Empreintes 1.5 Mami Wata

Mami Wata is a French 3 CI curriculum unit from the Empreintes 1 curriculum sequence designed to build proficiency through music, visual interpretation, and meaningful discussion. In this one‑to‑two‑week unit, students engage with the song Mizik and the legend of Mami Wata to explore the concept of language and communication, asking essential questions such as what counts as a language and whether language must be spoken.

This proficiency-based French 3 curriculum unit provides rich opportunities for interpretive, interpersonal, and presentational communication as students listen, read, discuss, and defend their opinions. Through scaffolded comprehensible input activities, students communicate about music, meaning, and multiple forms of language, including spoken language, sign language, and computer coding. The unit encourages higher‑level thinking while remaining grounded in accessible, CI‑driven instruction.

Mami Wata can be used as a stand-alone French 3 thematic unit or as part of the growing Empreintes 1 curriculum sequence. This unit works well for French 3 and can be extended for French 4 and AP classes by increasing the complexity of questions and output expectations. 

What’s included

• Full 8-day lesson plan
• 7-day remote learning & sub plans
• Song lyrics in French, Creole and with English translation
• Cloze activities (French only or French with translation; with and without word bank)
• Follow‑up communicative activities
• Legend: Mami Wata
• Duolingo Podcast & follow up 
• Follow‑up reading about sign language
• Follow‑up reading and activity exploring coding as a world language

Grammatical Feature

In Mami Wata, students will explore the future and present perfect tenses. They will also describe in detail their opinions using evidence.

Why teachers love this unit

• CI‑driven instruction anchored in music and authentic themes
• High student engagement through opinion‑based discussion
• Strong support for interpretive, interpersonal, and presentational proficiency
• Thought‑provoking content appropriate for upper‑level students
• Ready‑to‑use lessons that save planning time

This unit is part of the Empreintes 1 French 3 CI curriculum, a cohesive, proficiency‑based program built on comprehensible input and thematic instruction. Use this unit on its own or pair it with other Empreintes units to create a coherent French 3 curriculum sequence.

Pair this unit with other CI units from Somewhere to Share:

• Comprehensible Input (CI) Empreintes Curriculum Growing Bundle

French 3 Curriculum Unit | CI Comprehensible Input French 3 | Proficiency-Based Unit | Empreintes Curriculum | Mami Wata

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