Cathy

Aural Fluency - March Entry One of the strategies used daily in my classroom is a warm-up (in French, of course!) of day, date, time, weather, and "what's new" or "what's happening". I used the attached graphic to hold students accountable and to check their understanding.I was very happy with the results as I felt more students had greater success. For this particular activity, I handed out the organizer below, which had blocks labeled, morning, afternoon, and evening (with enough rows for 4 days) and recounted the activities of my long weekend. Students took notes on what they heard in the appropriate box. They then verified the details in a large group, and kept track of accuracy. Prizes were awarded for the most details. In more advanced classes, a student would provide the details. This activity would work well for any class in which the students needed to listen to each other and gather information. I have used this several more times and will continue to do so. The students seemed to be much more attentive and accountable.



Fluency and Assessment - Feb. Entry This strategy had a two-fold purpose. The first was to give the speaker the opportunity to practice his upcoming oral presentation multiple times, and the second was to give the listener practice in understanding spoken French. The students were seated in what we used to call the "wagon wheel", with pairs of students facing each other in an inner and outer circle. The outer circle were the presenters(with their projects open to the presentation they had created on laptops) and the inner circle were the listeners (they were filling out the attached graphic organizers, a new organizer for each presenter). This activity worked better than I had hoped. The presenters were able to practice multiple times for their upcoming assessments and the graphic organizer made the listeners much more attentive. I will definitely adapt this and use it again.



CHALLENGE Your PARTNER January Entry For this challenge I pair students of like abilities (I plan ahead for this but make it look like it is random) or ask them to choose a partner who is of the same ability (they are pretty honest about this). One of the pair is "A" and the other is "B". I then ask each pair a question about the topic I am teaching. It could be vocabulary, spelling, or short answer about the content. The first, of the two students competing, who answers the question correctly gets a point for his respective team (A or B). I am able to differentiate the questions, therefore making the competition more challenging and fair. Today's challenge started with a high frequency vocabulary game. All of the words and their translations were tacked to the board. Each pair took turns coming to the "hot seats" in the front of the classroom. The easier questions involved simply matching. The more challenging had to use the terms, in the target language, demonstrating the ability to use the word in the context of the story.

SAY SOMETHING (Harste, Short, and Burke) December Entry This strategy has worked well for both students working in pairs/small groups, or as an individual written assignment. It encourages students to read more carefully and helps with comprehension of the reading by helping them to stay focused.