Have you heard of Manie Musicale?

One of the best things I've ever added to my curriculum is something called Manie Musicale. It's designed specifically for French teachers! If you've never heard of it, it's a French song competition modeled after the NCAA March Madness basketball tournament. Students across the world vote for their favorite songs from a bracket of 16 current songs selected from all over the French-speaking world. I started participating a few years ago and have found it to be 100% worth it!

Manie Musicale is free, but you do need to register your school to participate.  Brackets must be filled out by March 1 each year.  Teachers create bulletin board materials, games and other activities to use with students and share them with all of the other teachers participating!  Here is my bulletin board from a few years ago. It was made with the shared materials available on the Manie Musicale website.


Teachers decide how they will reward the students with the best brackets.  I chose to give out one grand prize in each level of French for the student with the best bracket.  This year the grand prize is a bottle of French limonade and a package of BN cookies. I'm also giving out a bag of Haribo candy as a second prize. In the past I have included treats and trinkets purchased in France.

I can not tell you how much my students adore being a part of this.  It brings so much fun and joy into my classroom, and at a point in the school year when motivation is usually lacking. You can decide to devote as little or as much time as you want to Manie Musicale, but the point is for students to have fun listening to the songs and talking about them in French. I am filled with gratitude for the teachers who created this (Michelle Fournier & Stephanie Carbonneau), and for their willingness to share it with the rest of us! 

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