9, March 2010: Teaching class #4

Today, our group split up the teaching time between the topics of french history/culture and clothing/jewelry items. We started with a review activity of the seasons that I had prepared for last week. I cut up little pictures that had certain holiday scenes, or outdoor activities that corresponded with a particular season. The children's job was to group together the pictures that they thought matched each season, glue them in their books and label the season in french.

Then we went over the different francophone countries and showed them on a map where french was spoken in the world. I think the girls were surprised to learn that French was not only spoken in France but all over the world, even in Laos! We briefly explained about french colonization and how it was the cause of french being spoken in Africa as well. We also explained the difference between talking about masculine and feminine countries and the use of the different articles (le, la, les) to speak of a certain country.

We also went over clothing and jewelry items. We had a handout with different vocab on it, and I also handed out an activity that allowed them to fill in the right vocab word according to what a person was wearing. I also added new vocab words to the board that weren't included on the handout. At the very end we held a small fashion show. I and another group member brought in hats, scarves, gloves, jewelry, etc that the girls could choose from. They even got to keep some of the jewelry which I think they were very happy about!
We had them come forward and tell us what they wearing in french. We introduced the expression "Je porte.." I think they had a lot of fun choosing what to wear and getting all dressed up in a funky outfit.

I think we and the students all did a great job this week! The girls seem very excited about what they have learned and even seem to be teaching their siblings what they are learning in class which I think is awesome! Next week I would love to have some activities where we allow the students to come up the board and write as just another way to get them more involved and keep them from sitting down for too long a period. Maybe we could come up with some sort of pictionary game? We could put our own spin on it to make it "french pictionary."

I am very happy with what the students have accomplished so far and I'm looking forward to next week's class!