LESSON PLAN TWO

Quand Je serai Grand… When I Grow Up…

Note: Lesson Plan Two relates directly to the above title, and provides sufficient content to cover at least 5 or 6 sessions/lessons based on this book.

OBJECTIVES

- to instil a love of French - to help children gain confidence in repeating phrases in French - to enable children to begin to recognize high frequency words, and for this to be consolidated over several sessions - with the help of the extension vocabulary in the lesson plan, to build on previously learned numbers up to 12, and to continue up to 20 - to encourage more able pupils to construct their own sentence and for them to be able to repeat it - to support less able pupils in achieving the above - for pupils to begin to grasp the concept that in French there is a ‘feminine’ and a ‘masculine’ version of nouns/adjectives (with the help of the vocabulary index and the extension vocabulary.)

SUGGESTED CLASSROOM USE & EXTENSION ACTIVITIES

This book should be read over the course of several lessons, to familiarize the children with the story and vocabulary. It is very important to read the story out loudly and clearly, but also with expression and intonation.

If not using your own method for reading the text, please refer to the “blueprint” reading method detailed in LESSON PLAN ONE from points 1-5. At point 4, where children are expected to recognize or to make a guess at, certain high frequency words or phrases, from the story, the teacher can ask, for example:

“What do you think ‘Quand je serai grand’ means?”

“What do you think ‘médecin’ means?”

“What do you think a ‘professeur’ is?”

“How do you say ‘goodnight’ in French?” and so on.

Continue at point 6:

6. Reading sessions in French can be interspersed with other activities. There are many that can be based around this book; here are a few examples:

Counting in French

If the children have already studied Where are you, Little Wolf?/Où es-tu, Petit Loup? they should be familiar with numbers up to 10 or 12. The page numbering in When I Grow Up… can be used as revision, with the extension vocabulary [see below] helping them now progress up to 20! Children find being able to count in French very motivating, and chanting the numbers out loud in unison with the teacher and rest of the class, they should be able to achieve this quite quickly.

Familiarization with numbers in French

Linking in with the page numbering in the book, the teacher can ask the children which page specific things are on, and encourage them to repeat the correct answer in French, including as an extension to the activity, the word “page” in French.

Eg. Teacher: “What page is the aeroplane on?” Children: “ Page quatre” … and so on.

Trouvez Petit Loup! (Find Little Wolf!)

Little Wolf,(Petit Loup,) the character introduced in the first book, Where are you,Little Wolf?/Où es-tu, Petit Loup? is hiding on two of the pages in this book! (page six, behind the door, and page seven, somewhere in the undergrowth!) Younger children accessing this book will be particularly delighted to have to look for him; of course they have to say the page number in French! (‘page six’), etc.

As a further extension of this activity, some of the more able/advanced pupils could be shown how to reply with a sentence:

E.g. Teacher: “Où est Petit Loup?” [where is Little Wolf?] Pupil: “ Petit Loup est sur page six” [Little Wolf is on page six] grammar note: it is not necessary for the children to understand a formal grammar at this early stage, as they will just be getting a feel for things and will begin to understand instinctively when the meaning is explained - grammar will reinforce all this later!

However, for those teachers who would like to introduce the grammar early on, the following verb may be helpful at this stage:

être to be je suis I am nous sommes we are tu es you are vous êtes you are (plural or formal) Il est he is ils sont they are (masculine) elle est she is elles sont they are (feminine)

Masculine and Feminine

As the children progress with the book(s), they will begin to grasp the concept that in French there is a ‘feminine’ and a ‘masculine’ version. The vocabulary index in the books help with feminine forms of nouns and adjectives, and these can be introduced at the discretion of the teacher.

A lesson could be dedicated to demonstrating the differences between masculine and feminine, without mentioning the word ‘grammar’ anywhere! The extension vocabulary will help with this session, which could be incorporated into the following activity : -

French Corner (creative application of French)

The teacher could get the children each to draw a self- portrait, depicting what they would like to be when they grow up.

The class teacher could then help them to write down the relevant sentence, based on ‘quand je serai grand, je serai…’ The teacher will explain that the boys need to use the word ‘grand’ whilst the girls need to put an ‘e’ on the end and use ‘grande.’

The teacher can also explain that in French you leave out the ‘a’ in the sentence “I will be a…”

The children can use the vocabulary from the book, which mainly uses nouns (like astronaute/professeur) which are used for both males or females, thus simplifying things.

For more able/advanced pupils, the extension vocabulary can be used for this activity, which gives feminine equivalents where necessary, and provides the teacher with an opportunity further to demonstrate masculine/feminine versions to a more advanced class. The children’s self-portraits, with their individual sentences next to them, could be placed on a background wall in the ‘French Corner’ of the classroom, forming collectively ‘une foule’ (‘a crowd’) perhaps with boys grouped together under the heading ‘Quand je serai grand…’ and girls grouped together under the heading ‘Quand je serai grande…’ to reinforce the masc./fem. language differences; the children will see the two sentences whenever they look at the French Corner and will be reminded of the concept.

Further extension/Gifted & Talented

Children who have absorbed all the above effortlessly, or who are gifted and talented at language, may be drawn to the subtle elements of the book, such as, on page three, the médecins sans frontières (doctors without borders) symbol on the aeroplane (‘avion’), and the text on the illustration, and having it explained to them what this organisation represents.

The whole class might enjoy picking out the French flag, and learning the French word for flag (‘drapeau’) or even ‘le tricolore’ the name of the French flag, with its three colours, bleu, blanc, rouge (blue, white and red.)

So many possibilities!

Extension Vocabulary:

1 un one 11 onze eleven 2 deux two 12 douze twelve 3 trois three 13 treize thirteen 4 quatre four 14 quatorze fourteen 5 cinq five 15 quinze fifteen 6 six six 16 seize sixteen 7 sept seven 17 dix-sept seventeen 8 huit eight 18 dix-huit eighteen 9 neuf nine 19 dix-neuf nineteen 10 dix ten 20 vingt twenty une mère a mother un pilote* a pilot (pilote automobile*) a racing driver un danseur a dancer (boy) une danseuse a dancer (girl) un footballer a footballer (boy) une footballeuse a footballer (girl) vétérinaire (m/f) vet scientifique (m/f) scientist dentiste (m/f) dentist un écrivain* a writer

*note: where only a masculine version exists, the same word is used for a female:

E.g. il est écrivain he is a writer elle est écrivain she is a writer

words which are the same in masculine and feminine versions, such as ‘vétérinaire’ can be used in the same way:

E.g. il est vétérinaire he is a vet elle est vétérinaire she is a vet

Extension:

In subsequent lessons, children can use the verb ‘être’ outlined above in this lesson plan, to create further sentences:

E.g. elle est danseuse she is a dancer il est pilote automobile he is a racing driver je suis footballeur I am a footballer vous êtes professeur you are a teacher