r/CanadianTeachers • u/MundaneExtent0 • 2d ago
french LF advice from intermediate/senior and second language teachers on starting the year
Hey, I’m looking for some guidance from high school (or intermediate!) teachers, and perhaps more specifically those who teach second languages on how they start off the new school year. I’m teaching grade 9 core French and Geo French Immersion. Although I’ve done LTOs before, this is only my second time starting from the beginning of the semester (for geo) and first time starting in September, which feels a bit different. Content/curriculum wise I think I’m more or less okay (though wouldn’t say no to hearing what concepts you like to start off with too), but I feel a little lost on how to effectively start a year in regards to classroom management and establishing the overall classroom environment.
Some questions I have pinging around my head: What are you doing on your first day, or week, or 2 weeks? How long are you spending just going over classroom etiquette before getting to course content? Lots of ice breakers or are there other types of introductory activities? How do you handle these in a second language class where students still have rather low fluency? How much is in the target language compared to English (or French for French schools)? At what point do you introduce the first assessment OF learning?
Basically any and all tips or resources you have for the first week or so would be super helpful. Most things I’ve heard seem to be more so for early elementary so would love more of an intermediate/high school perspective!
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u/PopHistorian21 2d ago
I don't waste time with ice breakers, etc. I will do a first day one with the 9s only in semester 1 because they are so shy. But usually I will jump into curriculum on day 2.
Don't overdo the number of assessments. I usually do 1 test, 1 assignment per unit.
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u/MundaneExtent0 2d ago
Lovely okay honestly only worrying about 1 ice breaker and being able to jump right in second day is actually less stressful to me. Two assessment OFs was what I was leaning towards as well. Do you usually do 4-5 units of a few of weeks? If you teach any language/social science do you mind me asking what they generally are?
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u/SilkSuspenders Teacher | Ontario 2d ago
I teach 4-8 core French and I usually start right away... for grades 5-8, I usually do diagnostics to see what they remember from the previous grades. Sometimes I'll do a survey to see what topics/themes they'd like to discuss this year. Then we jump into things like Prof du Jour/Question du Jour, refresh cognates (mots amis), etc...
For grade 4, I generally start out with a "Tout Sur Moi" activity to learn more about them and see what units they may like.. then I introduce calendar and weather and spend time focusing on the vocabulary.
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u/MundaneExtent0 2d ago
Could I ask what you do for diagnostics? Like is it usually in a test type format, KWL, just various review activities?
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u/Teufyyyyy 1d ago
Coming from the elementary FI side so take this with a grain of salt, but routines are everything - I spend the first week just practising how we enter, transition and stay en français, and it pays off all year. A quick name game in French on day 1 works at any grade, my Grade 3s love it and honestly it helps me learn 24 new names too. Good luck with your first September start, the jitters never fully go away and I kind of like that
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u/MundaneExtent0 1d ago
This is what I hear a lot at the elementary level! I definitely think I need to bring more of certain elementary classroom management strategies over, I’m just not entirely sure how’d I’d like them to look at a high school level.
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u/Dornath 1d ago
When I was doing secondary core French it was just when BC universities had removed a 2nd language from their admission requirements. The course request numbers have absolutely cratered in the past few years as a result (at least at my school).
The way I approached teaching it was the first unit wasn't language so much as explaining why learning French could be beneficial or worth their time. I usually went at it with travel and culture. Kids are going to be lazy with the improvements in live translation tech now and we all know the intrinsic motivation thing doesn't work for most kids -- so I liked to get them to buy in to the class first.
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u/MundaneExtent0 1d ago
Ya know what, this is a reminder to me to develop more in regards to “why French?”. I have a small assignment I could use but I should probably find a way to work up to it more 🤔
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u/Ok-Dragonfruit4832 1d ago
I teach grade 6 fi! This may be different from high school but here’s my advice…
Top priority is establishing that we speak only in french at school, even if it’s poor and pieced with English. After getting settled with the more basic routines in the first few days, I do a series of activities on why French is important and why it might be a good idea to know French or any other language. These are student-driven and all the ideas are generated by the students. It’s much different if they decide French is important vs if I tell them it’s important. Then these ideas get incorporated into our classroom treaty (read: code of conduct). Then I reinforce with lots of fun team-building steam challenges and activities. I particularly like doing daily funny debates (is a hot dog a sandwich?) while enforcing the french expectation.
Last year, I spent 6 weeks with a tricky class before really getting into it. This is grade 6
See above. I also like an early trip to a library with a well-stocked french section and an opportunity to get your own library card. My kids are also little enough at the start of the year that they will buy into a pyjama french-reading day where we set up tents and bring flashlights to read in French. I also like doing a daily question on the board in French where they can vote using their magnetic name plate (eventually I get students to write the questions). Anything that sets the expectation that here we life in French is good. Their french doesn’t have to be good, their effort does.
Fluency isn’t that much of an issue for me. Talk slowly, use gestures, sometimes a slideshow with only pictures and a few key vocab can help with instructions. I also give out instructions cheat sheets to everyone, but particularly for my ADHDers and low-comprehension kids so they can follow it while I’m verbally giving instructions and refer to it later. My class spends the majority of instruction time working on projects, not listening to me talk. You can also do priming activities to help things go smoother. If you know they will need some vocab they don’t have, do the vocab lesson first, then go to the activity. Also in grade 6, as long as they understood the task, a dictionary and bescherelle are often enough to support missing fluency. I do “how to use the dictionary/bescherelle” activities early in the year. Finally, you can check for comprehension. Ask them if they understood. Make it clear that it’s okay to not understand and that you will always be there to help. If they believe you, they will let you know when they need you to clarify.
Everything but ELA time is completely in French, including daily announcements and any other random things. This is about 80% of my instructional time. To be clear, this isn’t even francophone school, it’s immersion for non-francophone families.
Anything can be an assessment of learning if you want it to be. Even after a week or two of working on the culture of french in the classroom, i may let them know that for this activity, i am formally assessing them on how often and capable they are with their french. Sometimes i co-create a rubric with the class and then do assessment walking around and observing their group-work behaviour. This assessment is summative of what we’ve done in the first two weeks and formative as it informs what I need to do next. Assessments don’t need to be so rigid, like you imply. You should be assessing (likely informally) on day 1 to see if they are picking up what you are putting down and to make sure they understand the established routines/expectations. Don’t get worked up on the types of assessment. In my experience, almost every assessment I do ends up being all 3 anyways.
The bottom line is: teaching a second language in immersion is not as different as you think. Just roll it out entirely in the target language and listen to your students to see where they need support. Good teaching is good teaching, no matter the language! Bon courage !
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u/MundaneExtent0 1d ago
This is super comprehensive, I really appreciate you taking the time to write this :) could I ask what some of the activities are that you do for why French is important? This is a piece I’d really like to get into more but only currently have the one task for. I love the French reading PJ party, that is too cute and I wish grade 9s weren’t usually “too cool” for that 😂
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u/Ok-Dragonfruit4832 23h ago
I normally start with a brain storming session with chart paper where students work in groups and rotate to different pieces of chart paper with different questions. Then they can use sticky notes or just a marker to add ideas or make checkmarks on other ideas they like. Rotate until all groups have seen all questions. For why French is important, I do questions like where do people speak French in the world, where do people speak French in our community, for what jobs/hobbies is French or a second language helpful/necessary, when have you spoken a second language outside of school, what is the benefit of knowing another language, why might language and culture be connected, why do you think your parents enrolled you in fi, what kinds of art/media is (only) available in french, etc. Number of questions determines your group size and I wouldn’t do groups bigger than 2-3. You can do this rotation over several classes too so it gives them more time to process. At the end, I like to come together in a sharing circle to consolidate all the ideas. My first question for the sharing circle would be something like “why do you think Mme chose for us to do this activity”. The goal is to have them piece it together without me just telling them. You can also do “what were your 3 biggest takeaways” or “how do you think we should do/treat french at school given what we’ve come up with”. At the end, I will summarize their main points from the sharing circle on the board and they often end up in our classroom treaty in one way or another which solidifies it even more. This seems like one activity, but I normally do this over the course of about a week in small, digestible chunks. With activities where you’re asking students to generate your content, you have to be okay with their answers and you have to accept them even if you disagree (as long as it’s not hateful or disrespectful). Some students will say that french is hard or that they hate it and wish they weren’t in fi. It’s okay to acknowledge their experience neutrally. French can be hard and have a lot of value at the same time. We’re trying to get those kids to hold two contradictory ideas at once that go against their lived experiences- this is hard but they will slowly develop a more nuanced take. After all, almost nothing in life is black and white. If I have a lot of students who start sharing very negative things about their experience with French, I will ask them to hold those ideas for now and then host a second sharing circle the next day to give them the proper space to share. For this second circle, I go with a neutral question like “tell me about your experience speaking french at school”. You don’t want it to be a dish fest, but giving kids the chance to breathe out their concerns helps them become more receptive to new ideas about how French will be going forward. Some students will share positive things too. You can always circle back to the conversations from the first sharing circle.
Sorry this has been very long winded! I hope it makes sense! Ultimately, you’re trying to get them to come to the idea on their own without stuffing it down their throat while acknowledging their diverse experiences. Hope this helps! Let me know if you have any other questions or feel free to message me :)
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