Comprehensive French language instruction spanning basic literacy to advanced oral and written communication. Strengthens grammar, vocabulary, and cultural understanding through targeted exercises in listening, reading, and composition.
A lesson exploring the linguistic connections between Latin, Romance languages, and English through the lens of 'linguistic detective work.' Students identify cognates and understand the historical influence of the Roman Empire on modern speech.
As a final workshop, students select a short audio clip of their choice (podcast intro, video blog, etc.) and apply all strategies to create a 'Listening Report.' They present a summary, key vocabulary, and the structural outline of the clip to peers. This encourages autonomous listening habits.
This lesson uses catchy commercials and simple pop songs to explore cultural references and wordplay. Students identify slogans, rhymes, and cultural values embedded in the media. This adds a layer of cultural literacy to auditory skills.
Students listen to street interviews (micro-trottoir) where people express likes, dislikes, and opinions. The lesson focuses on identifying agreement/disagreement phrases and emotive adjectives. Students chart the general sentiment of the speakers toward a specific topic.
Using simplified news broadcasts (like 'News in Slow French'), students practice answering the '5 Ws' (Who, What, Where, When, Why). The focus is on extracting the main idea or 'gist' without getting stuck on unknown vocabulary. Discussion focuses on how the lead sentence frames the listening.
Students learn to identify chronological markers and logical connectors in simple French narratives to organize events mentally without needing word-for-word translation.
Students identify keywords in simulated emergency announcements and pharmacy interactions. The focus is on urgency assessment and health-related vocabulary for travel safety.
Students listen to retail interactions at boutiques and markets to identify items, sizes, colors, and prices. The lesson covers transactional listening and cultural notes on metric conversions.
A culminating assessment where students track a multi-part narrative of a student's first week in France.
Students trace paths on maps by listening to oral directions. The lesson focuses on prepositions of place and sequencing words to navigate urban landmarks effectively.
Concentrates on the 24-hour clock and calendar vocabulary to manage schedules and plans in French.
Trains students to listen for specific information (orders, prices) amidst the ambient noise of a French café.
Students analyze weather forecasts to identify future tense structures and temperatures. They practice functional planning by creating packing lists and recommending outfits based on regional weather heard in the audio.
Focuses on extracting logistical details and academic instructions from campus-based French dialogues.
Students learn to identify social dynamics by listening for 'tu' vs 'vous' and formality markers in various French social contexts.
Students practice identifying platforms, delays, and destinations from authentic-style metro and train announcements. Focus is on imperative verbs and travel-specific vocabulary through a route-mapping simulation.
Students listen to complete introductory monologues containing name, origin, and basic state of being to complete biographical data sheets.
Focusing on the French alphabet, students practice listening to rapid-fire spelling of names and places.
Students analyze audio clips of various social interactions to detect the use of 'tu' versus 'vous' and formal versus informal greetings.
In this final challenge, students solve a series of riddles and navigational clues presented in audio format to find specific locations and items across a virtual city map. This requires synthesizing place names, directions, and descriptive vocabulary.
A cumulative synthesis project where students decode a comprehensive personal narrative from a Francophone pen pal.
Uses a family tree logic puzzle to practice family vocabulary and possessive adjectives in context.
Focuses on reflexive verbs and temporal markers to sequence a chronological daily routine.
Students interpret likes, dislikes, and personality traits to evaluate compatibility in a roommate matching scenario.
A mastery-based finale where students solve travel emergencies by identifying problems and solutions from audio reports.
A culminating transcription practice (dictée) that synthesizes phonetic and orthographic skills.
Analyzes how pitch and melody convey meaning in French questions, statements, and emotional expressions.
Covers consonant sounds unique to French, specifically the uvular 'R' and unaspirated stops (p, t, k).
Explores connected speech through liaisons and enchaînement, teaching students to identify word boundaries in fluid speech.
Focuses on the distinct French vowel system, particularly the nasal sounds (on, an, in), using minimal pair drills to train the ear.
Synthesizing the unit's vocabulary, students participate in mock job interviews using the precise vocabulary, connectors, and formal register practiced.
This lesson introduces high-frequency idiomatic expressions relevant to work and effort, focusing on cultural nuance and office scenarios.
Students elevate their sentence complexity by incorporating logical connectors to transform simple sentences into cohesive, professional paragraphs.
Focusing on written expression, this lesson guides students through the structure of a standard French 'CV' (Curriculum Vitae) and identifies key formatting standards.
Students explore a variety of professions and the specific personality traits required for each using nuanced adjectives like 'ambitieux,' 'fiable,' and 'polyvalent.'
The sequence culminates in a mock TV interview where students synthesize their travel experiences, using multiple tenses and circumlocution strategies.
Students master the interplay between Passé Composé and Imparfait by narrating travel mishaps and setting the scene for their stories.
Students explore dining etiquette and social norms across the Francophone world, practicing idiomatic expressions and conversational maintenance.
Focusing on the conditional mood, students practice polite service interactions and conflict resolution in hotels and transit hubs.
Students transition from near future to simple future to plan detailed itineraries for Dakar, Paris, or Montreal, predicting weather and scheduling logistics.
Culminating lesson where students synthesize information from multiple sources to prepare for a debate or written synthesis.
Focuses on reading interviews and transcribed speech, identifying register shifts and the representation of spoken French.
Students read complex texts regarding the French concept of secularism, decoding historical and legal vocabulary.
Learners examine 'les tribunes' (op-eds) to distinguish objective reporting from subjective argumentation through linguistic markers.
Students analyze the layout and structural components of articles from major newspapers like Le Monde and Le Figaro, identifying the 'chapeau' and inverted pyramid structure.
The capstone project where students synthesize their learning to present a detailed 3-day research itinerary, justifying their logistical choices in French.
Covers the practicalities of money management, shopping, and essential services like pharmacies, with a focus on numbers and transactional problem-solving.
An exploration of French culinary structures and dining etiquette, equipping students with the skills to decode menus and express dietary needs effectively.
Focuses on the linguistics of temporary housing, covering check-in procedures, amenity inquiries, and using the polite conditional to resolve accommodation issues.
Students master the complexities of Francophone urban transit, focusing on map interpretation, route optimization, and essential communication for buying tickets and understanding announcements.
A synthesis lesson where students fill out a weekly timetable based on a detailed auditory description of a school schedule.
Students recognize days, months, and dates in the context of school announcements and voicemails.
Focuses on sequencing daily routine events using reflexive verbs and temporal connectors like 'd'abord' and 'ensuite'.
Learners listen to descriptions of school subjects and preferences to identify likes, dislikes, and current class contexts.
Students learn to listen for and identify time using the 24-hour system commonly used in France, matching spoken times to clock faces.
Culminates the sequence by having students synthesize their listening skills to comprehend and extract key details from full personal introductions.
Develops rapid recognition and transcription skills for the French alphabet and numbers 0-60 through code-breaking dictation activities.
Students analyze dialogues between customers and waiters in a French café. They focus on identifying questions asked by the waiter and the politeness markers used in ordering food and drinks.
This lesson focuses on transactional listening, specifically hearing prices (using Euros) and quantities. Students listen to shopping dialogues and record the cost of items and the amount purchased.
Learners practice listening for directional commands like 'turn left', 'go straight', and 'cross the bridge'. Using a city map, they trace a route with their finger as they listen to a guide giving walking directions.
Students listen to audio soundscapes and descriptions to identify various city locations such as the bakery, library, and pharmacy. They associate specific vocabulary words with auditory clues and context sentences.
Students apply their phonetic skills to native-speed introductory phrases, practicing information extraction and filtering for key data points.
Introduces the 'dictée' method to bridge the gap between spoken sounds and French orthography, reinforcing spelling-sound connections.
Explores how French intonation and stress patterns signal questions, commands, and emotions, using pitch analysis to determine speaker intent.
Focuses on the mechanics of liaisons and elisions in French, teaching students how to identify word boundaries in continuous spoken speech.
Students practice distinguishing between French nasal sounds (on, an, in) and their pure vowel counterparts through minimal pair exercises and auditory drills.
Focuses on identifying physical characteristics and adjective agreement through a detective-themed listening game.
Cette leçon explore la formation et l'emploi du participe passé, du plus-que-parfait et du passé antérieur, en mettant l'accent sur la chronologie des actions passées.
A comprehensive toolkit for foreign language teachers to bridge the gap between rote memorization and spontaneous oral communication through interactive activities and low-stakes scaffolding.
Students synthesize their skills to create an annotated bibliography entry for a French source in their own research field.
Students practice precise translation of abstract concepts, focusing on maintaining nuance and avoiding literal 'translationese'.
This lesson focuses on parsing long, complex French sentences by identifying core components and relative clauses.
Students analyze logical connectors (les connecteurs logiques) to map out the structure and flow of academic arguments.
Students practice rapid reading techniques using academic abstracts to identify key terminology and data without getting bogged down in every word.
Synthesize skills by performing a comparative analysis of two Francophone texts, focusing on register, tone, and thematic expression of exile.
Explore the rhythmic and subversive power of Negritude poetry through the works of Césaire and Senghor, focusing on metaphor and linguistic identity.
Analyze post-colonial narratives by Djebar and Ben Jelloun, focusing on descriptive imagery, sensory vocabulary, and the construction of identity.
A mastery-focused lesson on identifying and interpreting the 'passé simple' in 19th and 20th-century French literature to understand narrative distance.
Examine the opening of Camus' 'L'Étranger' to understand how grammatical choices like the 'passé composé' create existential detachment and 'écriture blanche'.
The capstone lesson where students produce a formal research abstract. They synthesize all previous skills to create a professional summary of a hypothetical academic study.
Students apply nominalization techniques to condense complex information. They practice summarizing paragraphs into single, information-dense sentences suitable for high-level academic notes.
Focuses on the grammatical changes required when moving from a clause-based sentence to a phrase-based one. Students master the use of prepositions and possessive structures in academic writing.
A deep dive into French morphology focusing on common suffixes used to transform verbs and adjectives into nouns. Students learn to predict word forms and recognize gender patterns in nominalized nouns.
Students explore the shift from verbal to nominal structures to understand how academic French achieves a formal tone. They compare different registers and identify the impact of nominalization on sentence density.
A bidirectional translation workshop moving between informal spoken French and high-literary style, applying all learned structures to elevate register.
Students analyze the linguistic distinction between 'récit' and 'discours' and practice transforming modern news into 19th-century chronicles.
A workshop on using the passive voice to control agency and objectivity in formal writing, with a focus on maintaining literary tense consistency.
An exploration of the imparfait du subjonctif, its triggers through 'concordance des temps', and its socio-stylistic weight in presidential oratory and classic literature.
Students systematically review the irregular morphology of the passé simple, focusing on recognition in 19th-century texts. They explore the 'L'Étranger' effect and the tense's role in establishing narrative distance.
Synthesizes previous knowledge to build fluid, compound sentences using logical conjunctions for mature communication.
Investigates the placement and agreement of adjectives, focusing on the BAGS rule and gender/number harmony.
Explores the three registers of question formation in French and the social contexts that dictate their use.
Focuses on the 'sandwich' or 'bracket' logic of French negation, exploring standard and advanced negative structures.
Students act as editors, rewriting a chaotic witness account into three versions: a sensationalist active account, a neutral passive report, and a formal administrative summary.
While knowing the passive is important, avoiding it is often better for style. Students practice transforming heavy passive sentences into active ones or using 'C'est... qui' structures.
Students explore the versatility of 'on' to replace 'nous', 'les gens', or a passive construction. They discuss the ambiguity of 'on' in political speech.
Exploring 'mise en relief' (cleft sentences) to manipulate focus and rhetorical emphasis in both spoken and written academic French.
A deep dive into complex relative pronouns (lequel, auquel, duquel) and their role in creating cohesive, sophisticated sentence structures.
The culmination of the sequence where students use shadowing techniques to internalize native speed. They perform a final reading assessment and conduct a self-analysis of their recording.
Study of French prosody, focusing on the rise and fall of pitch in statements versus questions. Students map pitch contours and practice rhythmic grouping.
Exploration of the rules governing liaison and elision to achieve the characteristic fluid sound of French. Students practice marking and executing word connections.
A deep dive into the four primary nasal vowels of French. Students learn to control airflow and distinguish nasal sounds through minimal pair exercises.
Students analyze the French vowel triangle and the mechanics of lip rounding and tongue height. Using the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), they practice producing pure vowels like [y] and [u].
Students take a scene from a movie or play and translate it into a different register (e.g., Shakespeare into slang, or a teen comedy into formal French).
Students present their final field guides in a gallery walk format, teaching peers about the linguistic influences in their chosen domains.
Students design visual aids and infographics to make complex foreign terminology accessible and memorable for a general audience.
Students draft technical definitions and usage guides that explain the nuances of their chosen terms within their professional context.
Students use etymological resources to trace the historical origins of their harvested words and identify cultural patterns in language usage.
Students explore specialized vocabulary in various fields and select a domain of interest to begin their initial research into foreign terms.
Students write a short 'fairy tale' set in modern times, utilizing the passé simple for the main actions. They share stories in a 'literary salon' setting.
A literary case study analyzing how authors use the subtle shift between moods to create stylistic effects of uncertainty or idealization.
Students apply their knowledge to describe an ideal, hypothetical world, using the subjunctive to maintain the boundary between dream and reality.
Focuses on the grammatical necessity of the subjunctive following negative statements and interrogative clauses in the main sentence.
An exploration of how superlatives and words like 'le seul' or 'l'unique' trigger the subjunctive to signal subjective opinion rather than objective fact.
Students contrast the use of the subjunctive and indicative in relative clauses when seeking objects or people that may or may not exist. through the lens of 'questing' for the unknown.
Students take a contemporary email or text message recounting an event and rewrite it using the passé simple to create a mock-epic tone. This highlights the stylistic gap between spoken and literary French.
Students analyze how authors switch between description (imparfait) and plot action (passé simple). They diagram the timeline of a short story to visualize this relationship.
Focusing on the 'big' irregulars (fut, eut, fit, vint), students translate literary excerpts into modern French. They create a reference guide for these high-frequency literary forms.
Focus on the Type 3 conditional structure (Si + PQP -> CP) to express regrets about the past. Students take on historical personas to rewrite history through 'what if' scenarios.
Instruction on the mechanics of the pluperfect (plus-que-parfait) and conditional past (conditionnel passé) tenses. Students analyze song lyrics to see these tenses in an emotional context.
A rapid review of Type 1 (Present/Future) and Type 2 (Imperfect/Conditional) 'si' clauses. Students engage in a game-based superstitions activity to solidify foundational structures.
Students compare a text written in passé composé with one in passé simple to analyze the difference in tone and register. They learn the regular formation patterns for -er, -ir, and -re verbs.
