Modern Languages - Les roses sont rouges

28th September 2012, 1:00am

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Modern Languages - Les roses sont rouges

https://www.tes.com/magazine/archive/modern-languages-les-roses-sont-rouges

What it’s all about

When I was 14, I submitted a rhyming poem in my French class about bad hair days. To this day, I can remember the poem, and the French has stuck with me, writes Anna Winskill.

TES Resources user An Gulinck recently shared a French poetry workbook that offers ideas on how to prompt pupils to write poems in the target language. Teachers can set vocabulary and grammar parameters to meet lesson objectives. Honing in on adjective agreement, I give pupils a formula to create their poem.

Line 1: noun; line 2: same noun + is or are + adjective; line 3: same noun + is or are + adjective 1, adjective 2; line 4: is or are + adjective 1, adjective 2, adjective 3; line 5: adjective 1, adjective 2, adjective 3, adjective 4; line 6: new related noun.

In my Year 7 (P7) classes I like to use haikus following a simple 5-7-5 syllable pattern. But certain pupils need more scaffolding, so I present the task as a fill-in-the-blanks: J’aime bien _______(5) (verb), Mais, je n’ai pas de ________ (7) (noun), Bon ben, c’est la vie! (5).

Last year, I plastered my classroom walls with my Year 9 (S2) pupils’ own, tweaked versions of Dejeuner du matin by Jacques Prevert. I also gave an extra-credit assignment for them to act, illustrate, film or perform the poem. One pupil’s stop-motion clay film and several in-class performances of the poem absolutely floored me. bit.lylegopoem

What else?

Download An Gulinck’s poetry workbook: bit.lyfrenchpoetry

Try rosaespanola’s resource pack for activities on Jacques Prevert’s Dejeuner du matin.

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