Cross-Curricular links with History

The First World War

Year 9 have been studying The First World War as part of their History lessons. I decided that it would be a very good idea to bring this topic into the Modern Foreign Language lesson.

One of the latest French film which depicts well the life of the soldiers during this war is "Joyeux NoëI".

This is how we worked:

1. In groups, using your knowledge of the First World War, make a list in English of the words you may hear in a Film / documentary about soldiers'life.
2. Translate these words in French. Work on their pronunciation.
3. Whole class contributes to the list:

   -soldat

   -tranchée

   -guerre

   -rats

   -poux

   -combats

   -fusils

   -allemand

   -maladie

   -mort

4. Watch the film - at the end discuss in groups the vocabulary which has been heard. Watch a small documentary from Monjtquotidien about "Les Poilus".
5. Look at the transcript from the documentary and underline the vocabulary that you have identified in earlier lessons. Highlight the words, you know and identify cognates. Research keywords in the dictionary. Homework is to prepare notes together to be used for a Powerpoint presentation.
6. In computer room: do the following tasks:

• Look at information about the film on:
• http://www.joyeuxnoel-lefilm.com/ , http://tinyurl.com/6cno4n, http://tinyurl.com/639qfy
•   For your presentation, you will need to do the following slides.
• 1. List of vocabulary related to the word with translation or pictures.
  2. A summary of the film in English
  3. Several slides on the soldiers' life during the first world War, using the text studied in class.

  The work produced by the students has been very good. Some will be posted soon.