This post is based on a lesson plan from my book 50 Lesson Plans for French Teachers: Step by Step (available from Amazon).
One of the challenges
with near beginners is finding content which is both interesting for its
content and accessible from a linguistic point of view. For students to be able
to process the language they hear or see, the language needs to be highly
comprehensible, but at this level authentic material is usually too hard to
process. The thinking behind this parallel reading lesson plan, therefore, is
to provide enough scaffolding to make a harder text teachable and useful. This
lesson will introduce new language, use a range of skills and teach some
general knowledge about an animal most of us like.
First, take a look at the main resource below about dolphins.
Parallel reading: dolphins
Les dauphins Les dauphins sont des mammifères marins qui sont liés aux baleines et aux marsouins. Un mammifère marin vit dans l'eau. Les dauphins se trouvent partout dans les océans de la planète et dans les rivières et les marais aussi. Les dauphins sont carnivores (mangeurs de viande) et mangent des poissons, des calmars et d’autres animaux marins. Ils nagent souvent ensemble en groupes appelés «pods». On pense qu’ils ont une capacité visuelle et auditive remarquables, mais n'ont pas un sens de l'odorat. Avez-vous déjà vu un dauphin? On peut voir des groupes de dauphins danser dans les vagues près de la côte. | Dolphins Dolphins are marine mammals that are related to whales and porpoises. A marine mammal lives in the water. Dolphins are found all over the world’s oceans as well as in rivers and marshes.
Dolphins are carnivores (meat-eaters) and eat fish, squid and other marine life They often swim together in groups called “pods.” They are thought to have powerful eyesight and hearing, but do not have a sense of smell. Dolphins come in different sizes. Some are smaller than the average person, but others, such as the orca, are 9 metres long, or more than five times as long as the average person. Dolphins are thought to be very intelligent and communicate with each other using clicks and whistles. All dolphins are powerful swimmers. Have you ever seen a dolphin? You can see groups of dolphins bobbing in and out of waves close to the shoreline.
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Step by step lesson plan
1. As a mini pre-reading activity, show a picture of a dolphin and say something about it. Engage the class with some simple repetition and questions, using gesture to help.
Tu aimes les dauphins? Moi, j’adore les dauphins! Le dauphin, c’est un poisson ou un mammifère ? (Un mammifère). Répétez : mammifère ! Oui, c’est un mammifère. C’est un animal super intelligent ! On trouve les dauphins dans les océans. Ils sautent… ils nagent… ils jouent. Les touristes adorent les dauphins. (Use gestures liberally.)
2.
Hand out
the printed parallel texts (A4, landscape) with the texts and exercises students will subsequently do.
3.
Read aloud
the French text while students follow it and look across at the translation.
Read it a second time.
4.
Do some
choral reading aloud of the French text, phrase by phrase.
5.
Do a quick
translation activity in both directions – you give a phrase in French, students
give you the answer (hands up). Then do it in reverse, with students having to
find the French.
6.
Read the
text aloud again making deliberate errors, e.g. Les dauphins sont des
reptiles… or Les dauphins sont végétariens… Students must put up
their hands when they hear an error. With some classes they could write down
the correct word on a mini-whiteboard or paper. About five errors should be
enough.
7.
Tell
the students to highlight in the French article any words the meaning of which they
could have guessed without help. Tell them these are called cognates and that
they make French a relatively easy language to learn, like German, Spanish or
Italian too. Give them the challenge of finding twenty cognates. Get feedback
and do some quick choral repetition.
8. Now display the following true/false questions:
a)
Les dauphins sont des poissons.
b)
Les dauphins sont des mammifères (mammals) marins.
c)
Un mammifère marin vit dans
l’océan par exemple.
d)
Les dauphins mangent de la viande (meat).
e)
Les dauphins sont végétariens.
f)
Ils mangent des animaux marins.
g)
Ils vivent (live) souvent en groupes.
h)
Ils ont une excellente vue (sight).
i)
Tous les dauphins sont énormes.
j)
L’orque mesure 9 mètres de long.
k)
Les dauphins sont stupides.
l)
Ils communiquent en français.
m)
Les dauphins nagent (swim) très bien.
n) Il est possible d’observer des dauphins près de la côte (coast).
9.
Read each
statement in turn and get students to vote with hands up whether they think the
answer is true. Provide a few seconds of “wait time” before you ask for a
decision. Provide the right option. Then tell students to re-read the
statements and write down their own answer quietly.
10.
Get the
students to complete the glossary below.
French English
mammifère ___________
baleine ___________
marsouin ___________
eau ___________
partout ___________
marais ___________
calmar ___________
ils nagent ___________
sifflets ___________
vagues ___________
11.
Finally,
with the texts hidden, try some more true/false statements for students to
identify from memory. With very proficient classes you could supply some “not mentioned” examples too or
ask students to correct false statements.
Note: In a subsequent
lesson you could quickly check what words and phrases students have remembered
from the text using translation from French.
Think how much listening and reading input students have received in this lesson, based on a topic which should be of some interest. I'd suggest that the pre-reading part is really important to spark more interest. I wouldn't worry about the amount of specialised vocabulary in thee text - there is plenty of high-frequency material there too. The expectation is not that students will remember the unusual words later, but they will have engaged with an interesting text, heard and read a lot of target language (all understandable thanks to the parallel translation).
You could make this part of a lesson sequence on, say, nature, the environment or animals, but I would more likley use it for a one-off lesson, given the constraints of typical prescribed syllabuses.
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