1. Action oriented tasks and strategies for a junior core French class
Erin Dolan
Renfrew County DSB
Hi, my name is Erin. I’ve been teaching Core French for 8 years. My first year was in Halton, then I worked 5 years in Ottawa, and it is my second year in Renfrew County.
This year I decided to focus on incorporating culture and purposeful tasks in my junior core french classes so that they are engaged and excited about French. I want my students to feel successful and happy in French class, so that they are enthusiastic about french class in future years. I have pulled many different resources from sources over the years, and make my units my own by combining different things.

2. Action Oriented Approach
Tasks are always purposeful acts set in a context that students could face in everyday life in a variety of situations
What makes a task action-oriented?
The situation is authentic
There is a task to be completed
It’s open-ended
It involves an interaction and is meaningful
Idea found in : FSL: Module 3: The Action-Oriented Approach
Explain that this approach is related to DELF. Ex: A1-

3. Examples: Action Oriented Approach
Greetings, requests
Invitations
Completing registration forms
Making purchases
Ordering food
Meeting new people and introducing yourself
Accepting / rejecting to buy different products at the store or restaurant

4. Grade 4 Core French

5. My space in the grade 4 classroom

6. Create clear language expectations

7. Learning goal: We can plan a party for our JK/SK buddies
We will greet and interact with each other in many situations
We will create invitations.
We will buy decorations
We will make shopping lists.
We will decorate for our party.
We will make a menu and plan the food needed for our party.

8. Youppi! Bell ringer game
Each student has an envelope with their vocabulary words
They take out six at the beginning of the class, often before I arrive
I choose students around the room to say one of their words
If the word said is one of yours, flip it over
When all six of your words are flipped over, you stand up and say Youppi!
The winner reads back their words to the class.
Activity: Choose three vocabulary words from your envelope to play the game.

9. Consolidation What did you notice while playing this game?
How do you think this game will contribute to their success throughout the unit?

10. Qu’est-ce que tu vois? Je vois..
We started our two anchor charts as a class. First we focused on the vocabulary we recognized from the book. This resource is from C’est Parti 1, which is a CEC product. Here are a couple examples of things we do next in class. I asked the kids “Qu’est-ce que tu vois?” and modeled ‘Je vois…’ Now that they have some vocabulary from the Youppi game, they can feel a little more confident to answer my questions. We create an anchor chart at the same time.

11. With the CEC program, you can take the words away from their images
With the CEC program, you can take the words away from their images. So after we did the Qu’est-ce que tu vois activity, we read as a class. I asked them what ‘mots amis’ did they notice, and we talked about what everything meant. We then created an anchor chart for some sentence starters we thought we’d use a lot in class.

12. Consolidation
How do you think this activity would contribute to their success and well being throughout the unit?
How do you think co-creating two anchor charts would contribute to their success throughout the unit?

13. Qu’est-ce que tu vois?
Je vois..

15. Next steps: Discussion about what items you buy in a party store
Role play: store owners and party planners
Valentines day cards to practice invitation writing
Reading stories about Franco-Ontarian festivals
Listening to some French songs
Planning a birthday party with a partner and conferenced with Mme about what they would buy for the party, and what they would do at the party.
Planning a party for the JK/SK class

16. JK/SK Collaboration
Instead of the traditional reading buddies, we are doing number buddies
We focus on:
Greeting in french
Playing games to practice numbers in French
Grade four students act as role models for the younger students. JK/SK students are in immersion so they developing their vocabulary quickly.
Talk about how I wanted to collaborate with a younger class to give a more social aspect to my class. Ex: greeting, playing games, etc.

17. Brightspace Online Portfolio
What it is?
An app that you can use to organize photos and video of your students
It is:
Student Friendly- all they need is an ipad/phone and the QR codes

19. Brightspace Online Portfolio
Two versions of the app:
In class Funster mode
In class mode
Why it works?
Gives students the opportunity to share their work with me
A way for me to assess oral work
Captures examples of collaboration between JK/SK and Grade 4

20. Connection to other Junior Grades
These are strategies I use in my other Junior classrooms
My grade 5’s are doing a unit based on foods
They are ordering food off of menus, creating menus, greeting each other in restaurants, etc.
In the past I’ve done travel units with my grade 6’s where they planned trips and gave walking directions between tourist attractions.
We use Youppi as the gateway for the unit, just like the grade 4’s
I use the same strategies with my grade 3 and 7’s as well, I just modify the activities and the topics.

22. Resources that I use CEC Publishing : C’est Parti 1
FSL: Module 3: The Action-Oriented Approach
Brightspace Online Portfolio

23. Conclusion
Questions for me?
Ideas to share?