Do you use themes to teach French? Today I have an interview with Madame Angel and she’s sharing a bit about how to teach French with themes.
Like a themed Birthday party, you can organize the subjects and topics you need to teach in a way that makes it easier for students to engage and learn.
That’s where themes come in.
Examples of themes: the 4 seasons, farm, circus, space, zoo animals, countries, holidays/celebrations, and so on.
You probably already use a thematic approach to teaching, but there’s always something we can learn from one another.
So enjoy my interview with Madame Angel, a pro at using themes to teach French!
This is a post in a series of interviews, where I’ll be chatting with amazing educators so we can learn their tips and strategies to make our own lessons even more enticing, effective, and fun!
And here’s the interview. Hope you get a lot from it!
Lucy: Hi Michelle! Before we get into the educational questions, let me ask you: do some people think your first name is Angel?
Michelle: All the time! Even some teachers that I have worked with for years call me Angel!
L: You’re a very prolific teacher-author. Last time I checked there were over 1,000(!) resources available in your TpT store. One thing I’ve always noticed is that you seem to create materials around themes, e.g. four seasons, holidays and celebrations, etc. Do you believe that using a theme makes it easier for kids to learn?
M: Absolutely – I love using themes to teach, especially with early immersion students. I like to repeat the same types of activities throughout the year to allow students time to practice certain skills.
Changing out the theme helps to keep and maintain students’ engagement. It also helps develop and enhance students’ vocabulary.
Another benefit to keeping the activities similar while changing out the vocabulary is that students eventually become familiar with the task so that I no longer have to explain it as thoroughly. This means that in September it will take quite a while to model the activities and expectations but by January students are so familiar with the activities that I can spend less time on the modelling piece and more time working with small groups. The only thing left to teach is the actual vocabulary!
L: What grade(s) have you taught? Does using themes differ from grade to grade? I mean, are there themes that work best for lower/upper grades, or is it more a matter of adjusting the content to the grade level and not so much about which themes to choose?
M: I have taught everything from Grade 1 to 8!!!
Themes can definitely differ depending on the grade but so many themes are easily differentiated for students as they progress along with second language learning. A Core French Teacher with 200 minutes a week is going to need to spend a lot more time on a theme than an immersion teacher who has their students for a full day. But both groups could learn the Parts of the Body or Winter themed vocabulary.
L: Can you give an example of activities around a common theme that could be used to work on the four language skills (i.e. listening, writing, speaking, reading)?
M: Parts of the body is a great theme to do. I find it a really practical theme that also helps students learn to describe themselves and others. Activities I might do around the 4 strands would include:
Listening:
- Bingo.
- Flyswatter games.
- Simon Says.
Speaking:
- Describe a friend and others need to guess who that is.
- Small role plays where someone is injured and describes where they are hurt.
Reading:
- Write parts of the body on stickies, have students read them and label the teacher.
Writing:
- Descriptive writing using colours – e.g. “J’ai les cheveux noirs”
- Writing about where they are hurt.
- Design a monster and write a description of its body parts.
I also use a dice game I created, which is free on TpT.
L: Are there any DOs or DON’Ts regarding which themes to choose for the classroom?
M: I can think of 2 DOs and 1 DON’T.
DO have an end goal! What grammatical concepts do you hope to teach through the theme?
DO plan with the end in mind. At the end of a theme, what project/assignment would you like to give your students to assess their mastery?
DON’T overdo it! Especially in this season of constant disruption it can be tempting to stay with a theme for months but I really find students start to get bored and tired of one theme after a couple of months. It is okay to move on even if everyone has not “gotten” it!
L: Is there a theme you haven’t created resources for yet, but that you would like to?
M: I’m not sure that there is much left! My store really caters to primary French Immersion, though I know there are many teachers of older students that use the resources. I have had requests for Sports, Hobbies and at a Restaurant. I am currently teaching a lot of primary Music and I would love to develop some Music resources for TPT! Hopefully I will get to them one day!
L: If you had to give just ONE piece of advice regarding using themes in the French classroom, what would it be?
M: I think the biggest piece of advice I can give is to know your audience. Some holidays and traditions will work in some schools but not in others. For those teaching older students, listening to their interests when it comes to themes can really help develop improve student engagement.
L: Thank you so much, Michelle, for sharing what you know and how you use themes to teach French!
If you’d like to learn more about Michelle and what she shares about teaching French, check out her blog Teaching French Immersion and her TpT store. Also, make sure to stop by her Instagram account and let her know you’ve read and enjoyed this interview.
Thank you for reading!
Merci!
Lucy
Read: Simple French Writing Activity
Read: Teaching Students to Stretch Sentences
