{"id":252,"date":"2014-11-30T13:23:43","date_gmt":"2014-11-30T18:23:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/madameshepard.com\/?p=252"},"modified":"2015-05-07T16:23:46","modified_gmt":"2015-05-07T20:23:46","slug":"joyeux-noel-unit-novice-learners","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/madameshepard.com\/?p=252","title":{"rendered":"Joyeux No\u00ebl\u00a0: A unit for Novice Learners"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"joyeuxnoel2\"<\/a><\/p>\n

One of the great things about being a French teacher is that a wide variety of themes can be used to advance the proficiency levels of the students.\u00a0 For this reason, I\u2019ve always felt very comfortable teaching a unit on Christmas.\u00a0 I know that the students will be introduced to a variety of vocabulary and structures as they complete the interpretive tasks in this unit and that the fluency and accuracy they develop through the interpersonal and presentational tasks will increase their overall proficiency.\u00a0 While I have always focused on Christmas as a target culture celebration (avoiding religious-themed texts), the diversity of my students this year makes this essential.\u00a0 In my French 1 class alone, I have students from 17 different countries!\u00a0 As a result, my activities will focus on vocabulary acquisition and Francophone culture, with few or no personalized responses.<\/p>\n

I will begin this unit by passing out a packet with the communicative goals, vocabulary, and structures for this unit.\u00a0 In my French 1 class, I am going to concentrate on question words as a structure.\u00a0 I chose this structure because of its important role in increasing proficiency in the Interpersonal mode.\u00a0 I\u2019ve introduced the vocabulary by presenting each word in the context of a sentence, which is depicted in a picture.\u00a0 I\u2019m hoping that this will help the students increase their sentence-length communication as we work on the vocabulary.\u00a0 Here\u2019s the packet:2014 packet_noel<\/a><\/p>\n

For the next week the students will begin memorizing the vocabulary through a variety of activities.\u00a0 For the first couple of days we will play a Loto game that I purchased from Teacher\u2019s Discovery.\u00a0 This helps the students hear the correct pronunciation of the words over and over again.\u00a0 While I sometimes call just the isolated word, at other times I say a sentence which includes the word.\u00a0 The winners have to say the words in their winning row, which enables me to provide further feedback on pronunciation. After we play as a whole class, I also have them play in small groups, with the students taking turns calling the words they need to make a Bingo.\u00a0 This enables me to circulate around the room, providing additional feedback on pronunciation.<\/p>\n

In addition to the Loto game, the students complete a variety of interpersonal activities to practice the vocabulary as well as increase their fluency and ability to negotiate meaning.\u00a0 In the following document I have included three separate partner matching activities\u2014 each focusing on either snowmen, Christmas trees, or Santa Claus.\u00a0 For each of these activities the students will number a sheet of paper according to the number of pictures in the activity.\u00a0 They will then take turns describing a picture to their partner, who will tell them the number or letter of the picture on their paper which is the same as the picture that their partner describes.\u00a0 Each partner will fill in the letter next to the corresponding number on their sheet of paper.\u00a0 While I don\u2019t grade these papers, I will often do a quick formative assessment in which I describe five of the pictures and they write down the corresponding number or letter, depending on which they have on their paper.\u00a0 In this way I don\u2019t penalize a student whose partner has given him\/her the wrong number or letter during the interpersonal activity.\u00a0 Here\u2019s a document with the activities:noel_matching<\/a><\/p>\n

In addition to these matching activities, I\u2019ve created several activities which require partners to describe their picture in order to figure out which items are missing.\u00a0 These are easy to create by beginning with a coloring page (see Google Images), printing two copies, and whiting out several items from each copy and then photocopying the originals.\u00a0 I also have used Christmas stickers to make activities in which a pair of students are each given the same ten stickers (stuck onto cut up index cards).\u00a0 One student places the stickers in a row and then describes each sticker to his\/her partner (a binder between the two prevents them from seeing each other\u2019s stickers).\u00a0 After all ten pictures are described, they remove the binder to check whether they completed the activity correctly.<\/p>\n

Throughout this week, the students will also complete a variety of interpretive reading activities designed to teach them about holiday celebrations in Francophone and other cultures.\u00a0 I have included some interpersonal activities with these readings, but have changed the context of these interview questions so that they are not Christmas specific.<\/p>\n

In this activity, the students read about Christmas traditions throughout the world and complete an interpretive activity:\u00a0Quelques traditions de Noel dans le monde<\/a><\/p>\n

In this one, they complete an interpretive activity about Christmas shopping, and then interview a partner as a follow-up interpersonal activity:\u00a0Shopping de Noel dans le monde<\/a><\/p>\n

The presentational activities that the students do during this unit will mostly involve describing pictures orally and in writing.\u00a0 This skill is appropriate to their proficiency level and will avoid requiring the students to use the vocabulary in a personalized context, which I don\u2019t feel would be appropriate for these students.<\/p>\n

Here’s the IPA that I prepared for this unit:\u00a0noel_ipa<\/a><\/p>\n

For the interpretive listening the students will watch a video about a donkey who goes sledding. \u00a0For the Interpersonal speaking, they will take turns describing holiday pictures in order to decide whether each one is the same or different. \u00a0For the Presentational writing they will write an e-mail about French holiday traditions and for the Interpretive reading they will read an article about European holiday traditions.<\/p>\n

Joyeux No\u00ebl!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of the great things about being a French teacher is that a wide variety of themes can be used to advance the proficiency levels of the students.\u00a0 For this reason, I\u2019ve always felt very comfortable teaching a unit on Christmas.\u00a0 I know that the students will be introduced to a variety of vocabulary and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_wp_convertkit_post_meta":{"form":"-1","landing_page":"0","tag":"0","restrict_content":"0"},"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,10,23,21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-252","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-french-1-units","category-french-2-units","category-integrated-performance-assessments-ipas","category-noel"],"yoast_head":"\nJoyeux No\u00ebl\u00a0: A unit for Novice Learners - 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