French Immersion

Bonjour MIMU, 

We are a bilingual country. What is this theme doing for the French community? Can I use it in my French Immersion classroom?

Signed, 

Le professeur français

Bien oui, LPF! In fact, one of our bloggers is a French teacher. Read what she has to say on the topic of French Immersion and Heritage Fairs. 

I teach French. I am a product of French Immersion schooling and the biggest flaw I remember from my education was the lack of opportunities to SPEAK the language. Teachers were so concerned about teaching us grammar and how to read and understand French, but we hardly ever had the opportunity to practice the language ourselves. In speaking with my friends from school, they all tell me the same thing; they understand French but could never have a conversation with someone in French. How sad is that? Thirteen years of exposure to the language and people are still scared to string a sentence together?? I share that story with my students every year and explain to them that I am going to make them talk A LOT in my class. I am so excited about this idea of heritage fairs because it is a theme I am confident I can incorporate into my classroom this year.

I attended a workshop last year with all the French Immersion teachers in my division where we talked about where our program is going and how to improve it. The strongest message I took away from that was that our students are leaving the program comfortably understanding written and spoken French but with little confidence to speak the language. This is what I experienced in my own schooling and what I want to avoid with my students. The expressive language is just as importance as the receptive language.

Interestingly enough, there is no curriculum document for French Immersion. I have searched high and low and spoken to anyone who will listen; there is no such document. I typically look at the curriculum documents for Ukrainian and German immersion to keep on task as well as team teach with the teacher from grade 10-12 French Immersion. 

While I do not go into a lot of detail, I just wanted to mention that as a French Immersion teacher, I would be comfortable doing all of the activities mentioned in this blog in French with my students. It is a great opportunity to introduce new vocabulary in a meaningful way and to have them talking, which is always a bonus.