At Northglenn High School, my French 1 students are still very early in their language acquisition journey. I’ve chosen to talk about a unit I taught last week, seeing as how I taught this lesson for my first formal observation. Before this lesson, students learned how to introduce themselves, introduce one another, tell their age (and respond to the same question), name the days of the week as well as the date, and count to 100. They also learned some vocabulary related to their courses, and their likes/dislikes.
Learning Objective (Instructor language): By the end of the 2-day unit, students will know how to use constructed phrases to ask the quantity of an item (Il y a combien de…) and respond accordingly (Il y a…). They will also broaden their vocabulary around classroom objects, while reinforcing vocabulary that has already been introduced.
Learning Objective (Student language): At the end of this unit, I can ask if an item is present in the classroom and respond to this question when asked by my classmates. I can also name more classroom objects than I could before this unit.
Connection to Students: As we are so early in the French acquisition journey, we are starting with vocabulary for the things closest to us in the school (classroom objects/students/teachers/ friends, etc.) so that we can start to build a foundation for further discussions. Language learning is incremental, so starting with something that is universal for all students in the class makes it easier to have a somewhat uniform start.
Assessment: Students were assessed informally using the student’s ability to respond to the questions, as well as by their ability to correct me in the activity planned for the section on negation. I also played a game where I called out an item by its French name, and students competed against the members of their group to touch the correct item (from cutouts I brought from home). This activity worked extremely well due to the competitive nature of my students. I informally assessed them on their accuracy as well during this time to ensure their understanding of the new vocabulary items.
Language Demand: The students were required to ask questions and respond to them in partner groups. This necessitated listening and speaking skills. When I introduced the new terms, I went through modeling pronunciation, then I had the students repeat after me. The students also had to listen when I called out a word in French. The students also had to look up the definitions of French words and write the translation in English on their vocabulary chart. Throughout the days’ lessons, the students used all four language domains: reading, writing, listening, and speaking.
Cognitive Demand: Students had to process the terms they had just been introduced to and put them to use in conversations with classmates, as well as in the competition against the members of their groups. They had to look around the classroom and respond to their partners’ questions about how many (item) there are in the class. If they were wrong/overlooked an item, their partner corrected them with the correct number (in a complete sentence).
Conclusion: All in all, I was thrilled with how fast the students were able to integrate the new vocabulary and terms into their lexicon. At the end of the unit plan, there was no doubt that every student in the room knew how to ask "Is/are there any (insert new term) in the classroom?" and how to respond accurately. In addition to mastering the new terminology, the design of the plan allowed students to bolster their understanding of existing vocabulary, such as what an indefinite article is vs. a definite article, and their ability to identity the French words for numerals.