Speaker's Corner

As I am further encouraging discussion and oral communication in our classroom lately, I have tried to use different tools to make speaking in French less of an stressful experience for certain shy students.  I have noticed that as soon as my students feel anxious about speaking in French to the class, they do not speak to their full potential, and I need to see them at their best to have a good idea of their abilities and their progress. 



A couple of weeks ago, we started the process of making rock candy in class.  Rock candy is the candy that pioneers made, and since we are studying pioneers in grade 3 social studies, I thought it would be a perfect activity.  Making this candy can take 3 to 7 days (it's been almost 2 weeks and nothing has happened... but that's another story).  Everyone made a hypothesis on how long it would take for the candy to form on the sticks. 

I wanted to use this activity as an opportunity to further practice our oral communication.  So, the students have been creating video logs to document their observations.  You don't even need to download an app for this!  Just use the video camera on your iPhone or iPad, show the students how to use it and send them in a quiet space where they can record their findings on their own, without anyone listening or watching.  My shy students are surprising me every time with how capable they are to speak French.  Those students rarely volunteer to speak during class discussions, so has really been the best way to track their progress.

The students are also able to go back and watch their video, once recorded and can start over or modify if they are unhappy with the final product.  However, I don't let them plan, write down or take notes beforehand on what they will say, as I want it to be as spontaneous as possible. 

After their first attempt at logging their observations on video, the students individually conferenced with me.  I had written down feedback on each of their videos and still had the videos for them to watch.  We discussed strengths and next steps.  Here are some of the next steps most students came up with:
- donner le plus de détails possible
- dire "pourquoi" (If they make an observation, they should explain why they think that such a thing happened.)
- parler clairement
- utiliser la liste de vocabulaire (Together, we created a list of words related to the making of the rock candy for the everyone to refer back to when needed.  They often forget that it even exists!  Something to work on, for sure!)

 

When I watched the 2nd and 3rd video logs, I noticed that the students had remembered some or most of the feedback given to them during the individual conferences.  I heard a lot of "Je pense que... parce que...".  COMPLETE SENTENCES!  Wahoo!  Although they still have things to work on, I was very pleased to see the progress and that the conferencing seemed to have an effect on most of them.  The conferences themselves have been another way to catch a glimpse of everyone's speaking and listening skills.

Side note:  The fact that the rock candy didn't work isn't such a bad thing.  This gives me the opportunity to discuss this with the students this week.  Once we figure out what we think the problem is, we will try again, log our observations and make comparisons between both attemps!

Enjoy the following video logs! :)