I am constantly reinventing this course. It is difficult to find a stable ground or framework when I'm making it up as I go along. In the future I look forward to being able to plan out the organization of it in advance. This week I gave a survey about the structure, and let the kids answer in English. We even had sort of an English allowed day, but they didn't use it. They stuck with the French! The classroom environment alone just four walls of my classroom urge them to speak French, they feel uncomfortable speaking English. Mission accomplished there. Now, about that teaching part...
Some of the responses:
-I am learning a lot, really learning it.
-When I go home from school, I'm in French mode for like two hours. It's awesome.
-Sometimes I forget to speak English, and I speak French to my mom.
-I forget to do the blog. You should remind us every day.
-You should let us speak English when we don't understand the assignment and projects and stuff.
-I get really stressed when I don't understand the French when you're giving a project.
All of these responses are paraphrased from my memory, and I plan on posting some actual quotes later this week.
In short, we're moving beyond little grammar nuances like negation with indefinite articles and complex adjective agreement. They have their lists and notes and I'd rather let them use those resources than waste class time trying to cram it into their brains.
Next week: Town vocabulary. I'm wondering how I can get the kids to build their dream towns, and how I can connect that to a concept. Living in a place? What makes a good place to live? Ugh. It all seems so textbooky. It's going to be a busy weekend.
