Building community

If you are like many educators you have a class with more than one "class" in it.  You understand, the split class. :) This is common in an elementary school but is also becoming more common at the secondary level. As teachers, we do as much as possible to provide our students the opportunity to excel in our subject areas at whatever level they are at. I have two split classes at the secondary level this year. - one with (FSL) French 8 and former immersion students in it and another one with former immersion students (2 different levels) and FSL students (a triple split class!). Careful planning and organization are essential when teaching classes like this but so is building community within the classroom!  When you have two different courses being offered in the same hour and in the same class you have to take advantage of every opportunity of bringing the entire group together to participate in similar activities whenever possible. One activity that I use to help bring the class together as one is the market place activity.  This is the perfect way to start the language class as it focuses the students on speaking in the foreign language while allowing them to stretch their legs before settling in to the class lesson.  I try to make the market place activities short with only 5 questions . This allows students enough time to practice the questions or concepts that they have recently learned and encourages success for all students.  The former immersion students are happy to be able to help out with pronunciation and the FSL students get an opportunity to hear another speaker besides myself speak in French. I always make a stipulation that students must talk to students from other tables.  Although we have two different courses being taught, they will always consider themselves as "one class" as long as the community is formed. 

Here are two market place products that I use to help reinforce concepts and build community in my class.
 Continuons à parler français

 Parlons français

Happy Teaching! and to all my fellow Canadians - Happy Thanksgiving!  Lorraine

Speech, speech and more speech!

Speaking in the target language is essential to second language learning!

I really believe that there can never be enough time to practice this skill in the classroom and so conscientiously work at this with my students.

For this school year I put together 75 task cards so that I could add just one more idea into my classroom to promote speaking French - the target language.  Why so many cards you may ask? Isn't it impossible to go through every card in a lesson?  Well, yes it is impossible, but that really doesn't matter.  Our classes are so diverse in terms of the students' abilities that I wanted to be able to have my students feel success no matter what their ability level is.  The students have the choice of question that they wish to ask of another student and so it allows them to choose a question that they feel comfortable with.  Over the years it has become obvious to me that students will only "risk" making errors while speaking French if they feel a level of comfort in doing so.  They must feel "safe". This activity allows just that.  It also provides scaffolding of the activity with a variety of levels of questions in terms of difficulty. If a question is too difficult or if the student believes that there isn't anyone in the class that can "match the question" they are free to choose another question.  With 75 questions there is always one that they can choose.  One of the questions refers to a "jumeau" or "jumelle" - There isn't always a twin in the class that I teach although we do have sets of twins in our school.  What is the ideal amount of time to allow for the activity?  It really depends upon your class but I find that allowing 20-25 minutes provides enough time for the "slower starters" to get started while also providing a feeling of accomplishment for those who are actively participating.  With a "recording sheet" also provided you can do this activity as a warm-up activity over 2 - 3 classes if you wish as each task card is numbered and so is the "recording sheet".  All students will know which questions they have already asked and which ones are still to do. 

I posted this product at my TpT store at the following link: Getting to know each other task cards if you are interested in having a further look.  :)  Happy teaching to you all!

Action de grâce!

I always find that Thanksgiving comes and goes so quickly that I never do enough to truly celebrate all of the wonderful things we have to be thankful for in my classroom.  So, I have recently put together a few quick activities that I will use this year!

Action de grâce  - Click if you are interested in this!

Finally 'la rentrée' :)

While many educators have already been in class for 3-4 weeks, I am just finishing my first week!!  Yes, I teach in BC, Canada and we have been going through a difficult contract negotiation which has finally come to a close after many months. We are now back at school!  As is usually the case, back to school is exciting, stressful, and super busy!  This past week has been no different except that perhaps the work load has been a little more intense. 

All of that aside, I have met a good many of my classes now and can honestly say that it is going to be a very exciting school year.  Now for the "learning of names".  Most teachers have their own little tricks to learning their students names and I find myself fortunate that I can use the "French target language" to not only have my students speak but to also help me with my "name learning".  We do the basic "Bonjour, ça va? Comment t'appelles-tu? De quelle école viens-tu?" and while my students who are new to the school at the lower level work at answering these questions I am busy learning student names.  Once I think I have learned most of them (I try to manage as many as possible in one hour) I will leave the room for about 30 seconds.  Before I leave I tell my class to move around the room to see if I really have learned their names - or not -.  They think it is the most exciting game!  Upon re-entering their faces are quiet with expectation and wonder.  Can she really know our names after just one day?  Well, what do you think?  Yes, some, and on a really luck day, I am able to remember most of the class! It's fun and adds some variety to the hour.  How do you learn your students' names?  - name tag on desk?  - notes on your attendance sheet?  I'm sure the ways are numerous to say the least. 

I am so happy to be "teaching" again!

la rentrée

Butterflies in the stomach, dry mouth, nervousness, "what will I wear".  = These are all things that many of our students will be experiencing or saying over the next couple of days as many schools begin their school year after the September long weekend.  I too, feel this way each year even after 30 years of teaching. :)  I look forward to meeting my new classes and wonder who will be in them.  How many new "sibilings" will I meet and how much fun or tragedy has each child experienced over the summer vacation. Many of the boys in particular will have shot up a few inches and they are relieved that they can still wear shorts until Mom or Dad realizes that a new pair of pants is needed as their cuffs rise above the ankles. Most students are taller than me anyway even when they arrive in grade 8 to high school but it's always fun to see their changes over just a couple of months of being away.

I will be looking at my "start up" procedures as everyone else and trying to get to bed at a bit of an earlier time over the next few days in preparation for "la rentrée".  Over the summer I've thought of areas on which I would like to work during this next school year.  And yes, even after 30 years I always put together a mental "focus" for the school year.  My department and I will meet too to decide what we as a group would like to focus on this coming year whether it be oral speech work, technology learning (for us!), podcasts for the students, improved writing skills, cross grade cultural activities.....  Well as you can see the list goes on and on.... 

I am looking forward to the fresh new start, as always and wish you all a great teaching year!
:)  Thanks for dropping by. Lorraine

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PROMOTION de la rentrée

Novel projects!

I often admired the wonderful projects that my colleagues who teach English used to receive from their students.  They showed so much thought and an amazing ability to present the inner soul of the books they would read.  Why not in French?  Perhaps one day I thought.  Well, I came across the most wonderful opportunity to do just that.  I currently have a group of students who came to my school with immersion background and with them also a creative side.  While studying novels by Jules Verne - L’île mystérieuse, and Le Tour du monde en 80 jours these students put together a variety of amazing projects.  I wanted to share a few with you! 

These 3 projects cover: Globe: Le Tour du monde en 80 jours depicting all of the stops that Phileas Fogg and Passepartout made on their journey around the world.
Cereal Box: a representation of the main characters and "Flocons de voyage" as the new cereal.  Cereal ingredients and a coupon were also included. 
Venn Diagram:  Comparison of Phileas Fogg, Passepartout and my student.  Similarities and differences in personalities.



If you are interested in any of these please visit my store for the following 3 products that I used as resources for this novel study.  :)

Giving Directions!

One of the best things my high school teacher taught us was how to give directions to someone in French!  In our tourist destination city thousands of people would visit each year.  For whatever reason, I always seemed to meet someone who was French during the summer and each time, they needed directions to a local restaurant, tourist site, or shopping area.  Merci Mme!!  This past week I did this very same thing for my students. We don't live in as large a city nor are there as many tourists flocking to our city but I remember how good it felt to help someone out.  My students took on the roles of "tourist" and "local" while practising with a "Montreal city map" and of course a list of vocabulary to help them out.  They would switch back and forth in the roles while I gave them "beginning locations" and "destinations".  Map skills are not as prevalent these days with our fancy GPSs but when travelling someone will invariably give you a PAPER MAP!  Have fun with this!  One of my products at my store includes vocabulary for this activity!  Check it out! :)

Giving Directions! - vocabulary included

Oral presentation notes!

My students are always asking me how much they are allowed to have written down as "helpers" when they are doing an oral presentation.  I give a variety of answers depending upon what kind of presentation it is. Sometimes it's only 10 words, sometimes it's partial sentences, or beginning of sentences only and sometimes it's fill in the blank type of sentences on a cue card.  Whatever my answer is it is always with the intention on providing a little bit of help while still challenging my students to do authentic speaking on the topic chosen!!  I have asked permission to share these recent notes from one of my French students. We have talked about language development in children and how we learned to speak English as children.  This student totally understood what I was talking about!!  Enjoy! 

A picture says a thousand words!  :) 

Un Coup du Sort - A board game!

Un Coup du Sort - French Board Game

"Un Coup du Sort" is a board game that I created to help students review the material in French 8 in Canada.  I wanted  to have something to use in my classroom that would challenge students to use a wide variety of material that they had learrned throughout the school year without "me" having to be "on stage". :) There are cards that you select when indicated on the individual spots as you go around the board. You can choose shortcuts to get to the end more quickly or go around the regular route.  If the students are not sure if they are answering the question correctly then they can have a look on the sheet I also made with sample answers. The student can see if what they were giving was a good replica of a suggested correct answer or not. In my classroom I had my board and all of my cards and suggested answers glued onto construction paper and then laminated so that they will last for a long time!!  The students are amazed at how much they have learned over time and have fun while doing a comprehensive review!

I also made a Version 2 to go along with a French 9 program.  Different sentence patterns and theme areas are covered in it. It is important to note that with different kinds of programs offered around the country that these games could be easily used at other grade levels than for which I use them.   :)

If you are interested in either of these games you can click on the links below:

Un Coup du Sort 

Un Coup du Sort - Version 2