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Le futur

As you know, I a very keen to use songs and poetry to teach grammar.  Year 10 have been revising the future tense. 

One of my favorite poem is "Demain dès l'aube" by Victor Hugo.  Previously, we had looked at how the future is formed.  We looked at the following Powerpoint (not mine! thanks to the author if (s)he reads this post. Download Futur

I found a song version of the song on Youtube  and we listened to it:  demain dès l'aube

Voici les questions que j'ai posées après avoir écouté la chanson:

1. Comment est la chanson? (gaie / triste/ mélancolique etc..)
2. Quel instrument de musique reconnaissez-vous?
3. Quels mots avez-vous reconnus?

We then looked at this website.  We talked about Victor Hugo and his work especially the work that they all knew but were not aware of-  "Notre Dame de Paris" and "Les Misérables".

We read the poem and looked at the photos and listened to the music. 

J'ai ensuite posé ces questions

1. Qu'est-ce que la musique représente pour vous?
2. Quel est le thème du poëme?
3. Quels sont vos impressions -  Je pense que / A mon avis c'est...

We then looked at poem

Download Demain

J'ai fait l'exercice suivant:

1. Soulignez les verbes au futur en orange, présent en vert.
2. Surlignez les mots transparents
3. Recherchez 5 mots dans le dictionnaire - comparez avec votre partenaire et les autres élèves sur votre table.

Everybody enjoyed the poem, we translated it together and they read it in pairs.  One student volunteered to record herself,  she did it spontaneously and this is her first attempt:

Demain

 

 

Merci Harriet, c'était superbe!

To finish we did some work on Task Magic Download Demain

Mon stage en entreprise

In order to write, your coursework on work experience you need to read what is required carefully, so that you get maximum marks on the content.  Here is what you are asked to do (AQA specifications)

3.4 My work experience

1)How the experience was organised:

Use the past tense to described how you organised your work –experience: 

J’ai écrit une lettre, j’ai telephoné, mon prof m’a donné l’adresse et …….

2) Duration;

Past tense again

Le stage a duré une semaine

( Use the imperfect to justify a repeated action)

Tous les jours, je commençais à 9 heures

3)Work undertaken;

If you are describing something that you did regularly use the imperfect tense

Tous les jours, je faisais des photocopies.

To describe something that you did less regularly use the perfect tense.

Un jour, je suis allé(e) dans un autre bureau.

4)Staff and relations with them;

Imperfect tense to describe in the past

Je m’entendais bien avec les autres employés.  Le directeur était sympa…

5) Personal impressions, including whether you would want to work in such an organisation in the future.    

Present tense to give your opinion

A mon avis le travail était intéressant

Conditionnel to say you may prefer or would like to do

Je préfèrerais être avocat.

What do you need to do?

·         First of all you need to practise some vocabulary.  Try this activity

·         Have a look at this presentation-  from  http://www.sunderlandschools.org/mfl-sunderland/  ( Module 3 work experience speaking exemplar)  (Remember no plagiarism)

·         Practise from www.zut.org.uk (ask your teacher for password during school hours)-  go to Year 10 &11- the world of work- careers and employment and do the work on work-experience.

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· Have a little game on jobs:  C’est quel job? /  Les métiers

·         Remember to use some link words- practise with this exercise

·         Use page 73 of Métro 4 rouge for further guidelines.

·         Check your tenses art www.leconjugueur.com

      Some more  worksheets that you can use.  This has been written by another teacher so thank you to the author.   Other website where you can get some help: French in a click

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·         Bon courage et bonne chance.

Revision for GCSE

I am often asked what you need to revise for GCSE. I feel that to be well prepared you need not only to have a good knowledge of vocabulary but also to make sure that you have enough practice to be ready for any trick that the examiner can throw at you:

Go through this blog and practise some of the reading and listening exercises that I have done for you.

You can find all my vocabulary exercises on Quia

Past papers from AQA (2006-2008) can be found on the AQA website

You can also practise past papers on the following website: Linguaryde

Do not forget to look at Bitesize and Scool

Wildfrench offers you a lot of past papers as well

If you want to use the Taskmagic exercises, you will need to download the home version but it is really worth it and there are lot of games and activities to practise your France.

 

Do practise regularly and look at every topic. Check your answers and think on how you can improve.

Bonne Chance à tous

Reading skills

Improving your reading skills:

How do you cope with the more challenging texts at GCSE?

Look at the following text. What is it about? What are the words which suggest this?

You will not need to understand every single word but try to get the gist for each sentence. Identify the words you know and try to find a few cognates (Words which are like in English)-

Read the rubric. In which language are you expected to answer the questions? What are you expected to write- Quand (When) - Où (Where) - Combien (How many) - Est-ce que (is it, does it etc- answer yes or not expected) - Comment (how) - A quelle heure (At what time)

Now read the following text- It is a little challenging but you need to focus on the questions.

Chômage

Comment aider les jeunes?

Aujourd'hui, plus d'un jeune sur 4 est au chômage. Le gouvernement a lancé un nouveau plan pour les aider à trouver à un emploi. Mais sera-t-il efficace ?

En France, un travailleur sur 10 est au chômage. Chez les jeunes de moins de 25 ans, la part du chômage dépasse les 25%, soit un jeune sur 4. Le chômage est moins fort chez les personnes de 25 à 50 ans ou les personnes de plus de 50 ans.
En fait, les entreprises emploient des jeunes… sans les employer vraiment. Les jeunes font de nombreux stages, c'est-à-dire des périodes de travail très mal payées. Les jeunes sont motivés : ils travaillent beaucoup lors de ces stages dans l'espoir d'être vraiment engagés. Mais à la fin du stage, beaucoup sont remplacés par d'autres stagiaires…
Le gouvernement vient de lancer un nouveau plan pour inciter les entreprises à engager plus de jeunes. Ce plan permet aux entreprises d'engager et… de renvoyer leurs jeunes employés sans leur verser d'argent ni même leur donner d'explication. Ce plan est critiqué parce qu'il fragilise les jeunes travailleurs, susceptibles d'être renvoyés sans être protégés. Le gouvernement répond que le plus important est d'abord de tout faire pour aider les jeunes à mettre un pied dans les entreprises. De plus, ces jeunes recevront une formation dès qu'ils seront engagés : cette formation doit les aider à mieux travailler et donc à multiplier leurs chances de rester dans l'entreprise

le 17 janvier 2006

Les Clés de l'Actualité

Answer the following questions;

 

1. How many young people are unemployed in France
2. How many people are unemployed in France
3. What are firms accused to do when they employ young people?
4. Why do young people accept this?
5. Is this successful?
6. What has the government just done?
7. Is this popular?
8. What will help the young person to stay in the firm?

Practise your listening skills

Environnement:  Les éléphants

 

Regarde le premier reportage sur Mon JT quotidien-

You will hear some unfamiliar vocabulary but remember to put it back in the context. This topic will be familiar to you so you should be able to guess some of the words. Remember that words in –ory in English often translate with –oire in French.

 

 

1. Réponds aux questions suivantes

Comment dit-on une défense d'éléphant en anglais?
Comment dit-on un braconnier en anglais?
Comment dit-on ivory en français?

1. Tusk
2. Poacher
3. Ivoire

Numbers are difficult to understand so again use common sense and what you know. Split the number in sections-example:

1000	100	20	5
Mille	Cent	Vingt	cinq

If you hear mille, you will know that they are at least 4 numbers.

Cent will be three etc. you can draw a grid to help you or figure it out in your head.

1. Des chiffres:

How many outlaws were caught?
How many countries are mentioned? What are their names in French?
How many ivory pieces have been seized?
How many kilos?
How many elephants have been killed?
How many elephants were there in Kenya 50 years ago?
How many are left  now?

 

1. 2
2. 2 (le Kenya et la Tanzanie)
3. 94
4. 702 kgs
5. 37
6. 167
7. 33

 

A la poste / à la banque

A vocabulary game to help you revise the vocabulary for role-plays

Click on the link below:

 A la poste & à la banque

Here the vocabulary used in the game

je voudrais envoyer	I would like to send
C'est combien?	How much?
Je peux vous aider	Can I help you?
Une pièce d'identité	means of identification
Un billet de banque	a banknote
une pièce	a coin
la monnaie	change
une livre sterling	a pound sterling
le taux de change	exchange rate
le distributeur automatique	cash machine
un timbre	a stamp
la boîte à lettres	postbox
j'ai oublié	I forgot
je n'ai pas de	I haven't got any
je n'ai plus de	I haven't got anymore
Je n'ai que	I only have
là-bas	over there
une carte postale	a postcard
un colis	a parcel
la tonalité	the dialling code
où est?	where is?
la télécarte	the phonecard
le portable	mobile phone
composer le numéro	dial the number

You can also find other activities and games for revision by clicking on  My activities

La recette du cake d'Amour -

Year 11- Practise your recipes with this song. Fill in the missing words on the worksheet.
La recette du cake d'Amour - Get more Business Documents You can find the words, questions and you can cut the song and re-arrange it here:
Recette du cake d'Amour- paroles - Get more Business Documents

More listening comprehensions

To improve your listening skills:

1. Read the questions carefully.  In the listening that you are going to do, notice that the first question refer to the past and present.  Make a note of the tenses that you will be expected to hear!  Also see what information you need to listen for-  In question 2, you really need to listen for numbers.
2. What is the topic about?  What sort of vocabulary will you need, you may be able to guess some answers.
3. Check that you are answering your questions in the right language,  check how many marks you need for each answers.
4. As well as your numbers, know your phonemes, it will help you with spelling these difficult words!
5. Don't panic!  Listen carefully.

Now do the following comprehension based from story in Mon jt quotidien

Un chinois vit avec 11 euros 50 - Get more Business Documents

Managing listening comprehension

To tackle the more difficult questions in GCSE comprehension, watch news items from monjtquotidien.  Here are some questions to go with the topic of food and the problems encountered by a restaurant in New York.

Watch the following clip and have a go at the exercise on the following document:

Des rats dans un restaurants - Free Legal Forms

Managing reading comprehensions

How to get the maximum mark when answering questions to a text in French?

1. Try to identify the key-words
2. Look out for synonyms
3. Answer briefly and to the point, do not copy whole chunks of texts.
4. Read the questions and rubric carefully, what is the text about? Look out for clues.
   
5. Make sure that you learn new vocabulary on a regular basis

To improve your reading skills, have a go at the following exercises based on a past GCSE paper.  You may need to download the Taskmagic software which you can use free from home.

1. Understanding vocab  
2. Answering questions
3. Long text reading
4.  Reading comp annonces