Are you teaching French reading?

I remember my parents telling me that if you could read, you could pretty much learn to do anything in life. I’m pretty sure though they were NOT talking about hitting the platform at the railway station and jumping through the wall to go to a magical school of Hogwarts as my children loved! I couldn’t read the books fast enough for my son and soon he was reading the books on his own while I was still tidying up the kitchen. 

 

When teaching Core French reading to high school students it’s sometimes a challenge to find something that will interest them and help you accomplish your goals at the same time. Looking for authentic documents from restaurants, tourist attractions, posters, movie reviews, magazines, etc. will all help you with this! It’s not necessary to pick up a novel and hope that your students will be able to read it, but starting with smaller articles are great options for you. 

 

And reading together is a WONDERFUL IDEA! You can read as a whole class together or you can divide your students up into smaller groups and have them read a French article together aloud. The stronger students can help the students who may struggle with this and everyone benefits. It’s the “two heads are better than one” idea; in this case 4-5 heads in a group. Also, having your students take turns reading the passage aloud will give them the opportunity to practice their pronunciation. When you are doing this, be sure the students stop after a couple of sentences and go through what was read aloud.  Often students do not understand what they are reading aloud in French and need to go back and decipher the content with a comprehension focus. (not just the pronunciation focus)  Unless you are lucky enough to have a whole class of readers, assigning the reading for homework may NOT work. Some of your students just might not be able to do it on their own. 

 

Using in-class reading activities to promote comprehension is crucial and if chosen wisely can be fun and engaging at the same time.  What is something that I like to choose?  Over the years more and more of my students have been travelling with their families and so I like to use webquests about Francophone countries. Technology is so prevalent in students’ lives in most cases that exploring the internet is a life skill that is developed very early on.  Teaching about the French speaking world is interesting and is included in curriculums. So here is what I have to share with you…. A BUNDLE which includes country webquests.

 

      

  Click here to have a look!

 

For those of you who would like to check out one of my French research projects, please GRAB this FREEBIE.    

Click here to GRAB THE FREEBIE !

 

Enjoy the world of virtual travel and reading!

 

Bonne journée!

Lorraine

It's a bonus time!

 Hi there!

There will be a back to school BONUS SALE next week!  The information is below for you! Don't forget to use the bonus code for additional savings at the checkout!

 

             Click here for quick access!

Enjoy! 

Lorraine

 

 

Are you French unit planning?

Getting started on any new task is very exciting! However, starting a new task can also be daunting. You know what is to be done and in theory how to go about doing it, but when you look at the big picture it is often a bit overwhelming.

 

My first couple of years of teaching were so exciting and so overwhelming! It was a time when you weren’t able to teach just in one “specialty” subject area, you had to leave town to find a job and settle where you knew absolutely no one!  If you were lucky enough to have a significant other to go with you, it was a bonus. Many of my colleagues back then showed up green to the teaching career and eager to dig right in.  I was the same!  

 

I spent long hours prepping every evening so that I could “survive” the next day. Weekends had some time for myself but honestly, I missed out on so much of life while prepping for courses I really had little knowledge of how to teach. I’ve heard people say that there are those who are “born teachers”.  That may very well be the case but it sure doesn’t help when you have no knowledge of the subject that you are teaching except for when you were sitting in the student’s desk.  Does this ring a bell with any of you? 

 

I was fortunate to have an amazing staff at my school who helped me immensely along the way. Sage pieces of advice (like not staying at work past 5pm) were passed along and some I took and some I didn’t.  Very human of me I believe.  After the first year, I decided to make a plan to help myself with the next school year.  One of the things I did was start to put units together over the summer.  I picked a project and while not doing an entire unit I would put some things together that I could grab and add to those days when I really needed a break. 

 

You know what I mean.  A day where you’ve had no sleep the night before, or you are lucky enough to have a conference to go to, or report card time is weighing heavily on your shoulders, or a day when you just would like your students to be independent workers.  

 

I want to share with you 2 resources that will help you with this journey throughout the school year! Yes! Throughout the year!  It’s for the holidays! They seem to creep up when you are the busiest and everyone in the languages classes are doing extra fun things to celebrate.  This is one of my most loved aspects of teaching French --- the fun you can have with the holidays. Perhaps you would like a little bit of help for your journey. Have a look and help get yourself set up for the school year. 

 

             

Check it out here !

               

Check it out here !

 

 

AND also for you a FREEBIE !

Grab it here!

 

À la prochaine!  

Lorraine

 

Is it a HASHTAG deal?

 

Bonjour tout le monde! Hello everyone!

Yes!  It sure is a “hashtag deal”! Here are DOLLAR DEALS as a treat for back to school for you! Don’t miss out on this opportunity to save yourself some prep time and get back a weekend or two for yourself while teaching!

 

It’s especially great when the weather is so wonderful and you certainly don’t want to be stuck inside prepping for the week. 

 

The information is below for you including how to search for the DOLLAR DEALS!  And who doesn’t like a deal?

 

CLICK HERE TO START YOUR SEARCH

 

Enjoy! À la prochaine! 

Lorraine
 

What to plan for in August!

 

Have you ever wondered what other teachers are doing in other areas of the country to start off their school year?  Over the years, even I got into a specific routine about when I should teach different units.  Often, I would connect with other teachers in the department and we would do the same unit at the same time to create continuity in the department. We could then participate in special event days all together. That was the best!

 

Well, here’s a glimpse into what my teachers audience often plans for in August!  Maybe this meshes with you too!

 

                                            

Oral Task Cards                 Interactive Notebook bundle                Printable Calendar             

 

 

                                

Passé Composé bundle             Carnaval de Québec                    Giving Directions

And to top off the August plans, there's a Teachers Pay Teachers Back to School Sale coming along that I am participating in! All of my products including the ones above will be on sale at a 20% discount on August 1 and 2 EASTERN Standard Time. So, on the west coast that finishes at 9pm on August 2. At the checkout use the promotion code BTS23 and TPT will give you an additional 5% reduction on your purchase prices!

I hope you will take advantage of this and add some new resources to your "teaching units".

Have a great day everyone! Bonne journée!

Lorraine

(mrslryansFrenchresources)

How to make your students feel welcome!

Is your school back in session soon?

One of the biggest things about going back to school is setting up and organizing your classroom. It’s so important to have the students walk into a welcoming classroom when they arrive in August or September. Spending a whole week before the doors open to the students has always been a busy week for many educators who do just that.

 

If you are brand new to a school, to a grade level or are teaching a new subject you may not know many or any of the students who walk through those classroom doors. So, how do you deal with that?  

 

You could start with an alphabetical seating plan but there are no guarantees that that is going to work! I remember these 2 lovely twins who switched desks and names on me just as I was trying to figure out who is who. Luckily, I caught onto it pretty quickly as I’m married to a twin and they used to play those little tricks while in school. 

 

I liked to get involved with the lessons and participate with the students during those first few lessons. It gives the students a chance to see me “in action” and I got to learn some names along the way. I have always believed that the better you know your students the easier the lessons are when you get down to business.  Classroom management is also much easier! For classroom décor, check out my free classroom posters series in my store. They will help with vocabulary and add some colour to your walls. 

 

Click here to see the classroom decor posters: 

 

French only version

 

French & English version

 

We speak French here posters 

 

Here is one of the resources that I have to help make students get to know one another and feel more comfortable when doing French speaking work at the beginning of the school year or semester. Have a look! You can use it for a variety of grade and ability levels!  This is one of those great activities to do along with your students while you are getting to know them!

ORAL TASK CARDS - CLICK HERE !

Have a great day everyone!  Bonne journée!

Lorraine

Which sites or monuments of France?

There are so many beautiful attractions in France to explore and if you aren’t able to be there in person, here is a resources bundle that I’ve put together to help your students to explore these places virtually!

 

Have you seen this?

 

At the moment this bundle includes 3 France attractions: la tour Eiffel, le Château de Versailles and le musée d’Orsay.  Within the next few months there will be more attractions included in this bundle.  You won’t want to miss out on this, as the cost of the BUNDLE will not remain the same and will increase each time I add another resource to the France attractions bundle.

 

Put this on your list, get it soon and add it to your next year’s teaching resources list!

 

CLICK HERE:  France Attractions Resource

 

 Here's something else to add to your resources!

 

         CLICK HERE FOR A FRENCH FREEBIE !

 

Have a great day! Thank you for all that you do!

 

Lorraine

 

Is it meatless Monday?

While on a regular basis we see advertised that we should try to lower the amount of meat we are eating by having “meatless Mondays” I like to encourage instead “French Fridays” for the classroom! 

 

How does this work?  Doing a reward system works really well at all grade levels.  And the reward doesn’t need to be something huge either; usually just a change in routine which feels like a reward in itself and an easier way to get through that Friday class!

 

So. The goal for French Fridays is exactly what it sounds like.  For all French classes that you have on Friday everyone is required to speak only French during that class.  Perhaps you already require that in your classrooms but for more beginner classes it is an added incentive to language learning. Often, however, students really need to ask questions about a “grammar concept”, for example, in English in order to fully understand how the grammar point works so while your goal is to have everyone only speak French all the time, this doesn’t always occur. 

 

For French Fridays, divide your class up into 2 teams. The left-hand side of the class and the right-hand side of the class is easiest. If you don’t use a seating plan create one for only Fridays. Choose a student to tally the French responses on each side of the class for that day. They can use the chalkboard/whiteboard or a piece of paper but using the board creates added incentive and interest.  For 3 classes of the month the tallies are recorded and then on the 4th Friday, it is reward day! Have a couple of things put aside for rewards for this day. 

 

Here are some examples:  

 

      French movie day – It is good to have a couple put aside and have the winning team choose which movie the week prior to movie day so that you can set it all up ahead of time and NOT as they walk into your class.  I have even provided popcorn now and again. Clean up RULES must be set in advance!

 

      French game day – This does not need to be teacher directed necessarily although if LOTO is chosen you might want to be the caller. French game day could be ‘BOARD GAME DAY’ where you set up a board game at a number of work stations around the room and the students choose one to play. 4-5 players per game is really the ideal number you would want to have at a board. If you don’t have enough board games to keep your game at 4-5 players though, have your students play in pairs as partners! 

 

      French “catch up” day – Not all students are always on top of their homework in French or the activities that are coming due shortly.   They have added responsibilities at home, have part-time jobs, etc.  During one of these days, introduce a project that the students who are on track can start to work on. The winning team from the previous week gets to choose which project will be done, so it’s good to have a couple available for them to choose from AS A GROUP. It’s not necessary to have 2 projects going at the same time.

 

      French project day – As mentioned in the above suggestion, the winning team would choose the next French project to do. Introduce it on the Friday and allow your students to give it a start. It’s something interesting and not necessarily teacher directed which gives your students more freedom to work on their own and do as much as they like AND WHAT part of the project they would like to do during that Friday class. 

 

Always have your rewards French-related with your curriculum. Board games are curriculum oriented in that they tie into Speaking & reading comprehension, movies are listening comprehension and catch up days are more general. Projects are sentence structures development and culture based. And as a side note: Have a fun vocabulary worksheet ready to go for movies that end before the end of the class. There’s nothing worse I think than a class on a Friday that unravels for 15 minutes! 

 

Here are a few resources that can help with some of the suggestions above. I hope you will do French Fridays and have fun with it! It’s great for promoting more French speaking AND helps with classroom management too!

 

    CLICK HERE for BOARD GAME

 

 

    CLICK HERE for Carnaval de Quebec BOARD GAME

 

 

    CLICK HERE for COUNTRY PROJECTS

 

 

    CLICK HERE for FUN Word Scrambles

 

 

CLICK HERE FOR A FREE RESOURCE!  

Have a great day! 

 

Lorraine

 

 

 

 

It's Fathers Day!

Hi everyone! I just want to wish everyone who is a father or a father figure to someone a "Happy Fathers Day"!  I think dads often are not appreciated as much as they should be and so I want to give the all important shout out to all those dads out there who are doing their very best every day to set good role model examples for their youngsters - and I don't mean only youngsters that are kids.

 

So, Happy Fathers Day to all of you!  Have a great weekend!

 

Lorraine

Do you have a summer project?

Do you choose a “project” or “mini project” to do over the summer to help you prepare for the following school year? I have always found this to be most beneficial because once school starts up there are so many things to do that some of the culture and engaging activities I really want to do just don’t get done because there isn’t enough time to prepare them! Marking gets in the way, and so does the weekly lesson planning and those are only a couple of the challenges. 

 

So this week in my blog I want to share with you some of those types of projects that can be done at a leisurely pace while kicking back and enjoying your time off! You will then reap the benefits of having them ready whenever you choose to put them into action during the school year.

 

These will save you hours of researching, planning and prepping and will be an excellent addition to your lessons.

 

This first one is great for a variety of grade levels! It’s a seasonal product during the winter and highlights the Carnaval de Québec in February. This hands on matching game is perfect for end of the day activities, as a springboard activity to begin your Carnaval unit or to use as a celebratory game when the students have explored Carnaval during your winter carnival unit! Save yourself hours of looking for photos and making French game cards with vocabulary appropriate to the pictures with this resource at my TPT store! 

 

 CLICK HERE ----   Carnaval de Québec matching game 

Other matching games that follow the above format can be found here:

 CLICK HERE ----   Paris matching game

 CLICK HERE ----  Weather matching game

 CLICK HERE ----  School Objects matching game

 

The next mini project is ideal for building community in your classroom at the beginning of the school year or semester!  There are 75 oral task cards to use and you can divide them up into “themes” if you wish in order to use them over several classes or in different grade levels.  They could also be used in small group situations if you feel that having your full class move around the room at the same time is not something that you feel comfortable with.  With the extra time of the summer, you will have time to divide the cards up efficiently and choose which ones to use first! My students have always enjoyed these cards!

 

 CLICK HERE --- French Oral task cards

The last one I’d like to share with you is a French inventors’ project!  This is a great way to introduce famous people to your students from a variety of countries.  It is also a great way for your students to either work as individuals or in pairs – again to build community. With a presentation at the end you will get an opportunity to do some impromptu formative evaluation of your students to better gauge what lessons and work needs to be done in your lessons by seeing their ability levels while doing this project. Whether you want to specify grammatical structures to be used in the project is definitely up to you.

 

  CLICK HERE ----  French inventors project

 

I hope you will find one of these projects can fit into your summer schedule.

 

Have a great day! Bonne journée !

 

Lorraine

 

                  Here's a freebie for you!