rethinking my teaching

Je n’ai peur de rien

This year I have been rethinking totally my teaching. I feel like a rebel on my harley scared of nothing and nobody.

So instead of teaching year 9 what I should teach them, I started to teach what comes up in class in our daily conversation.

It doesn’t make any sense, does it?? Well let me explain.

I am supposed to teach them about introducing themselves, numbers, months, family etc… sometimes I was coming into class with a lesson plan, what are we going to learn today “family”. But then John ( I actually don’t teach any John, but sounds so likely I could teach one!!) comes in and is eating chocolate. I could scream at him and tell him that he should not eat chocolate in class, but why would I do that when I can ask him for some chocolate instead? So here we are I ask him in French (of course), and I help him saying that he had some chocolate but he ate it all. So of course I am very upset because it means I will not get my usual dose of sugar ( I steal a lot of lollies from the kids, they are stealing my youth I steal sugar from them!!) but instead of crying out loud I start to teach them to say “je l’ai déjà …”. ( I have already…)In a previous lesson they had learned how to say what they did the night before (it gives me a good occasion to bully them about the programs they watch on TV. :-) ) so now we can combine the both.
E.g. Qu’est-ce-que tu as fait hier soir?
J’ai lu Harry Potter
Which becomes je l’ai déjà lu

So after 2 terms of French (well not really coz they miss a lot classes due to sport and other commitments) the little year 9 understand heaps of French. They actually ( yes I mean ACTUALLY) understand questions in present tense but also in the past tense, then they can give me compliments when they want something from me.

So far I have noticed that their French is well advanced compared to previous years. I might be a bit late in my curriculum but the benefits are extreme!!! I will reassess things later and see if it is worth it.