Planning a Francophonie unit can be both exciting and overwhelming.If you are anything like me, you mostly learnt about the Francophone world independently. However, you are not alone, fellow French teacher! I am going to share with you a bunch of the activities and resources I use as part of my Francophonie unit.

Please note that this is the unit I use to introduce my French language learners to the history of the Francophone world.

That being said, Francophone cultures are infused into every single French classroom routine and lesson. Sometimes Francophone cultures are infused minimally in the lesson and other times they are a significant part of our class that day.

Why teach a Francophonie unit in French class?

Learning a language isn’t just grammar and vocabulary lists.

Language is people. Language is culture.

My first language is Punjabi. I cannot separate Punjabi from the food, the music, the history, the recipes, customs and practices, and so much more.

Language is a vehicle for culture. We absolutely cannot separate these two!

So yes, it is not only very important to teach about why French is spoken throughout the world and to learn about the people who speak it, but it also makes French classes so much more engaging.

STOP! Before you scroll – download these Francophonie maps activities for free.

Who are these activities ideal for?

These activities are ideal for high novice to intermediate French students.

Francophonie unit overview

In this Francophonie unit, students will :

• learn basic information about the French Empire, colonization, and the current French-speaking world
• explore current statistics about Francophones and Francophone places
• research and describe a Francophone country or region for their flag project

Activity 1 : start your Francophonie unit talking about WHY French is spoken around the world

This two-page reading comprehension article is designed to teach your students about the history of the Francophone world.

This part of the unit is crucial. We absolutely do not want to glorify the French-speaking world.

We have to remember that colonization is the reason why countries in Africa, Asia, and North & South Americas speak French.

It is crucial that we understand that former colonies have complex relationships with the French language and it is okay for them to define their relationship.

This article does just that. No romanticizing. No glorifying.

Discover some fast facts about the French-speaking world with your class

Start a discussion with your class with this graphic organizer.

It is the perfect way to begin a Francophonie unit!

How many French speakers are there throughout the world? How many countries are part of the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie?

Who were the founders of the OIF? Where is the OIF located?

What are most populated Francophone cities in the world?

Tip : before you read this page with your students, have them guess these questions as a class!

Francophone city capitals, new vocabulary, and flags of Francophone countries

I’ve come up with tons of activities that complement your Francophonie unit objectives.

A creative summative project – individual Francophone country research project

End your unit with this creative summative project.

Students will research a Francophone country or region of their choice.

They will then decorate this flag with information they have found.

50 different templates have been provided for you!

Play this game : où est le pays francophone ?

This is a really fun game to play at the start of the unit.

Divide your class into two teams. Have 1 representative from each team come up to the board.

Reveal the Francophone country of the round. Both participants must correctly circle the country on the map.

This game reveals how much students know or do not know about the geography of Francophone countries.

French reading comprehension activity idea : quel pays francophone suis-je ?

This a reading comprehension activity where students read a description of a Francophone country.

The objective is to correctly guess which Francophone country is being described!

After reading a few of these together, I have my students write their own descriptions for an assignment. This is a great little mini assignment for a Francophonie unit.

What other supplementary resources to support this unit?

• Teach about France’s current empire with this YouTube video
• Play a Francophone trivia game
• Read about diverse Francophone dishes
• Try a Map Talk (learn about map talks from Afro Franco)

The post Teaching about the Francophone world: Francophonie Unit Ideas appeared first on FLE Avec MmeD.

Why does French unit planning feel like the most difficult task? Sitting down and planning units is one of the most basic parts of our jobs as teachers. However, it often feels like an impossible task. Over the years, I think that I finally figured out how to do this in a way that works best for me. If you are a Core French teacher, I hope you will find the strategies in this blog post to be super helpful.

But first – a bit about my teaching context.

I teach high school Core French in British Columbia. My periods are generally 75 minutes long. I teach students for a full semester of the school year and then they move on to summer and/or a new semester.

In British Columbia, we have shifted to standards-based assessment. Here is a link to the curriculum if you’re interested in reading what our standards are. Our French standards do not prescribe the teaching of specific grammar structures in each course. We teach our students to communicate and culture and communication are intricately tied.

Now that we’ve figured that out, let’s go ahead and plan our French unit.

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A quick disclaimer

This is what has worked for me so far. However, my pedagogy is always evolving.

Please also note that I also teach with structured daily and weekly routines. Therefore, my units are not the only exposure to reading, writing, listening, and speaking my students experience.

French Unit Planning #1 : What are your goals as a French teacher?

There are so many different pedagogies when it comes to teaching French. Here are my three personal pedagogical priorities :

• facilitate proficiency in the French language
• teach about Francophone and non-Francophone cultures
• foster intercultural awareness

French Unit Planning #2 : Select your standards

Start at the end, what do you want your students to be able to do and to understand by the end of the unit?

For the purposes of this blog post, I am planning for a French 11 course. Here are my selected standards (from the BC Curriculum) :

Big ideas :

• Listening and viewing with intent supports our acquisition of French
• Language and culture are interconnected and shape our perspective, identity, and voice

Curricular competencies (I can statements) :

• I can engage in meaningful conversations on a variety of topics of interest
• I can express myself with increasing fluency, both orally and in writing

Content :

• I can communicate in past, present, and future time frames
• I can make predictions
• I can speak about my own personal interests
• I can express my own opinions

French Unit Planning #3 : Next, what is your theme? What grammatical and vocabulary topics will your students need to know and practice by the end of the unit? Level of language?

Now that we’ve selected our standards, it’s time to figure out the following :

• your students’ level of language (novice, intermediate, advanced or somewhere in between these levels)
• your chosen theme for the unit
• what vocabulary will you incorporate into the unit?
• what grammatical structures do you want your students to become proficient in communicating?

French Unit Planning #4 : What will the final summative assessment look like?

When you’re planning your French unit, you want your final summative assessment to reflect the learning from the unit. Here are some examples?

• French music unit? Your final assessment could be a music video project, a presentation discussing a song, etc.
• French food unit? Your final assessment could be a recipe project where students film themselves making a recipe

On the very first day I introduce the unit to my students, I begin with unit objectives. Here are the unit objectives I’ve pulled from my French music unit :

I then break down these unit objectives into questions I want my students to be able to respond to orally and in writing by the end of the unit.

Please note that I do not introduce these to my students all at once. I introduce these to my students a few at time.

Every reading, writing, listening, and speaking activity I plan in the unit comes back to these questions.

Finally, these are the questions that I want my students to answer in their final summative assessment.

Here are the questions :

French Unit Planning #5 : Start with input (listening and reading)

During the first 60-70% of the unit, I am providing rich input opportunities. This means that I am planning rich, meaningful, and engaging French listening and French reading opportunities for each class.

Ideas for listening input :

• YOU!

I know! You probably weren’t expecting this one. For novice and intermediate levels, it can be really tough to find rich French listening activities. If the resource is too difficult, your students will actually get nothing out of it.

Therefore, you can be the listening opportunity. You can do map talks, picture talks, and movie talks that are connected to your chosen theme, standards, and topics.

Special tip *** I often find French videos that are text-only on YouTube. I turn these videos into interactive lessons where I pause and talk over the video and ask students questions about the text they are reading. The whole lesson is in French!

In terms of rich French reading comprehension tasks, I have written my own because I could never find what I needed on the Internet.

In this part of the unit, the goal is to expose your students to as much listening and reading as possible.

French Unit Planning #6 : now build in the output

Now it’s time to build in the output.

What speaking and writing opportunities do you want to create? Remember to link them to your question goals + unit objectives.

Formative and summative assessment

The summative assessment is already planned. What formative assessment opportunities will you create?

Final project time

When it comes to working on the final project, I break it down into many chunks. At the end of each class, one task is due.

My rule of thumb is I do not assign projects that I do not want to mark. I assign a mix of group, partner, and individual projects.

I hope this blog post was helpful to you!

How do you plan your units?

The post French unit planning 101 – a step-by-step guide appeared first on FLE Avec MmeD.

Are you a Core French and/or French Immersion teacher looking for ideas and activities for a rich, meaningful, and engaging French food unit? Let’s dive into some engaging activities I do with my own students!

Who is this French food unit for?

These French activities and resources are ideal for novice to intermediate French students. I teach high school French classes so these activities are most ideal for this age group.

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The qualities of an engaging French food unit

First, you must establish what your goals are for your French food unit. Here are my own personal goals :

• to have students communicate their personal preferences
• to increase student proficiency in the French language
• to teach about diverse francophone and non-francophone foods, dishes, and food-practices

Teach about Francophone cheese!

One of my favourite activities for a novice-level French food unit is to read about Francophone cheese.

I keep the French reading comprehension article super simple.

I’ve never done this, but I’d love to have students bring in cheese and do a class cheese-tasting workshop! How much fun would that be?

With each different cheese, students taste, they have to describe (from a set of vocab) the taste, texture, and flavour.

French food high-frequency word wall labels

As I teach high-frequency sentence structures, I like to put them word wall labels on my main bulletin board for students to see and use.

Begin with input, then slowly shift to output

When planning a French food unit, I ensure that the first 60% of my unit is filled with rich, meaningful input.

This means that I am planning meaningful French reading and French listening opportunities for my students.

I slowly make the shift to output somewhere around the 60% mark.

Explore Francophone dishes

If you know anything about me, you know that I love to teach about Francophone cultures. Near the end of my French food unit, I have students research and describe a Francophone dish as part of their final summative task.

Have your students describe their own personal preferences

Here’s another fun activity where students talk about their personal preferences when it comes to food.

Try this engaging French food unit with your students

Play French food bingo

I’m not sure what it is about bingo, but my students are wild about it!

Food bingo is such a great way to practice food vocabulary during a French food unit.

Try Food bingo with your students

Try question du jour prompts

Question du jour is a great way to build in scaffolded and structured output. It’s also a fantastic way to get students to talk about their personal preferences.

Try these Question du jour prompts with your students

Combine French games with French reading comprehension and try trivia

I love to turn French reading comprehension into a game. Playing French food-themed trivia is a great way to combine listening, speaking, games, AND culture. A win-win!

Try this game with your students

The post Delectable Ideas & activities for a French food unit appeared first on FLE Avec MmeD.