alice’s posterous

I was planning lessons related to French and African countries as part of a professional development day on elementary school. When I was trying to find ideas to incorporate in my lessons, I remembered I watched this moving video about a man in Malawi building a windmill on his own just by reading some books about windmills. I could not really use this video in my French lesson as it is all in English but I thought it would be useful for the grade 5 (9-10 years old) homeroom teacher who will teach about Africa.
This video shows what humans can achieve with few resources but with the will to accomplish something big.
When I am in a negative mood or feel I won't make it, I just remember this Malawian guy who did so much with so little!

What about you? what do you use to make yourself feel positive?

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1_phonics.ppt (901 KB)

When Suzi Bewell talked to me about phonics, I didn't know what she was on about! She explained to me what it was and did a explanatory presentation on strategies for teaching French phonics (also Suzi Bewell set up a blog for her school which is amazing! http://www.allsaintslanguagesblog.typepad.co.uk/):>

I thought it was a brilliant idea to improve students' pronunciation. Most of the time, we teachers assume that our students know how to pronounce words in the target language, but in fact they don't. They are very confused when we correct them and then their motivation to learn another language starts to decrease! That is why I am thinking of planning strategies to teach my students Spanish phonics next year, although I do think Spanish is very easy to pronounce (compared to French!). For most of the words, you just pronounce them as you read them apart from some letters like "jota" for example. Rachel Hawkes did a lot of work on how to teach Spanish phonics and her blog is full of excellent ideas. I found one of her Powerpoints on ideas to teach phonics (just see above).

What are you thoughts? Have you tried teaching phonics to improve your students' pronunciation?

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Amelie_Poulain.doc (3299 KB)

This is a fantastic workbook about the French film Le fabuleux Destin d'Amélie Poulain. I found it on the TES website and it was created by aliciagomez.

I used this workbook with my year 10 class (15 years old) during the last week of school year. The first part of the workbook is to be completed before watching the film. They are facts about the film and the actors. The second part is to be completed after watching the film or when watching and you can pause for each section to be filled.

The film is set in the heart of Paris in Montmartre and is a romantic comedy depicted parisian life. During the film, we can see Amélie in famous parts of Paris: Notre Dame Cathedral, St. Martin's Canal, Basilica of the Sacré Cœur, La Gare du Nord.  The film also contains lots of references to French culture and way of life. For example, Amélie meets her cloistered neighbour, Raymond Dufayel, a painter who continually repaints Luncheon of the Boating Party (Le Déjeuner des canotiers) by Pierre-Auguste Renoir. In the workbook students have to research this painting.

The flat where Amélie lives is typical of a parisian flat with the concierge, Madeleine Wallace who lives of the ground floor in her "lodge". The neighbourhood greengrocer where Mr Collignon and Lucien work is also very French!

My students enjoyed watching the film because each character has its own personality and is quite eccentric. They also discovered Paris and Parisians which they enjoyed. Personally this is one of my favourite film because I am a Parisian and Montmartre is the place where my cousins used to live, so I can relate to the scenes very well!

What about you? Do you use films to teach your students the culture of a language/country?

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I found this fab quote today:

"A few of my keener students have asked me to give them with advice and hints to help them keep their Spanish going over the summer, in anticipation of next academic year. Earlier today, over at http://www.asisehace.net/blog, I provided them with a list of websites containing audio and video resources that will help them keep their Spanish ticking over and, who knows? They might even learn one or two new things. The list is copied below:..."
from http://www.boxoftricks.net/?p=1187
You should read the whole article.

What about you? Do you have a list of fun and engaging resources to learn a language?

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There are already great contributions with videos, poems, articles and websites, as well as ideas to implement reading strategies in the classroom. I have added my little contribution today with resources related to the 20th century's writer, Jean Giono and his book L'homme qui plantait des arbres (The man who planted trees).

I do believe reading books in a another language and understanding the literature of another country helps you to better learn a language and understand the culture behind the language.

So if you:

• need help with your plans for literature/reading in the classroom, click on the Discussion tab and start a thread with your question and/or comment.
• have a link to a video, song, poem, article, website, etc. for a reading, click on the century for which you have something to share and get started today!

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I am officially moving to Germany, Weimar in July to teach Spanish and French at Thuringia International School.
It is all very exciting but my German is quite basic and I have not spoken it since school years really!

So in order to refresh my German, I have found a great blog called GermanHeit (@GermanHeit on twitter). It is written by Babsi (@babsis on twitter) from Nuremberg, Germany and it is full of grammar tips and fun German media and comics. It also gives you an insight to German culture and food with key vocabulary to remember. I have suscribed to it on my Google reader and because each post is quite short, I only spend 5 minutes everyday learning or revising new German phrases and expressions.
I think it might also be useful for German teachers to show German comics or a short video clip to students.

Hope you like this blog as I do and enjoy today's comics :)

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Ma_star_préférée_trouvez_les_fautes.doc (22 KB)

I thought I would share this worksheet I found on the TES website http://www.tes.co.uk/article.aspx?storycode=3011695. I cannot thank "dbskapick" enough for creating this resource.

I have a group of year 10 students (14-15 years old) who are a bit lethargic in class... Well I guess they have the typical teenagers type attitude (not bothered, can't do French etc... type!). I had to deliver a lesson on clothes to them and of course revise adjectival agreements matching colours and clothes. The type of really dull and boring lesson and of course I had no inspiration. So I went on to TES which I cannot advertise enough, even if you are not teaching in the UK, it is full of resources for every subject shared by very kind and dedicated teachers. You have to register to view the resources but it is all free and you share your resources as well.
Actually I feel bad about not having shared a single PowerPoint or worksheet but I guess I already share all my PowerPoints on slideshare, so that makes up for it, doesn't it?

I found this great worksheet about Kate Moss and fashion. Students have to fold over backwards the correct version at the top of sheet and not look at it after reading it once. Then go through the other copies finding as many mistakes as they can. The number in brackets indicates the mistakes needed to be found.

To my amazement, students loved this activity! they loved folding the paper (yes, I know!), they loved spotting and counting the mistakes. They were all engaged even the boys for whom the topic was not that appealing.

Then I asked my students to write their own paragraph about their favourite artists and what they wear. They had to write a version without mistakes and one with mistakes and then give it to their partners. We did not have quite the time to finish this activity. But when writing their paragraphs they were much more focused on agreements and adjectives, so our lesson's objective was achieved (yeah!).

And you? have you done a grammar activity that has worked with your students?

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