French+Grammar+Strategies

//Post information, resources, and strategies for learning and teaching grammar in French here.//


 * "De" Monstre** (courtesy of Melissa Samluck at Okemos High School, via Stephanie Peterson) **user:flanne13** After a negative and before a plural BAGS adjective, the "De" Monstre eats "un, une, le, la, les"



I drew it on the board and my students decorated it a little bit...user:StephanieP

You can use "cootie catchers" to practice writing, speaking, and comprehension for both skills. We practiced the futur proche, but I think just about any topic could be manipluated. I had students write funny futur proche expressions (4) on the fotune part of the cootie catcher (for example, "Tu vas embrasser Matthew McConohaugh"). The outside of the cootie catcher were subjects (4), and then inside were the verbs we were practicing (8). In order to make the cootie catcher function, they had to make questions using inversion with the subjects and verbs, first defining the word, then eventual Q, and "fortune," in English (checking for comprehension) from their partners. They took turns asking questions. The kids really enjoyed it but it need to be caregfully structured in order work. If you would like more specific instructions, please contact me!
 * Futur Proche user:flanne13**

I taught kids how to conjugate ER verbs using this song to the tune of "Row, Row, Row Your Boat": J'aime J'aime J'aime le verbe J'aime le verbe aimer -e, -es, -e, -ons, -ez, -ent The students liked being silly and having a way to remember the endings!
 * Introducing ER Verbs** user:flanne13

Using the song "Wipe Out," shout out a verb and students must respond conjugating the verb using all of the subjects during the music part of the song.
 * Practice Speaking/Conjugating ER Verbs -** courtesy of Darcy Ebert at DeWitt High School user:flanne13

user:StephanieP
 * Que/Qui -** When I taught using "que" and "qui" in relative clauses, I passed out cookies. If you say "que" and "qui" quickly in French it sounds like "cookie". Great motivators, plus the kids are too busy munching on cookies to talk during the lesson!

[This is negation right from the start, before inverson, etc]. I explain to the kids that "ne" and "pas" are like two parents, and the verb is the child. The parents love their child so much that they always want to sit right next to them, one of either side, and they will push everything out of the way in order to be by them. This seemed to help clarify their placement in sentences.
 * Teaching Negation** user:flanne13

Verb Sandwiches -Teaching negatives (ne... pas)
Students had already learned je n'aime pas, ca ne va pas, and je ne sais pas so they had been exposed to it already without it being explicitly taught. I revisited this and asked them if they notice any patterns. They notice the **pas** more than anything and some of the caught on to the **ne** part. I told them it's the same for other verbs and we make a **verb sandwich**. The verb is the meat and the ne and pas are the slices of bread. We did some examples and had them tell me where to put the ne and the pas in the sentence to make it negative. A great practice activity was sentence building. I wrote out on large index cards the pronouns, verb STEMS, verb endings and the ne and pas. I actually drew the ne and pas as pieces of bread and made the verb stems and endings look like slices of meat. That way when they were building the sentences they were actually building verb sandwiches. user:mllegibbs

Using the idea that avoir is a big strong man that does all the work as a helping verb, and the past participle just tags along behind. Avoir carries "ne" and "pas" on either shoulder, and carries a lunch pail in his left hand with "inversion" inside. So the picture diagram drawn with kids is a large etre man, with the lunchbox in his left hand, "ne" on his left shoulder, "pas" on his right shoulder, and the past participle holding his right hand (much smaller than he). Then we practice examples sentences of course.
 * Teaching Passe Compose** (courtesy of Darcy Ebert at DeWitt High School) user:flanne13

Sing this song to the tune of jungle bells: mon ma mes ton ta tes son sa ses Voila notre nos votre vos leur et leur C'est ca
 * Teaching Possesive Determinants** (courtesy of Marie Miarka at Flushing Middle & High School) user:flanne13


 * Vandertrampp Bookmarks**

I made bookmarks from the following Word document, by printing it on colored card stock, laminating it, and then cutting the bookmarks out. The 17 "Vandertrampp" verbs (verbs that that être in the past tense instead of avoir) are right there for the students to use. user:StephanieP




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