If you’re a Core French teacher looking to incorporate a brand new weekly routine, Francophone Fact of the Week is for you! Let’s explore why this French classroom routine is one of the best ones out there.

What is Francophone Fact of the Week?

Francophone Fact of the Week is a weekly French routine that combines intercultural awareness, reading, and responding to questions in French.

If you’ve been following me, you know that I love teaching Core French with a range of daily and weekly routines. It’s super effective for me and my students love it as well! To learn more about how and why I integrate diverse routines in my teaching, click here.

What are the benefits of incorporating Francophone Fact of the Week into your French routines?

Building Intercultural awareness into your routines

Early in my career, I made it a goal to be very intentional about teaching French through an anti-oppressive lens. I wanted my students to understand that the French are not the only ones who speak French!

Now that I am almost a decade into my career, I can target intercultural awareness in a million ways. However, having a routine that teaches about the diversity of the French world every single week at every level is still very useful!

If you’re like me, you sometimes struggle with how to do this in a novice-level French class. I have created facts for absolute beginners, so it’s a no-brainer to ensure that we hit this competency every week!

Teaching about diverse Francophone cultures through “fait francophone de la semaine” strengthens the understanding of “why we learn French.”

We don’t learn French to memorize grammar and vocabulary.

We learn French because it serves as our entry point to discovering the diverse cultures, identities, and lived experiences of French speakers.

Integrating Francophone Fact of the Week into your routines ultimately supports this intention behind teaching and learning French.

Novice Francophone Fact of the Week

These Novice Francophone Fact of the Week slides were created for beginners learning the French language.

My own students love these. I love seeing the spark of curiosity in their eyes and the confidence that they actually understand what the fact means!

They’re engaging, accessible, and eye-opening.

Intermediate Francophone Fact of the Week

Next up, the Intermediate Francophone Fact of the Week resource targets all of the same skills as the novice version.

They’re just a little more complex than the novice versions.

Advanced Francophone Fact of the Week

Lastly, the advanced Fait francophone de la semaine is my favourite!

There are so many unique, empowering, and resilience-demonstrating stories out there. It was such an honour to write about some of these stories for advanced French students!

Foster intercultural awareness and strong reading skills with the Fait francophone de la semaine routine for French class

Grab your copy now

Grab your copy now

Grab your copy now

The post Francophone Fact of the Week: The Must-Have Routine for Culturally-Rich French Lessons appeared first on FLE Avec MmeD.

Whether you are a brand new French teacher or a seasoned one, classroom management can be really challenging regardless of the number of years you have under your belt. Join my teacher bestie Sheena and me in a conversation about classroom management tips for French teachers. Please note that these classroom management tips are for middle and high school French teachers.

I hope you enjoyed our chat about classroom management tips for French teachers! Interested in connecting with Sheena? Connect with her via her Instagram account or check out her TPT.

STOP! and download these FREE French classroom management tools

French classroom management tip #1 : Send your syllabus home at the start of the school year along with your classroom and school expectations

This is an obvious one, but I have my students take home the class syllabus at the start of the semester. This semester is very explicit on classroom routines and expectations.

My school does not have the parents sign the syllabus, but I actually edit mine and DO have the families of my students sign them.

Click here for fun French syllabus templates.

French classroom management tip #2: Send a welcome email to families at the start of the school year or semester

One thing I LOVE to do is send a welcome email to the families of my students at the start of my school year.

Why is a welcome email important?

At my school we don’t have a “meet the teacher night” anymore sadly. I actually LOVED these! It is so important that families hear from you in a neutral manner first, before you reach out and discuss students and their progress.

What do I include in my welcome email?

• Introduction – I briefly introduce myself, share some very basic information (years of teaching, how many languages I speak) and that I care very much about my students, their well-being, and their progress
• Reminder – I remind parents to read and sign the syllabus that went home that day. I also remind them where to check grades and what to do when students are absent.
• Encourage – I encourage them to reach out whenever they have questions
• Sign-off – I sign off by saying that I look forward to working with them to support their child in their academic journey

Parents are so receptive to this email. I often have dozens of replies thanking me for the introduction and the reminders. This way when I do eventually reach out to communicate about incidents in the classroom, parents have heard from me previously.

French classroom management tip #3 : Prioritize relationship building

Whether it is la rentrée scolaire or mid-year, prioritize relationship building.

Remember that students are also very nervous and anxious during this first week back. What can you do to break the ice, get to know your students, but also encourage them to get to know one another?

Now full disclosure, I HATE first-week games or icebreakers where individual students have to speak in front of the whole class. As I said above, you have not yet established a safe classroom environment and students are likely not ready to speak in front of the class if they are super introverted.

Instead, I like to break the ice by playing French Back to School icebreakers like Levez-vous si… and Four Corners.

I also have my students respond to surveys where they tell me about their personalities and what they need in order to be successful.

The truth is that if you have solid relationships with your teenage students, they are more likely to make good choices because they respect you!

French classroom management tip #4 : What does your seating arrangement look like?

Like Sheena and I discussed briefly in the video, seating arrangements are a really important tool as part of your classroom management strategy as a French teacher.

I have a very detailed blog post on classroom desk arrangements that you should read. For each desk arrangement, I speak at length about pros and cons.

Now in terms of seating plan, I do prefer to have set seating plans for Grades 8-10. Now, before I create my seating plan, I do ask my students about who they’d like to sit with. I do accommodate their wishes if I think they’ve made good choices.

French classroom management tip #5 : Be explicit about expectations and reteach them when necessary

Like I mentioned in the video, be very explicit about your expectations.

Some teachers like to co-create norms with their students.

I am a Punjabi, 5″1, a woman, and “young-appearing”. I have to be very explicit about my expectations because I do not look scary. I have seen my students behave VERY different with male teachers who are white and 6 feet tall.

If you are a new teacher, do not assume that teenagers “know” things. If you want them to stack chairs a certain way, show them how to do it.

In September, every time you feel like you need to stop and reteach expectations, please take the time to do that. It will make the rest of your year so much more smooth.

Finally, how you set your expectations will depend on your specific situation (# of classes, age, maturity, etc).

French classroom management tip #6 : Try behaviour reflection sheets

When students make poor choices and transgress classroom expectations, I use that as a learning opportunity.

When I think about how I am going to address these choices, the most important goal is to have students take ownership of their choices and be intentional about making better choices in the future.

What questions are on my behaviour reflection sheet? You can download a copy of my behaviour reflection sheet here ABOVE

Scroll up to download these!

French classroom management tip #7 : Give your vocal chords a rest & use a charm

In the first few years of my career, oh boy did I overuse my vocal chords.

Now I use this charm to get my students’ attention and it is so much more effective than yelling over them!

French classroom management tip #8 : Involve administration, counselors, and parents when necessary

This last one is the most important one.

Whenever my colleagues tell me about incidents that occurred in their classroom, I ask them if they’ve already communicated with the family. The answer is often negative.

I do not have children, but I know that if I was a parent and my child was making those choices, I would want to be informed!

When communicating with families, it is important to keep things FACTUAL. Leave all of your emotions and feelings out in the hallway. State facts. Be transparent and professional.

Remember, if you’re too upset to write the email – draft it and come back to it tomorrow.

Lastly, feel free to ask admin or TRUSTED colleagues to read over your draft before you send it out.

You’ve got this!

The post Classroom management tips for French teachers appeared first on FLE Avec MmeD.

As a High School French teacher, teaching routines is one of the most important things that you can do to set your classes up for a great school year. Students need structure and routine, and the sooner you make your own routines & procedures clear and explicit, this will reduce students’ anxiety. This is especially true in French class! Today I am sharing mistakes to avoid in the first week of French class.

1. Not explaining our classroom routines thoroughly

To be completely honest, I didn’t even know my own classroom routines. I had tried to come up with a few routines, but because I was learning so much daily, my routines were often tweaked.

However, even the routines I knew I wanted to have, I still didn’t explain them well enough at the beginning of the year.

Why didn’t I explain how the chairs need to be put up? This leads us to the next point and that is …

2. I thought that they would know basic things like how to exit a building during a fire drill.

This was by far the biggest mistake I made in my first and second years of teaching.

I assumed that my students would just know how to do certain things because they had been on this Earth for 13-15 years.

I was so wrong! That whole second year was a complete disaster and I learned so much from it. Everything from fire drills to assemblies, to projects and presentations, to handing things in.

The other mistake I made was that I explained something briefly for like 30 seconds and I never reminded them.

For example, I explained once how to hand assignments in. However, in reality, they probably needed to be reminded for the entire month of September before things would sink in.

3. Not re-teaching and going over procedures when they weren’t following them

Another HUGE mistake I made in my first two years was that I never took the time to re-explain procedures if students were not following them.

This is such a basic idea but somehow I completely missed it. If a few students left the classroom without putting up their chairs, I would just dismiss it. I would put up the chairs myself.

This created a pattern where certain students were repetitively not following procedures because I was not reinforcing them!

I knew I could not allow this to reoccur for the third year

The summer after my second year, I decided to create a document where I specified EVERY SINGLE ROUTINE in my classroom. From the moment they entered to the moment they left the classroom, everything was on this piece of paper.

Whether you are a new teacher or one with more experience, consider creating a classroom procedures document with every single routine explained in the document.

Here is what I changed the following year

1. I assumed they knew nothing

In September, I showed them how to put up chairs, how to toss their trash out, etc. We practiced EVERYTHING. Every time students did not follow procedures, I re-explained and re-demonstrated what I needed them to do.

They had a little laugh at me showing them how to stack their chairs but most importantly, they needed to understand that I had specific expectations of them!

2. Explain EVERY SINGLE procedure in extreme detail in writing AND orally

For example, if you are teaching students how to hand in assignments, start from the very beginning. What kind of paper? Where should they write their name? When do they hand in their assignment (beginning, middle or end of class)? Walk them through the procedure by modelling it!

Do this with every single procedure! Trust me — you will thank me later! This will save you SO much time later.

3. Have them do a written or physical scavenger hunt

Your students should practice procedures before the school year begins for real. I create a worksheet “scavenger hunt” with multiple-choice, true/false, and short answer questions. I also have them complete this scavenger hunt with their parents for homework. And this brings us to the next point…

4. Have their parents read & sign the procedures so that they can support you and their child

Building a great rapport with your students’ parents can be one of your biggest assets.

If they know what your classroom procedures are from the very beginning, this will help reduce the emails you receive. Plus, they can also answer their child’s questions or direct them to you.

I have my students’ parents sign the scavenger hunt in order to indicate that they have read and understood our classroom routines and procedures.

Here are some questions to answer in your classroom procedures document

1. What does the seating arrangement look like? Do students choose or do you?

2. What does the seating arrangement look like? Do students choose or do you?

3. What is your cellphone/listening device policy?

4. What are your start of class routines? Daily slides? A bell ringer?

5. Where do students find handouts if they were absent the previous class or if they lost their copy?

6. What online learning platforms will you be using? (tip : include QR codes to websites you’ll be using).

7. How and where do they hand in assessment?

8. What is your late work policy?

9. What do students need to know about absences? Do they email you? Is there a school-wide form they need to bring in?

10. What procedures do students follow after an absence?

11. What is your classroom (or school policy) for bathroom & water trips?

12. Can students eat in the classroom?

13. What needs to happen during drills and emergencies?

14. What is your classroom/department policy for Academic Dishonesty and the use of online translators?

15. What do students need to know for when you are absent?

16. What are your end of class routines and procedures?

I hope that these questions and tips were helpful for you setting up your own classroom routines and procedures. If you have any tips, suggestions or ideas not mentioned in this article, please share them below in the comments!

Avec plaisir,

Pav

The post 3 Mistakes to avoid in the first week of French class appeared first on FLE Avec MmeD.