The process of gamifying French as a Second Language has taken a large chunk of time to plan, prepare and execute; hence the time away from my blog posting. I have been extremely pleased with the results to date. Student engagement is at an all-time high for a second language class, and students report genuinely looking forward to this class. Interesting points and comments so far include:
“My son is really enjoying French this year. Like really enjoying it. And if I’m being honest, I was very very worried about him having that class this year.”
“Mrs. Baragar, this is my very favourite class, and it’s not even close! I love French!!”
This was the purpose and was certainly my intention when I made the choice to go this route with this new (although very old, French is my undergrad major) teaching assignment. In fact, it is going so well that I’ve already been asked if I would entertain teaching a grade nine level course – an offering we’ve not had in my school for many years.
Inventing games for the grade seven level can be quite challenging; they are at an absolutely beginner level with the language, so developing some basic knowledge was almost critical in order to be able to play many mini games. A successful game has been the ping pong balls. I have a bucket filled with ping pong balls, each with a point value written on the ball. I pose review questions at the start of class, and a correct answer (or genuine effort – pronunciation is not a big issue at this stage of learning) the student receives a ball. When everyone has a ball – or two, or three, they add up their total points and submit it to me on a “points tally” slip.
Points translate to cards, and cards enable the student to thwart the actions of others in a larger game scenario (eg: Jeopardy).
Challenges to this model of teaching and learning seem to be specific to the school’s timetable. The way we function right now, option classes run for a full year, and I only have each class two time per week; though occasionally I have them on a Friday. From time to time, depending on the timing of assemblies and other school activities a week can pass between classes. This makes it somewhat difficult to hold an expectation on retention of learning, and certainly prohibits my teaching French IN FRENCH.
ABOVE: Students (Hockey Program Boys) stay into lunch voluntarily to complete a French quiz to achieve full points!