The 2006-07 school year began by preparing in class for a
contest organized by the Educational Service of the French
Embassy, in which about 100 elementary schools, middle schools,
and high schools participated. This event provided an opportunity
to discover the Impressionist movement, its context and its
works on both a visual and literary level, and to measure
its influence on present-day creations – notably via
the works of certain Africans and Haitians painters.
This project was also a chance to learn how to "read"
a figurative painting in terms of subject composition, colors,
etc. Finally, the paintings lent themselves to comparison
and creative exercises, such as imagining the continuation
of a "scène de genre" by Renoir, writing
a poem in the style of Verlaine, and explaining what one would
paint if he or she was an Impressionist painter; these activities
lent themselves to grammatical and lexical corrections. On
November 3, 2006, the awards ceremony for the Impressionist
contest was held at the French Institute-Alliance Française.