Why Comics? GCSE (Age 14-16) French Lesson Plan: Reading and Writing

Why Comics? GCSE French Lesson Plan

Why Comics? GCSE (age 14-16) French Lesson Plan: Reading and Writing

Introduction

Looking to engage your students in contemporary human rights and social issues? Based at SOAS University of London, Why Comics? Education Charity brings contemporary humanitarian and social issues into the classroom (such as racism, conflict, migration, trafficking and climate change) through interactive literary comic books based on real-life testimony.

Our free easy-to-use Key Stage 2-5 resourcesbuild empathy and enhance learning for 7-18-year-old students and teachers alike, alongside UK national-curriculum relevant lesson plans to support multiple subjects.

Each sample UK National Curriculum based Lesson Plan is provided as a Word.doc – so you can use it as a building block. Please feel free to adjust the content to suit your teaching style and students’ needs, all the content is only suggested.

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Table of Contents

Introduction

UK National Curriculum Modern Languages Requirements:

Aims:

Learning objectives:

Lesson plan 1:

Follow-up Lesson Plan

Aims:

Learning objectives:

Lesson Plan 2:

Feedback

Future Plans

Who backs Why Comics? - About PositiveNegatives

UK National Curriculum Modern Languages Requirements:

[Source: UK Gov GCSE Modern Languages Subject content and assessment objectives]

Through studying a GCSE in a modern language, students should develop their ability and desire to communicate confidently and coherently with native speakers in speech and writing. The study of a modern language at GCSE should also broaden students’ horizons and encourage them to step beyond familiar cultural boundaries and develop new ways of seeing the world.

GCSE specifications in a modern language should enable students to:

deepen their knowledge about how language works and enrich their vocabulary in order for them to increase their independent use and understanding of extended language in a wide range of contexts
acquire new knowledge, skills and ways of thinking through their ability to understand and respond to a rich range of authentic spoken and written material, including literary texts
develop awareness and understanding of the culture and identity of the countries and communities where the language is spoken
make appropriate links to other areas of the curriculum to enable bilingual and deeper learning, where the language may become a medium for constructing and applying knowledge
develop language learning skills to prepare them for further language study and use in school, higher education or employment.

Context and Purposes:

students will be expected to understand different types of written language, including relevant personal communication, public information, factual and literary texts, appropriate to this level
language contexts will be organised in a specified number of broad themes, addressing relevant matters relating to: identity and culture, lifestyle, values and beliefs; environment, local, international and global areas of interest; current and future study and employment
literary texts can include poems, letters, short stories, extracts and excerpts from abridged and adapted essays, novels or plays from contemporary and historical sources

Scope of Study – Reading: understand and respond to written language

understand general and specific details within texts using high frequency familiar language across a range of contexts
identify the overall message, key points, details and opinions in a variety of short and longer written passages, involving some more complex language, recognising the relationship between past, present and future events
deduce meaning from a variety of short and longer written texts from a range of specified contexts, including authentic sources involving some complex language and unfamiliar material, as well as short narratives and authentic material addressing a wide range of relevant contemporary and cultural themes
demonstrate understanding by being able to scan for particular information, organise and present relevant details, summarise, draw inferences in context and recognise implicit meaning.

Please note teaching notes are in purple.

Relevant Resources:

Enrique's Shadow: inEnglish(missing people in conflict); Enrique's Shadow inFrench; 1 minute animationinEnglish and Spanish.
Almaz inEnglish(migrant workers trapped in abusive and exploitative situations across the Gulf); Almaz inFrench.

Why Comics? French Lesson Plan: Reading about social issues within an unfamiliar setting

Here is a suggested introductory lesson plan about reading in a foreign language using the subject of social issues through the personal story of the chosen comic protagonist. It is a 50 mins long plan consisting of a reading in class, followed by focus group work and an assigned homework. The class can either read the comic collectively via projector, or at home via the web ().

This lesson allows students to practice detailed understanding of written material in a foreign language and to develop their synthesising skills through group elaboration.

Students will learn to examine details about unfamiliar locations and subjects using information provided by Why Comics?.

Why Comics? French Lesson Plan:

Reading about social issues: Learning through literary comics

Aims:

This session will explore the social issues embedded in your chosen comic:

Students will examine the general and specific details of the story
Students will reflect on the fluid relationship between past and present
Students will learn about historical/contemporary themes while enriching their vocabulary through unfamiliar material
Students will work in groups to summarise and creatively present the story in a foreign language

Learning objectives:

By the end of the session, students will be able to:

Explain the synopsis of your chosen comic in detail
Recognise the relationship between past, present and future events
Identify and assess key information and the correct use of past and present tenses
Gain a wider awareness of culture and identity of the countries were the language is spoken (if relevant)
Use new vocabulary and summarising skills aptly

Lesson plan 1:

Read through your chosen comic as a group. Project the story in class and go through the comic panel by panel. Ask different pupils to read out each page. (20 mins)
Divide the class into groups. If you are able to print the comic out, each group will focus on two consecutive pages of the chosen comic. Students will underline new words, orally summarise the given pages and discuss the use of different tenses and the relationship between past and present. (25 mins)

NB If you are just working off the projector: choose two pages and get students to orally summarise the given pages and discuss the use of different tenses and the relationship between past and present.

Assign the class a homework: Ask the class to summarise the comic in 200 words using present and past tenses accordingly. (5 mins)

Teacher’s notes
[Source: BBC Bitesize - French Verbs and Tenses]

Explain the different tenses used in the chosen comics, for example:

The Present Tense describes what's happening now, i.e. something you are doing, or something you do regularly.

e.g.: Je joueau foot.–I’m playingfootball orI playfootball.

The Perfect Tense is used to talk about something that happened in the past - an action that is completely finished, eg: shewatchedTV, shehas watchedTV.
You need two parts to form the perfect tense:

thepresent tenseofavoirorêtre– this is known as anauxiliaryverb
thepast participleof the main verb

Many common verbs don’t follow the rule for how to form a past participle: they have an irregular past participle form that you need to learn to use it with avoir for the perfect tense:

Verb / Past participle / English
avoir / eu / had
boire / bu / drunk
comprendre / compris / understood
connaître / connu / known
croire / cru / believed
devoir / dû / had to
dire / dit / said
écrire / écrit / written
être / été / been
faire / fait / done/made
lire / lu / read
mettre / mis / put
ouvrir / ouvert / opened
pouvoir / pu / been able to
prendre / pris / taken
savoir / su / known
voir / vu / seen
vouloir / voulu / wanted

The French Imperfect Tense is a past tense that indicates an ongoing state of being, or a repeated or incomplete action.

The imperfect tense is used todescribe things in the past:

e.g.: Quand j'étaisen Australie,il faisaitbeau tout le temps.- When I was in Australia, the weather was nice all the time.

The imperfect tense is also used to talk about things thatused to happen regularlyin the past:

e.g.: Quandj'étaispetite,je jouaistous les jours.- When I was little, I used to play every day.

The imperfect tense and the perfect tense are often used together.Theimperfectdescribeswhat was going on/what was happeningbut is interrupted by the perfect (i.e. something that has suddenly happened):

e.g.: Jemangeaisquandtu as telephone.- I was eating when you called.

Please help us by filling out a short anonymous SurveyMonkey questionnaire after you have used our materials for our funders. This helps ensure that our great resources remain free.

Please email for more information. Thank you.

Follow-up Lesson Plan
Descriptive Writing: Learning through literary comics

Aims:

This session will focus on lifestyle. Students will practice creative descriptive writing using the information from the same chosen comic.

Students will think of lifestyle and working conditions in a different cultural area
Students will debate the differences to their own lifestyle (if applicable)
Students will make a plan to write a descriptive piece
Students will write a descriptive piece about the lifestyle found in the comic

Learning objectives:

By the end of the session, students will be able to:

Understand living conditions in geographically distant spaces
Explain the difference between different lifestyles in a foreign language
Understand how to plan and structure a descriptive piece of writing
Write a creative account of the character’s lifestyle

Lesson Plan 2:

Summarise the previous lesson: recap on your chosen comic and what the class discussed. (5 mins)
Use some of the interactive resources tabs on each digital comic page to provide the class with contextual facts and further information on your chosen comic. (15 mins)
Classroom Discussion: Ask the class to discuss the difference between the students’ lifestyle and the characters’ one using the present and past tense. Briefly introduce relevant vocabulary and explain how to structure a written description. (20 mins)
Homework - Individual writing: Every student will write their own brief description of the lifestyle embedded in the story. (5 mins)

Teacher’s Notes
[Source: BBC Bitesize - French Lifestyle, Home and the environment]

Here is an extensive list of vocabulary that can be introduced to talk about lifestyle:

French / English
à mon avis / in my opinion
bavard/bavarde / chatty
je m’entends bien avec / I get on well with
je passe beaucoup de temps / I spend a lot of time
en revanche / on the other hand
je me dispute / I argue
il m’embête / he annoys me
être le centre d’attraction / to be the centre of attention
pas grand-chose / not a lot
ennuyeux/ennuyeuse / boring
agréable / pleasant
accueillant/accueillante / welcoming
stressant/stressante / stressful
la mairie / town hall
tout le monde / everybody
s’entraider / to help one another
le chômage / unemployment
le club des jeunes / youth club
le bâtiment / building
vieux/vieille / old
laid/laide / ugly
le musée / museum
valoir le détour / to be worth a look
passer sa vie dans / to spend one’s life in
les transports en commun (m) / public transport
mignon/mignonne / cute
le terrain de football / football pitch
le court de tennis / tennis court
l’entraînement (m) / training
la cité / estate
le métro / underground train
pressé/pressée / in a hurry
fumer / to smoke
être au chômage / to be unemployed
chercher / to look for
boire / to drink
construire / to build
essayer / to try
arrêter / to stop
résoudre / to solve
la pauvreté / poverty
la toxicomanie / drug abuse
l’alcool (m) / alcohol
le chômage / unemployment
les sans-abris (m) / the homeless
un SDF (sans domicile fixe) / a homeless person
un emploi / a job
mieux / better
baisser / to turn down
contribuer / to contribute
l’eau (f) / water
trop / too much
le réchauffement de la terre / global warming
l’emballage (m) / packaging
le robinet / tap
le chauffage central / central heating
gaspiller / to waste

Feedback

Please help us by filling out a short anonymous SurveyMonkey questionnaire for our funders. This will help keep our great resources free. We will be happy to hear about how it works in the classroom, and are keen to receive any comments or feedback.

We are particularly interested if you would like to receive more resources like this. If so please include on the SurveyMonkey questionnaire which topics you would like us to cover (e.g. Divorce, Migration, Racism/Prejudice, Cyber/Bullying, Identity, Memory, Racism, Conflict, Natural Disasters, Human Trafficking/Slavery, Asylum/Refugees, Homelessness, Climate Change,Remittances & Migrant Workers, and Drug Trafficking & Addiction).

We are also interested to have feedback from pupils so if it is possible, please pass on the SurveyMonkey questionnaire link to them as well. Many thanks again, your help is most appreciated.

Future Plans

Over the coming year, we’re intending to expand our bank of database for KS2 (age 7-11) and KS3 (age 11-14) and KS4-5 (age 14-18) and their teachers, and produce national curriculum based accompanying lesson plans for multiple subjects. You can view all our resources on our Teachers Resourcespage.

We will continue to design and test our resources to ensure that they are made by teachers for teachers.

If you would like any more information or would like to be involved further, please contact . Thank you.

With very best wishes,

Dr Benjamin Dix

Director: Why Comics? Education Charity

Senior Fellow: SOAS University of London

Web:

Email:

Twitter and Instagram: @WhyComicsOrg

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Why Comics? Education Charity is based at the Faber Building, SOAS University of London.

Why Comics? Charity number - 1172791

Who backs Why Comics? - About PositiveNegatives

The award-winning non-profit PositiveNegatives produce literary comics, animations and podcasts about contemporary social and human rights issues. We combine ethnographic research with illustration and photography, adapting personal testimonies into art, education and advocacy materials. Since 2012, PositiveNegatives has worked extensively for over four years for an array of international organisations such asUnited Nations (UN),Overseas Development Institute (ODI),Open Society Foundations (OSF),The Nobel Peace Centre,The Guardian,BBC,and with leading academic institutions such as; Harvard South Asia Centre, SOAS University of London and University of Sussex.

Our work endeavours to combine literature, journalism and education. Visual story-telling engages audiences of all ages, backgrounds and levels of literacy. Approaching subjects like conflict and forced migration through the prism of personal narratives emotionally engages general readers and students alike. We have developed comics from research, policy papers and first hand testimonies for organisations such as these and many more. Each comic has reached millions of viewers, and many have been translated into multiple languages reaching diverse international stakeholders