Grade 7 students are learning about Pink Shirt Day (in French!) and discussing ways we can stop bullying. We are focusing on being kind (giving daily compliments in French, for example) and will be designing t-shirts with anti-bullying messages. Pink Shirt Day / La Journée du Chandail Rose will take place all across Canada on Wednesday, February 27th 2019.
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In class we are watching Disney's "The Princess and the Frog." We are watching the film in French with subtitles. As we've been learning about Louisiana, students are completing a table documenting all the elements of Louisiana they see in the film (in addition to answering some comprehension questions about the film). In Grade 7, students are required to learn about French-speaking communities in North America outside of Canada. Students are learning about French culture in Louisiana (U.S.A). We will learn about the history, cultural influences, language/dialect, music, tourism, food, and celebrations of the French community in Louisiana. We started by learning about the food by examining a menu from a restaurant called "Le Goût de la Louisiane / The Taste of Louisiana." We brainstormed: based on what you know about Louisiana (e.g. it borders Texas, it borders water, it borders Mexico, it's in the South of the United States, there are French and Spanish influences, there is Cajun culture....) what items might you expect to find on this menu? Students are preparing for their final task for our "Au Centre d'Achats" unit. They've been practising asking/answering question using LE FUTUR PROCHE (future tense). For the final task, students will participate in a one-on-one role play with the teacher: pretend to be a child asking their parent for permission to go to the mall. The "parent" (Mlle de Verteuil...) will have a lot of questions ("Avec qui vas-tu aller? / Who are you going with? ; "Combien vas-tu dépenser?" / How much are you going to spend? ; "Qu'est-ce que tu vas acheter?" / What are you going to buy" ...) . Below, you'll find resources to help prepare for the final presentation (rubric, vocabulary sheets, practise questions): Students are learning to use the verb "aller - to go" to describe the future. We do the same thing in English ("I'm going to buy a new coat!" "They're going to help us!" "We're going to go to the mall after school!"). Attached is a slideshow we used to review Le Futur Proche, with examples of the structure. Please also find a YouTube video for a song to help review the verb aller! We are reviewing numbers ( 1 - 100 000 ) in French. Students will need to have a strong knowledge of numbers as we go through our shopping unit in order to discuss prices. Please see the rubric for Grade 7 "Mes Tatouages" presentations (below). Instead of formal presentations, students will do a Gallery Walk to present their tattoos: Half of the class sits at a desk with their tattoo sleeve in front of them. Half of the class walks around, visits different students, and asks questions about the tattoos. (Switch - the group that presented now gets to ask questions, the group that asked questions now presents their tattoos). We have been practicing asking/answering questions throughout this unit. Below, find an Anchor Chart we made for students to use during their Gallery Walks. Students have more questions/sentence starters in their notes as well (scroll down - all reference pages have been posted). Students have begun planning their tattoo sleeves. Please see the form below, which students are using to guide their ideas. The rubric is also attached. All documents can be downloaded and printed from this site. First: Students brainstorm things that are important to them and their preferences (in French). Second: Students choose items from their brainstorm, and match them to a symbol (ie. une empreinte rose pour représenter mon chien - a pink paw print to represent my dog). Third: Students roughly sketch out their tattoo sleeve. Fourth: Students draw their neat copy. Fifth: Students use their "tattoo sleeves" as a springboard for increasingly spontaneous conversations about themselves/each other. Grade 7 students have been practising vocabulary to a) ask someone about themselves and b) respond to questions about themselves. To put that vocabulary into use, students are filling in a script between a tattoo artist and a client. The artist asks the client 3 questions about themselves, the client responds. Based on the information collected (e.g. "Je suis italienne et canadienne, j'adore jouer au soccer, et ma famille est très importante dans ma vie (ma mère, mon père, et mon frère).") the artist designs a tattoo for the client (e.g. "Je choisis un tatouage de 4 ballons de soccer autour d'une feuille d'érable vert, blanc, et rouge"). Prior to this activity, students practised being the "tattoo artist" in small groups. We analyzed a person's description of themselves/their interests, based on that information students designed a tattoo for that person. A vocabulary sheet, including questions to ask someone about themselves and sentence stems to provide answers, has been provided to help students complete this task. Students keep copies of this page in their books; it is also on my website (scroll down to see previous post - the title of the page is Mes Tatouages - Le Vocabulaire Utile Pour Te Décrire). This activity will help students prepare for our culminating task: Listing your interests/the things that are important to you, choosing symbols to represent each item on your list, drawing a tattoo sleeve incorporating the symbols you've chosen, and presenting it to classmates through dialogue (asking/answering questions). Students analyzed an interview in which Ed Sheeran explains some of his (many) tattoos. We learned that each tattoo represents an important person, thing, or event in his life. Students answered some True/False questions about the interview: if a statement was true they had to add more information from the text, if it was false they had to correct the error. We are now moving on to role plays. The scenario is: a client enters a tattoo parlour, the tattoo artists asks them a few questions about themselves (the client answers, in detail), and the artist presents an idea for a tattoo the reflects the information they've been given. Our goal is to encourage students to talk about themselves, their interests, their passions, and the things that are most important to them. Next week, we'll move on to designing a tattoo "sleeve" that represents each student's unique personalities and interests. |
UnitsFebruary - La Louisiane cont'd - MARDI GRAS (learning different elements and traditions of Mardi Gras celebrations in New Orleans), Le Passé Composé (regular verbs with AVOIR), writing a Post Card from New Orleans during Mardi Gras (use Le Passé Composé to describe what you did), Role-play: facetime from Mardi Gras. Archives
February 2019
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