Masses of zero prep starters on frenchteacher

This is a reminder, or maybe you were unaware (!), that over the last few months I have uploaded lots of starter activities to my site. They are mainly editable in PowerPoint, but some are editable in Word. The activities often involve retrieval of known language, so they certainly fit the lesson starter retrieval practice model many schools are encouraging (or even mandating!). By the way, although they are in French, they are easily adaptable to other languages.

These tasks don't have to be used as starters, of course. They could be fillers, plenaries or even, with additional material, form the basis of a whole lesson plan. As always, I write what I think would work with an average class and anyway, because everything is editable, you can simplify or add more challenge as you wish. In each case, you don't have to use all the slides. Indeed, in some cases there are too many examples, so you could just use a few one day, then others another time. All zero prep!!

One element I have included in many of the tasks is some time pressure to encourage fluent recall and production. To get the research bit in here, Paul Nation, in his 'Four Strands' of a successful curriculum, advocates including as one of the strands a focus on fluency. Fluency in this context doesn't just mean spoken fluency (speed and flow), but the fluency of cognitive recall. We cannot listen, read, speak and write fluently if we cannot retrieve language quickly. As teachers we can work on this all the time in the classroom.

So after that preamble, here are the starters on the site, grouped by year level. Year 7 is CEFR A1, Y8 is largely A1, while Y9 is more like A2. Note that many of the tasks can be done either orally or in writing. When done orally, you could use pairs, hands-up questioning or cold-calling. As an alternative to hands-down cold-calling, you could try something I read recently on Twitter: hands-up cold-calling. In this case, every pupil puts up their hand, then you choose someone. The idea is that this creates a positive, 'can-do' attitude of participation. I wonder if you agree.

Year 7 (beginner, near-beginner, A1)

• 5 sentence maker slides
• 5 sentence maker slides (common -er verbs)
• 5 sentence completion slides
• 5 short gap-fill paragraphs
• Vocab championship - pupils vote for words in rounds, like in the World Cup for example. Thanks to Florencia Henshaw and Maris Hawkins for the reminder about this format.
• Putting words/phrases in the right order
• Make sentences from a word/phrase list
• Odd one out. 20 slides of sentences.
• ‘Change one thing’. 20 slides of sentences to alter.
• Quick translation (very easy) 12 slides of sentences to translate
• Quick translation (easy). 20 slides with gapped clues.
• Quick translation (harder). 20 slides with first letter clues.
• ‘Finish the sentence.’ 10 slides.
• ‘Finish my sentence.’ Listening + vocab retrieval. 
• ‘Mini battleships translation.’ 10 games (Word).
• ‘Start the sentence.’ 20 slides – focus on verb retrieval.
• ‘Match up.’ 20 slides.
• ‘Insert the gaps’ 10 slides.
• ‘Vrai ou faux?’ 20 slides. 
• ‘Which answer?’ 20 slides. 

Year 8 (near-beginner, A1)

• ‘Change on thing’. 20 slides, each with four sentences
• Odd one out. 20 slides, each with four sentences
• Re-ordering words. 10 slides, each with four sentences
• Gap-fill. 5 short paragraphs with options
• 5 sentence-making grids
• ‘Spot the errors’. 20 slides each with 4 sentences
• ‘Correct the sentence’. 20 slides.
• ‘Insert the verb’. 20 slides, each with 4 sentences.
• Vocab championship (also on Y7 page)
• ‘Yes/no game’. 10 slides.
• ‘Sentence stealers’. 10 slides.
• ‘Spot the errors’ (with pictures) 10 slides. 
• ‘Mini battleships translation’. 10 games (Word).
• ‘Mini three chunk battleships’. 5 games (Word).
• ‘Start the sentence’. 20 slides. Focus on verb retrieval.
• French general knowledge quiz. 20 slides.
• ‘Match up.’ 20 slides.
• ‘Missing word.’ 25 slides.
• ‘Paired sentence completion’ (Word)
• ‘Complete and translate.’ 25 slides. 
• ‘Finish my sentence.’ Listening and vocab retrieval.

Year 9 (low-intermediate, A2)

• 15 sentence making grids
• ‘Change one thing.’ 20 sets of 4 sentences
• Odd one out. 20 sets of 4 sentences
• 10 short gap-fill paragraphs (with options)
• 5 short gap-fill paragraphs (no options)
• ‘Make a 10-word sentence. 15 slides. 
• ‘Change one phrase.’ 20 slides. 
• Quick translation into French. 20 slides, 2 sentences per slide
• 7 guessing games
• 10 fluency tasks (oral or written)
• Tonguetwisters
• ‘Listen and draw’. 7 images.
• ‘Finish the sentence’. 10 slides.
• ‘False facts dictation’. 10 slides.
• ‘Yes/no game’. 10 slides.
• ‘Mini battleships’. 10 games (Word).
• ‘Mini battleships translation’. 10 games (Word).
• ‘Mini battleships 3 chunk translation’. 10 games (Word).
• ‘Start the sentence’. 20 slides. Focus on verb retrieval.
• ‘Opinions and reasons’. 20 slides.
• ‘Ever-changing sentence’. 10 slides.
• ‘Possible or unlikely?’ 20 slides.
• ‘Find five facts.’ 10 slides, each with a short reading.
• ‘What happened next?’ 20 slides.
• ‘Word cloud challenge.’ 1 slide.
• ‘What’s the sign?’ 40 slides.
• ‘Match up’ (focus on grammar) 20 slides.
• ‘Which answer?’ (focus on tenses) 20 slides.
• ‘Tense spotting.’ 20 slides.
• ‘What’s the question?’ 15 slides.
• ‘Vocab recall challenge.’ 15 slides.
• ‘Comparisons.’ 10 slides.
• Paired sentence completion (Word)
• ‘Which time phrase?’ 15 slides.
• ‘Sentence creation.’ 20 slides. 
• ‘Disappearing text.’ 5 slides. 
• ‘Finish my sentence.’ Listening – 30 sentences.