This year I tried something so simple, so basic, I am asking myself why I didn’t do this sooner. What was it? Asking my students how they are doing at the beginning of class and giving them time to individually answer! You might be wondering why I didn’t do this before this year. Prior to this year, after asking the class the time, day of the week, date, and weather, I would ask the class how they were doing (Ça va ?), but they were all expected to respond in unison that they were doing well. While I taught additional answers to the question “Ça va ?” in previous years, the students were so used to the canned answer that they gave at the beginning of class, that that’s all they ever said when asked it.
This year, I had two images with answers to the questions “Ça va ?” (How’s it going?) and “Tu vas bien ?,” (How are you?) and I alternated showing each one every other class so they got some slightly different questions and possible answers. I have “J’ai faim” (I’m hungry) on there, but not “J’ai soif,” (I’m thirsty) because if students are thirsty, they already know to come tell me in French and I tell them “Vas-y” (go ahead) to fill up their water bottle. When I ask the class how it’s going, everyone is expected to say something in response, but then students can raise their hands to answer individually. In the class I taught before lunch, many students answered that they were hungry.
As the year progressed and students acquired more vocabulary, I added more answers. For example, I added “J’ai chaud” (I’m hot) and “J’ai froid” (I’m cold).
Then, later on, students learned to state physical ailments, and I added the most common ones, “J’ai mal à la tête” (I have a headache) and “J’ai mal au ventre” (I have a stomachache).
Finally, when students learned some adjectives, I added some common ones.
By the end of the year, students had acquired a lot of extra vocabulary. The opportunity to repeat these expressions every class was very beneficial. Students this year internalized lots of words and phrases that lots of students hadn’t been able to in previous years.
Do you ask your students how they are doing at the beginning of class? What are your beginning of class routines?
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Love!! I have ss ask each other with a chat chart on the board. I wonder what the best way with my language to help them understand the uses of “tengo” v “estoy”, although it’s written on the board I still hear “tengo cansado”…
I love that you have the students ask each other! In French too, students struggle with “J’ai” vs. “Je suis.”