My love for project-based classes stems from an incredible Elementary school teacher. When I became a teacher, I knew that I really want to teach with projects. However, how was I going to make my French projects fun, creative, engaging and meaningful opportunities for learning?

What qualities do fun French projects have?

From the very beginning of my career, I have strived to make French class engaging and meaningful for my FSL students. It has been a lot of trial and errors, but here is what has been successful in my French language classes.

Fun French projects are creative & engaging

We’ve all done projects that are mind-numbingly boring and I have certainly assigned those projects. Now, I ask myself the following question :

Will I want to mark the project?

If the answer is “yes”, then I know that it’ll be a fun project.

Additionally, I want to ensure that my students will enjoy the process as well as the end result. The end result is always something creative that students can be proud of!

Student voice and choice

This one is quite simple – when marking projects, I do not want to mark 90 of the same, exact project. Wherever possible, I like to give out 2-3 options for major projects. If that is not possible, I make that there is a wide range of possible topics for that project.

In French class, I allow my students to pick their topic. Whether that is a singer, country, famous person or song – the choice is there own!

Fun French projects are not overwhelming for students – they are structured

No matter how creative and fun your project is, if it is not structured well, students will NOT find it fun. This is especially true in a French language class where students are expected to work in a whole different language.

How do I structure my fun French projects?

• Thoroughly practice the standards for that unit before beginning the project
• explain criteria to students and break down the project into small sections, each one having a different due date (accountability checkpoint)
• have them work on the draft
• check their draft in class with them and circle mistakes that they are capable of correcting

Flags on francophone countries

As part of our unit on Francophone regions, one of the first activities we do is this research project. Students research and write about :

• the capital
• official and spoken languages
• where the region is located (country/continent)
• what the region is known for
• famous dishes

If you’re looking for more ideas and inspiration on teaching la francophonie, check out these blog posts!

Check out this resource on TPT

Music videos and reaction videos (and just any videos tbh)

Everyone does music units in French class. One of my favourite ways to end of this unit is to have my students create a music video where they have to act out the lyrics.

This is not only one of my students’ favourite projects, but it is also my favourite project to mark! If music videos are too easy, I’ve also had my students do ‘reaction’ videos to a music video!

French One-pagers on any topic

One-pagers were a project I tried for the first time this year and I LOVED the end result! The one you see in this photo is one I created myself as a sample and it isn’t even close to showing how amazing my students’ one-pagers were.

I actually have a whole blog post dedicated one-pagers on the topic of racism in France. A free download of the template is also included as well as an explanation of what was required in each section.

French Me Voici Projects

Another fun project we do in French 8 is this Me voici project. Students write about their :

• city of birth
• birthdate
• hobbies
• favourite foods
• things they do not like to do

Imparfait conjugations practice flipbook

This next project is a French flipbook that I have my intermediate French students do to practice imparfait!

Exploring real life issues such as climate change

Teaching about Earth Day and the environment isn’t just something that should occur in Science class. French class is most fun when the learning is relevant to real-world issues.

The following project is one I created myself! I am very passionate about informing my students about the harmful effects of our habits. For example, the fast fashion industry is one of the most harmful industries in the world. However, most students do not know how or why that is.

This resource includes 5 infographics on the following topics :

1. Fast fashion
2. Overconsumption of meat
3. Banana and avocado farming
4. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch
5. The harmful effects of consumption during Christmas

Finally, for their final assignment, students will conduct research on one or many harmful consumption habits. They will then create a booklet presenting their research.

The post Fun French projects for French class appeared first on FLE Avec MmeD.

In 1960, there were 3.9 million chickens in the whole world. In 2014, we had 21.41 billion. Crazy right? Teaching about Earth Day and the environment isn’t just something that should occur in Science class. French class is most fun when the learning is relevant to real-world issues. Here are 6 French Earth Day activities and resources for Core French & French Immersion teachers.

French Earth Day Infographics & Research Project

The following project is one I created myself! I am very passionate about informing my students about the harmful effects of our habits. For example, the fast fashion industry is one of the most harmful industries in the world. However, most students do not know how or why that is.

This resource includes 5 infographics on the following topics :

1. Fast fashion
2. Overconsumption of meat
3. Banana and avocado farming
4. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch
5. The harmful effects of consumption during Christmas

Finally, for their final assignment, students will conduct research on one or many harmful consumption habits. They will then create a booklet presenting their research.

French Earth Day trivia game for intermediate to advanced students

Le jour de la terre isn’t just an opportunity for cute crafts. It’s an opportunity to engage your Core French and French Immersion students in critically thinking about all of our behaviours as a society and how harmful they are for the planet. This French Earth Day resource is a French reading comprehension game to be completed with the whole class.

What kinds of topics do you cover?

This French game touches on fast fashion, deforestation, heating/air conditioning, Himalaya glaciers, polar bears, recycling (what really happens to it), polyester, food packaging, and more!

Free French Earth Day printables

Looking for an engaging and meaningful French Earth Day resource for your Core French or French Immersion students? The goal of this jour de la terre activité is to engage your students in vocabulary-building and reflective activities regarding les changements climatiques. This activity can be used hand in hand with my other French Earth day activities that teach students about the harmful consequences of our habits as consumers and as a society.

What does this Jour de la terre freebie include?

• Mots-cachés
• coloriage par code
• 10 faits importants
• 4 changements que je vais faire dans ma vie à partir de maintenant

French Earth Day Resource #1 – Fiches pédagogiques sur l’environnement – Le Réseau In-Terre-Actif

First off is Reseau In-Terre-Actif. This is an awesome website where you can find reading comprehension activities on many different subjects.

You can find French Earth Day resources on the following topics :

• Déforestation planétaire
• L’accès universel à l’eau-potable
• La surpêche
• Désertification
• Les énergies renouvelables
• Cuba ; les énergies renouvelables au service du développement international
• Sri Lanka ; les fours solaires
• Bolivie ; l’eau, bien commun de l’humanité
• Mali ; lutte contre la désertification
• Cuba ; l’impact de l’éléctrification par l’énergie solaire

YouTube Playlist – videos & documentaries on écologie

Next is a YouTube playlist of some of my favourite videos and documentaries on climate change. You can find videos on topics such as :

• l’impact de la viande sur l’environnement
• le Nord face aux changements climatiques
• 4 conséquences inattendues du réchauffement de l’Arctique
• Norvège : Svalbard, sentinelle du climat
• Découverte | Le Gulf Stream, ce système régulateur du climat

For now, I will leave you with my favourite video on fast fashion!

Bio Genus

This next resource is an awesome, interactive French Earth Day resource on Quebec’s fauna & flora. The website is friendly for beginner French language learners and it is all written in the first person! The website is divided into :

1. Animaux
2. Végétaux
3. Champignons
4. Habitaux

Drôle de planète

Lastly, Drôle de planète is a fantastic French Earth Day resource from Belgium. It comprises of printable websites, onsite reading comprehension and even a web series you can watch! How cool is that? They even have really detailed labs and experiments to try in the classroom!

You should for sure bookmark this French Earth Day resource!

Consequently, I hope that you found these French Earth Day resources to be helpful! I would love to hear in the comments French Earth Day resources you’ve tried and loved!

Save the pin below to your Pinterest board so you can easily find these resources next year.

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Introduction – Racism in France unit

I recently wrapped up a unit on racial, ethnic, and religious inequalities in France with my intermediate-advanced French students. When I shared about the success of my unit on Instagram, I had over 35 comments requesting more information! So here are the resources I used in my racism in France unit.

The why – why teach about racism in France?

In my third year of University, I took a class on racism in France as part of my Bachelors in French. My professor broke down the experiences of marginalized communities and how they are perceived in France.

I had several professors teach extensively about alterité, racism, xenophobia, Islamophobia, the suppression of minority rights, and the concept (or lack thereof) of hybrid identities.

As a teacher, I want my students to have a well-rounded understanding of France. After all, human rights cannot be separated from teaching about French and francophone cultures. They are intricately connected.

Who – who should learn about racism in France?

I did this unit with my intermediate-advanced FSL class, but it would also work with Immersion students as well (Elementary or Secondary).

You can modify your choice of resources and their language level according to the level and age of your students.

Objectives

By the end of this unit, students will :

• understand how the dialect of verlan is intricately connected to the identities of youth of racial, ethnic and religious minorities
• comprehend how French institutions are founded on the concepts of ‘universalism’, aka colorblindness
• understand how French institutions systemically and systematically marginalize minorities
• listen to a podcast episode about living in France vs. the U.S. as racialized minorities
• partake in a Jigsaw assignment
• complete a one-pager project

Structure & format of the racism in France unit

1. Introduce students to ‘verlan’.

If you are looking to increase your knowledge of verlan, I highly encourage that you watch Netflix’s Plan coeur. It’s absolutely hilarious and I picked up so much slang from it!

If you choose to purchase my verlan unit on TPT, a list of French slang/verlan is already included.

2. Introduce students to French banlieues

I wrote my own article on French banlieues for my FSL students. Warning : the level of French is challenging, but not impossible. I had my students :

• highlight all mots-amis and mots-familiers in the text first
• underline 3-4 main key words from each paragraph
• break down the article into small chunks. I assigned 1 paragraph to each partner duo. I asked them to summarize the main idea in their paragraph in 1-2 sentences.
• explain the significance of their paragraph to the class (in English)

Despite the article being extremely tough, my students were SO engaged. After each paragraph, we had a discussion about the themes discussed.

I actually really struggled to bring them back to the article since they were so engaged in discussion! Even my students who struggle so much with French were hooked from beginning to end.

Alternatively, you can also teach your students about French banlieues via articles & videos. See below for my recommendations.

3. Jigsaw activity – reading/listening comprehension

For this activity, pick any 4 resources from this unit to assign to your students. I really recommend the podcast episode below be one of the choices.

Ideally, they should take about 40-50 minutes for your students to break down and analyze.

4. Extension activities of your choice (film study, more primary source analyses, etc)

One-pager final project

I had heard of and seen examples of one-pagers done in Social Studies all over the teachergram world. One of the first examples of one-pagers I had seen on the Internet was from Too Cool From Middle School.

I decided to give them a try for French class! Thank you to my fellow French teacher colleague Jenn Bairos for sending me videos, instructions and samples of her own students’ one-pagers! It was thanks to Jenn that I was able to see how it would work for my own students!

They were a hit!

My students absolutely LOVED this project! So many of my students decided to work on this at home even though it wasn’t assigned as homework!

I loved that they had to take all of the information that they had learned and present it in a visual manner.

There was also a lot of student choice involved, and that is why the end results were so powerful!

Key criteria to emphasize to students :

Important Resources I use

1. Kiffe ta race – Podcast – START HERE

This is hands down one of my favourite podcast episodes EVER. It is entirely in English given that the hosts are interviewing an American.

During this 50-minute episode, the hosts discuss racism and identity in France vs. the US, Islamophobia, and so much more.

2. La France gagne la coupe du monde

If your students are new to the concept of identity in France, then this article is an excellent starting point. The theme is the idea of hybrid identities in France and how French society does not allow its’ citizens to express their identities.

It is a free download in my TPT.

3. Liberté inégalités fraternité – interactive website

This is an interactive website exploring the systemic inequalities of the French education system and how it reinforces a poverty cycle.

4. Banlieusards – Netflix film

This is a BEAUTIFUL film on Netflix about living in French banlieues and I had my students watch this at home as part of an assignment. I highly recommend! There is no foul language and violence – it’s just a piece of art!

5. Aïssa Maïga

Aïssa Maïga is a very popular French actress. You can find many of her films on Netflix! In March 2020, the actress called out the Césars, an awards ceremony similar to the Oscars, for it’s lack of representation.

Aïssa was consequently told off by French media and figures by “racializing” and dividing the nation. Aïssa’s treatment by French media further demonstrated how far French society is from achieving its colorblind ideals when it accuses a Black woman of inciting racial tensions.

Dear France — the problem isn’t Aïssa, it’s you.

She also has a book called Noire n’est pas mon métier.

6. News articles – French & English

• A Racial Awakening in France, Where Race Is a Taboo Topic (New York Times)
• The Other France (New Yorker)
• Comment le système éducatif français aggrave les inégalités sociales (le Monde)

7. DamonAndJo – What is verlan

This is a super fun video that introduces the linguistic background of verlan.

8.Le verlan – articles et activités

This resource is my absolute pride and joy. It took me over three months to write two articles and all of the accompanying activities and tasks. Suffice it to say it was a labour of love and passion. There are two versions of this resource – one for FSL and another for French Immersion. Here is what this resource includes :

1. A research activity introducing students to verlan and argot français
2. A 2-page article on French banlieues, immigration, racism and youth identities (which are all linked)
3. A jigsaw activity with 4 resources
4. Reading comprehension article on the origins and importance of Verlan

Thank you so much for reading!

If you read all the way to bottom, thank you from the bottom of my heart! If you are interested more in diversity and representation in French class, please check out the following articles :

The post Racism in France – ideas & resources for French class appeared first on FLE Avec MmeD.

Are you looking for an engaging way to teach and reinforce the imparfait to your intermediate French students? Are you also looking for community building activities for your classroom? This project does both!

This project was my favourite one in French 10 this year because I got to learn more about my students’ childhoods. Seriously, it was so cute to see their baby photos, toys, trophies and unique knickknacks from their childhoods!

The idea for this project is not my own and I have to thank my friend and colleague Ingrid for this incredible idea! Thank you so much, Ingrid, for suggesting this amazing idea!

Project Criteria 

Students choose 3 physical objects that represent different values from their childhood.

These values could be family, sports, books, culture, etc. After choosing their 3 objects and values, students must write paragraphs where they :

1. describe what the object is
   • How does it look? How did they obtain it? What value does the object represent?
2. describe the significance of the object to their childhood. 

The Writing Process

Subsequently, I have my students write their draft and I normally collect all work before the bell rings. This ensures that :

1. they do not use Google Translate or other translators at home.
2. their family members or French Immersion friends do not complete or edit their work.
3. they do not lose their work. 

While they write, I circulate the entire time and answer questions. This is extremely valuable time because I get to work one to one with every single student in the class. 

After they have finished their draft, I circle their mistakes using a grammar correction code. They then have 1-2 classes to fix their mistakes and to ask me questions. I ask them to show me their corrections to ensure that they have corrected correctly. 

Once they are done their final draft, they begin memorizing. 

Presentation Day

Everyone comes prepared with their three objects on presentation day. I have the desks pushed to the perimeter of the room and we sit in a giant circle. 

Finally, I have each student ask their peers at least 3 relevant questions.

Thank you so much for reading! Subscribe to my mailing list to receive the Imparfait freebie!

Avec plaisir,

Pav

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