Sep 27, 2017

French Writing Activity

A great activity to get students to practice writing is Une conversation écrite. A lot of the games that we do in my classroom focus on oral communication skills to give students a solid foundation. This activity is simple and easy to do. One of my English teaching colleagues suggested doing "Chatterlogs" but I couldn't think of a French equivalent, so I just call it "Une conversation écrite". That is essentially what it is. With a partner, students take turns asking and answering questions on paper. 

I like to pair to this activity with Questions au hasard, which is a speaking game where they are asking and answering questions. Once they have practiced saying those questions, then they can practice writing them. The game boards for that game are an excellent reference for this activity as they contain many different questions and forms of questions, as well as the answer stems. Students are also using their reading skills when they do this activity because they have to read their partner's questions so that they know what they are responding to. 
The template that I use is available on TpT as a FREE download. It has a spot for the students' names to go at the top, one beside each number: number 1 and number 2. Students then just write their number beside what they write so that I can clearly see who wrote what afterwards, without students having to rewrite their name each time they answer or ask a question.  
I have my students introduce themselves at the beginning of each Conversation écrite and after they have both introduced themselves, they take turns asking questions. One person asks a question. The partner must answer the question IN A COMPLETE SENTENCE * and then asks a new question. *You can have students extend their thinking by providing a reason using parce que. Another challenge that I give students is to respond to their partner's answer. For example: 
1 - Salut.
2 - Salut
1 - Je m'appelle Kurtis. Comment t'appelles-tu?
2 - Je suis Amanda. Quelle est ta couleur préférée?
1 - Ma couleur préférée est bleue. Est-ce que tu aimes le chiens?
2 - J'aime bleu aussi. Oui, j'aime les chiens parce qu'ils sont mignons. Quel est ton sport préféré?

I like that you can differentiate this activity by allowing students to use a reference sheet if they need it, or by having them extend their thinking. It's a simple but fun activity to do to practice their interaction écrite without having to use technology.