CEFR Activity Centres: The Details

I blogged before about the CEFR learning Centres that I use in my classes for students to get some extra Oral Communication practice. And that post was okay, but It didn't get to the details about how I went about taking a free resource available online, and turned it into independent activities for my students.

So, now I'm going to fix that situation; I'm going to show you how I made the centres I use in my classes; where I got the resource from; and how I got my students to use them independently.

Step 1: Download the resource- The CEFR in the Context of Ontario's Schools

This PDF is the bulk of the work for my centres.  A super-talented groups of teachers compiled the research and the activities for this toolkit.  And its free!  This is where I got the activities and images from.  It is mostly all set up here.  You have to print the entire kit which is about 85 pages (and I did it in colour) to get all the pieces for the centres.  The front material is also really helpful in explaining how to use this resource effectively, as well as some of the theory and philosophy of the CEFR.  If you don't have this, you SHOULD!  I have it in a binder AND printed out into centres.  I use it a lot.  Download it, you won't be sorry.

Step 2: Laminate and collect the activity centre components

Making the centres so that they will survive a busy French class is a bit labour intensive.  I laminate some of the pages so that I don't have to make the centres over and over.  I haven't had to remake it in 3 years, so this little bit of prevention will save your resource.  Here is a list of the pages that I printed in color and laminated.  (I bought a mini laminator at Wal-Mart for about $20 and just did it myself.  It has saved me tons of money on lamination over the years.)

Activity pages to print in colour and laminate: 17-20; 22-23; 25-29; 31-39; 41 (just laminate); 43; 44-51 (laminate only, its in B&W); 53; 55; 57; 61 (laminate only); 64-67; 68 (laminate only); 70-72; 74; 76; 78-79; 80; 83-84.

Some of the pages are in black and white, so they don't need to be printed in colour, just laminated.  Once they are laminated, then I cut the activities into cards and pieces according to the activity.  There are 17 activities (I think) so there are enough for students to pair up and complete the activities in a class.  I like to laminate the activities so that a) I don't kill a small forest in photocopies for each student that wants to do the activity and b) so that students can reuse all the centres year after year.

Step 3: Compile the activities

I was storing the activities in plastic page protectors, but they were too flimsy.  So I bought some plastic file folders at the dollar store and now I use those.

Some activities will need extra tools.  I added thin dry erase markers for any of the writing activities so students can write on the laminated sheet, and erase it for the next person.

Also included in the centres are the instruction/ conference pages (for example page 24) for the students to consult.  I have my students role play as the interviewer/ interviewee.  Each students has to take turns as each role.  They follow the script on the sheet, and peer assess each others' progress, as well as an "I can" card (for example page 14 of the resource) so students knew what their learning goal was for each centre.  There are blank "I can" cards in the kit, I made French versions for my upper year grades to refer to.

Once all the cards, tools (markers etc.); instructions and "I can" cards are in the centre, its ready to use.  You could make cover pages for the centre like I did, but its not necessary.

(For the cover pages, I found a corresponding picture online, added the title, and stuck the instructions to the back.  I can't share them because I don't have rights to the pictures, but they are quick to make up if you want.)

Step 4: Using the Centres

In class, a few times a month we have learning centre time.  I stored them in 2 bins, and students choose a partner and a centre and get to work.  There is a sign-out book for the centres, and I have students let me know who has which kit.  This helps me keep track of the pieces too.

For student use, I made a simple checklist based on page 13 of the resource for each of the students' books for them to chart their progress through the centres.  It is also a way for me to note their assessments of each other.

While students are completing the centres, I walk around and assess their abilities and work with my strugglers.  It runs pretty smoothly.  Student know that when we have our conferences (3 a term) that I can pull out one of the centres as a warm up for our conference.  So they know they will have to do 3 centres for me.  They never know which one I will choose, so they have to get through all of them!  Usually I choose the centre they have practiced the most-- je ne suis pas un monstre.

Additional centres

I have added a couple of centres that are not included in the toolkit, but that are components of the CEFR.  Once was a card/ note writing activity.  I bought a few French greeting cards and laminated them.  Students used an erasable marker to write a quick message on the card and their partner would time and check for errors.  I did a similar centre, only using a postcard from a french speaking country, with the same idea.  You can come up with centres depending on the focus of your lessons.  I have a few I'm thinking of adding this summer.  When I make them, I will share.

So I hope this helps clarify how I made and use my learning centres in my Core FSL classes.  It seems like a bit of prep work, but it was worth it in the end.  My students were engaged in their activities, and they were speaking French with each other.  It is a great resource!  

All About Unit Planning

I got a couple requests on Facebook, to write a post about unit planning.  I am NOT an expert in unit planning.  I do my best.  What I am, is a hyper-organized, teacher who likes a solid plan before diving in and teaching my classes something, but I like to have enough flexibility to add and take away as I teach.  Here, I will share what I've learned (so far) about unit planning, and a unit plan that I have used a few times, and that has worked well for me in my core French classes.

What I've learned about unit planning (so far):

Start with the “skills” you want your students to learn in mind:  This is different than starting with the end product in mind, since maybe the learning that will be displayed may not be a physical product.   For example, you will see with my unit plan “Je me presente” I don’t have one final task or product, but several tasks focused around skills.  One example is being able to talk about what you like to do in your free time.  Another skill looks at voicing agreement, or disagreement.  These skills are transferable, and are included in the skills required for level A1 expectations for the DELF exam.  For me, measuring the students’ ability, is more important than measuring a student product.  For me, the end is usually a series of skills in line with the CEFR foci, which become our learning goal and success criteria.  I always plan to answer the question, “Why do we have to learn this?” If I can’t answer that, then I don’t have a solid goal in place for the students.  My end goals always have purpose and relevance to my students lives.

Assessments for days: Assessments are woven in throughout the unit: I think that assessment (especially in languages) has moved past the unit plan ending with something tangible to mark.  Assessment should be woven in throughout the unit, so by the end of the focus, the teacher should be able to chart the students’ improvement through the series of assessments.  In my plans, the curriculum expectations each activity covers is included in the plan for each section of the unit.  I also include how the students will demonstrate their knowledge. 

Create activities/ lessons that help students meet your objectives: I get my activities and lessons from anywhere!  Sometime theres a good reading in a resource I have, and I can use that.  Sometimes, I will make the resource up for the students to use.  Once, I used a Tim Hortons job application in French and we did a lesson about filling in forms in French! 

Figure out what resources you want/ need to use: Do you have a great reading resource?  Did you buy a really cool looking game?  Students bugging you to make slime in class?  Use what you have, trade with colleagues, gather what you can, and this can help you plan your lessons.

Plan your materials: What is the progression of the lessons?  They have to have the vocal before jumping into a procedural activity.  Think about every lesson building on the one before.

When possible, plan something interdisciplinary: For one unit, my colleague was doing a shoe collection and fund-raiser for Senegal.  I planned with him to add a shipping vocabulary and  letter component for the kids my students were already invested in helping.  And the letters were a hit!  The students in Senegal loved having someone in Canada to write to.  Totally authentic because the student needed to work in French to ship the shoes and explain the project to the corresponding charity in Africa. 

My example unit plan:

My plans have changed a lot through the years.  And they change every time I write a new one.  I don’t usually use a template: I use a 3 column table to plan my activities in my unit.  I used to be very detailed in writing down my unit plans.  I made sure that I had ALL the information I needed written out, and I NEVER deviated from the plan.  This was very difficult to maintain because teaching does not always let you follow your plan— especially in terms of timelines. So you will see in my two examples, how different my plans have become.  (Click the image to see the plan- Prêt à voyager, Grade 7 and 8 Core FSL)

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1obQVx38QUY_yL7fX-jRQHUin7XWg9_DhRkE0cGqTnLU/edit?usp=sharing

Templates:

Template are a really good way to write a unit plan, and as a newer teacher, I used this template often to write my plans for Core French.  It was helpful to me for a number of reasons:

• If I used the template, I knew that I wouldn’t miss any of the important parts of planning.  
• The template helped organize and streamline my thinking when planning.  Kept planning from being overwhelming.
• Having a template that I had on my computer, made it easier to change part of the unit that may not of worked, or the timeline I had initially put.  Which made it easier for me to follow the plan.

Now that I feel more comfortable teaching, and more confident with the Core French curriculum, I just type out what I think is needed to get to the ending skills.  Now, most of the time, I plan out the big lesson activities (especially if they take a lot of preparation) and the little practice games/ strategies based on Oral communication are not included in the unit plan.  But, as I was learning to be more comfortable and confident in unit planning, I found a few ready made templates really helpful.

1. Lakehead universtiy template- I didn’t go to Lakehead, but this was a great comprehensive template with tons of information on it.  No guesswork in creating a good plan.
2. TLC Unit Planner UOIT This was great for me to get my thoughts down, and figure out the process to which I would get my students to the end result.  It can be hard to figure out what lessons you need to plan, and how to break down teaching each step.  And this helped me see the progression of my lessons into an overall cohesive unit.  
3. My own template: is a mixture of the templates that I had used in the past.  It has all the information I need, and its not too rigid.  I can add to it when I need to.

Secret sharing time!: I don’t always sit down and plan a whole unit at once.  Sometimes, I know where I want the students to end up, so I plan lessons based on where the students are.  I collect them, and they become a unit for me to use at a later time for my classes.  There is no rule saying that your units have to be completely planned before you teach them.  You can try things, and then add them to your plan.  Sometimes, you’ll have a winner of an activity, and you will add it to the unit.  And sometimes, you’ll try and make a weird game that was too confusing and not fun… And you won’t add it to the unit.  

Like much of teaching, unit planning is about creativity, adaptation and meeting your students where they are.  You can have the most amazingly written and meticulously planned unit, and it can flop.  Or, you can have fun with it, keep it loose, and come up with some pretty great activities and units.  

What does your unit planning process look like?  I would love to see what other teachers think in the comments below!

CEFR Practice Centres

I use the CEFR to guide my teaching practice, quite a bit.  And even though many of the elements included in the CEFR are practiced through my own lessons, sometimes students need some extra time to fine tune their confidence and abilities in these skills.  Most of my student fall into the level A1 category, a beginner speaker who needs highly structured interactions with a fair bit of support.

Some of my grade 8s are approaching a level A2, still a beginner, but with a little more skill and confidence to converse in French, still with some support and preparation.

In order to give them a little more independent practice, I created some practice centres using the amazing and free resource found here.  This document was created for FSL teachers in Ontario, when we were just beginning to use the CEFR to guide our practice in earnest.  Not only is the explanation of how and why using the CEFR is a great idea, there are resources for level A1 included in the doc.

I took the resource, and printed it out in color, and then created practice centres by separating the activities and housing them in page protectors in a box, so students can grab an activity and go somewhere to work on them.

Above is an example of a reading practice activity.  Students take the cards out of the bag and have to match them to a headline.  To assess this skill, I cut up a real French newspaper and magazine, and the students had to match the headline to the photo.   To make the centre, I printed out the descriptors from the online package, printed the graphics from the package, and I made a quick cover for the centre to show students the expectations of the activity.  I made the covers to help students choose centres at their level.  

Most of the activities are meant to be done in partners with and interviewer and an interviewee, so students got a chance to be both roles, but there are a few that can be done individually.

For the partner activities I created peer evaluation sheets, so that students could give constructive feedback to their partners.  Students kept that feedback to give to me when assessing them, and I could see if they used the feedback to improve.  It was a great tool.

For the writing activities, I laminated some postcards and greeting cards I bought that were in French.  Students then wrote their notes in wet erase marker, documented their writing in a photo and sent it to me and their partner for feedback.  Then they erased their card, and it was ready for another student.

The students enjoyed the activities, and got some good practice doing them!  I will be using them again this year!  (If you are interested in any of the handouts I created for this activity, contact me and I can post them. )

How are other ways you use the CEFR to guide your teaching practice?

Inquiry Activity: Best tools for French Students

 As part of our review this year, I decided to start my 7s and 8s with a small guided inquiry activity.  I thought it would be a good idea to teach students how to use the resources (tech and not) that are available to them, and get their opinions about which ones they found the most useful. 

I provided them with 4 resources, and small lessons on how to use them:

(An old-school, book-style) Dictionary
www.wordreference.com (or the Word Reference App, free!)
Google translate 
Reverso

...and they had to find one more tool to compare and contrast.  The question they had was this:



Trouvez un outil qui est indispensable pour un étudiant de français.  Quel outil est-ce que tu préfères? Pourquoi?

I gave the students a list of words to look up in all the resources.  It was great because they sometimes got conflicting translations, and had to depend on their prior knowledge to make sure that the translations were correct.  They were very frustrated!

They were asked to organize their thoughts about the question for our discussion about the best tool.  It was a great discussion-- many students were disagreeing with each other in French.  I had an anchor chart with discussion promtpt for the student to consult and they used them well.   Overall, Google translate lost in this activity, and the students came to this decision themselves.

What I like best about this inquiry activity is that it is short (about 2-3 classes), it is extremely guided, it focuses on thinking about how students think and therefore what tool would help them best, and it makes students have to persuade and defend their opinon in French.  These are all elements needed for an inquiry activity!  

As a added bonus, students found other resources to use, and which not to use. Here are some others that look good:

http://www.dictionary-fr.com/
http://www.linguee.com/
http://www.lexilogos.com/english/french_dictionary.htm
http://www.alcor.com.au/french_rhyming_dictionary.asp (Not a true dictionary, but cool)
http://lingro.com/dictionary
http://www.littleexplorers.com/languages/Frenchdictionary.html
https://enfr.dict.cc/

I liked this activity.  It was great to refresh students into using the tools they need in French class.  What inquiry-type activities have you tried so far this year?