The American International Section at LFSF

The program in the American International Section [AIS] is rigorous.

At LFSF, students may be enrolled in the AIS from Gr1 all the way to Gr12 . Students enrolled in an IS are taught the core syllabus as well as specific courses enabling them to follow advanced classes taught in English.
From Middle School (collège), two subjects are taught in English:

• Language and Literature: more than a language class, this course includes the study of English literature.
• History and Geography: the French curriculum is adapted to include a greater emphasis on the history and geography of the United States of America.

The French Education Ministry has introduced American International Sections (AIS) in cooperation with partner countries. Students enrolled in the international section take specific exams toward being awarded:

Classes are taught by:

Native English speakers
History and Geography teachers (in French and English)

The value of International Sections

The American International Section :

Gives students the opportunity to work on original projects, join a group of motivated students and develop oral skills more regularly.
Allows students to explore their bilingualism and pluriculturalism.
Facilitates the mobility and open-mindedness of students.

The American international section was created with the collaboration of the French-American (Fulbright) Commission, the College Board and the French Ministry of Education.

A special focus and Preparation for the oral exam

Students will present in a structured way using detailed language and new vocabulary specific to the subject. These presentations require a great deal of oral participation in class.

Opportunities for your future studies

There is no direct continuation of the International Section at the university. However, this training may enhance your resume for a future internship abroad or specific internationally oriented programs.

This training allows students who are passionate about English to present additional skills to express themselves in English on all subjects.

The AIS adds a real international value to the Baccalaureate exam.

Use of various materials

Images, photography, sketches, maps, graphs, flowcharts, gradually moving toward incorporating a greater number of texts/ (works studied) in Gr11 and 12.

A few examples of projects implemented in History-Geography and Language and Literature in the International Section

Action-oriented projects around the International Sections Day in May
Exhibitions in the CDI around various themes
Guest speakers conferences

The DNBI (Brevet exam) explained

The DNB International option consists of all of the standard exams plus two specific oral exams in language/literature and history/geography. These two exams are taken in English.

Enrollment in the international section in Gr 9 is a prerequisite for registering for the brevet diploma’s international option.

Passing the DNBI

The “diplôme national du brevet” (DNB) is awarded to candidates in international sections, counting :

Points awarded according to their level in each of the core program components
added to the points obtained in the core exams (including History-Geography)
= 800 points
added to the points obtained during the two specific oral exams (for which you must have obtained at least 25 out of 50): in English and History-Geography in English
= 100 points

That is 900 points (and not out of 800 as for the DNB).

Written Exams

Oral Exams

Oral exam of the DNB common to all students.

The oral test consists of a presentation followed by an interview with a jury.

Your presentation must focus either on a work studied in art history or on a project carried out as part of an EPI (interdisciplinary practical education) or a parcours éducatif (learning pathway) ("future," "citizen," "health education," or "artistic and cultural education").

It is up to you to choose what you want to present. You must show what you took away from studying a particular work or working on a specific project. You are expected to express yourself clearly. You can present a concrete achievement or prepare a slide show to support your presentation.

You can take the oral exam alone or with others (with a maximum of two classmates). If you take the oral alone, your presentation will last five minutes, followed by a ten-minute interview with the jury. In groups, the presentation will last ten minutes, followed by a fifteen-minute interview.

The test is scored out of 100 points:

50 points for the quality of oral expression ;
50 points for mastery of the subject presented.

DNBI orals: two oral exams (each evaluated on 50 points)

Oral exam in the language of the section - English - 20 minutes

DNBI Language and literature oral exam

The Exam

The international section’s oral language exam is based on a file on one or two themes, primarily literary. The candidate composes this file under the guidance and with his/her teacher’s help. It includes documents that the candidate may choose (mainly literary texts - poems or excerpts from poems, excerpts from novels, short stories, plays, and documentary texts, reproductions of works of art, posters, advertising materials, song lyrics, multimedia content, etc.). These documents may be in digital form. The file contains at least one written production in line with the chosen theme(s).

The curriculum

Students present a file related to the theme “languages” from the curriculum. They explore the English language through various literary and artistic works and collaborate on projects that explore language in all its forms (masks, monologues, performances, etc.)

languages
school and society
travel and migration
encounters with other cultures

Taking the exam

Presentation - 10 minutes

The candidate presents his/her file: he/she justifies his/her selection of texts and documents, explains his/her approach, and states his/her personal assessment and judgment on a given aspect or element of the file. He/she explains the choices that guided his/her written production and the place he/she gave it in the file. Although the examiner may discuss the text(s) written by the candidate, they are not specifically evaluated in the test.

Interview- 10 minutes

The examiner invites the candidate to develop or clarify a particular point in his/her presentation. He/she may ask the candidate to focus his/her comments more specifically on one of the documents that he/she has included in his/her file or on his/her written work. He/she may also encourage the candidate to broaden his/her comments to other themes studied during the school year.

The language proficiency of the candidate is assessed throughout this presentation and interview.

Level expected: B2 of the CEFR (Common European Framework of Reference for Languages)

Non-linguistic subject oral exam - History-Geography in English - 15 minutes of preparation - 15 minutes for the oral test

Presentation of the exam

The exam is in English.

It is based on the works, activities, and document studies that the students explored during the year.

They are presented to the examiner in the form of a list.

The candidate presents a commentary that responds to a topic proposed by the examiner, connected to the themes studied.

The curriculum

Theme 2 of History and theme 2 of Geography are treated in English to prepare for this test.

Be aware that the candidates can be asked to work on these themes for the written tests. Therefore, the candidate must also be able to deal with them in French.

Taking the exam:

The time allocated to this test is 30 minutes

15 minutes of preparation
10 minutes of presentation by the candidate
5-minute interview with the examiner(s)

What is assessed in History-Geography?

The International Sections in Middle School are not...

At the Lycée, the OIB Baccalaureate

A French baccalaureate that includes the international option and can only be prepared in international sections.

The OIB is the French general baccalaureate diploma, on which the "international option" is marked. The aim is to give significant weight to skills and knowledge related to the American language and culture. Students who enroll in this option must demonstrate a real interest in literature and reading in history-geography.

The international option of the baccalaureate (OIB) consists of:

the required standard exams for each course, except for written and oral exams in modern language 1 (LVA) and the history-geography paper;
a specific language and literature exam in the section language in the place of the required LVA exams; this exam includes a written and oral component;
a specific history-geography exam in the place of the standard history-geography exam; this exam includes a written and oral component.

These specific exams are taken in English and have their own coefficients.

Enrollment in the international section of the Lycée in 11th and 12th grade is a prerequisite for enrollment in the OIB.

OIB preparation in Gr10
In Gr 11 and Gr 12 OIB

OIB preparation in Gr10

LFSF offers a preparation for the OIB in Gr 10 that follows that same format as the Gr 11 and Gr 12 curriculum: it allows students to discover this option and test their level to make sure they will keep up with the pace in Gr 11 and Gr 12.

The American international sections offer an education that leads students to a truly bilingual and bicultural competence at the end of the second cycle. Instruction is provided in English and according to an American pedagogy. The goal is to take students in the American international sections beyond level C1 of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR).

In Gr 11 and Gr 12 OIB

Students follow an enhanced curriculum in :

English and American language/ literature: 4 hours in addition to the regular class hours
History-Geography: 4 hours (2 hours in the language of the section, 2 hours in French) in place of the standard History-Geography course (3 hours)

Written and Oral OIB exams

OIB students do not take the three Common Tests of Continuous Assessment (EC) in History-Geography like students following the general curriculum because the specific History-Geography exams are substituted for the common History-Geography exam.

Please note that this means that a student who enrolls in the OIB section cannot drop out at the end of 11th grade, as this would mean that he or she would not have taken part in the baccalauréat exams.

OIB Written and Oral exam in History-Geography

OIB students take a written exam and an oral exam specific to OIB history-geography at the end of Gr 12 (based on the Gr 12 curriculum).

Form and modalities of the written test

Duration: 4 hours

Candidates write their papers either in the language of the section or in French. He/she will make his/her choice known when registering for the examination.

The exam consists of two parts. In the first part, the candidate writes a composition in response to a history or geography topic. The second part consists of an exercise on the discipline that is not the subject of the composition.

COMPOSITION

The candidate deals with a subject chosen from two proposed in the same discipline.

EXERCISE

The exercise can be:

either a critical study of documents (DBQ: Document-Based-Question) in history or geography
or a sketch or diagram of the spatial organization of territory (AMQ: annotated-map-question) in geography only.

The subject of critical study of documents includes one or two documents, which may be maps, in geography. For the sketch, a base map is provided to the candidate.

GRADING

The papers are corrected by teachers who, as much as possible, work in another international section. When candidates have written in the section’s language, the correctors are history-geography teachers in that language. Teachers may not evaluate their current year's students in the final exams.

Form and modalities of the oral exam

Duration: 20 minutes. - Preparation time: 20 minutes

Students must take the oral exam in English. The candidate draws a subject, either history or geography, covering all of the curriculum’s questions for the final year.

During the exam, the candidate must demonstrate that he/she has learned, within the limits of his/her age, to understand and critically judge the present world with its historical roots, social, economic, and geographical conditions, political structures, and trends.

The candidate's presentation is followed by an interview with the examiner, who evaluates the candidate's knowledge of the entire Terminale program’s concepts.

OIB Written and Oral exams in English

Students in the OIB American Section follow additional courses and examinations. Candidates studying English language and literature follow a curriculum set by the Inspection Générale, which is part of the French Ministry of Education, in collaboration with the subject-level Inspectors and the teacher-examiners.

The literary content of the OIB program corresponds to that of the so-called "advanced" or "honors" classes in American high schools. In these classes, language work is closely linked to the literary program, and the study of literature contributes to the deepening of language proficiency.

In keeping with the Middle school curriculum and the Common Core Standards in the United States, students in High school are encouraged to express their ideas and feelings personally and creatively and develop critical thinking skills and independence.

The curriculum comprises 12 literary works chosen from various genres, representing diversity in the ethnic backgrounds and genders of the authors.

Written exam: 4 hours

The candidate can choose between two options:

write a comparative essay and a commentary on an unknown prose piece or poem
write two comparative essays

The candidate chooses the topic of the essay(s) from among four proposals. The essay’s subject is generally in the form of a question, but it may also be in the form of a quotation. The proposed topics are based on the literary works of the curriculum.

The commentary essay is based on a text that is not one of the program’s literary works. It may be either a poem or a prose excerpt (the candidate picks one of these options).

Oral exam: Duration: 30 minutes - Preparation time: 30 minutes

The examiner proposes a topic connected to one of the curriculum’s literary works studied in class. It may be an excerpt (35 to 40 lines) from a Shakespeare play, an excerpt from a novel or a poem of at least 14 lines and no more than 40 lines.

Presentation: 10 minutes

The candidate presents the subject uninterrupted.

Discussion: 5 minutes
Free response: 10 minutes

Following this presentation, the candidate will spend 5 minutes discussing the connections between the subject and two other works on the program. If the candidate does not propose any connections, the examiner suggests them and invites him/her to comment on them. The rest of the presentation is a discussion between the candidate and the examiner on the program that lasts for 10 minutes.

Please note that this means that a student who enrolls in the OIB section cannot drop out at the end of 11th grade, as this would mean that he or she would not have taken part in the baccalauréat exams.

It's important to note that...

The OIB is a specific arrangement whereby the French baccalaureate gives the skills and knowledge related to the partner country’s language and culture a substantial weighting. However, the OIB is not a dual-diploma awarded by France and another country.

Nevertheless, the partner country’s educational authorities may play a central role in setting and marking OIB exams. They also help to ensure the OIB is recognized, particularly by the most prestigious universities of their respective countries.

An option in addition to the exams of the baccalaureate. The specific exams replace in part the standard exams and, despite the term ‘option,’ significantly impact whether the diploma is awarded.

The OIB is different from the International Baccalaureate (IB) that is not awarded by the French Education Ministry but by the International Baccalaureate Organization in Geneva.

Benefits of the OIB

Source: The College Board OIB brochure

OIB students learn to handle a hefty workload and to prioritize conflicting commitments.
OIB students acquire cultural mobility — the ability to think from a French cultural viewpoint or an American cultural viewpoint — that gives them different perspectives on their university studies, whatever the subject.
OIB students have learned different approaches to thinking and methodology from two different education systems; this can give them unusual flexibility in problem-solving or adopting a suitable method for a particular task.
The OIB is a rigorous program devoted to educational excellence and sets high-performance standards for students and faculty.
The OIB involves dedicated and creative teachers committed to their students, their disciplines, and their profession.
The OIB attracts highly motivated students who wish to excel academically and attend the most selective colleges and universities.
The OIB program provides for articulation between middle school and high school, terminating with the French Baccalaureate.
In support of the academic program, the OIB offers professional development opportunities for teachers and administrators worldwide.

Français

How Do Colleges and Universities Recognize the OIB American Section?

Source: The College Board OIB brochure

In the United States, experienced college admission officers increasingly recognize the Baccalaureate, particularly the OIB, as a strong indicator of academic promise and achievement. Successful OIB students have demonstrated the ability to attain academic goals above and beyond the already-rigorous college-preparatory program. Also, the OIB courses and exams are frequently recognized for advanced credit at many North American colleges and universities.

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