The APprenons team has been busy writing and researching to include the latest updates from the francophone world and the College Board.  This experience, thus far, has been a true 21^st century project in that we’ve written the entire manuscript using collaborative web tools. We all live in different parts  of the country, and we were not able to meet face-to-face until the 2011 ACTFL Conference in Denver, CO. Speaking of ACTFL, we so appreciate the support of all those who gave us feedback at the conference, as well as our  PLN (Professional Learning Network) via Twitter. We are using your thoughts and ideas as our roadmap to create a book that meets the needs of today’s students and teachers.

Our initial vision of the book is finally becoming reality. The graphic design team is hard at work making the content sparkle. We’ve seen the book evolve from ideas and font families to mock ups and now we’re finally seeing finished lessons and chapters.  The book was written for students, so don’t be surprised if it doesn’t look like your average American textbook!

It is particularly exciting to see so many authentic resources from all over the world incorporated into each chapter. We’ve included blogs, forums, newspaper articles, chats, texts and much more. We have learned more than we ever wanted to know about copyright rules and regulations, but we believe these authentic texts model ideal language use for our students.

It is important to note that the use of authentic resources is just the first step in the APprenons scaffolded approach to language learning. The accompanying activities ensure that the students understand the material, but also engage them in grammar practice that will enable them to model the resource to complete a communicative task. This structured, modeled approach encourages students to use sophisticated grammar and idiomatic expressions. As classroom teachers, we’re always searching for the combination of authentic material and supporting activities, and we’re proud to offer that to you in APprenons.

Of course both authentic resources and communicative tasks will help prepare students for the AP Exam. However, the ultimate purpose of this book reaches far beyond a test. This book will enable students to use the language skills they have to effectively (and confidently) read, speak, write, and listen in French.

Brittany Selden, Mireille “Mimi” Jones, and Andrea Henderson

Authors APprenons