Throughout the past two years, many of us have been teaching language courses remotely, either synchronously or asynchronously. Even as many institutions move back to hybrid and in-person courses, there are many useful tools we can incorporate from online learning! One quarantine class activity that I particularly enjoy is creating […]
Beginner
18 posts
While I’ve always loved introducing a few choice poems to my 101 and 102 students, I’ve been relying more and more heavily on video content. Sara Kippur’s recent article in the PMLA journal provided an excellent reminder to incorporate French literature in language classes, even at the beginner level. Kippur’s […]
Which activities should I do on the first day of class? After several years of teaching, I still ask myself this question. As the first day sets the structure and tone for the whole semester, I am always on the lookout for new ideas. This year I created a YouTube video […]
Specialized Vocabulary: The Job Interview I wanted to have an activity for intermediate- lower advanced students related to “La vie au bureau”- worklife. Learning about work life is challenging yet essential for students without work experience at a professional level, since most of them are considering an internship at an […]
For many of us, our kitchen tables have become our offices. A variation on the typical “classroom objects” lesson, this activity takes advantage of the work-from-home situation to encourage students to identify objects found around them. The task combines article practice, object vocabulary and the phrase “il y a” with […]
This is a PowerPoint that I designed for my 1030 class from the comic writer Fiamma Luzzati published in Le Monde. You can use it for your class as reading, vocabulary, or essay activity! Link to Powerpoint Slides: Petits soucis psychologiques en temps de Coronavirus
To keep the spirits up and maintain engagement during this week, I created this non-graded activity just to work at home on pronunciation. I designed it for beginner students, but it could easily be adapted to more advanced levels. This activity allowed me to combine two of my favorite tools: […]
There exist many free and user-friendly word cloud generators online (a list is offered here). They can be very helpful with getting a group discussion started. The example, below, comes from an activity revolving around the (very catchy) song “Où va le monde?” by French band La Femme (This Youtube […]
This activity is specifically designed for a Novice Low to Novice Mid French class. Imagine students’ hands shooting up to be chosen to present on Nelson Mandela. That’s just what happened when I did this activity in my French 1 class. I screened the music video for Rachid Taha’s song […]
This activity is ready to implement in any language and best for novice mid to novice high. In this activity, students view photographer Peter Menzel’s photo series “Hungry Planet,” which documents what families around the world eat in a week. Students then describe what they see in the photos, namely […]
In this activity students break into groups to diagram a famous, fictional family tree. Students then present the family to the class. This activity is ready to implement in any language and best for novice mid or whenever the family unit is covered. Implementation: Students choose which group they’d like […]
Pénélope Bagieu is a French illustrator whose graphic novels have received widespread recognition. Her blog BD Les Culottées, which was compiled into a book in 2016 and 2017, features a series of women with an unusual or inspiring story. The comics are short, interesting, and biographically accurate These comics offer […]
In this low-stakes exercise, students create an image that they design themselves, using a set of vocabulary words being studied. For this example, the language unit was focused on fashion, and so each student created their ideal outfit using fashion and textile words in the target language. However, this exercise […]
In this activity, students are introduced to image poems called calligrams. They are then asked to create a self-portrait calligram with a short description of themselves. This activity is perfect for beginners who have just learned how to talk about themselves. Descriptions may include: Name; Age; Origin; Languages […]
Pedagogy Scholarship has emphasized that storytelling is effective in L2 learning because it is fun, engaging and highly memorable. Storytelling has been praised for raising learners’ interest in listening to stories, as well as in speaking, writing and reading about them (Claudio Rezende Lucarevschi, The role of storytelling in language learning, 2016). […]
This is a 20-minute interactive winning game in which: Students team up; They observe a set of artworks on Slides; They hypothesize the origin of each artwork among 4 options. (I usually give 20 to 30 seconds for each artwork.) We check their answers together. (Slides in French) Each group that gave […]
This is a 30-minute activity in which: Each student chooses a portrait image they like (My set here); In groups of 2, they describe their characters’ appearance; Finally, they present their artwork(s) to their classmates. Depending on the level of proficiency, the instructor may ask them to explain what they found arresting […]
This is a 20-minute interactive winning game in which: Students team up; They observe a set of artworks on Slides; They hypothesize the date of each artwork among 4 options. (I usually give 20 to 30 seconds for each artwork.) We check their answers together. Each group that gave the right answer […]
