When the calendar year comes to a close, I usually take a look back and share some of my favorite things I tried during the year. This year I have a combination of hi-tech and lo-tech activities that I implemented for the first time this year. Read on to learn more about them!
Qui est-ce ? (Guess Who)
In the spring, I created my own Guess Who game for my students to practice describing people. I drew the board on my iPad. The background colors represent different genders: blue represents male, pink represents female, and purple represents non-binary. The little icons next to them represent different things they are (rich, strong, etc.), and their facial expression and hair color give further information for students to describe. Click here to read more about this activity and other guessing games I have played in my class.
Emoji Interview Project
Earlier this year, I wanted a simple way for students to record a dialogue with a partner and make it into a video. I chose PowerPoint because my students are already familiar with it, and I had them use emojis, because they don’t have the same copyright restrictions as most other images. Above is a video showcasing some of the interview (email subscribers, click here to view the video.). Click here to read more about this project.
Two Truths and a Lie
I can’t believe I never did this until this past year! This has to be one of the most fun activities we’ve done as a class. First, to model the activity, I showed the students two truths and a lie about myself. They were things that students should know about me by this point in the year. Then, using the Socrative quick question feature, students voted for which statement they believed was the lie before I eventually revealed it. Then, each student gets a slip of paper and writes two truths and a lie about themselves in French. They could be statements about what activities they do, things they like or don’t like, pets or family members they have, etc. By this point in the year (end of March), students have enough vocabulary that they can write and understand a wide variety of statements. Students had a lot of fun trying to guess the lie on their classmates’ statements. Click here to learn about this and other activities that build classroom community.
Nous sommes gentils
Nous sommes gentils is a fantastic book written by Monique Gray Smith, a Canadian author of Cree, Lakota and Scottish descent. It was originally written in English, but I purchased a version translated into French. The book is all about how people can be kind to each other and incorporates elements of the author’s First Nations culture. It also happens to reinforce adjectives quite nicely! After reading the book together, the students played Time to Climb on Nearpod, trying to remember which adjectives filled in the blanks from the book. A great extension to this book would be to have students give their own examples of how they can be kind in French, but my students aren’t quite at the level to come up with their own reasons, so I chose not to do this.
Reinforcing Geography with Pumpkins
Thanks to French teacher Tracey Ford, who posted a similar version of this activity on the French Teachers in the US Facebook group, I came up with the idea to have the students paint flags of francophone countries on pumpkins as a way to help them understand how widespread the French language is in the world. Click here to read more about this activity.
Québec Interactive Activity
Earlier this year, I made a learning activity based on my own travels through the province of Québec. Above is a presentation I showed to my students, incorporating my own photos (email subscribers, click here to view the presentation). After going through the presentation with students, we played a Quizizz to review it. Click here to learn more about this activity.
What are some of your favorite new things you tried this year?
Liked this post? Sign up below to receive future posts by email!
