Parlons!

Well, it's been a few days since I've blogged.  It's been crazy busy at my school and with parent/teacher/student interviews and fighting a nasty cold, I've wanted to just curl up with a blanket in the evening!  Now that I'm feeling much better I thought I'd share a "parlons" activity that we did today in my class.  I introduced "inversion" questions today and so I thought it crucial that the students practise making these questions before getting into anything in the written form!  We began by having each student write down 'ONE' Est-ce que question.  I had each student say theirs aloud giving me the opportunity to make any corrections for them before doing the next step of changing them into "inversion type questions". 

My students sit at round tables which allows them easy access to each other when doing speaking activities.  The perfect number at a table for this activity is an "odd" number of students!  The first student asked their "est-ce que" question aloud to the person beside them. That student changed the question to an "inversion style" question.  And finally, the third student would have to answer the inversion question, preferably with a full sentence answer in French!  The next student (fourth student) would then begin again with HIS "est-ce que" question.  Then, the student next around the table would change the question into inversion, and the following student would once again answer the question.  With an odd number of students, each student will eventually get to ask their question, have the opportunity to change a question into inversion, and finally answer an inverted question!  I wandered from table to table while the students carried out this activity.  They did a very fine job!!  :) Give it a try in your class!   Next day?  We'll do a little writing with these questions.