Materials Developed

Another outstanding aspect of this course was the collaboration among colleagues to develop and share materials. Several of us took turns writing little quizzes for each chapter, and often if one instructor created a fun new activity, she would share it with the others.

An example of a collaborative effort was the film packet we developed for Joyeux Noël, a recent film about the Christmas Eve armistice that took place in the trenches of WWI. Each of us contributed some pre- and post-film activities that enabled our students to deeply understand and appreciate this moving and thought-provoking film.

We also took turns writing chapter exams. Here is one that I wrote on a chapter about French cinema.

One of my favorite units to teach was our introduction to French comics, Astérix et la grande traversée. I drew on previous instructors’ materials to introduce Astérix as well as the role of comics in French culture, then developed questions to guide not only students’ comprehension of the story, but also the rich cultural and linguistic jokes and references embedded in the text. My transparencies are available here (Day One, Day Two, Day Three); students received handouts of the reading questions (which enabled us to have class outside on a beautiful spring day).

I also created a couple of fun mixing activities in class to practice vocabulary and speaking. In a chapter on describing people, I made up a game similar to “Apples to Apples” that I called “Choux et Carottes.” Each player holds a handful of nouns. One player chooses an adjective, e.g. maladroit(e), and the other players then select which of their nouns, e.g. George W. Bush, la prof de français, les pommes de terre, is most maladroit. The player who chose the adjective picks the best-fitting noun and wins a point. Other players are allowed to try to persuade the judge to choose their noun, too!

Another game I created to get students talking and moving around was a Guess Who activity during our chapter on fairy tales. I stuck pictures of famous magical characters on students’ backs, and they had to ask other students to describe who they were. The activity targeted the chapter vocabulary, e.g. sorcière, loup-garou, etc. as well as descriptions. Hilarity, of course, ensued.