Mme B's Classroom

My units take up so much time and have so much involved in them, see my Long Range Plan for specifics, that a final unit assessment is necessary. Yes, we do have a myriad of little assignments throughout the unit that get me plenty of marks, but to have it all wrapped together into a neat and tidy project is great.

I found presenting a project near the beginning of the unit, helps anchor the students into what we are learning this month. It’s no longer a vague concept of Le Printemps, but there is a tangible point to this unit. Beginning with the end in mind. In this case, we are creating a short story. So my entire unit is based about putting vocabulary words together to build a coherent sentence, expanding on the sentence and describing a picture. All are skills we will need to create a story board.

You can provide the class with a series of sentence starter phrases, pictures or concepts to start their story. Spend a day creating a story board. Have them write once sentence at a time, using their story web, and creating pictures for their phrases. They can write 5-10 pages of work, with 1-3 sentences per page, depending on grade level and ability.

The hard part will be limiting the students to words and concepts they can articulate in French. While I don’t mind allowing them to use Word Reference – basically an electronic dictionary, Google Translate isn’t allowed. Many students, especially the olders ones, want to write based on their knowledge of their Primary Language. This can make them feel upset with what they have created, thinking it is beneath them. I try to remind them that they are just learning and I don’t expect Pulitzer Prize winners out of Grade 5 French Core. Leaving an example of previous creations helps focus their expectations and recenters their story board.

You can find this resource and many others at my Teachers Pay Teachers store.