Lesson: Using the past tense in French
Objectives:
This lesson plan fulfills some of the objectives set forth by the Virginia SOL's:
Person-to-Person Communication
FI.1 The student will exchange simple spoken and written information in French.
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3. Ask questions and provide responses based on self and familiar material, such as family members, personal belongings, school and leisure activities, time, and weather.
FI.2 The student will demonstrate skills necessary to sustain brief oral and written exchanges in French using familiar phrases and sentences.
1. Initiate, participate in, and close a brief oral or written exchange in French with emphasis on the present time.
More specifically, students will learn to use the past tense.
They will learn the difference between regular avoir and être verbs .
They will learn how to make verbs agree with their subject.
Assessment:
Students will be given a written check-up quiz.
Students will complete and turn in an in-class activity.
Tech-hi lesson plan:
Materials:
Smartboard
Powerpoint presentation
Video clips, queued at starting points
1. Review conjugations of avoir and être.
2. Introduce basic structure of regular verbs in the passé composé with the aid of a Powerpoint presentation. Display the Powerpoint on the Smartboard, fill in blanks/ charts by writing in answers. Students should write these down in their notes for practice.
3. Once students have seen the basics, let students come up and fill in some simple forms of the verbs on the Smartboard to get them up and moving and to make sure that they are staying involved in the lesson.
4. Continue with Powerpoint and talk about verbs conjugated with être. Explain the difference between the two types of verbs (direct object/ transitive verbs vs. intransitive verbs). Also show students how to make the verbs agree with their subject.
5. Use what they’ve learned: First give students a list of useful verbs and phrases that will be helpful in this activity. Show a few short video clips on the Smartboard (will make it easier to stop and start at the right clips) and ask students to describe what the people in the clips have just done. Could use well-known movie scenes to draw students’ attention. Example: “
L’homme est entré dans la cuisine, il a pris un café, et il a lu son journal. Ensuite, il est parti.” (The man entered the kitchen, he had a coffee, and he read his newspaper. Then, he left.) Students should write down a few sentences and then be asked to read them aloud. Students will turn in their sentences to have them corrected for a participation grade.
Tech-lo learning activities:
Materials:Chalk board
Handouts
Newspapers and magazines
1. Review conjugations of avoir and être.
2. Introduce basic structure of the passé composé. Give many examples. Go over the past participle forms of regular verbs.
3. Ask students to turn to each other and say what they did the past weekend.
4. Part 2: talk about verbs conjugated with être. Explain the difference between the two types of verbs ( direct object verbs vs. intransitive verbs). Also show students how to make the verbs agree with their subject.
5. Show pictures from newspapers or magazines and ask students to tell what happened in each picture. First give students a list of useful verbs and phrases that will be helpful in this activity, then have students write down their sentences. The students will read a sentence to the class and turn them in to be corrected for a participation grade.
6. Game: have students form two teams. One student from each team at a time goes to the chalkboard; I say a subject and the infinitive form of a verb and students must race to write the past tense form on the board.
