This task is a collaborative reading and creative writing task based on a typical short stories genre (articuentos) published by the Spanish writer Juan José Millás. The final product is to choose the most original articuento of the class.
While playing the role of local political actors and journalists, students are to participate in a conference in which they discuss the issues faced by migrants living in camps in Northern France.
The teacher provides a number of (very clear, black&white: e.g. ‘we don’t need a monarchy’, ‘pineapple on pizza is delicious’, things like that) propositions. Two students start the debate, one of them is pro, the other con. Then after some time, the teachers rings a bell (or simply announces) and they swith their point of view immediately, a 180 degrees. The one pro becomes con, and vice versa. They continue the debate in their new role. After a few minutes, two new students get a new proposition and start their debate.
The goal of the task is for students to reflect on their role as a group member, to form groups based on complementary preferences and skillsets, to discuss their preferences with their group, and to come up with an action plan (final product) for the group project in which guidelines and a rough timetable for the project are described. The aim of the action plan is also to identify potential challenges for the group as well as ways to navigate these challenges.
Reading comprehension at home with Zeeguu and Cloze-gap reading in class.
For their task 1, French Plus 3a students (C1) pretend to be guides at the annual Salon international de la caricature, du dessin de presse et d’humour (international salon of caricatures, press cartoons and humour). They have to create a collective exhibition and then present/decrypt a press cartoon at the launch of the event.
For their task 1, French Basic 1a students (A2) have to write an email to themself, in the future. They have to use the website https://www.futureme.org/ and will, in 10 years time, receive this email.
Students (C1) have to write a popular science article and self-publish it in a paper magazine. They also have to organise a conference open to the public to present their articles.
Analysis and presentation of the language and discourse of a comedian from the target language (TL). Students pick first individually a comedian, look from some information about him/her, watch between 30-60min of performance, and do the analysis. Then in small groups in class they present each comedian. Afterwards, they create a common group forum about comedians in the TL to discover new ones and to encourage the class to watch more videos in their spare time.
After having watched a movie in preparation for the seminar, the students have to order a messed up plot summary.