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Frenchteacher updates

After a summer when I spent as much time blogging - largely about the proposed new MFL A-levels - as writing resources, I have got back into the swing recently. Incidentally I am going to be doing some work on resources for AQA with the new specifications in mind, so it will be interesting to see how they grapple with the challenges presented by the new Ofqual GCSE content (slightly anachronistic) and A-level (off the wall anachronistic). Once I start work with them I'll probably be under an oath of silence.

As far as new resources are concerned, I have added some more video listening worksheets, two with a scientific slant (the International Space Station and air pollution) and two songs by Yannick Noah. The latter are easy to understand and catchy. I did look at doing some Stromae songs, but to be honest, it's not my cup of tea and lyrically I was not sure it was the best source of language.

With the new national curriculum in mind and its greater emphasis on "literature", I have started doing some searching and thinking. It's not easy. Most material usually considered as literature, even short extracts such as letters, are too hard for KS3 and even KS4, so teachers and textbook writers will need to do some smart selection a d adaptation to make sources suitable for teaching. I have fallen back on an old favourite, Prévert's Déjeuner du matin, and produced a worksheet which could be done by good KS4 students. There is a good Youtube short film which supports the poem and I had the idea of students working in threes, with one student reading the poem whilst the other two act out the scene. That could work.

Other recent resources include an AS level reading task on cinema, a Y9-11 text with exercises entitles Ma meilleure copine, an AS level text with exercises on e-cigarettes and, lastly, a detailed lesson plan for teaching school subjects to near beginners.

I continue to seek easy listening material, literary style material and interesting easy texts for parallel reading. I would love to hear from anyone who has made use or who intends to make use of the beginner parallel reading resources.

Have a great year! I've been retired over two years now and still miss the classroom, but running frenchteacher.net and blogging allows me to keep my hand in. I'm also looking forward to doing another session with the PGCE students at York University in October.




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