French people don’t understand Thanksgiving at all. My students told me that Thanksgiving was a religious holiday, or that it was the day Christmas started in America, or that it was invented for Black Friday. To help them get in the spirit of things, I did a lesson on the history of the first Thanksgiving and had them make hand turkeys. I had them write in the finger-feathers things they were thankful for. They had never done this before, and loved the chance to color and write about themselves. Never underestimate a high schooler’s love for coloring.
Listed below are some of the things my students are thankful for. I have left their grammar, spelling, and stylization exactly how they wrote it to preserve the flavor.
my mom
PLAYSTATION
video games
my Algerian origin and the country of Algeria
that i get to see my sister in three weeks!
getting to travel
i get my braces off in a month
my cats
for summers and lakes
my flirting skills
phonk music
League of Legends
my intelligente
BTS
understand English class today
the economic situation of my family
for have GOD in my life
being a good Muslim
the web site Wikipedia
having a dad that loves me even if I do not see him a lot
pasta!
to learn new cultures
my wonderful mother
~
For the history part of the lesson, I verbally explained the story while presenting paintings and pictures. Then, they had to write in their own words the story of Thanksgiving. This was an assessment of their listening skills and their ability to reinterpret knowledge on their own — a big challenge! Below are some examples of what they wrote, again left completely unchanged.
“Pilgrims arrived in America on “The May Flower” (boat). They arrived in winter without knowing how to hunt or fish so half of them froze to death. Gratefully native-Americans show them how to survive. It is because off them that we celebrate Thanksgiving. It is about beeing grateful for the things and people that we have.”
“Pilgrims are in the boat in the ocean but there cold because they were in the ocean during the winter, the alf of them death because the bad temperature. They came in the island of Rhode and meet Plymouth, the native Americans. They help them and the Pilgrims are thanksful for the Plymouth Americans.”
“Thanksgiving is a day were we celebreat when the natives americans saved pilgrins from starve and froze. During this day they all gather in family and eat turkey together and all says what they are thankful for. This day celebreat friendship between Americans and Europeans.”
“In 1620, Pilgrims from England tried to settle in the New World, but struggled because the land was cold and unfamiliar. The local Native American tribe, the Wampanoag, took pity on them and taught them how to hunt, fish, and care for themselves. One Wampanoag man, Squanto, knew English and was able to communicate between the groups. After a difficult year, the groups had a large feast together to celebrate their survival. This is called the first Thanksgiving. It is also a national day of mourning for native people because they were genocided afterwards.”
Fascinating stuff here, right? Many spelling errors are just the kids transcribing the sounds they hear. And check out the variety in ability between the first and the last! The biggest thing that stands out to me is that these kids are clearly perceiving the native people as the actual Americans in the story, and the Pilgrims as just Europeans. I wonder if that’s how the French still see things: actual Americans are the native people, and white Americans are misplaced Europeans.
Cordialement,
Allison
P.S.: A bunch of us American (and some Europeans) had Thanksgiving together! Here are some pictures from the dinner.
Flan in France 
fascinating stuff – please tell your French teenagers that your father now enjoys listening to phonk music will splitting firewood.
LikeLike