parents and absent students with a means of staying abreast of what happens in French class.
- Provide translations of any documents sent home for those parents unable to communicate well in English. (See example of Letter to Spanish-Speaking Parent in Spanish)
- Create greeting cards for students to take home (Valentine’s Day, Mothers’ Day, etc.).
- Host a French-themed pot-luck dinner and invite students’ families.
Making Allies of Students
This section provides ideas for involving students in promoting the French program. Students who are strongly tied to your program will provide a support network for you if French is threatened in your school. Without a doubt, your very own students can be your most important allies for helping sustain the French program at your school!
In order for students to support their French program, you should 1) help them see what an important role French culture and language have played and continue to play throughout the world, and 2) share with them experiences that people similar to them, “ordinary people,” have had because they studied/learned the French language. And of course you provide them with an excellent quality program that is engaging and effective!
Here are some strategies you can use:
- Have students administer the Interview of Parent or Family Member By Student at the beginning of the year. You will learn about the parents’ experiences with and attitude toward foreign language in general but with French in particular, and encourage parents to become guest speakers in your classes regarding their French experiences.
- Discuss with your students the Study Strategies For French that will help them become successful in French.
- Ask students in class to brainstorm a list of as many French words that are used in English as possible. Compare each group’s lists in a discussion and then pass out the Flyer: French Words In English document. Explain to the students that since more than 30% of English words come from the French language, learning French can be easier than learning many other world languages.
- Have students in groups list as many celebrities as possible who speak French as a second language. Compare lists, then hand out the French-Speaking Celebrities document.
- Encourage students to watch French films either alone or with their parents. Many films offer the option of listening in French while viewing the English subtitles or listening to the English soundtracks while viewing the French subtitles. Here’s a list to start with: Family French Films
- Ask your present or former students to share with you in writing why they have chosen to study French, how they have benefited from having studied French, or what they plan on doing with French in their future. Share these in the classroom and with other classes. Finally compile these mini-testimonials into a flyer that you can distribute at 8th grade parent night. (See Student Testimonials and the Testimonial Prompts)
- Distribute to students at the end of the year a Year-End Letter to Parent And Student and Year-End Questionnaire in which they and their parents react in writing to the activities that you have offered your students during the year. Remember to have them return the questionnaire because then you will be able to quote some of their reactions the following year in documents and flyers you create and distribute.
- Brainstorm with your students reasons for studying French. Read and then discuss with them the brochure entitled French: A Language of Choice. Compare their reasons for studying French with the ones mentioned in the brochure. Use the three documents by Nadeau and Barlow to share additional reasons for studying French:
- Modern Quebec–Cutting Edge Culture In French (Nadeau & Barlow)
- Quebec Aujourd’hui, A la fine pointe du monde francophone (Nadeau & Barlow)
- 40 Surprising Facts about French
- Distribute the Spanish-language student letters in Spanish and in English to students for 8th grade or middle-school parent and student night. In these letters, native Spanish-language students are encouraged to become trilingual in order to make themselves more marketable. The letters also shown that French is often easier to learn than other languages for Spanish speakers because of the linguistic similarity of Spanish to French.
- Use the video “The World Speaks French: Video Stories” with the document developed to facilitate their use. The segments of one to five minutes are useful in discussing the reasons why French is important in people’s lives. Click here to see the video.
More documents you can use to involve students:
- Keep students informed about activities planned for them:
- Pique students’ interest with this information:
- Identify opportunities for student recognition because of their French studies:
- Help them understand the advantages that the study of French brings:
- French In Fashion (Steinhart)
- Which Language Should I Study And Why? (Duvick)
- The Study of Foreign Languages Is Not A Zero-Sum Game (Brockmann)
Making Allies of Colleagues
The documents in this section can be useful to you in creating allies within your school because colleagues and staff can ...
- Offer invaluable support by emphasizing the importance of French contributions to their disciplines.
- Share with students experiences that they have had with French in terms of language, culture, or travels to Francophone countries, thereby underlining the importance of French in their own lives.
- Show how the French and English languages are interconnected.
The following documents can help you make allies of your colleagues:
- Find out the world language experiences of adults in your school: Survey: Colleagues and Staff
- Inform others in your building and district about the importance of French today:
Bellringers
These “bellringers” can be used by teachers of other subjects to connect their discipline to French. They could be used at the start of class during National French Week, for example. (You can use them in your class, too, to show how French touches other disciplines!)
Science Connection:
BellRinger: Physics And France
BellRinger: French And Biology
BellRinger: Biology and its French Connection
BellRinger: Chemists In France
Math Connection:
Arts Connection:
BellRinger: Culinary And French Terms Game
BellRinger: French Ballet Terms
BellRinger: Les impressionnistes
Language Arts Connection:
BellRinger: French Exercise For English Language And Literature
History Connection: U.S./North American History:
BellRinger: The French In North America before 1763
History Connection: French History:
BellRinger: French History–Matching History Makers
BellRinger: French History Makers–Sticky Notes (Use this to print clues on labels)
Geography Connection:
BellRinger: Geography Of Francophone World
Physical Education Connection: