Grade 4, unit 1

This first unit aims is to help the students to talk about themselves through new vocabulary. They will be able to speak about their family, their ages, their pets, their preferences and the places to live as well as qualities.

The contents and the curriculum will vary according to the student levels, their needs and interests.  For example, for the beginners, the description of the vocabulary and easy sentences dealing with their food, pets or color preferences… will be taught. By this way, my objective is to encourage them to interact in simple and rehearsed exchanges, using verbal and non-verbal language. Also, they will use basic phrases to communicate ideas, feelings and information on a variety of aspects of everyday topics.

Whereas the intermediate level students will be more focused on grammar to be able to respond in detail and appropriately to simple short phrases and basic information in spoken, written and visual text. 
Then, they should interact confidently in basic structured exchanges and use phrases effectively to communicate ideas, feelings and information in a variety of familiar situations; ideas are relevant, detailed and include examples. Finally, they should communicate with an excellent sense of audience.

Resources:

- the greetings: http://www.languageguide.org/french/greetings/ 

- the alphabet: http://www.languageguide.org/french/alphabet/ 

- the numbers: http://www.languageguide.org/french/numbers/ 

- the pets: http://www.languageguide.org/french/vocabulary/pets/ 

http://www.languageguide.org/french/vocabulary/pets-continued/

- the family members: http://www.languageguide.org/french/vocabulary/family/ 

http://www.languageguide.org/french/vocabulary/family-continued/

http://www.languageguide.org/french/vocabulary/marriage/ 

- the age: http://www.languageguide.org/french/vocabulary/age/ 

- the continent: http://www.languageguide.org/french/vocabulary/continents/

- the Europe: http://www.languageguide.org/french/vocabulary/europe/

During the week of August 2 to August 5, Grade 4 students and me get to know each other. 

I have been very surprised to hear about their own motivation to learning French language. Some of them have plan to travel to Europe, some want to improve their previous learning, some think that French is easy (as similar to English), some other want to have a chance to continue their learning in their home countries, some other want to please their parents... 

Then, they shared their own point of view and perception about French language. How interesting was it! 

   

   

The students contributed collaboratively to create the common agreements (or class rules) by doing plays. Finally, they reviewed some French greetings.

To conclude, many thanks to TOMOKI for being the teacher assistant the all week long.

During the week of August 15 to August 19, the students reviewed the French greeting while translating a French song by groups. Thanks to all the students who taught this useful vocab to the new learners.

Then, they learned or reviewed the French personal pronouns by playing " the berret game"...a first step to learned the verbs!

After working collaboratively, one student present their work.

   

To conclude, many thanks to OLIVIA for being the teacher assistant the all week long.

During the week of August 22 to August 26, the students reviewed the French personal pronouns and learned the verb to HAVE while singing songs and playing games.

Then, they learned the numbers up to 69 and how to write some of the numbers thanks to jigsaw according to their own level. Now, they can create all sentences by speaking about their own age, ex: I am 10 = J'ai 10 ans and to ask for people age.

 

To conclude, many thanks to LUCY for being the teacher assistant the all week long.

During the week of August 29 to September 16, the students acquired some new learning, vocabulary, and key patterns, about the family members and the pets. As a consequence, they have been able to be focused on reading and understanding skills. 
Here are some of their reading assessments:
Neo and Tomoki: click here.
Lucy and Maya: click here. 
Jiwon and Pearce:click here.
Beaunita and Xun Kann:click here.
Alaa and Stirling: click here.



They also completed their 2 first formative and most of them have done a very good work. 

Even the new French learners have been amazing: they are catching up so fast!

 

During the week of September 19 to September 23, the students reviewed all the main unit structures and vocabulary through games. Then, they completed their last summative assessment. 
 They really did their very best and I am proud of them! 
 
 

During the week of October 3 to October 7, the students corrected their summative assessments. They created a dialogue to practice all the sentences and vocabulary learned during this unit. After, they made a video by group.  and used them to create a dialogue by group, to be filmed.

  
    

  

Here is their video and recordings: 

Pearce and Xunn Xenn: Click here.

Jiwon, Tomoki and Sowann: Click here.

Mahin, Neo and Stirling: Click here. 

Prandshu and Beaunita: Click here.

Alaa, Olivia, Maya and Lucy: Click here.

During the week of October 10 to October 14, 

During the first week, grade 4 children have expressed what does: "Learning together, growing together, each one making a difference"("apprendre ensemble, grandir ensemble, chacun faisant une difference") means for them and the main rules in the French class.

Children playing roles about the common rules in class. A funny way to understand what are the expected student behaviours expected during the year!

Quiz time: divided in groups, the students are having a lovely time discovering some aspects of the French culture

After finishing this activity, we started our first unit or we started our first ‘voyage’, discussing about the power of language. A huge issue!

G4 Khmer FL Plan

How We Express Ourselves - The Power of Language

August 18th – October 9th 2015

Central Idea: Different forms of language enable us to express and gather information.

 Key Concepts: Form, Function

Lines of Inquiry:

• Language around us (Form)
• How language allows us to express and gather information (Function)

Here is a list of the main vocabulary your child will lean during this unit: click here

We started our first unit or we started our first ‘voyage’ in a dynamic ambiance.

All of the children speak many languages and have different living experiences abroad: Cambodian, Mandarin, Spanish, Korean, Indonesian…. And the children are motivated by the topic and proud of this linguistic diversity among us! Dealing with people who speak other languages is not so easy and create brainteaser, as the game “ le téléphone arabe” shown us.

Students play "le telephone arab".

All the students are ‘polyglotte’ and are multilingual. 

That is the title of the song we sang together and dance. Really nice. This song is also a great introduction to explain the origin of the French language and introduce some key grammar structures which will be used during this unit. The students were so enthusiastic!

Students having fun in singing and dancing the "polyglotte" song. 

During the week of August 24 to 28, the students learnt some grammar structures like, I/you/he/she speak(s)...., I/you/he/she do not/ does not speak... with some adverbs by different targeted activities.

During the week of August 31 to September 4, we decided to create a class play based on our unit. Creating a play is wonderful opportunities for children to be creative, to interact, to develop social skills. As the play will be performed in French, they will have a chance to learn new spoken skills (new vocabulary, new grammar structures in context), express themselves and enhancing kinesthetic memory.Then, they will gain confidence in expressing themselves in the target language.

We began our project on Monday, the 31, by opening a bank of ideas. The children were very enthusiastic and they came up with many suggestions from their imagination, their individual experiences about learning and speaking languages. Some of them, like Fatima, Tommy or Lucas could even offer storyline quite complex take from science fiction. We recorded the ideas and we would continue our brainstorming sessions to create an exciting plot over this week. 

During the week of September 7 to September 11, the students continued to work on their play and some of them have already started a new stage: practicing the French pronunciation by listening to the recording of their play. 

During the week of September 14 to September 17, the students worked on a new grammar lesson: the French possessive adjectives: "My, Your, His, Her" could be "mon, ma, mes, ton, ta, tes or son, sa, ses"...Sometimes, French can be complexe! So after understanding the rules, the kids had to create posters. An interesting way to ensure their motivation, engagement and their proficiency level. All the kids have done good efforts to complete this task by being creative and relevant!

During the week of September 21 to September 24, the students finish their posters and presented it to the class. 

During the week of September 28 to October 2, the students reviewed all we did during the unit and them, they completed a formative assessment based on 3 recordings done by 3 dealing with their own background and their environment. 

 Then, we corrected it and the students received some specific feedback to help them to improve. Yewon spent her last days with us so we song for her a french song by using a karaoké! Bon voyage Yewon!

During the week of October 5 to October 9, the students reviewed some vocabulary about the family members to be used during the summative assessment. All the students did their best to succeed it. I have been very proud of their hard work and efforts to understand 2 videos of French spoken people speaking about themselves, their family, the languages they want to learn and their motivations.  

Then, we read 2 funny books to re-use the vocabulary in context about the description and the feelings.

Finally, we song a French song which one the kids liked: " si tu as de la joie dans ton coeur, frappe tes mains.." A funny way to end our first unit and go on holidays!