alice’s posterous

I am not a big fan of textbooks and was thinking of creating my own exercises this year since my new school has very few resources but I found a brillant textbook called Gente Joven in the school library.

Good points about this textbook:

• Everything is in Spanish, there is no English explanation or translation. For me, it is very important to immerse pupils in the target language. This is how toddlers learn how to speak.
  
• The exercises are fun, engaging and challenging. For example, we were describing how people look like and there was an exercise about a casting for a TV serie. Pupils had to say why they would choose this boy or this girl. So not only, they had to say basic sentences describing people, thay also had to give their opinions using "creo que el chico puede ser ... porque...".
  
• The teacher's book is full of great ideas to get students involved with group and independent work. The collaborative listening activity which I posted earlier on this week is based on the teacher's book.
  
• There are also tasks to assess students such as creating the school website in Spanish or recording a radio show for a speaking assignment, along with sheets to mark pupils and to let them reflect on how they performed (again all in Spanish).
  

I also went on the publishing website "Difusión" and found a list of useful resources for free. So only, you have to register to access them.

What about you? do you use a very good textbook or create your own resources?

Loading mentions Retweet

Click here to download:

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?

Loading mentions Retweet

Click here to download:

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?

Loading mentions Retweet