Novice-Mid Unit - The Geography of France
Day 1:
A new addition to my unit this year was to begin with a Card Talk a la Tina Hargarden. I ask students what they know about France and have them draw a picture of that thing on a card with their name. This is an opening to our unit and brings in personal connections. I nearly always have at least 1 student who has visited France and so we begin a CI style class discussion that I lead. Weaving connections between students, and beginning to give some vocabulary and information that will reappear during the unit.
Day 2:
The next thing I will do is project an outline of France onto my white board-- Then I will tell a story about France and draw and label as I go. I make sure to start with a compass and teach North, South, East, and West - I then begin with the oceans and sea, the mountains, the river Seine and Paris, the bordering countries and Corsica. (Tina likes to do this on a big piece of paper so that she can keep in on display for the whole unit). I prefer to project onto the white board, so that we are forced to recreate our map and review on multiple days).
We will then do a simple reading that reinforces some of the words they just heard. I usually stay sitting in our circle for this. My students are anxious to read aloud so usually I will read a line and they (as a group or individually) will repeat it after me. This has made a great deal of difference on their reading pronunciation, fluidity, and confidence.
Day 3:
The next day-I will project the map again and have the students help me fill in the info, and I will add on some new info-- they LOVE- to learn about Andorra and Monaco. This time I will also have a bunch of pictures of the different places on my computer to have them make connections between the map and what these places look like.
I have students draw a picture of their own imaginary country. They write a quick description using our key words on an index card and record themselves describing it on seesaw. From Seesaw I can print off a QR code and glue it to their picture so that anyone can listen to their recording. This is a fun activity to do in class- my students love being able to have their phones in class to do this (a very rare occasion!)
Need a homework assignment or quick fill- here's a simple listening activity.
Day 4
We will then do a second reading -which is a lot more detailed- you may choose to chunk this into different days. We read as a group and I will ask questions as we go and then the students partner off to figure out how to label the maps in the reading.
We will then, one more time project our map outline and fill in all the new and old information.
Day 5:
Our next class, I begin to talk about France outside of the European Continent. Its a quick intro to these locations - that will learn more about the following year in my class. I will show a map, and photos of the locations. We will look at a more detailed map of Martinique - we will chat more deeply about its geography. This will turn into a quiz. Student will write a short paragraph about Martinique based on the map that is still projected and our discussion which I will take up for a grade.
Other quizzes/comprehension checks I use during this unit are:
-listen and draw (give students a blank map to fill in based on your description)
-read and draw (same as above)
- True/False questions based on a completed map of France or other country
Day 6
Class country. As a class will invent a country- I will draw on the board based on what the class tells me or you can elect an artist from the class.
We will then write a description of the country together.. I will help them develop their sentences and organize their ideas into a paragraph. I usually do this on a projected google doc. I can then print this off/ or share with the class and follow up with a partner read and discuss.
Day 7-8 : The PROJECT!
The super fun and little bit crazy part! The students are put into groups of 3 and are asked to make a 3D imaginary country-- they can use whatever materials they like. My students have used cardboard, candy, lego, salt dough, anything you can imagine. The big trick is that they can only communicate in FRENCH for the whole project. They must negotiate their ideas, their needs between themselves and me in French. Now remember these guys are NOVICE MID. So their language skills are still pretty minimal, but its amazing what they do with their French, gestures, and a little franglais. Its all about the set up, it has to be a game and they have to buy into it and when they do it is AMAZING! Its also fascinating how quickly they make progress in this setting, there is always a group of students who lead the way and "show" how this is possible with the language they have. Note: they are always able to ask me for words by asking "qu'est-ce que c'est ____ en francais?"
Day 9: Project Presentations
Students as a team write up a description of their project and then present their country to the class orally (no reading from their description- but this does help them prep and get their ideas together)
Making questions in the target language.
Here are a couple of games that are NO prep and a lot of fun that get students creating complex questions. The more complex and clever the question, the funnier it is and the better practice it is for the students. Win! Win!
Game 1: Sitting in our class circle I write a word in French on the board. Students give questions out loud in French for which that word is the answer. The questions can be intellectual, funny, ridiculous-- there answer must simply the word on the board. An example from yesterday's class was the word "onions" - questions created by the class were "what vegetable do I hate?" "what makes you smell bad" "what vegetable is used in a famous soup?" and my favorite "what kind of vegetable is Shrek like?" - Once all the questions have been said, I choose my favorite and award that student a point. They like trying to guess what kind of question will get me, I tend to vacillate between the funny, punny, or intellectual.
Each time use a different kind of word so that you elicit all the different question words: a location for where, a name for who etc.. Its also fun to just write "oui" or "non" on the board so that they can practice est-ce que questions.
The game is really facilitated by having all the question words on a poster on or near your board.
Game 2: Good old headbands. I just use a post it note that the students put on their heads and ask questions to their classmates to find out who/what they are. You can do in partners, small groups, or as a whole class.
Game 3: Guess who-- it doesn't just have to be for people or animals! You can make guess who boards with any kind of vocabulary you want--practice questions, vocabulary and descriptions!
Game 4: Student or teacher hot seat. If you have a safe and positive classroom environment. A student or you can sit in the hot seat for 5 mins and every one can ask them questions.
What kind of activities do you do to practice question making?
CI meets Authentic Resources: a Unit on French Speaking Africa
Day 1: Afrique
We began our unit with a card talk a la Tina Hargarden. I began with a simple question in French- when you think of Africa, what image do you think of? I asked students to quickly draw this on the card along with writing their name in large letters. This allowed us to begin talking about Africa in a personal way and to make connections between the students ideas. This helps to build some vocabulary but also build community. All of this was of course in French. I also asked students if anyone had ever visited Africa. No one had.
After our card talk, I projected a map of Africa in French and I began CI introduction to the continent with plenty of questions to engage the class. My students already know basic geographical terms from our France unit in 6th grade. But this provided a good review and also introduction to our unit.
Here are some of the questions I asked in French during the Input phase to elicit student engagement and output: Is Africa a county or a continent? What's an example of another continent? What's an example of a country in Africa or Europe.. etc.. What's the name of country in the north, south, west, east, center of Africa? What ocean/sea is next to Africa? What's the difference between a sea and an ocean. I also told them that I had visited Africa one time. I have visited Egypt when I was very young. I told them more about my trip and then told them I would love to return to Africa but that I would like to visit a French speaking country. Then I asked them which country they would want to visit most. I asked them to write the name on their card. This would be the perfect introduction for next class.
.Day 2/3: Afrique Francophone
We began with the card talk of which Africa country each student would love to visit. The two most popular countries in the class were Egypt and Madagascar. We talked in French about why those two countries are so popular and did some compare and contrast about geographical and cultural differences.
I then projected a map of French speaking Africa - this allowed us to begin talking about langues in Africa in the different geographical areas and we also got in to a discussion using CI methods about why theses languages are spoken,
This was a great lead into now speaking more specifically about different Francophone countries. I used Cecile Laine's resources on Togo, Burkina Faso, Mali, Algeria, and Guinea. The Black M song Je suis Francais, led into a quick discussion about immigration in France (I did choose to do this part in English because of the topic and the language difficulty- if your students are at the Intermediate level you could do much more here).
Day 4: Senegal
As the students walked into the classroom I played Senegal Fast Food and we also completed a cloze lyrics activity.
I did a CI introduction to Senegal using a powerpoint presentation. Each slide included pictures about Senegal organized by categories: location, geography, languages, religion, population, art, food, traditional clothing, music, homes, important places.
We then read about a day in the life of a Senegalese child (page 1, page 2) We read and discussed the article together and then the students completed the IPA style interpretive reading activity created by Lisa Shepherd. The work we did upfront as a class allowed them to do this with relative ease individually.
Further readings on children in Senegal:
Enfants du Senegal (Higher level text but accessible to students through cognates and with teacher guided discussion)
Les enfants fantomes du Senegal - Petit Journal Francophone- September 11, 2016
Day 5: Student project - Francophone Country in Africa. Students prepare a speaking presentation about a country in Africa that they will research. Here is the rubric I use. I will show them again my presentation on Senegal. Remind them how I was able to talk in relatively simple French about Senegal - its location, basic information, and its culture. My students have background language from units we have done on food, geography, clothing, school life, etc from which to pull. The Francophone Africa map that we used a few days ago is an amazing tool for students to do some research in French as each country has a link to an information sheet about the country in French!
Bienvenue! Willkommen! 歡迎 Bienvenido!
I was encouraged to share my language teaching journey and share some of the activities I do in my Middle School classroom.
I blend CI and TPRS style teaching with thematic units filled with accessible authentic materials, creative hands-on activities and projects that scaffold student output with a sprinkling of grammar that helps students effectively understand and communicate in the language.
Rather than being boxed in to one teaching style or methodology, I choose to take the best elements from many to create my own unique style that helps my students reach our learning targets and proficiency goals. It also helps keep my students and I stay on our toes and excited every class.
