French Level 1, Activity 05: La vie universitaire et scolaire / University and School (Face-to-Face)

Created Feb. 7, 2024 by Amber Hoye, Emily Blackburn, Camille Daw, Mimi Fahnstrom

Did you know that you can access the complete collection of Pathways Project French activities in our new Let’s Chat! French pressbook? View the book here: https://boisestate.pressbooks.pub/pathwaysfrench 

Please Note: Many of our activities were created by upper-division students at Boise State University and serve as a foundation that our community of practice can build upon and refine. While they are polished, we welcome and encourage collaboration from language instructors to help modify grammar, syntax, and content where needed. Kindly contact pathwaysproject@boisestate.edu with any suggestions and we will update the content in a timely manner. 

University and School / La vie universitaire et scolaire

Description

In this activity, students are going to practice vocabulary relating to school. Students will play a game using a slideshow to identify objects relating to school using full sentences. At the end of the activity, students will also discuss the subjects they study in school and how they feel about those subjects.

Semantic Topics

university, school life, school, materials, classes, la vie universitaire et scolaire, l'université, les cours, complete sentences, verbs like "to have" and "to be", les phrases complètes, les verbes comme avoir et être

Products

Knowledge, school buildings, friendships

Practices

Going to class, studying, making school friends, growing intellectually, questioning, looking at things critically and from multiple perspectives

Perspectives

Knowledge as an individual, societal, and cultural asset and rite of passage, equality in access to knowledge.

  • Do you think that education is a privilege or a right? Why?

NCSSFL-ACTFL World-Readiness Standards

  • Standard 1.1: Students engage in conversations or correspondence in French to provide and obtain information, express feelings and emotions, and exchange opinions
  • Standard 1.2: Students understand and interpret spoken and written French on a variety of topics.
  • Standard 2.1: Students demonstrate an understanding of the relationship between the practices and perspectives of the cultures of the francophone world.

Idaho State Content Standards

  • COMM 1.1: Interact and negotiate meaning (spoken, signed, written conversation) to share information, reactions, feelings, and opinions
  • COMM 2.1: Understand, interpret, and analyze what is heard, read, or viewed on a variety of topics.
  • CONN 1.2: Relate information studied in other subjects to the target language and culture.

NCSSFL-ACTFL Can-Do Statements

  • I can identify objects relating to school. 
  • I can talk about my personal belongings.
  • I can talk about my classes and what I study.

Materials Needed

  • iPad
  • Kahoot game 
  • Google Slide Presentation
  • Worksheet [OPTIONAL USE] Use this interactive worksheet as a supplemental tool for the corresponding Pressbook Conversation Activity. It can be used as a way to keep students engaged, provide a place for them to take notes, and track their learning.

Would you like to make changes to the materials? Access the template(s) below:

  • Worksheet (Canva Template, free account required)

Warm-Up

To prepare themselves for the main activity, students are going to play Kahoot to practice school vocabulary.

Nous allons jouer au Kahoot pour pratiquer le vocabulaire. Alors, allez sur le site Kahoot.it et entrez le code.

1. Open up the Kahoot for French 101 Activity Week 5. It is located on the WLRC Kahoot account. Click play, classic mode, and then tell the students the code that they need to enter on their phone. Practice saying the numbers in French so the students get familiar with them.

Ouvrez Kahoot French 101 Activity Week 5, situé dans votre compte WLRC. Cliquez sur “play”, “classic mode” et ensuite donnez aux étudiants le code qu’ils doivent entrer dans leurs portables. Pratiquez la prononciation des chiffres en Français afin que les étudiants se familiarisent avec eux.

2. Tell them that there will be a picture of a school item and they will click the best answer on their phone.

Il y aura une photo d'un objet scolaire à l'écran, vous devez cliquer sur la meilleure réponse.

Main Activity

Overview: In this activity, students are going to practice their vocabulary relating to school, using the Material Scolaire Presentation. Each slide will have an image of a different object related to school. Show the image to the group and the first person to find that object in their backpack and correctly identify the object in French gains a point. There will be certain objects that people won't have, so in this case the first person to raise their hand and say the object in French wins the point.

1. Explain the activity to the students using the Google slide presentation.

Dans cette activité, nous allons pratiquer le vocabulaire à la fac (l'université). Je vais vous montrer une photo d'un objet. La première personne qui trouve cet objet dans son sac à dos et qui peut le nommer en français gagne un point! Il y a quelques objets que personne n’a. Dans ce cas, la première personne qui le nomme en Français gagne un point. (In this activity, we will practice vocabulary at the university. I will show you a picture of a thing. The first person who finds this thing in his backpack and who can say it in French wins a point! There are some objects that nobody has. In this case, the first person who says it in French wins one point.)

2. Go to slide 3 and introduce/write on the board useful phrases for this activity that the students should use. (J'ai, Je n'ai pas, C'est, Ce n'est pas).

Allez à la troisième diapositive et écrivez au tableau des phrases clées que les étudiants pourront utiliser lors de l’activité.

3.Do a practice round with them first (slide 4) 

Premièrement, on va pratiquer avec un exemple (Show them slide 4 with the picture of the calculator). J'ai besoin d'une...

4. The first student to find raise their hand, show the object and correctly identify it in French wins.

Le premier étudiant qui trouve la réponse, lève sa main, montre l’objet et le nomme correctement en français, gagne.

5. Continue through the rest of the presentation with the other objects, keeping track of points if you'd like.

Continuez avec le reste de la présentation et les autres objets. Si vous le désirez, vous pouvez compter les points.


*Note: Students must say a complete sentence to get the point. For example: J'ai un crayon. If no one has the object, have the students practice saying: Je n'ai pas de crayon.  If students don't have the object, but they know what it is then have them practice identifying the object by saying: C'est un crayon.

Les étudiants doivent dire une phrase complète pour obtenir un point. Par exemple: J'ai un crayon. Si personne n’a l’objet, les étudiants doivent pratiquer comment dire: Je n'ai pas de crayon. Si les étudiants n’ont pas l’objet, mais qu’ils savent comment il se nomme, alors faites-leur dire le nom de l’objet: C'est un crayon.

Wrap-Up

Ask students some questions about their classes so they can practice talking about subjects. 

Si vous avez du temps, posez des questions aux étudiants concernant leur cours afin de les faire pratiquer à parler de divers sujets concernant l’université.

Some possible questions are:

1. Quels sont les matières que vous étudiez ? (What are the subjects you study?)

2. Quels sont les cours que vous aimez ? Pourquoi ? (What are the classes that you like? Why?)

3. Quels sont les cours que vous n'aimez pas ? Pourquoi ? (What are the classes that you don't like? Why?)

4. Est-ce qu'ils sont difficile ? Facile ? Intéressant ? Inutile ? (Are they (your classes) difficult? Easy? Interesting? Useless?)

5. Avez-vous beaucoup de devoirs ? (Do you have a lot of homework?) 

Cultural Notes

Education in France is deeply engrained in societal and cultural values. Children in France start school at age 3 and many continue on to receive high education degrees. The majority of University's are free to the French people and the French education system places a large emphasis on academic achievement, philosophy, and critical thinking.

End of Activity

  • Can-Do statement check-in... “Where are we?”
  • Read can-do statements and have students evaluate their confidence.
  • Encourage students to be honest in their self-evaluation
  • Pay attention, and try to use feedback for future activities!

NCSSFL-ACTFL Can-Do Statements

  • I can identify objects relating to school. 
  • I can talk about my personal belongings.
  • I can talk about my classes and what I study.
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