French Super Verbs

I don't know about you, but lately I have been hearing a LOT about the "Super Seven" (credit to Terry Waltz) and the "Sweet Sixteen" (credit Michael Peto) verbs.  I first heard about the concept from my colleague, who heard of it from Martina Bex (see Martina's post, and she links back to the original creators).

If you don't know what I am talking about, the Sweet Sixteen is a set of super high frequency structures that can be used in any language to communicate on a wide variety of topics.  You can get some insane mileage out of these simple structures, and to be honest, it's pretty hard to communicate without them!  Just try telling a story without saying "There are" and "I said" and "He is".  It's pretty tough!  We use these phrases ALL.  THE.  TIME.....but are we really helping the students acquire them early on?  Or do we wait until the textbook says it's time to teach "to be"?

If I were to follow my textbook series to the letter, my students would not learn "I am" until chapter 7!  That's like March.  And they wouldn't even learn "He says" in level 1 at all!  Needless to say, I don't follow my textbook anymore.  Sent them all back to central office, and maaaaaaannnn, it felt good to get rid of them!

Anyway - One of my goals for the year is to focus hard on the Sweet 16 in level 1.  (sure we'll review in other years but I am just wanting to see what my Firsties can do with them!)  I am excited to bring in more Movie Talks (Simon's Cat anyone?) and story asks that can get the kids engaged with these structures that really pack a punch!

There are a lot of world language educators who are posting their Super 7 or Sweet 16 in their rooms.  I never really liked the idea when I was a more traditional teacher.  I thought, 'I don't really care what the posters know, I want to know what the kids know!'  But as I have been following more CI styles for educating, I am seeing that these scaffolds are necessary.  I mean, what is a scaffold for anyway?  You put up the scaffold while you're building the house and then eventually the house stands up on its own, right?  So let's give the kids the support they need and eventually, they'll quit looking at my posters.  Well, that's the hope anyway!

If you're like me, you a) like things to look a certain way, b) hate spending money on classroom stuff that the school should buy for you (but that's a whole other rant!!!), and c) are annoyed that it's so EASY to find stuff in Spanish and kinda hard to find it in French!

So I made my own poster set for the Sweet 16.  You can find it here for free.  I have included 1st and 3rd person singular forms only, and it's color coded.  If you want an editable version, hit me up and I can send you a Power Point version (teachers of other languages, you can easily change the French to the TL of your choice!).  The only thing I ask is that you please don't share my work directly.  Share the link to this blog all you want so your colleagues can download the posters.

I will note that I made some minor changes from the original lists.  I added "Il me/lui faut" because I think it's pretty important and it sets up IOPs for later on.

So I hope you like these posters, and that if you're not already teaching the Sweet 16 that you'll give it a shot this year!

Parents' Night 2018

Hi Parents of French Students!  I am looking forward to meeting you at our upcoming Parents' Night.  I know you get a lot of information from 7 teachers in a short amount of time, so I thought this presentation might be helpful.  In it you can find my contact information, a little bit about my expectations, and information about our upcoming trip to Paris and Rome.  I hope you find it helpful!

Teaching with Comprehensible Input

This past year I have finally decided to start moving away from my textbook, and reaching towards using Comprehensible Input techniques with my French 1-4 classes.  The French books my school has are 20 years old, so to say they are out of date is an understatement!  I wanted a new method, one that is less grammar-based (the research says that grammar instruction does little to increase productivity), and more engaging.  Enter Comprehensible Input (or CI).  CI is language that can be understood by interlocutors (listeners or readers), even though they might not understand every single word.

I am by far an expert on CI. After all, I am fairly new to the process.  But I can share my successes and my--I don't want to say failures, but maybe "activities to be improved upon!"

In my level one classes, I started giving them long-ish reading assignments.  I never attempted anything more than a short paragraph before, so I wasn't sure what to expect.  But I talked to my colleague about it and she said "Remember, it has to be comprehensible.  You have to write it with language they understand".  Got it.  Talk to them as if they are 3.  Because in terms of French...they kinda are.  So I picked my topic (Faire la bise -- the custom of cheek kisses) and wrote an expository, in French, about the custom.  I used high-frequency words, and a lot of repetition.  I'd never have written it that way for 15 year olds in English....but I would have written it that way for a 3 year old (you know, assuming they could read).

I supported the reading with some pictures, and I footnoted the words they would not be able to guess from context.  Before we read, we practiced and discussed typical "American" greetings, such as a handshake and (my favorite) the BroHug.  It was a great segue into the reading and the cultural discussion afterwards.

I was impressed at how well they did with it!  They read with the intent to understand, and they did a great job of it.  They were able to answer my questions, and could support their answers with words and phrases from the text.  This one lesson made me see what kids are capable of if you give them the chance to try.

I know have CI readings for every chapter in levels 1 and 2, and they never fail to impress.  By the time they are in 3 and 4, they are going to be fabulous readers!