At the beginning of the 2020-2021 school year, did you notice regression in your French students because of COVID-19? Did they seem more timid to speak? Less confident with their French skills?
Jason noticed right away that his French students were exhibiting such behaviors. As we reflected the reasons behind their speaking reluctance and low confidence, we landed on potential reasons. First, for some of the students, they didn’t get a strong foundation at the beginning of their French career. Then, all students missed a huge chunk of their class time in the spring of 2020 due to eLearning. But that was not an epiphany; we could see that coming as we scrambled to figure out how to effectively teach our students from a distance in the spring due to the pandemic. (We created a webinar for language teachers if you’re interested in learning some tools for teaching languages at a distance). So, how do we combat the regression, timidness and low confidence? We came up with the following solutions: 1. Encourage them and build them up 2. Meet them where they are and show them where they can go 3. Don’t give up on them To further explain…
2. We meet them where they are. a. Jason felt like there weren’t many strong language speaker leaders in his French class, so no one knew where they could go with French. They didn’t have upperclassmen who had experience with immersion and who could carry on complete French conversations. Those who would inspire, lead and motivate the rest of the class were not there. b. So, Jason decided to meet them where they are…he started at the beginning with some pronunciation instruction to get them back to speaking French. This slowly started getting their minds and mouths used to the French sounds once again. c. Next, he had some audio recordings from last year’s advanced students. He took a recording from a previous student and shared it with his current students. This student was not the best or strongest in the class, but “average.” Jason wanted to show them where they could go if they were willing to trust his teaching and put in the effort to learn and speak the language. For some, it helped motivate. For others, it was discouraging…but what a great way to open honest and vulnerable dialogue in the classroom. One girl told him honestly that ‘there was no way’ she could ever speak like that and it was so intimidating to hear. That was the open-door Jason needed to reassure her that the student she listened to used to be in her seat, with her SAME language abilities. But by trusting him and attempting to learn, that student progressed to that recording by the end of the year. And she can, too! They all can. They need to believe in themselves and they need to believe their teachers believe in them, too. d. In light of masks and video conferencing, it is important to recognize and acknowledge that these two realities can hinder communication. There is value in stopping and acknowledging these difficulties. Giving suggestions and encouragement to be able to communicate well is beneficial to all. Being patient with one another, speaking more loudly, and understanding that we have lost a communication piece by covering our mouths are good reminders for teachers and students. It may seem obvious, but our students don’t necessarily recognize the hindrances of masks and screens, and sometimes, as teachers, we forget, too. 3. We don’t give up on them. a. Plain and simple. We don’t give up on them. They don’t know l'imparfait like they should? Instead of sighing and stressing, go back to the basics of l'imparfait and raise them up to the knowledge they need to move forward successfully. Sure, they may have had a tough introductory French year OR regressed during quarantine and the summer OR gave up on what they can attain in the French language. But we CANNOT give up on them. b. Believe in them. Believe in ourselves. Believe and hope in the good that is to come. This school year is full of learning for BOTH teachers and students. It is never too late to help our students grow and learn despite their circumstances. As hard as it might be, persevere and don’t give up as teachers, too. Don’t grow weary in doing good, for there will be fruit eventually in your French students. Bonne chance et courage, nos chers collègues!
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NOTE: We shared FlipGrid during our webinar, "Tools for Teaching World Languages at a Distance." FlipGrid is an excellent way for students to speak and listen to each other. Whereas Zoom or Google Hangouts is where students all speak to each other at the same time, FlipGrid allows students to create short, timed videos for each other at anytime. It works like this: Teacher creates a “grid” for a class. For example, we created this grid below as an example. The “grid” is the home base for each class. Your grid is specific to where you and a class of students post their videos and discussion prompts. You will need to choose how students access your Grid Community. Students can access via Microsoft or Gmail email addresses. Another option would be to create a class list with their student ID number (this can be their real school ID or a simple one you assign). Lastly, you can create Grids for the world, meaning anyone with your Flip Code can access your Grid. This option works well across school corporations or with personal friends and family. Even for this option, however, users will need to log in with a Microsoft or Google email in order to respond to videos. Once your Grid is created, the next step is to create your first discussion post topic. Our first discussion thread was titled, “Qui sui-je?” for students to simply introduce themselves. When we taught a unit on “la nature,” we created “une chasse de trésors: Qu’est-ce que vous avez découvert ? » We asked students to record themselves finding some of the vocabulary words outside in nature. We have seen elementary teachers ask their students to show a favorite book and tell a little about it. The possibilities of topics are endless. You get to decide how long the videos will be: 30 seconds to 5 minutes. We like to post the first video for each FlipGrid we assign so that students can see an example of what we are expecting. So, for “une chasse de trésors dans la nature,” we took a tour around our backyard, pointing out different items of vocabulary words we saw (un gland, une fleur, etc.). Once our video was done, we uploaded it into our discussion thread, added our picture to it, and voilà! It is ready to go! You will see the Share button with a rocket on it. Click on that. You will be directed to your Grid’s flip code. That is the link you share with students (or parents with younger children). Once students have the link, they enter their school email address. They are taken to the page where they will see the discussion topic, the intro video, and a big green circle. By clicking on the green circle, they will now be able to record themselves answering the discussion question in the allotted amount of time. They can also watch anyone else’s posted video and respond with another video or emoji. This can get fun as students “interact” with each other, speaking and listening to all the prompts. There are fun ways to change the look of the videos, too. For the student who likes color variations in the videos, It's an option! For the student who doesn’t really want to be seen on the video, he can pixel his face. For the student who loves emojis, there are plenty of ways to get creative with those. We enjoy FlipGrid as teachers and our students enjoy it, too. And you know what is the BEST part? They are having fun speaking FRENCH with each other!!!
Here are directions taken straight from FlipGrid to help you as well: Desire your students to speak more French in class? We would like to share two resources that might help. These resources stem from our Winter Vocabulary Lesson & Activities.
First, we have this Interactive French Bingo Game with a speaking and movement twist. Based on the given 31-word winter vocabulary list, students will create their own Bingo (or LOTO) game board. Once all students are ready to learn the directions, they will be able to read and hear from you the directions in French that are provided. Next, students will see 18 questions that they will need to ask multiple students in the room. They may not talk to the same partner for the whole game. Student A will ask one of the provided questions to Student B. Student B will give his response in a spontaneous manner without looking at Student A's paper. If Student B's spontaneous response is written on Student A's paper, then Student B will sign his name on Student A's paper. Student B can then ask Student A a question. Play continues with various partners throughout the classroom. The game is over when at least 5 (or more!) students have a completed LOTO (signatures in boxes horizontally, vertically, or diagonally). At this point, students could make a new game board and play again OR all students must get signatures in all of their boxes. This game works best with intermediate students. Strong beginners could handle the game because the questions are guided, yet they may lack in vocabulary understanding (unless they have already been taught the winter vocab). Advanced students could benefit from asking their own questions in a circumlocution format instead of the 18 given questions. **************************************************************************************** The second speaking (OR writing) activity we have included is our 30-questions winter speaking/writing prompts. This activity can be used in numerous ways and with multiple modifications. For example, the prompts could be used in conversation, as writing or in digital format using Google Forms. The prompts could be used as a warm-up or exit ticket to start or end class. The prompts could be used as a group conversation activity, with partners, or an individual writing assignment. Need a sub plan? These prompts could be incorporated with a sub as you could ask students to write answers to just a few or many of the questions. The prompts are coded with black snowflakes to communicate if the question is geared toward beginner, intermediate, or advanced level students. The advanced prompts are applicable to International Baccalaureate students. |
Who are the Hobbs?Originally, we are from the Midwest and the East; however, our paths took us to Angers, France where we met and fell in love. Archives
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