French A
Our first theme this year in our beginners class was “Les Loisirs en Île-de-France”. We began with the basics, in a unit called “On Commence!”, and discovered the French region of Île-de-France and its many historical landmarks. In order for us to express ourselves more freely in French during class time, we learned how to count and all the objects of the classroom. This lead us to our first project of the year, a tour of our virtual learning spaces! Students not only memorized all the vocabulary for objects typically found in classroom, they also learned how to locate them in their space, using “en bas”, “à droite”, “à gauche”, etc. They then created a virtual classroom, using Google Slides. Students were required to include at least 20 classroom items from their vocabulary list, and a Bitmoji image of themselves. They were also free to customize their virtual classrooms with links to classroom resources and French class-related things they found entertaining or interesting. Finally, students recorded themselves giving a tour of the virtual classroom in French using an application called Loom.
The second unit this trimester was called “Qu’est-ce qui te plaît?”, and was all about expressing likes and dislikes! Students learned how to say “j’aime” and “je n’aime pas”, but also how to reply with comments such as “moi aussi”, or “moi nonplus”. This led to the second main project of the trimester, for which they each picked a French impressionist painting and wrote a journal entry from one of the characters point of view. Students described both their characters’ and others’ opinions, as well as gave more details on the setting of the painting. Once students finished writing their journal entry, they gave a presentation to the class. At the end of the presentation, students had to guess which character in the painting was which character in their story, by answering the question “Qui est-ce?”.
French C
To start the year in French C, we discussed returning from a holiday and discovered French tourist attractions and historical sites. We reviewed the vocabulary for school, leisure activities, opinions and making plans in French. This lead us to our first project, “Le Tourisme en Nouvelle Angleterre”. This assignment put the students in the shoes of a New England tour guide, for French tourists! Students had to find French sources online, such as the famous “Guide du Michelin”, and research what French tourists enjoy the most about New England. They then selected their top three attractions and presented them, using the Adobe Spark software.
In our second unit this trimester, we read an excerpt from the novel “Un papillon dans la cité”, written by a Caribbean author Gisele Pineau, who grew both in Guadeloupe and France. This story helped us cement our knowledge of the imperfect tense and how to use it in conjunction with the perfect tense. Additionally, Gisele Pineau’s writing style and way of incorporating sensory details in her descriptions of events and places lead us to our second project this year, “Mon autobiographie: des vacances extraordinaires”, in which student wrote about a childhood event, which happened over the holidays and had a significant impact on their lives. This incident had to be described using the same technique as Gisele Pineau, and involve as many sensory details as possible. Students also needed to use the imperfect and perfect tense independently. After peer-reviewing their stories, they shared them to the class and gave each other some feedback, in French.