BOOM Bag!

I came across this review game from a peer and have adapted it for the World Language Class.  I had great success using it for some more Game Based Learning.  Here are the initial rules:

In pairs, students will face off in a competition.  Student A will close their eyes, reach into the paper bag that Student B is holding, pull out a slip with a question, and hand it to Student B.  Student B will read aloud the question for Student A to answer.  If Student A answers correctly, then they get to keep the slip of paper and count it as a point; if they get it wrong, it goes back into the bag.  If Student A had drawn out a slip that said 'Boom!' then they would be required to put all of the slips they had collected from previous rounds back into the bag and start from 0.  Students will take turns and the student with the most points wins.

I love this because every participant is active, questions do get repeated as students put wrong answers or "Boom" answers back into the bag, mistakes get reframed as iteration, learning feels like play, you can play it on multiple days, and it allows for peer assessment.

I used this two different ways:

1.  I reviewed for French One's midterm with 45 different questions typed up and 6 Booms.

2.  I also used this for French Three to practice Passé Composé and Imparfait.  I typed up 13 Imparfait translations, 14 Passé Composé questions, 4 Booms, and 13 questions where they had to choose the difference between the two tenses.  Students played on day one with their notes, and then without their notes on day two for Game Based Learning.  I added the use of the white boards to allow students to write out the correct formations.

My Passé Composé, Imparfait version is available and ready to print on my store:

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/BOOM-Bag-Game-Based-Learning-for-French-Past-Tenses-2183845

Croquembouche! The Team Building Challenge

What do you do when your classroom is being used to administer the 10th grade PLAN and you have been told to relocate to the Foods classroom downstairs?  Create a Traditional French Wedding Cake (Croquembouche) tower build off!

Supplies:  Pre-made cream puffs purchased from the freezer section (I had students purchase them)
       Make a caramel sauce (I used 2.5 cups sugar with 2/3 cups of water, boil, then cool)

Rules:

1. Divide the class into two teams and give them the same amount of cream puffs.  For us this was one box of 33 puffs.
2. Give each team a bowl of hot caramel sauce.
3. Set the timer at 10 minutes.
4. The team with the tallest, hollow center, free-standing tower wins.

Additional Challenge:
   The whole class or team has to yell "Croquembouche" when

• anyone enters the room
• anything falls on the floor
• a cream puff falls from the tower
• when your team finishes the tower and you are done

At the end of the day, this was a fun, team building, problem solving activity to discuss what a Traditional French Wedding Cake looks like, taste like, and how its made!! Game On!

Go Fish - Reflexive Verbs In Future Tense

The importance of PLAY TESTING!!  This game started out as an idea...I wanted to adapt Go Fish to apply writing reflexive verbs in the near future (futur prôche).  So, I created a deck of cards where students had to match a "book" of four to complete a match "Je vais me browser."  Then, I "play tested"  and most importunity, asked the kids for feedback on how to make this better.  The end result after two full days of "play testing" was a version where students could not stalemate each  other, and I could keep track of who was winning for extra credit.  They love this game.  I then used the same deck of cards and created supplemental cards to alter the game for Passé Composé.

Allez À La Pêche - Rules

The goal is to create a phrase of 4 in agreement: Je vais me coucher.

The student with the most phrases wins.

For 2 players:  Deal 7 Cards

     3 players:  Deal 6 Cards

    4 players:   Deal 5 Cards  (Best arrangement)

     5 players:  Deal 4 Cards

All other cards go in the middle.

Similar to go fish, ask a player if they have a certain card that would complete a phrase.  If you have a 'Je' you could ask for a 'me.'  If that player has the card they give it away and you would go again.  If that player does not, they would say "Allez À La Pêche."  If you run out of cards because other people have taken them, you re-deal cards from the pile.  "Libre" cards are free to be whatever, similar to a wild card.  Once you get three of a "book" you can set those aside to protect them from being taken, but then you may not take them back later to use for another "book."  This prevents stalemating a player by exchanging the same card back and forth.  Record completed "books" of four on the team page.  The player who has the most correct phrases wins and the teacher can use that sheet as formative assessment or can use those points as extra credit. 

The red cards can be substituted to create a similar game for Passé Composé.

*I printed off six sets of these cards in different colors of card stock to create a classroom set that was easy to keep organized.  I also kept the Passé Composé cards separate also.

The entire file complete with playing cards, a formative check sheet while students are playing, color coded guided notes, and a final assessment for Reflexive Verbs in present, future, and past tense
is available on my store:

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Game-Based-Learning-for-French-Reflexive-Verbs-Futur-Proche-and-Passe-Compose-2127786

Picture Talk - The Game

Picture Talk is another great use of Game Based Learning.  Rules to following when designing a "game lesson" :  Everyone is a participant, Learning happens by doing, It feels like play, Opportunities exist for students to fail and the teacher can reframe, Feedback is immediate, Challenge is constant, Everything is interconnected.

Picture Talk Rules:

1. One describer comes to the front of the room.
2. The describer looks at the pre-drawn image.  They instruct the class on how to draw the image without saying what exactly to draw.  For a shapes lesson the student could only use shapes, dimensions, and locations.  For identifying objects, student could only mention object and its location in the TL.
3. The copiers (students) are not allowed to speak.
4. When all copiers are finished the drawer reveals the image to see how many copiers (students) got it right.

On the left are the three images I used for French Three and their lesson on shapes and dimensions.  The right side is the images I used for French One in their lesson on objects and directions.

The modification I made was that the drawer could only use French!  Even at the novice low level, this was doable and assessed speaking skills and listening skills.

Alyssa leading the picture talk of the chair scene.

Lesson Roll Out:
1.  I modeled the first drawing.
2.  I asked for student volunteers to lead the next few drawings.
3.  Then I divided the class into two teams to compete against each other.  Each team had a poster and a pack of markers.  Taking turns, one member from each team draws the object on the poster in its correct color.  Points are awarded to the team/teams who correctly draw the item.  The team with the most points at the end of the game is the winner.

To end the activity with a competition, the teams competed in drawing the objects in the correct color and in the location I mentioned : On the table, there is a blue cellphone.

Halloween Coloring Activity

I found an awesome new website: http://dessinemoiunehistoire.net/category/halloween/  Bookmark it!!!

And I am especially excited about the coloring activity for Halloween to go with my color lesson next week.  Download it on the link above.  Enjoy!!

Teaching Time with The Grouchy Ladybug - En Français

Used by Kindergarten and Elementary teachers around (I actually got the idea from a First Grade teacher), Eric Carl's The Grouchy Ladybug is a great resource to build literacy skills and teach time.  I have adapted many of their ideas to work for a High School French One Class.  This lesson idea is a great application for telling time and expressing the time in French, and building some reading comprehension skills in the Novice Level.  All of my resources I found FREE online from other primary teachers and I have explained how I adapted them to work in our High School setting.

• Establish prior knowledge of telling time in French and review the construction.
• Introduce the project of "Creating a Comic Strip" about La Coccinelle Mal Lunée and partner the students up with a "comic" partner.  Each group will submit one finished comic.
• Introduce a word wall with the animals from the book.   

• Read the digital version of the French text....or use a hardback version.  The hardback is now available from Teacher's Discovery: http://www.teachersdiscovery.com/search-results/?q=1B4027V
• Provide the same digital version to them through Google class, Weebly, or other classroom manager.
• Allow them 20 minutes to interpret the story into a comic strip where every box must contain: The time written in a complete sentence, a picture of the animal and its vocabulary, and the two phrases that the Ladybug repeats "Tu veux te battre?"  "Tu n'es pas assez gros pour moi."

 

Resources:

• Digital Version of Book in French  http://materalbum.free.fr/coccinellemallunee/coxalbum.pdf
• I copied my Comic Strip Template and got pictures for my word wall from: http://www.homeschoolshare.com/grouchy_ladybug.php

Chanson de la coccinelle… 

(Air de frère jacques) 

Coccinelle, coccinelle 

Bats des ailes, bats des ailes 

Pour rejoindre le ciel, pour rejoindre 

le ciel 

Tout là-haut, tout là-haut!

Haitian Days of the Week Song, "Ma Mère S'Appelle La Semaine"

This is a song I learned this summer while teaching in Cap Haitien, Haiti.  Caution, Sunday is described in the song as the day saved for prayer.  You can approach this from a cultural perspective and teach that 70-80% of Haiti is practicing Christian (Protestant and Catholic) and only 20-30% practice Voodoo.  You can also use as a discussion about the difference in laws of separation of church and state that The US and France both have and Haiti does not.  Then, decide per your demographics and administration if it will be a one-day song/cultural lesson, or if you can incorporate this into learning the Days of the Week.

"Ma mère s'appelle la semaine

elle a 7 jolis enfants.

Ma Mere s'appelle la semaine

elle a 7 jolis enfants.

Lundi, mardi, mercredi, jeudi, vendredi, samedi,

dimanche est le plus tranquille,

il a vit for la prier."

Recording of La mere s'appelle la semain

Number Flash Card Game

I love this Number Flash Card Game and I have used it for years.  I come back to this game in all levels to teach numbers or to review.  Students use their listening comprehension skills to identify the numbers while also collaborating with a peer and working on a team.

1.     Divide the class into two teams.

2.    Each team will be given two sets of cards 0-9.  Two members from each team will go to the front of the class and each will be given a set of number flash cards.  One student will be responsible for holding up the "tens" spot and the other will be responsible for holding up the "ones" spot.

3.    The teacher calls out a number 1-99 in the target language and the first pair of students to hold up the correct number wins the point for their team.

4.    Two new students go to the front from each team.

*To keep the challenge level high without teams helping the two students at the front, I make the pair of students stand on the opposite side from their team.  In other words they stand closest to the opposing team.  In this way, if a team wants to "help" their teammates by yelling out a number, the opposing team is more likely to hear them talk than their own members.

* You can use the numbers below to act as BINGO chips to help randomize the numbers.

Download for free here:

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Number-Flash-Card-Game-for-Language-Learning-2058434