I can hardly believe that I am entering my seventh year of teaching French. In honour of those very challenging six years, I am sharing with you all of the mistakes I made and lessons I learned in my first five years of teaching French. If you are a new French teacher, hopefully, there are some nuggets of information you can learn from this blog post. If you are a seasoned French teacher and you can relate to some of these lessons, I’d love to hear from you in the comments below!
I actually wrote two very similar post on 10 Mistakes I made in my first year of teaching Core French and How to teach French to beginners. I shared a lot of content that I won’t be repeating in this post, so do read those as well if you are curious!
A little about me and my context
I am a high school French teacher in British Columbia, Canada at the secondary level. Unfortunately, I was in my third year of teaching when the pandemic began.
My fourth and fifth years of teaching were my most challenging years of teaching due to the pandemic and its aftermath.
These were the years I cried at my desk after almost every single staff meeting.
Teaching French doesn’t just mean teaching grammar & vocabulary
In my first couple of years of teaching French, I simply taught French how I had been taught. It was a lot of grammar lessons and vocabulary memorization.
It didn’t work. I felt like I was teaching French grammar classes, instead of French language classes.
So I worked really hard to change things up. Firstly, I made a teacher Instagram account which simply revolutionized the way I was teaching. The interactions I’ve had with French teachers all over the world have been the best professional development in my career!
Then, I discovered the world of Comprehensible Input.
I would not say that all of my activities and lessons align with Comprehensible Input. I would say that I have borrowed bits and pieces from a variety of French pedagogies and teaching practices.
Now I teach very hands-on, creative, and engaging units that center Francophone and non-Francophone cultures. The goal is to expose my students to as much French listening and reading in the early years. Secondly, I try to create safe and structured French speaking activities. We learn about all sorts of topics in French and we do projects that combine creative and critical thinking skills.
I think for so many teachers it can be a very scary place to step away from the world of French textbooks and grammar. However, I cannot explain in words how rewarding it truly is once you hit that sweet spot.
French teaching tip : establish very strong French class routines
I remember my first two years of teaching French so very clearly. Truly, I really wanted to establish strong classroom routines. I just didn’t know what those routines could be. The Internet wasn’t super helpful at that time either.
During the 2020-2021 school year, I implemented weekly and daily routines for the first time. Now, I have a very lengthy blog post where I dive into all of the daily and weekly routines I’ve established in my high school Core French classes.
Here is a quick example of daily routines in my classroom :
- Daily slides
- Question du jour
Weekly routines :
- Chanson de la semaine
- Expression idiomatique de la semaine
- JEU-di
- Expression argotique de la semaine
- Lecture silencieuse ou lecture en partenaire
Strong French routines are a massive pro for a new French teacher as they cut down on planning. They are also really effective for targeting speaking, reading, writing, and listening. Targeting all four strands in the first few years of teaching French can be really tricky.
Change it up if you don’t like it
In my first year as a classroom teacher, my work mom told me “teach whatever brings you joy and don’t teach anything that doesn’t bring you joy”.
If you are not happy with the outcome of a unit, lesson, activity, worksheet, strategy, routine, seating plan….ANYTHING — do NOT be afraid to change it up.
I promise you will be a better French teacher because you reflected on why it didn’t go well and what to do to improve it for the future. Immediately after trying something that didn’t go as planned, reflect on the following :
- what did I think was going to happen and what actually happened?
- what 3 changes (small, medium, large) can I implement for the future that would help this activity/lesson/unit run more smoothly?
Speak in the target language, but also don’t be afraid to connect with students in English
A lot of new and seasoned French teachers really struggle with finding a balance. For me, it’s quite simple now.
- speak in the target language for all major aspects of routines and lessons. Ensure that you are using language that is repetitive and comprehensible.
- Explain assessment requirements in English. They need to understand fully what they are doing, especially as it involves their grades. It is not fair to students to not understand what they are supposed to accomplish for assessment. This is the single most thing my students complain about in their other courses.
- Rubrics should also be in English – you are not evaluating their ability to understand rubrics.
- Have difficult/needed conversations with students in English
- Don’t be afraid to speak in English to connect with them, especially at the beginner and intermediate levels. I will do whatever I need to do to continue to build a community in my classroom
