Making "Le Petit Prince" Come to Life

It's always exciting when students reach the point in their language study when they are able to read an original piece of literature in its original language.  For me, this happens in French III when students read Le Petit Prince.  To help them figure out the meaning of the book without resorting to English is also a challenge.  One thing I've tried is to create 3-D representations of things that happen in the book.  For example, I created the planet that the Little Prince lives on out of a Styrofoam ball, and I hung it from the ceiling.


In the book, the Little Prince travels around the universe visiting various unusual planets.  I created those as well and hung them from the ceiling.

Here's the planet of the drinker.


And here's the planet of the lamplighter.



And here's the planet Earth and the airplane of the pilot, one of the main characters in the book.


Having these planets hanging from the ceiling allows me to explain and review what's happening in each chapter without using English.  Obviously, students can also easily be reminded of what they're reading by looking around the room.  And every year, students in other levels of French get interested in what the planets mean and ask me about it, which gives me an opportunity to get them excited about being able to read the book in years to come.

Comments

  1. EliasDecember 10, 2016 at 4:35 PM

    Bonjour,

    C'est très intéressant pour un français de découvrir comment sa langue est enseignée dans les autres pays.
    Je suis curieux de savoir quels livres vous faites lire à vos élèves à part le Petit prince et le Petit Nicolas (très bon choix !).

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. RenéeApril 25, 2017 at 9:41 AM

      Bonjour, Elias. Pardonnez-moi d'avoir tardé! Tout d'abord, le niveau de français détermine souvent ce qui est possible a lire avec mes élèves. Le Petit Nicolas et Le Petit Prince sont très enseigné ici au troisième ou quatrième année au lycée, par exemple. En cinquième année, nous lisons des extraits des auteurs de partout dans le monde francophone, trop nombreux pour lister ici, mais inclus Hugo, Ionesco, Prévert, de Maupassant, Dumas, Ronsard, Carrier, Begag, Tahar Ben Jelloun...

      Delete
    2. EliasApril 25, 2017 at 3:29 PM

      "le niveau de français détermine souvent ce qui est possible a lire avec mes élèves."
      Je comprends. je suppose que ce n'est pas facile d'avoir des oeuvres accessibles en terme de langue mais avec un contenu adapté à l'âge des élèves. Par exemple, le Petit prince, je pense qu'en France c'est considéré comme destiné à un public plus jeune.

      Sinon je trouve ça bien de faire lire de la poésie. Je regrette que mes professeurs d'anglais ou d'allemand n'ai pas davantage utilisé de poèmes au cours de ma scolarité.
      Vous utilisez des chansons aussi ?

      Delete
    3. RenéeMay 2, 2017 at 6:01 PM

      Oui, Elias, c'est ça. Mais quand j'explique la philosophie dans Le Petit Prince, ça c'est plus au niveau des lycéens, alors ça marche bien. Oui, je suis d'accord avec vous que la poésie soit un bon choix. Et oui, j'utilise beaucoup de chansons aussi! Merci pour vos commentaires.

      Delete
  2. GrapefruitApril 17, 2018 at 1:19 PM

    Quelle bonne idée! J'adore! (Je peux la piquer?) Merci!

    ReplyDelete

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