Need French teaching aides!

[Tuckins1]

Hello all. We have a new French teacher at my school. We had ZERO teaching aides/supplies for French, so he is starting from scratch. (He is also a first year teacher, so he doesn''t have very much teacher stuff yet.) Any ideas on where to find games, flash cards, workbooks, etc...? Everywhere around here has a bunch of Spanish stuff, but little/no French. Any ideas would be appreciated!

 

[AGBF]

Date: 9/12/2009 6:06:40 PM
Author:Tuckins1

Hello all. We have a new French teacher at my school. We had ZERO teaching aides/supplies for French, so he is starting from scratch. (He is also a first year teacher, so he doesn't have very much teacher stuff yet.) Any ideas on where to find games, flash cards, workbooks, etc...? Everywhere around here has a bunch of Spanish stuff, but little/no French. Any ideas would be appreciated!

Hi, Tuckins . A couple of years ago I taught French for the first time in many years although I am not a professional French teacher, so I tried really hard to find information and teaching aides, too! I found one website (it wasn't this one, but it was similar) that taught me, "The Name Game" which I used to start every French class. The kids loved it (I was teaching middle school.) I can describe how it works in detail if that would be helpful.

I also bought many, many wonderful things (with my own money) to use. And, of course, I found books from which I could photocopy pictures that the class could use. One of my favorite purchases was a game like "Concentration" in which a picture of an item had to be matched to a card with the French word for it. The kids got so excited playing this that they often disturbed the nearby math class and we incurred the wrath of the math teacher who visited our classroom. I also had flashcards and French videos and used the French Rosetta Stone. Just giving the kids some sheets with pictures to color in and French words for items kept them interested. One could find them for the seasons and for holidays and for various categories of food. I am not sure I can find my favorite website anymore, but I will try to post a link or to to teachers' sites that have some French games!

ETA: Here is a link to the Concentration game I found so successful! Browse this website and you will find many items that I found wonderfully helpful to me in my teaching. I used everything I could dig up, though! I even had a 45 RPM recording of "Dominique" by The Singing Nun!

I wish your new teacher a lot of luck!

AGBF

 

[Tuckins1]

AGBF, thank you so much! I will forward this information on to him. I''m sure he will be able to use this stuff, and the kids will love it too!
Thanks again!!

 

[phoenixgirl]

Is there no textbook? If not, I would bark loudly until somebody orders some. That is just unacceptable to make a first year teacher design a new curriculum entirely from scratch. If there are no funds, the least his department can do is buy him a single textbook and workbook and look the other way as he makes copies liberally. But hopefully there is a textbook and you are just looking for supplemental materials!

The people on atozteacherstuff are very helpful. I''d try posting there for recommendations on workbooks and websites.

 

[Tuckins1]

Date: 9/13/2009 12:05:08 PM
Author: phoenixgirl
Is there no textbook? If not, I would bark loudly until somebody orders some. That is just unacceptable to make a first year teacher design a new curriculum entirely from scratch. If there are no funds, the least his department can do is buy him a single textbook and workbook and look the other way as he makes copies liberally. But hopefully there is a textbook and you are just looking for supplemental materials!


The people on atozteacherstuff are very helpful. I''d try posting there for recommendations on workbooks and websites.

Yeah... There are textbooks (15 of them) but they are VERY old and they are actually missing pages. The principal has told him that they will be getting new text books...... But the way things work around here, that could be a LOOOONG time. The old French teacher was let go last year over Christmas break. There was a long-term sub in there, but they did not do French. They just did writing practice. There was absolutely NO curriculum in place for him to follow. He is basically pulling stuff out of his rear end. Also, he was just hired the week before school started, so he had little/no time to prepare and plan!

 

[AGBF]

Date: 9/13/2009 3:08:42 PM
Author: Tuckins1

Yeah... There are textbooks (15 of them) but they are VERY old and they are actually missing pages. The principal has told him that they will be getting new text books...... But the way things work around here, that could be a LOOOONG time. The old French teacher was let go last year over Christmas break. There was a long-term sub in there, but they did not do French. They just did writing practice. There was absolutely NO curriculum in place for him to follow. He is basically pulling stuff out of his rear end. Also, he was just hired the week before school started, so he had little/no time to prepare and plan!

I was in a similar school . Let me tell you about, "The Name Game". I learned of it through an on-line article written by an experienced French teacher who recommended it as an exercise for the first day of class. I used it to help myself to get to know the kids' names and also just as an ice breaker. It also helped to introduce them to the masculine and feminine, although they weren't really aware of it.

The first child says, "My name is so-and-so" in French. If it is a boy, he would say, for instance:

"Je m'appelle Jacques."

The person sitting beside him would have to say his or her name and also the name of the person who had already given his name. If her name were, "Marie" she would say, "Je m'appelle Marie et il s'appelle Jacques". (That means, "My name is Marie and his name is Jacques".

The person sitting next to Marie would go next. If his name was Jean he would say, "Je m'appelle Jean et elle s'appelle Marie et il s'appelle Jacques". (That means, My name is Jean and her name is Marie and his name is Jaques".)

I would always be last and name everyone in the class. Since I didn't know all the kids' names, it really helped me. At first I used their English names. Once I had learned them, I allowed them to pick French names ( like "Jacques" and "Jean" and "Marie") . Since we all had to learn the new French names of the class members, we had plenty to do!

AGBF

 

[AGBF]

Here is a picture of some word cards used in one of the games of "Concentration". There are pictures of lightning (a bolt) and of clouds, etcetera on other cards. A big orange board is sold, but a teacher could also make his own board if he had the time. (I did not feel I had the time, so I bought the board.)

AGBF

 

[Tuckins1]

AGBF, you rock!!