Chez Renée

Last year I added a new routine to my French III class which I've named Guess what's in Jacques' head?. It was inspired by a wonderful game I purchased on Teachers Pay Teachers called  La Boîte Mystère   from The French Nook (un grand merci, Jennifer, for this great idea!!). The basic idea is that you hide a random object in a mystery box, and students have to guess what's in it. As I pondered using this idea, I remembered that Jacques' head is hollow! I decided that my students might like this activity even more if I hid the mystery object inside his head. So now I do this every Friday and my students practice asking yes/no questions about the shape, size, texture, color and the general use for the item until they guess it. Once they do, I make a big production of tipping Jacques forward so we can all look inside his head.  The activity takes about 5-10 minutes of my lesson. It has been a real hit in my classroom. Everyone loves it! And it has helped them to ...

Bonjour tout le monde!  I hope everyone has had a great start to their school year! I haven't posted in a while, and I'd like to thank those of you who've recently reminded me that you are reading my blog which has really encouraged me to keep on writing. I'd like to share a successful lesson that I taught last week.  This lesson was used in high school French II and students were learning how to name various professions.  I took a writing activity from my textbook (which described what certain people did in their professions and asked students to guess what it was based on the description), and turned it into a television style game show!  I made index cards on which I wrote the short descriptions and the French name of the person assuming that profession.   Then I made a Power Point presentation to create a game show atmosphere.  The slides of the Power Point showed the same names and descriptions that were on the index cards.  I also inserted game ...

Hello fellow teachers!  I'm so excited to share this new idea with you!!  I tried it for the first time in my French II class last week, and it was an amazing success on so many levels.  I imagine that many of you ask your students to make videos for an assignment as I do.  This activity was done right after my students turned in a major video project which was due right around the time of the Oscar Awards.  In the past, I have asked the class to vote on the best video & I awarded a prize to the winner.  I liked doing this because it inspired students to produce something they were really proud of, rather than just making sure they met the requirements to get a decent grade.  I also discovered that my students often surprised me.  Sometimes students who didn't shine in other areas showed amazing creativity & ingenuity that I hadn't seen before.  But this year, I took this idea to the next level.  I held a mock Oscar Awards cerem...

Bonjour, everyone.  I hope you are all well, and surviving the current weather conditions.  Things have been wild here in Michigan.  We've had a record amount of snow this month, record low temps and a record number of snow days at my school (6 so far!).  Vive la neige!! I have a great speaking activity to share with you.  It seems to work best with my French III class, but it might also work in French II, and it's too easy for French IV.  It's a good game to use if students need to practice speaking more, if they need to review numbers, or if they just need a break from the usual.  This game was shared with me by two wonderful French teachers from Michigan, Marge Mandl and Suzie Martin, in a presentation they gave at our  MiWLA Conference. Everyone is a vache  (cow) in this game.  All vaches  sit in a circle in chairs or at a desk.  One vache  (usually the teacher) stands in the center and is called la vache qui...

Today I played a conversation game in my French III class that was a big hit, and more importantly, got everyone speaking French and having a good time while doing it.  This game is good for upper-level students.  The directions take a while to explain, but it's worth it!  I wish I could remember where I got this idea...it was passed on to me by another teacher somewhere along the way :).   Students are to imagine that they are strangers stranded at an airport due to a snowstorm, and are to have a conversation based on this premise.  Only one person is allowed to speak at a time.  Students take turns asking each other where they are from, what they do for a living, and so on.  Each student is allowed to invent his own identity.  The more creative they get with this, the more fun everyone has!  Before the conversation begins, each student is given a secret index card which tells them their role in the game.  There are 2 spies, ...

Bonjour everyone!  I hope you've all had a great start to the new school year.  It's been a busy one for me, and I've gotten a little behind in my blogging...but I've been trying some new ideas in my classes that I'd like to share with you.  This one actually was inspired by my principal, who mentioned it in passing in one of our departmental meetings. The idea was to try a speed-dating style speaking activity.  I divided my class into groups of 2.  One student in each group had a profile that I created giving basic information such as their name, age, where they lived, their nationality, etc.  To make it more fun, they had a simple costume to wear as well...I have various masks & hats that I used for this.  The profiles included Jack Sparrow, Santa Claus, Yoda, Elvis, George W. and so on.  The other person in the group was the interviewer and was given a card on which I'd written some basic questions ...

This year I tried a new project at the end of the semester as a way to review what we'd learned.  My high school is in year #2 of a 1:1 iPad program, and I consider myself lucky to have this amazing tool to work with when considering a new project.  I decided to try an app I'd heard of called PuppetPals HD .  This app allows students to create puppet shows using different backgrounds and different characters, and they are able to record their voices as well.  The possibilities for creativity are endless, and to top it off, the app is free! I asked students to create a puppet show after giving them specific guidelines for what I expected to be included.  Students had a lot of freedom to create whatever sort of story they wanted to.  While creating these projects, I was happy to see lots of smiling and giggling going on.  I was also pleased with the results.  Here's an example. I was delighted to ...

Wow!!  I just learned about a new app called Morfo.  The English teachers at my high school were using it in their classes, and one of my students showed it to me.  This app allows you to animate a photo of a person's face and you can also add audio.  You can cause the face to show different emotions such as surprise, or you can make the face smile.  My mind is spinning with ideas about how I can use this in French class! Naturally, I tried using it to make my classroom mannequin come to life!  In the past, I've used the FaceJack app (which I also LOVE) to bring my mannequins to life.  But Morfo offers even more possibilities!  Here's a quick sample of my classroom mannequin in the Morfo app.     I decided to try using Morfo with my French IV class last week.  We're currently reading Le Comte de Monte-Cristo. I assigned each student a character from the book and asked them to fin...

 Have you ever had your students write and perform puppet shows in your world language class?  I've done it frequently over the years, and it's an activity that I highly recommend if you haven't ever tried it.  I can't believe how excited high school students get over playing with puppets.  We did this in first year French this week, and my students came skipping with joy into the classroom during these days.  I even heard one of them say, "This is the best class ever!"  There was a lot of giggling and laughing going on, but students were also actively engaged in writing and speaking French.  Here are a few photos: I have a rather large collection of interesting puppets and also a puppet stage, but I bet students would have had just as much fun with a humble sock puppet.  Students began by writing scripts in groups of 2.  They had to choose from a list of topics I'd provided and write a conversation between t...

I've begun the fabulous adopt-an-escargot  project in my third-year French class this week, and there is definitely excitement in the air!  I love how much this project awakens the interest of all of my students...even those in other levels of French.  Today, students in lower levels of French could be found gathered around  Escargotville in the corner of my classroom :).  It warms my heart to see this. Today I used the iPad2 in conjunction with this project.  Students were asked to write a haiku poem for their dear baby escargot.  After reviewing how to write haiku, students used the StoryKit app to create a page which contained a photo of their baby, the text to the haiku they wrote, and a recording of their own voice reading the haiku.  Students were able to send the link to me through email, and I was then able to project the pages onto the big screen so that everyon...

My third year students recently finished studying how to describe objects in detail.  They learned how to describe the shape, texture, surface, weight, size, capacity, temperature and general condition of an object, including how to name what the object is made of.  In order to help them practice what they'd learned, I gave them a homework assignment to bring an interesting object from home for "Show & Tell" in French.  I asked them to be prepared to describe their objects in detail to the class.  They had to speak for a minimum of 30 seconds at a normal speed.  Here are some photos: Students were allowed to look at a written description of their object as they spoke, but in my opinion, this activity was less like a memorized presentation and more like informal conversation.  Informal speaking is one of those areas that is difficult to assess, and I think this activity was ...

I mentioned in an earlier post how excited I am about finding ways to use my new iPad2 in the classroom!  I also mentioned my favorite app so far, called Face Jack.  Here's an example of how students could use the Face Jack app on their iPads in conjunction with the adopt an escargot  project which I currently use in my third year French class. If you're unfamiliar with adopt an escargot, it involves students "adopting" a snail shell and inventing the life of the snail.  My students love it!  I used one of the shells that came in my adopt an escargot kit in this video.  I also used one of the profiles that came in the kit to describe this particular snail.  I plan on asking my students to make a video about their adopted snails next year, and to use Face Jack in the video.  Obviously, students would be speaking French in their videos.  What do you think? 

All students & teachers in my high school will have the new iPad2 next fall!  The teachers were given their iPads last week, and then we had 3 days of training on how to use them.  My amazing colleagues John and Karen shared their vast knowledge with the rest of us and inspired us to figure out how to use them effectively in our classrooms.   My favorite app so far is called FaceJack.  I can't wait to make some new movies about Jacques the mannequin to use in my classroom.  Here's what you can do with FaceJack: It's simple, easy and in my opinion, INCREDIBLE!  In addition to making videos about Jacques, I've thought of a few more ways to use this: Students could make FaceJacks of French or American celebrities or historical or political figures, or even of anonymous people.  They could be asked to say, "hello, my name is...., I'm x years old, I'm american/french..." (or more, for advanced students)....

I've collected a box of old clothing to use when students learn to name articles of clothing.  A fun thing to do in class once they've learned the words is to have a fashion show and have students model various items.  I allowed students to choose a few things from the box, and then they figured out how to say what they were wearing in French.  I made a "runway" out of butcher paper which I laid on the floor, and I put on some French music in the background.  The more outgoing students even tried to walk like models.  Here are some photos of my first year students. Once students walked down the runway, they told the class in French what they were wearing and also mentioned what color it was.  I gave them a grade on their spoken French for this activity. I know this is a pretty common activity for world language teachers to use, but I wanted you to see how much my students enjoyed this anyways.  I did no...

Jacques DUBOIS, my classroom mannequin, just turned 16!  So we had a birthday party for him in French I.  Students were asked to bring Jacques a present for the party.  It had to be something they made or something from home they could give away, but they weren't allowed to buy anything for him.  Students wrote descriptions of what they were giving him and why in French, and on the day of the party, they presented their gifts to Jacques in front of the class.  Here are some examples: This young lady is giving Jacques a wig, because he's bald :). This young lady is presenting Jacques with a scarf. One student made Jacques a French driver's license! My students got really excited about giving Jacques a present!  It continues to amaze me how easily I can get them to buy into the whole story.  It reminds me that they're still really just kids at heart (and maybe I am, too :). Students also enjoyed singing Happy Birthday to ...

We've been learning what one might say at the doctor's office and how to describe pain in various parts of one's body.  So I've been using my classroom mannequin Jacques to help teach this.  I told students that Jacques was in the Tour de France last weekend (yes, I know it's not really held in March).  I also told them that it wasn't really Lance Armstrong who won the race...it was Jacques, of course :).  Did you notice Jacques' really awesome, authentic maillot jaune (yellow jersey)?  I paid a lot of money for that... I saw it at a store in the mall once and I knew exactly how I'd use it!  I told students that Jacques fell off his bike during the race and that's why he's wearing bandages. I acted out a conversation between Jacques and the doctor.  I played the part of the doctor, and the part of Jacques' voice as well! Jacques told the doctor that his nose, mouth and arm hurt.  The doctor told him to take two aspir...

Third year French students are currently learning how to describe a person's hair in detail.  Our textbook presents vocabulary on specific hairstyles as well as what to say at a hair salon if you want to get your hair cut.  I used a collection of wigs and masks (many of them purchased at Halloween stores) and my friend Jacques to introduce these words in class. Jacques has short, black hair.  And he's saying, "Merci.  Merci beaucoup". Jacques has braids. Jacques has short brown hair. Jacques has a punk hairstyle! Jacques has hair that's short on the top and sides, but long in the back. Jacques has curly hair. Jacques has long, black hair with highlights. Students also practiced suggesting how Jacques should cut his hair for the various hairstyles shown.  I got my students to laugh with the Elvis mask, and I was proud that they understood the joke in French, however simple it was :).    ...