Pour Utiliser Un Dico: A Lesson Plan

About a year and a half ago, I wrote a post called A Thorough Guide to How to Use a Dictionary for French Students. I recently created a lesson plan based on it that I have not yet implemented, but I would like to use in my classroom. I believe knowing how to use a dictionary is a valuable skill that needs to be taught, otherwise the effectiveness of the dictionary is greatly diminished. As a teacher of first year French students (7th graders), this is not a lesson I will implement right away (especially since a certain amount of prior knowledge of French grammar is required), but I think in most cases it would be a good lesson to give before doing the first writing assignment or project of the year. Students can use the first page of notes as a sort of "cheat sheet" when they are writing subsequent compositions.

Objective: After the completion of this lesson and with practice, students will be able to effectively use a dictionary to improve their reading and writing skills in the target language.

Materials:
• SMART Board or non-interactive projector connected to computer
• Website: Wordreference.com
• Guided notes/Paired practice worksheet
• Classroom set of dictionaries

Instructional Sequence:
• Distribute guided notes and paired practice to students
• Project guided notes on SMART Board or other projector
• Have student read introduction and explain the importance of the skill of using a dictionary
• Fill in symbols and meanings with students (have them figure them out)
• Have student read context paragraph; clarify the meanings of “context” and “idiomatic expression”
• Have student read agreement paragraph; clarify when a verb or an adjective would have to be changed
• Show WordReference.com, explain how it works
• Let students work on paired practice for 10 minutes before going over it.
• Undoubtedly, the issue of using an online translator will come up. If/when it does:
o State that using a translator to write a paper or an assignment is cheating, and will be treated as such
o State that translators don’t do as good a job as you can with a dictionary, and it is very obvious when they are being used
o Remind students that taking the shortcut of using a translator, besides not being effective, does not give you any practice with the language, and as a result you won’t perform as well in class and on assessments.

Guided Notes and Practice (Key)

What's New at the French Corner

As you may have noticed if you visit the blog's website (as to opposed to reading this in your RSS reader), The French Corner has taken on a new look. I decided a change in design was long overdue; I have had the same one for a couple of years now I think. I have a very happy announcement to make to my readers; I will begin my first year of teaching this fall! I will be teaching 7th grade French at Maple Avenue Middle School in Saratoga Springs, NY. As you see at left, my family got me a little cake to celebrate the milestone. I started this blog as a simple website when I was in high school and it has grown into a place where I share many of my teaching creations through my coursework and field placement. As a teacher I'm sure I will have plenty more to share, but naturally I will have less time to devote to this blog in my first year of teaching, just as I did when I was student teaching. I have quite a few posts in the works for the rest of the summer, but once fall rolls around I know they will drop off quite a bit. I am so grateful that through this blog I discovered so many other blogs about teaching and learning foreign languages, which have given me all sorts of teaching ideas, some of which I have already implemented, and many more of which I will implement in the future.

On an unrelated note, Joyeuse fête nationale, a little belated!

Une Entrevue Avec Joe Jonas

When I was student teaching I created a couple of Xtranormal videos to use in listening activities reviewing basic French grammar. I wanted to make a talk show interview with a celebrity, and I settled on Joe Jonas because one of the Xtranormal avatars was a dead ringer for him. I chose Conan O'Brien as the talk show host (not realizing his tenure was almost up!) because, again, it was the closest match with the characters. I also created a sheet for students to complete as they watched the movie, which I uploaded to Scribd. If it weren't for all the amazing bloggers out there that talk about all these incredible tools (Box of Tricks, Joe Dale and Les Chevaliers du Château de Champions to name a few), I never would have thought to create this!



See the Activity Sheet for this Video

When I "Discovered" French

With Discover Languages Month coming to a close very soon, I wanted to take a chance to share some of the resources that I used when I first "discovered" French, eleven years ago. These are the books, websites, movies, etc. that I used all through high school and some of them I still use today. If you're just discovering French or looking to recommend something to someone who is, have a look at this list!

Books

• My First French Vocabulary actually was my first French vocabulary once upon a time, years before I started learning it at school. It's out of print but you can get it used at Amazon dirt cheap. It's sort of a game - the book is broken up into a top component, a middle component, and a bottom component, and you have to find the pages that match up to make one themed page (incredibly hard to explain, I apologize!)
  
• 501 French Verbs helped me understand all the little minute details of verb tenses like direct object pronouns in the passé composé or the imperfect subjunctive tense. What I like about it is along with seeing all these verbs conjugated, they give you some useful expressions with the verb, and they have a whole section on how to use each tense, along with practice exercises.
• French à la Cartoon was a great way to learn about some common French idioms. This is a book of cartoons, translated from French to English. The idea behind the book is that a language can't be translated word for word, so by reading these you pick up on the cadence of how the language is written along with some idiomatic expressions. There is a pretty extensive glossary too!
• Le nouveau petit Robert's title is misleading; it's far from petit. This is a complete French dictionary, with the definitions all in French.
• I read La Ferme Des Animaux (George Orwell's Animal Farm) for extra credit in 10th grade English class. This book has the French text on one page and the English text on the opposing page. This is another excellent way to pick up some vocabulary and study the cadence of the language, because you will be able to see that many things are not translated literally.
• The Firefly French/English Visual Dictionary (English and French Edition) has a picture of every "thing" you can think of, accompanied with the French and English word for it. When I first looked at it, I was in awe of how complete it was.
• Paris by Assouline is a beautiful book comprised solely of photos of Paris.

Music

• Gourmandises by Alizée is a fun techno-pop album, and one of the first French pop albums I listened to. Once you've heard that you can move onto Mes Courants Electriques, which is a little mellower. Her latest work, Psychédélices, I found disappointing.
  
• The French Album by Céline Dion is great collection of songs by one of the most famous Québécois chanteuses. Most people either love or hate Céline, and I think she has a great voice that sounds even greater in her native language.
• Lorie sings sugary sweet pop that I couldn't get enough of in early high school. Her Live Tour CD has a nice range of songs on it. The lyrics are simple enough that students can learn from them.
• Zebda are a rock band from Toulouse who mainly sing about social issues. Their CD Utopie d'Occase is a good start.

VHS/DVD

• Back in the stone age when VHS was the medium of choice for viewing...well, videos, I acquired quite a collection of Disney Sing-Along Songs videos in French. What's so great about these videos is that they are all "karaoke" so to speak; the lyrics appear at the bottom of the screen. You also generally know the lyrics in English, making it much easier to pick up any French words you don't know. The issue with VHS and DVD for those who want to purchase international titles is that they are often not region-compatible. The US and Canada share the same VHS and DVD formats, so buying Canadian titles in French was how I got my French VHS. Since most European countries share VHS and DVD formats, buying French titles in Europe is a cinch. I believe the Sing Along Songs DVDs now come with a French language track, which I assume means they also have French subtitles, so now the compatibility issue is obsolete.

Websites

• When I was first learning French, I often read blogs or websites written by young people in French. It's a great way to pick up some slang, especially internet slang! For instance, the equivalent of LOL is MDR in French (mort de rire = dead from laughing) The number 2 is often used in place of "de" (of/from) since "de" and "deux" (2) have the same pronunciation! One place to find blogs like this is MySpace France.