Encouraging students in Core French through Drama


For my practicum, I was placed in a Core French Grade 7 classroom. I had started a food unit and I noticed that majority of the students were sitting at their desks. So, I wanted to find activities for them to do that moved them out of their chairs. I wanted them to communicate in French which I found many did not want to do because they were not confident in their French speaking ability. So, I thought back to drama as an excellent tool to get students to participate and engage with each other as well as the French language. The lesson I found was from the edugains website. They use the drama technique of role playing to get students to practice French vocabulary and expressions through the role of greeting people in a market, shopping and selling goods. In this case, drama enhanced my lesson by providing students an opportunity to practice their speaking and listening skills.

Click picture to access resource (Edugains)
The learning goals for this lesson were: (LG's taken from Edugains lesson p.1)
  • I act in my role and have conversations in French about buying food
    • Je peux participer à une discussion/négociation dans un jeu de rôle 
  • I plan how to spend money within a budget to buy food in the market 
    •  Je peux respecter mon budget quand je fais mes achats 
  • I use French vocabulary to talk about the things that influence my decisions about what I buy (e.g., price, locally produced, convenience, economic impact, environmental impact) 
    • Je peux utiliser le vocabulaire nécessaire pour communiquer mes idées et opinions 
  • I use drama techniques to realistically play a role 
    • Je peux participer dans un jeu de rôle en respectant la situation

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