Grands Anglophones

Friday November 19th was a rainy day and Parent-Teacher conferences to boot, but it did not curb the Grands Anglophones enthusiasm, yes, they are awesome!

We changed rooms and settled into our routine introducing ourselves, counting and then we corrected the exercises from the previous week. We used this lesson, and the lesson from the previous week to create little stand-up dialogues in pairs, or monologues for the independent minded. Your children are able to have a 3-line intelligent conversation in French, this is practical and satisfying.

We then did a cut & paste exercise about rooms and objects around the house, drawing from our Halloween card game vocabulary. The purpose of this exercise is acquisition of vocabulary, but also learning how to make sentences describing locations in space ("the skis are on top of the mirror").

We ended on a happy note, singing the old favorites, "Jean-Petit qui danse", "Alouette" and "Frere Jacques".

Thanks for letting me teach your children, they are a wonderful group!

Grands Anglophones

This group has been a joy!

We progressed from becoming comfortable speaking a foreign language in front of a group to word recognition to being able to hold a short conversation in French.

On Friday Nov. 12, after introductions and counting, the students in pairs wrote a short dialogue (3 sentences each) that they performed in front of the group,( a feat for Tweens!) It was about greeting someone and introducing themselves, where they came from etc...

Then we went to more academic , written exercises about professions. We will correct them together next week.

We ended up by listening to a story "Bon Appetit! Monsieur Lapin" and singing our favorites "Jean-Petit qui danse", "Alouette" and " Frere Jacques"! So much fun!

Bonjour et bienvenue!   My name is Nicolas Hidrio and, as you know already, I am the teacher of the "Petits Francophones" class this year.   Since we didn't have so much time to introduce ourselves, let me tell you first a little bit about myself (and I will do so in English so that non-French speaking parents can also understand): I come from Avignon (southern France) and I have lived in the USA for the past four years, mostly in Connecticut. I also lived in England for two years and spent seven years in Saudi Arabia when I was a kid. As a consequence, I am a big traveller and I don't know where my curiosity and urge to explore will stop!   I have nine years of teaching and tutoring experience, a M.A. in Foreign Language Acquisition, a M.A. in Francophone Literature and Cinema and a B.A. in English. I recently taught French at the University of Connecticut and moved to California only four months ago. No need to say that I love the Bay area!   I am really enjoying my time with your children and I am very happy to have the means, through this blog, to inform you about my ideas regarding this class. First of all, here are some of the objectives I had in mind when starting our little adventure:   1. Understand the learner's profile and the personality of each student. 2. Assess the level of fluency (pronunciation, vocabulary, grammar, writing and reading skills). 3. Offer pedagogical activities that would stimulate their interest as well as work on their 4 skills (reading, speaking, listening, writing)  4. Gain their trust and respect.   In order to attain the latter objectives, I used flashcards, worksheets, songs and games, and I offered stimulating activities which were including the following themes: - Greetings - School materials - Colors - Months of the year - Clothes - Animals - Alphabet - Weather - Numbers - Body parts - Cursive writing Besides these activities, we are now working with a high-quality manual (Ratus et Ses Amis) which provides an inductive learning of French syntax, spelling and grammar as well as introducing the children to cursive writing (so dear to the French!). This is of course very helpful when dealing with the written aspect of the language.      I hope this little presentation answers your questions regarding the class. Please, feel free to contact me (nicolashidrio@yahoo.fr) or to talk to me after class if you need any further information.   Thank you for encouraging your children to take French.   Merci et au revoir!   Nicolas

Les Petits Anglophones

Bonjour!

We have been having lots of fun in French class as we establish our routines. Here’s how our afternoon goes:

3:30 - The children come in and sit in a circle on the rug. We start with our bonjour song that is to the tune of Frère Jacques. Have your child sing it for you!

Bonjour, bonjour.
Comment ça va? Comment ça va?
Très, très bien aujourd’hui, très, très bien aujourd’hui.
*Merci bien, merci bien.

*We change this line to talk about different feelings such as très mal, je suis fatigué, jesuis content(e), je suis triste, and je suis malade. If you don’t know these expressions,maybe your student can teach them to you!

3:45 - We split our class into two groups at this point. The older girls go with Mme Cindy to work on more age-appropriate activities in a smaller group (not only are they learning French vocabulary, but how to read and write it as well!), and the rest of us stay on the rug. There, we talk with our classroom animals, count, sing, playgames, learn colors and animal names, and listen to stories (all in French, of course!). I will write more about rug time in my next post.

4:25 – The whole group comes back together to go outside for a little break where we play games as a group. The favorite is 1,2,3 Soleil which is a French version of Red Light, Green Light.

4:35 – We are back in the classroom for a short cultural lesson or a coloring project that is done at the tables. The goal of the project is to reinforce the lesson or the vocabulary that we have focused on that day.

4:55 – Clean up and au revoir!

Les Petits Anglophones

November 3, 2010

Dear Parents,

I am happy to introduce myself as your child’s French teacher for the “Petits
Anglophones” class in Alameda.

I have had a long love affair with French language and culture beginning when I was 13 and I was an exchange student in England. My host family took me for a 24-hour trip to Cherbourg where all I can remember is spending most of the day in a huge two-storied grocery store and loving every minute of it. That was when I decided I would someday be a French speaker. My childhood dream was to be the ambassador to France until my 9th grade French teacher told me that was highly unlikely. I did however get to be a sort of an ambassador, living cross-culturally in France for several years while my husband did his graduate studies in Paris. I quickly picked up the language and found I had a natural affinity for it. I decided to go to graduate school myself, studying the teaching of French as a Foreign Language at L’Institut Catholique de Paris (the Catholic University of Paris).

We returned home to our native Bay Area in 2001 and I have been teaching French to children in the East Bay ever since, except for the past year when we lived in France once again and I taught English to young French children. We are happy to be back in California and I am thrilled to be teaching in Alameda with EFBA.

My teaching style follows the “natural approach” which is the belief that children (and adults!) can learn a second language much in the same way they leaned their first language. That is by repetitions, repetitions and repetitions in a comprehensible setting. What this means for our class is that we will sing and play and make up stories all in French and in a way that the children will understand and enjoy doing. They will understand first, and begin speaking later, just like a baby does when learning to talk.

My goal for our class is that each day each student will have fun, feel safe, play and learn, ultimately building a foundation for a lifelong love of language and culture.

I look forward to getting to know you and your child. Please don’t hesitate to contact me if you would like to.

A bientôt!

Madame Kristy
kparsonsmcclain@gmail.com