The final countdown

Those final few weeks before Yr 11 go off on study leave are busy weeks.  My Yr 11 have 7, eighty minute, double lessons before they embark on their exams and in the middle of that they have their orals.  Despite all the work they have done over the last two years and all the focus on oral, they will still want to zero in on this important element of their GCSE language.  I, however, will want to cover all four skills.  What follows is an insight into how I will proceed ensuring that I have prepared my students effectively and that they feel as if the onus is on the oral (at least in those first two weeks).

Step One 

In that first lesson I will provide an outline of what lies ahead.  This is very important as knowledge is power and control and students do like to feel in control.  Over the few weeks we have we will cover all topic areas and skills.  The activities will be short because in this way we can cover a lot of ground, the lesson will have pace and it will be one of those lessons where students utter those lovely words 'is that the end of the lesson, that went so quickly and we did so much'.  Essentially, they will leave feeling secure and reassured in their knowledge and in the fact that they are able to talk on the chosen topic.

Step Two - 10 mins

As has been my wont over the course of study, we will use and re-use interchangeable terms through the course of the remaining lessons and another must per lesson will be verb drills.  These are key when it comes to being able to manipulate language in a translation. The choice of tenses and verbs for the drills will be based on the content of the listening and reading.  Of course, these drills allow students to understand where their gaps are (if any) and for me to iron out any difficulties.  

Step Three - 30 mins

Before moving onto our comprehensions we will do activities that allow students to be introduced to any tricky words that might appear in the exercises we tackle.  I like to introduce them in the target language as this gives them the chance to determine the meaning from gist.  This, in itself, is a key skill for this part of the examination and opportunities to succeed encourage feelings of success which all feed into enjoyment and, crucially, mastery.

Here's an example of the types of sentences that I will ask my students to translate.

1. Ma mère veut que (1) je m'occupe de mon petit frère et que j'essaie (2) d'aider à la maison.
2. Mon père connaît (3) quelqu'un qui travaille comme femme de ménage (4).
3. Above all (5), I would like to see my friend more often (6) but he no longer (7) goes to school.
4. I would like to read (8) French (9) books.

These may look like a random set of words but some thought has gone into their selection.   Let's break it down.

1. veut que - this appears in the listening as ma mère veut que je garde.  It's a pretty benign use of the subjunctive but nonetheless it's a great opportunity to remind the students of this structure and consider any examples they recall.  I can also remind them of some of our favourites: il faut qu'on fasse, bien que ce soit difficile, ils veulent que j'aille

2. j'essaie - used in the reading text in the infinitive. surtout essayer....  Not a verb that is new to the class, but it is not often that they see it conjugated in this way.

3. connaît - again, this appears in the reading text as faire la connaissance. Using the conjugated form here, gives me a chance to 'air' this verb, discuss the difference between savoir/connaître and remind students about looking for clues in a word.  I will not, however, mention faire la connaissance as the ability to understand and decipher meaning is a skill to be learnt.

4.  ménage - I am not even sure that we have come across this word.  It appears in the listening as faire le ménage.   So we will use this opportunity to discuss how we can decode meaning.

5. above all - surtout appears in the reading exercise.  It is a term that many of my students do not use and so this gives me the chance to put it in their minds.  Even if they do not use it in their own writing, they should, at the very least, recognise it.

6. more often - this is here because it will lead to discussions about de plus en plus which they always get wrong (en plus de plus anyone?) and it is a great opportunity to go through the process of translation and demonstrate that it is possible to go step by step and produce correct translations.

7. no longer -  jamais appears in the listening comprehension.  However, no longer  is the negative my students find most difficult.  The ensuing conversation will no doubt pull out jamais in addition students will have a timely reminder of ne... plus.  Even if they do not make use of it in their written work, they will at least translate it properly.

8. read - the reading comprehension has this text je voudrais écrire à des filles qui lisent beaucoup.  I might not even get them to conjugate this as I think they will be able to work out the meaning of lisent from the text.  However, slipping this in will jog their memories about this verb.  I will ask about 'reading' will they remember lecture?  After the reading activity, we will take a moment to conjugate lire (and dire) for that matter.

9. French - it is actually japonais which appears in the reading as aiment les dessins animés américains et japonais.  We will use the moment to remind ourselves about adjectives and their endings.  Maybe we will take the time to jog our memories about countries and their prepositions.   Japan is a great one of course, a masculine country - so who will remember the preposition?  

Step Four - 40 mins

We crack on with the oral!  First, a little reminder of question words with a quizlet like this.  Then, the opportunity in pairs to work out their answers for a couple of Role Play 1s.  Students can often go overboard for this section of the oral, so it is good to complete some of these together.

Once these are finished we will move on to open-ended questions.  Students will be provided with some responses via textivate (check it out, great tool, great value) such as the following:  

1. Il y a combien de personnes dans ta famille?  Tu as des frères et sœurs? Possible Response
2. Tu t'entends bien avec ta famille?  Pourquoi/pourquoi pas? Possible Response
3. Que penses-tu du mariage? Possible Response  (this one contains a Trapdoor exercise).
4. Décris ta meilleure amie.  Possible Response (trapdoor included)

The textivates are things they have worked on before at the start of the course and are there as timely reminders of what they have covered.   They include those imminently useable terms that can be used no matter what the question. The  quand j'y réfléchis, tous les trentes six du mois,  afin de, ce qui me plaît, si je pouvais, je..., j'ai décidé de etc.   It is not a must for students to complete the textivates and I also include some responses written in English, with gaps or as a tangled translation so that students can practise tenses, translation or vocabulary.   All of the responses include our high frequency expressions. The more exposure the better.

The students have a grid that they should fill in for themselves or their interlocutor.  It looks a little like this:

  

and the list of idioms on this occasion includes expressions such as  il est un vrai cordon bleu, il a un poil dans la main, nous avons les mêmes centres d'intérêts/les mêmes goûts.

Of course the idioms will change for the topic area although there are some really easy adaptable ones of course that fit in anywhere.  Perhaps that's the topic for the next blog post...