Week 1

I usually use week 1 to get to know my students hence introduce the structures:

Present
Past
  1. Il y a-There is/there are
  2. S’appelle-Calls him/her self
  3. Aime-Likes
  4. Joue-Plays
  5. Est-Is
  6. Chante-Sings
  7. Lui donne (bisous)-Gives him/her kisses
  1. Il y avait
  2. S’appelait
  3. Aimait
  4. Jouait/a joué
  5. Était
  6. Chantait/ a chanté
  7. Lui a donné

El fútbol

Enrichment vocabulary
It is important to write them on the board with translations, but no need to focus on them as they will come up constantly in stories.

  1. Une fille – A girl
  2. Un garçon-A boy
  3. Beau/belle- Handsome/pretty
  4. Petit/petite- short/small
  5. Grand/grande- Tall/big
  6. Intelligent- smart
  7. Content/Contente- happy
  8. Triste-sad
  9. Un jour- One day
  10. Mais -but
  11. Beaucoup – a lot
  12. Pour-for
  13. Avec-with
  14. Donc-so
  15. Maintenant- now
  16. En fait-Actually

(I suggest using ne…pas right away with all of these structures)

It is important not to translate il s’appelle as :  “His name is” because you will want to refer to appelle later on as ‘calls’ so best introduce the structure as “he calls himself”.

These are great TPR words that you can have lots of interaction from the class right off the bat and get to know your students’ interests which will help during future PQAs and story development.

You can introduce sports and instruments which usually act as cognates.

Right off the bat, you may want to include the past tense of the structures so that students get accustomed to hearing and seeing it.

 
PQA/Activities
  • Ask students what their pets’ names or family members’ names are.
  • It is a great time to find out their interests by asking what they play and what they like.
  • Ask the class who sings. (Who likes to sing in the shower, in front of the mirror, etc.) Who sings well, who sings poorly.
  • You can have students present their partner to the class.
  • Have students bring in pictures of their pets or their family and let the class describe them
  • Show pictures of famous people or cartoon characters singing, playing instruments, or playing sports and have class state what they are doing.
Mini-Stories
Il y a un garçon. Il s’appelle Jean-Louis. Il n’est pas très beau. Il est très très grand. Il joue de la guitare. Il aime jouer de la guitare.  Il joue beaucoup. Jean-Louis est français. Il aime une fille américaine. La fille s’appelle Jennifer. Elle est très belle et très intelligente. Elle n’est pas grande, en fait, elle est très petite. Elle n’aime pas Jean-Luis, donc Jean-Louis est triste.  Jennifer ne joue pas de la guitare. Elle ne joue pas d’instrument, mais elle aime la musique. Un jour, Jean-Louis joue de la guitare pour Jennifer. Il joue une chanson de Jason Derulo. Il chante très bien. Jennifer aime quand Jean-Louis chante. Maintenant Jennifer aime Jean-Louis. Elle chante avec Jean-Louis et elle lui donne bisous. Elle lui donne beaucoup de bisous. Mais, Jennifer ne chante pas bien, donc Jean-Louis n’aime pas Jennifer. Jennifer est très triste maintenant.
La Culture et Les Actualités

It would be a good idea to begin with the different ways of saying ‘You’ in french (Tu/Vous)

I like to show clips of movies, have students predict the usage of Tu or Vous depending on the relationship (I may show a photo of a scene from the movie) , then have them listen to the scene to see if they can pick out the form.

There is a great scene from l’Arnacoeur where the girl passes from Vous to Tu, and the boy calls her out on it.