How do I incorporate the “Action Oriented Task” into my AIM program?

  1. Use the play’s content and themes as “jumping off” points to explore an “Action Oriented Task” in further detail
  • eg. BouclesViolettes introduces Papa and Maman Ours – a logical introduction to the concept of family (nuclear, extended, etc.) and Teacher-Led Self Expression (TLSE) to incorporate higher order thinking skills (Est-cequetupensesqueBouclesViolettes a unefamille? Pourquoi, oupourquoi pas?)
  • See additional suggestions at the end of this document
  1. Continue to work through HEA’s program as suggested
  • Oral, written and reading activities are scaffolded to support language learning and allow students to build the communicative skills required to complete Action Oriented Tasks \
  1. Supplement the HEA program with small amounts of authentic but theme related material
  • Texts should be brief and variedeg. short news item or French meme
  • encourages student communication in spontaneous, open-ended, unrehearsed situations
  • remember that it is okay and beneficial to revisit the same material more than once

Egday one – «Qu’est-ce que tu vois/qu’est-ce que tu remarques?/quels mots est-ce que tu connais?»

Day two – «Qu’est-ce que tu penses?»

Day three – «Qu’est-ce que tu te demandes?”

Day four – Est-ce que tu peux changer les mots ici?

How do I incorporate the “Action Oriented Task” into my AIM program? – a sample week, based on BouclesViolettes and “Voici ma Famille”

Warm-up
(5 min) / Teacher Led Self Expression (TLSE) (5 min) / Play
(5 min) / Media
(5 min) / Student Oral Practice
(10 min) / Written production
(10 min)
Day 1 / Smartboard introduction of family vocabulary / Activity 1 OR 2 – gesture teaching and review and/or SOME vocab from Activity 4 / introduce characters in play with puppets / Song: JuliePowers“Comment Ca Va?” / Parle/Echange/Gagnecards «ma mère s’appelle…» / * homework: bring some family photos + task success criteria
Day 2 / Devinettes
50 pts…
40 pts… etc. / Teacher shares own family photos / Activity 3 – gesture teaching and review
and/or SOME vocab from Activity 4 / - the Royal family infographic family tree
/ La chaîne de mots en ligne
«ma mère/mon père/mes frères/ta sœur/etc.) / - begin creating a family album or comic strip featuring family members
Day 3 / C’est Moi / Teacher asks students about families, siblings, etc. / Activity 4 and 5 teacher dramatizes play with puppets / Triad with Parle/Echange/Gagne cards – target possessive adjectives / - continue
Day 4 / Socrative.com / - lead students in inferences based on yesterday’s play dramatization (eg. «Peut-être Bebe Ours est triste parce qu’il n’a pas de frere…») / Activity 6
gesture teaching and review / (see warm-up) / Inside/outside circles describe one family member to your partner – use a picture if possible / - continue
Day 5 / J’aime un ami circlegame / Activity 7 – gesture Scene 1 of play / Song: JuliePowers “Comment Ca Va?” / Student presents photos of their family to partner / - self evaluation

Games and Activities Referenced Above

  1. Parle/Echange/Gagne (PEG) – teacher creates very simple phrases with target vocabulary eg. For family vocab, sentences could say things like “Ma mere s’appelle Marie” and “Mescousinssontméchants”. Students circulate, find a partner, read the statement on their card, and then trade cards and find another partner to read the new statement to. In this way, students get a variety of low-stress practice reading/speaking/listening, and if teacher “plays” as well, teacher gets one-on-one opportunities to assess student progress. At end of activity, teacher calls out one pre-selected (but kept secret) card which is “le gagnant”. Eg. “Qui a la carte qui dit ‘Mon oncle s’appelle Fester’”? The student who has finished the game with that card receives a small prize – jellybean, point, opportunity to sit in teacher chair or whatever seems appropriate.
    Triad with Parle/Echange/Gagne cards – students work in groups of three. They each start with a card from the PEG activity. Person one reads it as is eg: (eg. Ma mère s’appelle Charlotte. Student 2 changes the possessive adjective to slightly modify the sentence eg. "Ta mère s’appelle Charlotte." Studentthree changes it to another "Sa mère s’appelle Charlotte".
  1. Devinettes– whole class activity. Select a concept and give five progressively simpler clues to solve. Eg. If concept is “ma cousine”, clues could begin with the very general “Unemembre de la famille” (worth 50 points if students can solve right away with one clue)! Clues get progressively more specific to finish (for 10 points) “c’est la fille de mononcle et ma tante”.
  1. J’aimeunami…. – this game is based on “I like my neighbours” from the TRIBES book. Students sit or stand in a circle (if students are seated in chairs, you should be one chair short, as in musical chairs). One student begins in the middle, making a statement such as “J’aime un ami qui a deux frères.” At that point, all students who have two brothers must dash off to a new place in the circle (or, if seated, find a new chair). Last one to get a spot takes over the center spot and gives the next criteria.
    Focus students on target vocabulary/concept such as «la famille», and consider providing sentence starters on the board, such as “qui a”, “qui est”, “qui déteste”, “qui aime”. You must give the safety speech every time – no pushing, tie all shoelaces, etc. The game is off the minute anyone gets shoved – be strict about this, and you will be extremely successful! Intermediates love it, and it’s a good way to see who’s really listening for the subtle but important differences between statements such as “qui estunefille” vs. “qui aime les filles”.
  2. C’estMoi– Teacher calls out descriptions and if it applies to that student, they stand up and call out “c’estmoi!” and then sit down quickly. Eg. “J’aiunesoeur” (all students with sisters should stand up). “Je n’ai pas de frères”, “Mon père s’appelle Robert”, “J’ai beaucoup de cousins et cousines” etc.
  3. Cinq en Cinquante - The object of this game is to come up with five words in a certain category in fifty seconds (or less). For example (if family is target concept): five members of the family, five family words that are longer than four letters, five adjectives to describe the Bear family in BouclesViolettes, five things you might say to your brother. Students can work in groups of three until they are confident and good at it, then they can work in pairs, or alone. They also like to challenge the teacher! If fifty seconds is proving too challenging, you can call it “Cinq Mots”, and just have the group stand up together and yell “Cinq Mots!” when they have five words, the same way you would call out for Bingo.

Kimberly Peters and Juliet Young / Durham District School Board / October 2015