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Latest additions to frenchteacher

This is one of my regular updates about what's new on frenchteacher.

Up to now I have uploaded almost no PowerPoint presentations, partly because I never made that many when I was teaching, partly because of the copyright issues involved when using pictures (especially commercially). Many teachers seem blissfully unaware of copyright when publishing images. Fortunately, the site pixabay.com has a sizeable archive of photos and graphics which can be used in all circumstances without any credit.

So I have been writing some simple PowerPoints for beginners, near-beginners and low intermediates. My principles are to use clear and striking graphics accompanied by limited text and to build in to the presentation a natural teaching sequence moving from choral repetition with or without text, question-answer (or similar) teacher-led practice, pair work (e.g. guessing games) and some writing, including simple translation and transcription. The presentations can be used in various other ways depending on the teacher's preferences. This type of presentation is great for keeping a class in the target language using fully comprehensible language.

I always think that the key to using PowerPoints of this type is to work at pace, mix up the interaction styles and build in differentiation by allowing some students to produce lengthen their responses. the grids of pictures (from 9 to 16 pictures all shown together) allow for this type of thing. The curtain tool in IWBs is useful in this regard.

So here are the topics I have covered so far:
  • Animals
  • Weather
  • Places around town
  • Sport
  • Likes and dislikes (with food)
  • Prepositions
  • Means of transport
  • Perfect tense (x 2)
  • Immediate future tense (x2)
  • Future tense
In addition to the PowerPoints I have posted a low intermediate text and exercises based on a fait divers about a boy who makes an amazing archaeological discovery; a series of short texts and exercises about family and an A-level video listening sheet about strikes.

Expect to see soon a couple more Petit Ours Brun video worksheets and more reading/writing tasks. Enjoy the rest of terms and good luck with those exams!

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