Welcome to the Division 1 French blog. My name is Madame (Susan) Pallesen and I have been a teacher at Prince of Wales School for 16 years, teaching the regular subjects to grades 4, 5, 6 and 2. Three years ago, I started a new adventure and decided to challenge myself with teaching French to the "little ones". It has been a wonderful experience and I look forward to my fourth year being a French teacher.
- How often does my child have French this year?
- Your child has French twice a week for 30 minutes at a time. On Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday afternoons, and on Friday mornings, the students will join me in Room 13 (the open room connected to the library). The classroom teacher has a prep period when I am teaching French.
- What is my child learning?
- The most important goal in the lower grades is for your child to display a positive attitude toward learning and using the French language. We do this through games, songs, technology, drawing, and special activities. The feedback from the students, teachers and parents seems to indicate that this is not a difficult goal to achieve at Prince of Wales school. We have so much fun, and the students are eager to participate and show what they know.
- To find out more about what your child is learning, visit the blog each week. I will include new vocabulary words, songs and links, and explain the activities that take place in class. Although I have a year plan, I will be tweaking it depending on how quickly (or slowly) the students are acquiring the new vocabulary, the special events that pop up, and new discoveries that I find online or when collaborating with colleagues.
- The following 2 outcomes will be used on the report card:
- Understands and responds to oral language
- Speaks to express ideas and information
- How can I help my child with learning French, or catchup when he/she has been absent?
- Visit the links on this webpage, sing the songs, practice counting objects, watch cartoons or familiar videos in French to hear the rhythm of the language (there is usually an option to change the language on a Dvd). Keep it fun and light. We want them to love learning French. I have heard how some past students often sing Bonne Fête at family birthdays.
- Why do you use special gestures when teaching the vocabulary?
- Think back to when your child was a baby or toddler. You probably used some sort of gesture to help your child understand what you were saying. Your child probably reciprocated and used the gesture too. Just like nodding your head yes or putting your hand to your mouth to ask if he/she is hungry, I use specific gestures when I introduce new vocabulary words and phrases. Instead of using the English word to cue students when they are stuck, I can just use a gesture or two to help them think of the french word or phrase. It seems to be working so we will try to keep it up.
- What about learning to read and write French words and phrases?
- In Division 1, your child is working hard on learning how to read and write in English. The letters in the alphabet often represent different sounds in English compared to the same letters in French. If a child sounds out a French word using English phonetics, the word is often mispronounced. Likewise, if a child writes a French word using the English letter sounds, he/she will not be successful. We practice a lot with saying the words orally before I point out words on the SmartBoard or when making petits livres (mini-books). Students can copy the correct spelling, and will pronouce the corresponding word correctly when they are more familiar with it.
Merci,
Madame Pallesen
[email protected]