Promenons-nous dans les bois

Just found this lovely karaoke version with vocab games http://www.jeuchanteenclasse.com/

Nasal vowels downloads

The 4 sets of nasal vowels rockets are avaiable to download from Sparklebox share zone

Get different sizes by printing 4 9 12 16 to a sheet. Print some blank ones on to card to add to as a new word crops up.

PGP session 2

Starter

We got into French mode by looking at a clip from BBC learning zone

It was no 1033 on greetings.

Vocabulary presentation and practice

I demoed some techniques for presenting new voc with flashcard picture and wordcards

We looked at MES English and Tools for educators for generating resources like flashcards and dominoes

21st Century vocab learning with quizlet. Pupils can make their own to practise. My set on French colours here  My other quizlets here

Literacy links with L1

We talked about what skills in L1 would help L2 learning

I think the most important one is the ability to give synoyms and express yourself in other words, to work out what an expression really means eg he had a new jumper on = he wore a new jumper.

Knowing parts of speech is really useful too. We had a look at Grammar Ninja on the web. It can be downloaded and customised with your own sentences in French or German or Spanish. 

Dictionary and reading skills

prediction, clues, context, similarities with English or Latin/Greek words, general knowledge of Mythology la méduse - jellyfish, le renard Reynard the Fox (Aesop's tales, I think)

Finally a challenging reading task on African animal factfiles. This idea is shamelessly stolen from Lynne's blog

In fact most of my ideas are sparked off by my PLN (personal learning network) on Twitter and others such as Talkabout Primary MFL. "Sharing is caring!" Get yourself connected!

I've enjoyed these brief sessions with you and wish you well in your placement and for the future.

Please email me if you have any French related queries or want to share anything  you have seen or done! Or leave a comment.

Bonne continuation!

PGP video

We looked at an American site for the alphabet and explaining about gender. It's a bit "weird" but interesting!

The link is http://studio4learning.tv/foreign-language/french/

You can also find excerpts of it on youtube.

For next session I asked you to read over the first part of the handout I gave out in the tutorials on vocabulary presentation. I  will bring spare copies to Monday's lecture.

PGP session 1 continued. Numbers

We looked at teaching numbers
Start with a few at a time, building up, first lots of listening before repeating. Lots of guessing, minding reading, lip reading.  All this is explained in the methodology handout.

You need number figures/flashcards/number fan to hold up.
Ways of practising
Use number fans or mini whiteboards. You say a number, they hold up number fan or fingers or write on whiteboard
In pairs - pupils write randomly the numbers on a sheet and take turns to point and say. Do the same with the written word. Match the word to the number

Written Word - when showing the written word, spend time discussing the spelling, decoding, ask what letters are silent,  what other words have you seen wit this combination ofletters eg eu of deux also in bleu. How will you remember this word?
Dice simply throw a dice and say the number. Snakes and ladders activities where you count aloud are good too.
Songs
Referred to Early Learning centre French is Fun CD comptons jusqu'à 10 - lets count up to 10 £5 in store
It also has a traditional comptine: 1,2 3 nous irons au bois
Counting
round the class - BUZZ say buzz instead of multiples of 7 and numbers containing 7 (or whatever number)
11 All stand. In turn say 1 2 or 3 numbers Aim is not to say 11. Whoever is 11 has to sit down and start again at 1. Can be tactical. You know who your friends are!
Instead of just chanting 1 - 100, play hide the thimble. Instead of saying hot and cold class chants numbers getting louder and faster for warm and slower and quieter for cold.
Think of a number. Class guess. You say higher or lower (plus / moins) until they work it out.

Use real opportunities for counting in class - how many for lunch, etc
classroom language
On va compter jusqu’à 20! we’re going to count to 20
on va compter la classe we’re going to count the class
tous ensemble (avec moi) all together (with me)
répétez après moi repeat after me
Comptons let’s count
Compte / Comptez count (to one child)/count (plural)
Combien? How many?

Blagues

Created using Glogster. Can add sound and video, too! Education account suitable for pupil use. And it's all free!

Curriculum for Excellence news

Newly published today: Principles and Practice and updated Experiences and Outcomes for Modern Languages
Click here

PGP session 1

Learning numbers in French (for beginners) or Chinese/Russian etc challenge.
Aim was to put you in the place of a beginner. I suggested Chinese and Russian since the writing system would be no help! Many did other languages including Punjabi, Gaelic, Polish.
Strategies you used to acquire this language

• your own personal trainer - eg parent, son or daughter, friend or pupil at school. Excellent for feedback, correction of your mistakes. Loved the Chinese pupil teaching the teacher!. Another student reported the school they had been in had an international week and pupils with different language backgrounds taught some phrases to the others. Value and celebrate the languages the pupils bring with them.
  
• books - very few used a book
  
• youtube - you can find a native speaker to teach you and you can see their mouth. no text; and
  
• internet generally - good for audio and notes. You can play the sound as often as you like. The computer doesn't get fed up with you! But no correction of your mistakes.
  
• Notes - many came with notes, with phonetic spelling 
  

Conclusions 

• It is hard to learn strange foreign words 
  
• Remembering them subsequently is even harder. 
  
• It helps if you can associate the sound with something else eg Chinese 30 sounds a bit like sandshoe. 
  
• Don't attempt too many at once

We looked at the website hello-world which has some attractive interactive help in several languages.