"BBC - Languages - French." BBC - Homepage. Web. 06 July 2010.
This website has a wealth of information about the French language. It includes video courses for French students, essential vocabulary lessions, and covers beginners to more advanced students. It also includes a word of the day and has articles on popular and curent events. For example, the Tour de France has just recently started, so there is a section covering vocab and trivia about it. Early videos involve Hakim M’Barek as he meets and greets people of all ages and genders, and encounters different situations.
Students will be able to experience different people speaking French and hear native speakers. Activities suggested on the website align well with lessons planned for class. Subject matter reinforces lessons learned in class. For example, in the first beginning video, Hakim says hello using formal and informal structures, and speaks to single and multiple people. This is one of the first things that students need to learn.
Seuss. The Cat in the Hat,. [New York]: Random House, 1957. Print.
A children’s story where a young boy and girl are trapped inside on a rainy day while their mother is out. A mysterious cat stops at their house and creates a huge mess while a fish protests. When their mother is almost home, they throw the cat out, but he comes back and straightens up the house before the kids can get in trouble.
Because the vocabulary is very basic, even the most elementary students will be able to translate this story into French. Students will work together in groups and share their work with the class. This will introduce students to the concept of telling a story in French, and help them to understand the way that words and sentences work together. Students will be able to write a complete sentence in French and put these sentences together to create paragraphs. This is also great for English Language Learners because it is very basic.
Strategies
Writing Break: At a predetermined time, the teacher will stop talking and allow the students two minutes to write. The students can write key ideas, problems they are having, questions they may have, or whatever is one their mind. When they are finished the students will get into pairs to discuss their questions and present them to the class. In a French class, this would be most appropriate after covering particularly challenging units so that students can organize their thoughts and be sure that they understand. It may also be useful when talking about culture.
I think this would be a great way to be sure that my students are keeping up with the material and are understanding everything that they are taught. It is also helpful for students to be able to explain things to each other. When the students get in pairs and discuss what problems they are having, their partner may be able to give a unique view of the problem and explain things differently than I as the teacher may explain them. I might use this after teaching students their first verb conjugations. I would allow the students to think about what they learned and ask them to write down what questions they have about it.
Exit Slip: During the last one to five minutes of class, students jot down reactions to the day’s lesson on a card and turns them in to the teacher. The teacher then uses the tickets to plan the next days lesson. This would be great to use any time the students have learned new information and I want to judge how well they are understanding the new material.
By having the students write down any questions and difficulties that they are having, I know how much time I need to spend reviewing it and how to proceed with the rest of the material. In order to build a language, I don’t want to lose anyone along the way, so this is a great way to make sure everyone is keeping up. I especially think it would be important to use it on the first day of class, to make sure that students are not overwhelmed with their introduction to foreign language.
Clustering: Students write a word in the center of a page, then draws spokes around it and fills in more words or phrases that associate with it. This helps students to organize complex ideas and make connections between different concepts. I would use this when presenting families of verbs and nouns, such as –er verbs. I would put –er in the center and use different verbs that fall into that category around it. Then I would repeat using –ir verbs.
