I've started out my French IV class with the film Ma Vie en Rose a week ahead of the other class so that i can prepare what the French III students will do. The parts that the IV students succeed with I will break down into smaller pieces for French III. The parts that the IV students struggle with I will re-work completely for the III kids.
Today the III kids wrote their identity definition:
Identity is the things and the description that make you unique. For example, the traits, the adjectives, the actitvities, name, family, tendancies, interests, the sum of the characteristics of one person.
It took the whole class working together. I think they really liked their mindmaps. The 60 minutes flew by, the other 30 taken up with the photo du jour, and making sure that they had two objectives for the day.
I have two students who are essentially refusing to speak French, and they are very negative about it. I have a parent meeting with one, and the other I will have to meet with again. Fortunately at this level, the honors class is an elective. The kids choose to be here. Although I'm surprised that no one dropped once we got started, I'm aware that this translates to me working harder to prevent the semester from crashing into a ball of flames.
Scaffold, scaffold, scaffold.
Scaffolding!
I copied this down from a fellow teacher's wall one day.
1. I do, you watch. -Teacher models a strategy or trait.
2. I do, you help. -Collaborative practice with the trait and strategy.
3. You do, I help. -Guided practice to learn the trait and strategy.
4. You do, I watch. -Additional Application to reinforce the trait and strategy.
Today I did a mindmap in front of the kids for myself. Then they did one and I walked around and monitored. Their homework is to revise it. That's 1 and 4. I skipped a lot of steps here. Hopefully the mindmap is simple enough to skip the two in between. I will find out tomorrow. In the meantime...
Scaffold scaffold scaffold.
14 February 2011
07 February 2011
L'identité
today the French IV students came up with a class definiton of Identity:
Identity is the explanation of who we are, the aspects that make a person different and unique, for example, favorite things, way of life, the contrasts between people and also the similarities.
Identity is the explanation of who we are, the aspects that make a person different and unique, for example, favorite things, way of life, the contrasts between people and also the similarities.
03 February 2011
01 February 2011
Changes and Establishing Routines
I changed the participation rubric today. The kids thanked me for the simpler format.
I've started with an activity that I call "photo du jour". I started it for my juniors as a way to get their brains going in French at stupid o'clock am, without getting in their face about it. Here's the photo I used today:
buddhist-monk-pray-tattoo_12070_600x450.jpg
I ask the kids to identify their objective for the day, then freewrite about a photo. Some students are working on perfecting a single sentence. Others are listing word after word. Everyone is buried in a dictionary. No one is talking. I can hear pens and pencils, pages flipping.
After about five or ten minutes, I ask students to go up to the board and write key words. I say "volontaires?" and hold out a marker with the top off. I can see the visible relief in my students' eyes when they are able to understand my simple, one-word directions. I'm also willing to make a complete arse of myself in front of them via dance moves, pantomime, sound effects, anything to help then comprehend.
Today we came up with:
culture, custom, ceremony, head, tattoo, kneeling, painful, needle, buddhism, chinese, sweatsuit, orange, jewels, ouch, wounded, and were-wolf. The were-wolf is from my abstract-random thinker, and I'm satisfied that he now has added to his list of favorite words, which also includes "banana".
the kids wrote the words, then ended up drawing little pictures to explain their vocabulary. Some of it I acted out, such as painful, and others we had to use cultural references to explain, such as "Le film de Michael J. Fox où il change en Loup-Garou."
I think I'm going to start asking students to email me the photos to use for Photo du Jour. This will save me endless time surfing for a "cool photo that will resonate with teens" and solve that problem altogether.
They really seemed to like this kind of warmup, and it will be an excellent vocabulary builder. I think I just might keep it for all classes... regardless of what time they actually become conscious.
I've started with an activity that I call "photo du jour". I started it for my juniors as a way to get their brains going in French at stupid o'clock am, without getting in their face about it. Here's the photo I used today:
buddhist-monk-pray-tattoo_12070_600x450.jpg
I ask the kids to identify their objective for the day, then freewrite about a photo. Some students are working on perfecting a single sentence. Others are listing word after word. Everyone is buried in a dictionary. No one is talking. I can hear pens and pencils, pages flipping.
After about five or ten minutes, I ask students to go up to the board and write key words. I say "volontaires?" and hold out a marker with the top off. I can see the visible relief in my students' eyes when they are able to understand my simple, one-word directions. I'm also willing to make a complete arse of myself in front of them via dance moves, pantomime, sound effects, anything to help then comprehend.
Today we came up with:
culture, custom, ceremony, head, tattoo, kneeling, painful, needle, buddhism, chinese, sweatsuit, orange, jewels, ouch, wounded, and were-wolf. The were-wolf is from my abstract-random thinker, and I'm satisfied that he now has added to his list of favorite words, which also includes "banana".
the kids wrote the words, then ended up drawing little pictures to explain their vocabulary. Some of it I acted out, such as painful, and others we had to use cultural references to explain, such as "Le film de Michael J. Fox où il change en Loup-Garou."
I think I'm going to start asking students to email me the photos to use for Photo du Jour. This will save me endless time surfing for a "cool photo that will resonate with teens" and solve that problem altogether.
They really seemed to like this kind of warmup, and it will be an excellent vocabulary builder. I think I just might keep it for all classes... regardless of what time they actually become conscious.
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