Les adjectifs

We've been studying adjectives in my Grade 9 Academic French class. I found this great activity over at the Farnsworth Family Blog, that they use at church as part of their youth activities and thought it would be perfect to practice using adjectives to describe each other.
I put my students in friend groups so that they would actually be able to describe each other. Together they had to brainstorm a minimum of five adjectives to describe each person. The person being described was not supposed to contribute any suggestions, they were only allowed to object if they didn't agree with what was chosen for them.
And the rest is self-explanatory. It involved a chair, markers, a whiteboard behind them and all the words written around their head. Oh yes, and the best part was the berets that I made them wear. There were a few, ok, make that a lot of groans and mumblings of "Oh gross, we have to wear that?!", but it was like the cherry on top! We took pictures with our phones and they were all emailed to me. My idea is to put them up in class.
I think the activity could use some tweaking, such as, adding more adjectives, five adjectives seems to be too little. Perhaps next time I'd throw in a couple of sentences? What do you think?

La Nourriture Vocabulaire- QR Code activity

These are the step by step instructions of how I put this activity together.

Step 1: Choose 8 food items.

Step 2: Think of a simple and obvious clue for each (en français). 

And those are:

1) Shaylan et Sebastian mangent beaucoup de ça en classe. =les bonbons

2) C'est un végétal orange. =la carotte (I know it's not, but writing légume would have caused confusion amongst the troops.)

3) Le matin on mange ça avec du lait. =les céréales

4) Quand il fait chaud, on aime manger ça. =la crème glacée

5) Tu dois boire 8-10 de ça par jour. =l'eau

6) C'est un boisson blanc. =le lait
7) Le fruit peut être rouge ou vert. = la pomme
8) Quand tu vas au restaurant rapide tu bois ça.= la boisson gazeuse

Step 3: Open Kayway QR Code Generator. Here is where each individual QR Code will be created. (Or Google another QR Code Generator of your choice.)

Step 4: As I entered a text clue and not a link to a website, I clicked on Text. 

Step 5: Type your text. *If your activity involves QR Codes linking to websites, make sure IN ADVANCE, that your students are able to use a data plan.

Step 6: Click the Generate button.

 

Step 7: Et voilà! Your QR code appears in the box to the left.

Step 8: Right click on your mouse/mouse pad and 'Save Image' to wherever you want.

Step 9: Just type over the previous text and hit Generate again to create a new code. Repeat this for however many you need.

Step 10: Open a Word document. 

Step 11: Insert as many text boxes as needed according to how many QR Codes there are. (I always work with text boxes so I can easily manipulate my images.)

Step 12: Number your text boxes.

Step 13: Insert each QR Code into its own text box. You can play with it to make it bigger or small. I made them relatively big so that the kids didn't have to get too close and squish each other. I chose to place 2 QR codes per sheet. Which I later cut in half prior to taping to the wall.

Step 14: Keep track of all the clues and what number they correspond to and the answer. (I didn't initially, but the clue is so easily accessed, it didn't affect the lesson, however, for a colleague I printed out all the info as she does not have the necessary mobile device.) But anyway, you will want to keep it as a reference in your resources.

Step 15: Print your Word document. Cut the pages in half. Tape around the room so there is space if there is a crowd.

For your students:


1) Only those who have access to free apps on their mobile device (iphone, itouch, Android, Blackberry-can be done with a laptop as well) can download the QR Code Reader.

2) Have them search a QR Code Reader in their App Store and make sure they choose a FREE one. (On my iphone, the one I've found to be the best so far is i-nigma.


3) Once the app is downloaded, open it.


3) Hold up the mobile device so that the QR Code is within the boundaries of the screen. (Just like a camera.)


4) With some apps, you have to click on a button that takes the picture, with i-nigma it automatically recognises the QR Code when it is on the screen.


5) The text or website that you linked to will pop up on the screen.

6) Figure out the clue. Write the French word on the sheet. 



In case you didn't see the actual worksheet that they were working with, here it is again. 

La Nourriture Vocabulaire- QR Code Activity


And here are the QR Codes. Don't forget that my #1 clue is specific to students in my class, so if you use these, be sure to create a new QR code for that one.


La Nourriture- QR Codes

Hopefully you have found this helpful. I'm pretty sure that I didn't forget a step, but if anything is unclear, let me know.

QR Codes in Applied French

What is a QR Code?
You know those UPC codes that the cashier scans at any check out counter? It is basically the same thing, but in a different format. That is the short and simple answer, and that's all I'm going to say about it.
-----------        --------------        ---------------     

I've always thought that our Applied students sometimes get the short end of the stick. 

For those of you not from Ontario, our Core French programme is broken down into Applied and Academic. The Applied streams tends to be significantly easier, homework isn't usually given, assignments and all other work is completed during class time, and I hate to say it, but the expectations are significantly lower. 

I am teaching a Grade 9 French Applied class for the first time since starting to teach in Canada and compare it to the ability level, behaviour and attitude that I experienced many time while teaching in London. However, there, they were not given the choice to choose between a more academic or not stream. Regardless of what the general perception is of the typical applied class, I still expect a lot from my students, within reason of course, and I try to provide them with the same types of stimulating activities that I do in my other classes.

On that note, they participated in their first QR Code activity this past week. We are currently in our food unit and I wanted a way to have them create a vocabulary list without just copying the words from the book. 

Before putting together the activity, I had to make sure we could actually accomplish it, in other words, that the kids had the necessary technology to access the QR codes. In my class of 13, only 2 were able to access free apps on their mobile devices, therefore I had to keep that in mind. So what I did was create different roles. 

1) The QR Code Reader

2) The Clue Decipherers

3) The Translator (I knew they wouldn't be lining up for this one, as they tend to despise using the dictionary! They always ask for the smaller of the 2 versions that we have, as the bigger one is "scary".)

I prepped the activity (I will post details about the process in the next entry), got very excited, went to class, only to find that we were down to 8 in the class that day! Then 1 took off for a Guidance appointment and took ages to come back, so we were down to 7 for a while. The teams, and yes, of course, there were teams, as the majority work much better with that competitive aspect, the teams ended up being quite uneven with 5 students on one and 3 on the other. In the end the 3 member team one as they were much more focused though!

Then I come to find out that one of the two who has a device that we were going to use, did not have it! He has had it every single day since day 1, I've confiscated it numerous times, and the one time I actually NEED HIM to have his mobile phone, HE DOESN'T HAVE IT! Can you believe it? I couldn't, and neither could any of the other kids in the class. Always the prepared teacher, I had made sure that my mobile was fully charged and had had a feeling that I would need it. As I knew I could entrust my kids to use it, I was more than happy to hand it over momentarily, all the while keeping an eye of course so they didn't get distracted by my son's games. (And as much as I thought they'd be curious to see what I had on there, they never once attempted to scroll through.)

Part 1 of the vocabulary gathering was using the QR codes to figure 8 clues that I had posted around the room, in French of course. I tried to use basic language so that they could be as independent as possible and tried to make the clues as obvious as possible. They did not have a word bank or a list to work from, all they knew was that we were starting our new food unit and this was their vocabulary list they were putting together. 

Part 2 of the activity was a series of images which they had to label in French and Part 3 was a traditional, here is the French word, translate to English.

All in all, after explaining how it would work, the winning team took 50 minutes to complete everything. I didn't think it would take that long, as we don't usually engage in activities in such large chunks, but it was technically, 3.5 different tasks, including the questions at the end. However, they were not distracted (ok, I'm fibbing, the 5 person team managed to chat enough that a few did not make it to the end where they had to answer questions.), so I change that to, on the whole, they were not distracted. But what I mean is that they were engaged. They were not bored, they seemed relatively interested, the QR code segment was the best part of course, and they really expressed a liking to the activity.

Click here to access the worksheet --> Nourriture vocab- QR Code activity  

And these are the QR codes here --> Nourriture vocab- QR Codes

All in all, a very successful class, if I do say so myself. 

The details of the creation of this specific activity will follow in the next post.

And just for fun:

The Duke sets an example

Doesn't sound too shabby, now does he?

A bit of the Beebs en español et en français

I have not verified at all if these lyrics are correct, and at first glance some of it just doesn't seem right. What is a youd??

Justin Bieber- Baby (en español) 
Wooaah Ohh (3x)
Ya sabes que me amas, sé que la atención
Sólo nota cada vez, y voy a estar allí
¿Quieres mi amor, ¿Quieres mi corazón
Y nosotros nunca nunca se aparte
¿Somos un artículo? Chica dejar de jugar
Sólo eran amigos, ¿Qué estás diciendo
Dicho hay otra, Mira en mis ojos
Mi primer amor me rompió el corazón por primera vez,
Y yo estaba como
Bebé, bebé, bebé ohhh
Como el del bebé, bebé, bebé noo
Como el del bebé, bebé, ohh bebé
Pensé que el youd siempre será mío mío
Bebé, bebé, ohh bebé
Como el del bebé, bebé, bebé noo
Como el del bebé, bebé, ohh bebé
Pensé que el youd siempre será mío, el mío (oh oh)
Para usted, yo habría hecho lo que
Y yo simplemente no puedo creer, no es así
Y yo quiero jugar bien, pero me estoy perdiendo ¿
Te voy a comprar nada, te voy a comprar cualquier anillo
Y estoy en trozos, Baby arreglarme
Y así me agite hasta que "me despertaré de este mal sueño
Im que va abajo, abajo, abajo, dooown
Y yo simplemente no puedo creer que mi primer amor sería de alrededor.
Y yo soy como
Bebé, bebé, ohh bebé
Como el del bebé, bebé, bebé noo
Como el del bebé, bebé, ohh bebé
Pensé que el youd siempre será mío, mío

et parlant un peu de français

 

Why Learn a Second Language by the Second Languages (French) Advocacy Project

Le Passé Composé flow chart

I use this flow chart to help my students find a way to sort out the Passé Composé. 

Before showing it to them, we do one together where I ask them to tell me what the thought process should be. It seems to help them figure out how to approach the conjugation, whereas prior to explaining it they tend to randomly conjugate it.
Please visit my TPT site to download a copy of the file. 

Spot the mistake

Do you always tell your students to revise their work prior to handing it in? You know those kids that finish their test in 10 minutes when it should have taken them at least 30 minutes and then its full of silly mistakes since they rushed through it. Well, today, I modeled the reason why you should always revise your work.

Last night my husband invited me to a concert last minute, therefore the evening's plans changed suddenly. Whereas I had planned on attending an info night at school and then going over my lessons, it did not go this way. We had to drop the baby off at his grandma's which meant we sat in traffic for an hour, eat dinner on the fly, go to the concert, pick the baby up and so we got home at 12:30am which is way past my bedtime. I was exhausted and didn't even think about today's lessons, mainly because I was relying on the fact that my student teacher would be doing the lessons. 

So as I was showering (and it so happens that that is always where I remember things or get really great ideas, but of course do not have anything to write them down on), I suddenly remembered that I had said I would teach the first lesson of the day so my student teacher could observe me. I tried to get to school early so I could revise my powerpoint on les pronoms relatifs, I made some changes, but didn't really focus on what I as doing. 

Come lesson time, there I am yapping away at the front and noticing various spelling mistakes on my slides. I have no problem admitting to my mistakes and will gladly point them out to my students, then I challenge them to try and catch my mistakes, and there were plenty of them today! I fessed up. I told my Grade 9s that because I went out on a school night, I did not revise my work and as a result, here I am teaching and having to correct silly spelling mistakes. I said that of course it is normal to make mistakes, but this was unacceptable, because had I read over my slides, I would have caught the silly mistakes and not had to waste class time correcting.

It even got to a point where we made bets to see if my next sentence would have mistakes, and I forgot a question mark which resulted in them winning an extra day to prepare for their vocabulary test. 

Lesson learned on my part!

Hugh Laurie speaks French

I Challenge You...

Sadly, a few would still fail!

I started this with my students this week and it has been interesting so far. I started off with getting rid of the usual "Bonjour, présent, hola, aquí" responses when I do the attendance and have asked my kids to respond with a word in the target language that is not any sort of greeting/goodbye word. I've been getting things like "rouge, le chien, l'ordinateur, Je me brosse les dents" mainly very basic words that a 2 year old could say, a few words/phrases from our units and the rest read from something on the wall. 

In an effort to make it somewhat more interesting for them and in the interest of building vocabulary, I have now stepped up the challenge and have asked them to take one or more things that interest them, be it skateboarding, video games, cats, whatever it is, and to use vocabulary related to that one thing or various things and respond to the roll call with that. Everyday has to be a brand new word and no word can be repeated in class twice. Additionally they are to keep a list of those words at the back of their binders just for the fun of it for now, but I would like to try to come up with an activity using it later on.

This has worked out very well in that, some would get restless during the roll call and start talking, now, they all have to pay attention because they don't want to repeat a word and they are interested to hear what the others are saying so they can catch them out repeating one. It has helped to settle them while they try to remember their word if they haven't written it down and it creates a nice and calm atmosphere to start the class.

Integrating Technology into the Language learning classroom- OMLTA Presentation from 2010

I presented at the Ontario Modern Language Teachers' Association Spring Conference back in 2010 so I thought I'd put up my presentation.

For those who want to try embedding some technology into their lessons, but are nervous, I say, choose one thing from the slideshow and try it out in your class!

OMLTA Presentation- Integrating Technology into the Language learning classroom

View more presentations from Barbara Hirsch.