Hooking those cool junior kids

On my first day of school this year, I was terrified.  Last year was my FIRST first day of school in an immersion class, and I wasn't nearly as scared as I was this year.  I'm teaching French Core right now, and going into a class of grade 5/6s was a very scary thought.  They're not as easy to engage as the younger studens.  So, I walked in confident, ready to discuss class rules, routines and reward systems.  I told myself that the only way they'll learn French, is if I always speak French and sandwich English words here and there.  I lost them within the first 5 minutes.  They had no clue what was going on.  So, once the torture of collaboratively going through the rules together was over.  I had planned to play a short game.  I've played this game with other junior students in the past, and they loved it, so I was sure these guys would enjoy it too.  They didn't.  Not one single bit.  I walked out of that class feeling awful and clueless as to what I could do with them the next day.  I learned that 1) they were very weak in French and 2) they DID NOT want to learn French.

So I had a long chat with my fiance (who's also a teacher) that night.  We brainstormed things that kids this age enjoy, and the main thing that came up was.... FACEBOOK!  I was then determined create lessons revolving around facebook to hook them.  Here's what I came up with.

I created a class page for the students, which I showed them the next day.  I got a couple of "ouh"s and "ah"s...  I posted a Mad Libs page that I created.  On this page, they had to insert information about themselves (favourite foods, sports, etc.).  The basics.  I used simple, straightforward vocabulary, and even made a second version of the page with a few English words underneath to help the students who were struggling.  I gave them the choice of the Challenging page or the Helpful page (with English words).  Most kids used the Challenging page.  I was psyched!  Everyone got a printed copy of the Mad Lib and once they completed it, I asked them to go home and copy down their Mad Lib in the comment box on Facebook.  They were so excited, and so was I, because I HOOKED the cool junior kids on day 2!

Here's a picture of my own completed Mad Lib that I posted on Facebook.  The students got the chance to know me a bit better through it too!