BBC Jam French For 11-14

https:jam.bbc.co.

uk

The BBC has produced a fantastic free web resource for key stage 3 pupils based on a story about young people in Marseille. High quality video clips show streetwise characters and appealing activities: for example, watching a clip and then re-ordering text accordingly.

The “cartoon maker” allows learners to create their own storyboards. The creative aspect of this is welcome, as it is always a challenge to motivate pupils to create meaningful pieces of writing.

The verb tool is fun: learners watch characters moving and type in the appropriate word using a selection of tenses. The “mini moi” activity is a popular whole-class whiteboard activity: users create a version of themselves, choosing hair, eye and skin colour.

There is boy appeal in the Jade Dragon mystery game and in MC des Mots pupils help the MC create a song that gets to the top of the charts. It also keeps the rules of gender and adjectival agreements.

As with all BBC Jam resources, all this can be used in schools or, just as usefully, by students at home. They can save anything they create to access at school or home

Wendy Adeniji is a modern languages teacher and consultant based in West Yorkshire