In my previous post laying out “The Plan” for French 2, I listed a few directions that we would go this year, so I will address each of those “wish list items” individually.
Note: Bear with me. I am so behind on these posts, so I am just going to free-form write quickly to share my thoughts.
Speaking/Storytellings
I had done so much research at the beginning of the school year on TPRS — Teaching Proficiency through Reading and Storytelling (aka, Total Physical Response). I was very excited to try this, thinking we’d have a great time acting out the stories laid out in “comic book” fashion, having real conversations related to the current chapter. The Reality: as animated as Sunshinegirl can be sometimes, she wanted NOTHING to do with acting out these stories. Sigh.
Nevertheless, we persisted. Each week we repeatedly worked through one TPRS story from one of the two books that we had. I had gone through both resources and keyed the stories to match the chapter we were working on in Bien Dit 2, so it was helpful to hear our chapter’s vocabulary in context. The first exposure was me reading the story with her looking at the illustrations. The second was me reading with her silently reading along; I would then follow up with questions about the reading. By the end of the week, she would be able to tell the story back to me. At the end of the three week unit (one chapter in Bien Dit 2 took three weeks), she would receive a “Speaking” grade based on her picking one of the three stories we had done and telling it back to me. I think this made some impact, but it wasn’t what I had hoped. Still, it was a good experience…I need to figure out how to continue something similar for French 3.
Writing
We started the year using the 1-3-10 writing — we would do this the third week of each chapter as the “writing” grade. About halfway through the school year she asked if she could just have 15-20 minutes to write instead, so we transitioned to that. She didn’t like having to stop and restart each time (too many timers to cause pressure), and the 15-20 minute writing experience seemed to work for us. I did see the most progress during the year with her conjugating tenses; her first writing had wrong endings (she was hurrying, so she would just throw the “il” form on for everything!), but by the end of the year there were tenses and correct endings. Progress!
Reading Comprehension
We used the Bien Dit 2 reading comprehension section at the end of each chapter, but to be honest, they were somewhat difficult for her (and sometimes for me). Some of it was poetry, and I have to admit, I am not good with poems in English, let alone in French. Towards the end of the year we switched to reading reader books and using that as the reading comprehension grade each chapter. Reading comprehension will become more prominent in French 3, 4 (and 5, if we make it that far), so I will have to come up with a better plan (reading literature and stories).
Listening, Vocab, Grammar, Verbs
The rest of the “grading scheme” went as specified in my original post. Listening required her to listen to the 1950s record albums from Living language and answering questions. Vocab/grammar/verbs was the typical end-of-chapter test most teachers give (I would write them each chapter myself). Pretty straightforward.
The “Other” stuff
Towards the end of the year I knew we would have a few extra weeks after we finished the textbook, so we transitioned to reading French language readers designed for Intermediate readers. We used two books written by Theresa Marrama: Mystere au Louvre and Perdue dans les Catacombes. Catacombes had online review questions at the end of each chapter which were great for reading comprehension — Sunshinegirl found them easy to do. For Louvre, I had her narrate each chapter in English to ensure she understood what was going on. Neither book gave her any trouble — both she knew exactly what was going on. Perfect for French 2. She was even excited about the Catacombes in general and so she did a short report (en Francais) on them. Bonus! Both books are available at Theresa’s site, other TPS sites, and on Amazon.
Note: We read Alice: La Liste by Cecile Laine at the start of the year, and despite part of the story about the main girl character working on her black belt (Sunshinegirl is a black belt), it didn’t appeal. I think, though, it was too early in the year to read an intermediate-level book. If I had her re-read it now, it probably would have been enjoyed more.
We also subscribed to Frenchpod101 lessons and worked through one of those a day for the last month of class (after we were done with the textbook). The 10-15 minute podcasts focused on a conversation — talking through the vocabulary, grammar, and cultural aspects (in English). After listening to each recording, Sunshinegirl would take the vocab quizzes, and after each lesson or two there would be an assessment on all of the content. Some of the features are free, but we chose to pay for a year license so that we could get some of the bonus features. There are downloadable PDF guides (which, IMHO, are better than each lesson’s page), and you can download the podcasts as MP3 to take on the go. Sunshinegirl started about halfway through Level 2 (there are placement tests), while I started with Level 3 (there are five Levels, which means it takes you quite a way through the learning).
One final resource we found and liked this year: Easy French YouTube videos. We’d often turn to a video when we finished a lesson early. The slower French videos are great for second year French students.
Overall
I think Sunshinegirl learned a lot this year, which will really set the foundation for future years. French 3 will start to focus more on reading literature and experiencing real-world culture. My goal is to spend a LOT more time speaking together, listening to authentic French speakers (more movies, tv, recordings), and reading real books (starting with two more readers from Theresa Marrama and then working up to Le Petit Prince by the end of the year). We’ll see!
Top of Her Class of One 