Strategies for Speaking French

Francocraft

As part of the French Immersion program that I run in my classroom, I strongly encourage and promote speaking in French at all times, especially interactions between students. In order to cultivate an environment where students are encouraged to take risks to talk to one another in French, I developed a system called Francocraft in 2014. It has had a tremendous impact on my teaching, as my students have been very motivated to speak in French at all times. Over the years, I have been adding and tweaking the system. This system is comprised of multiple mini-systems, that all feed into one another. The first one is the marble system. This guide will walk you through the different systems that I put into place in my classroom, as well as the resources that I use. You are welcome to use Francocraft in your classroom as well, the only thing that I ask is that you give credit where credit is due. If someone asks where you got the idea from, please give me credit.

You are welcome to make changes to the system as well, based on the needs and interests of your students and yourself. I started using Minecraft as a theme because my students were very interested in Minecraft and I, myself, quite enjoyed the game as well. I started using the game in my classroom as reward for students who achieved trophies. It served not only as a reward, but as an authentic situation for speaking in French, as students worked together, communicating only in French, to build things in Minecraft. Today I use Minecraft : Education Edition as a virtual classroom for class projects and learning, in addition to being used as a reward.

Here are the systems that I will be explaining:

Les billes – Marble System

Les billets – Ticket System

Francocraft – Les niveaux

Petit Profs

Les counters

Les trophées - Trophies

Les autres Petit Profs – Alternate Route to Petit Prof

Marble System – Les billes

I was inspired to use this system when I saw it in action at a French Immersion school in Kingston. I immediately put it into place in my classroom and noticed a change in the amount of French being spoken by students. This system rewards individuals for their efforts speaking French and the whole class as well.

I have two containers in my classroom – one that is labelled “Les classes” (because I have two classes of 20 students, one group I see in the morning, one group I see in the afternoon) and another one that is labelled “M. Hartnell”. To begin, I fill the container labelled “M. Hartnell” with marbles (les billes). As students speak French, they can take one of my marbles and place it in the container labelled “Les classes”. Students typically win between one and three marbles if they speak to me in French. Gradually, as the students speak more French, they take the billes from the teacher’s container to the classroom container. The goal is for them to transfer all of les billes to the classroom container. When this happens, there is a draw, where seven students are chosen at random to receive a prize from the prize box. 

The amount of marbles they win is in direct relation to the complexity of what they are saying, how much risk is involved and whether it is frequently practiced language that is a classroom expectation. This is also dependent on the time of the year, as at the beginning of the year, students are just coming off of summer vacation so they are rewarded for most of what they say in French. As the year progresses, it becomes increasingly difficult to gain more marbles. As their French develops, so do my expectations – both in quantity and in quality.

To start off the year, I generally say that if a student speaks to me in French, that is worth 1 marble.

If two students are speaking to one another, they each get to put in a marble.

If a student speaks to another teacher in French, that is worth 3 marbles.

Students quickly realize that if they speak to each other in French, they can transfer marbles more quickly than by just speaking to the teacher in French.

I set up lots of opportunities for students to speak French and provide scaffolding for the students so that they have the vocabulary that they need in order to speak in French. For example, we will play games that put an emphasis on oral communication. If everyone is doing a good job of communicating only in French, then when they are done, I will reward the whole class by allowing them to each put in a few marbles.

Resources: two jars (purchased from Dollarama), multiple bags of marbles (purchased from Dollarama)

The Ticket System – Les billets 

To encourage students to take risk and participate more during group discussions and activities, I developed the ticket system. Students can earn billets for things such as a good answer, a good observation, good participation, etc. When they earn these tickets, they get to hold onto the ticket until a break in our lesson/plan, where they can ask to exchange the ticket for three marbles, or 30 seconds added our P.A.T. time. P.A.T. stands for Preferred Activity Time and is a part of Fred Jone’s Positive Classroom Discipline, which I follow in my classroom. I have found that students become very motivated to earn billets and generally will try to earn one of each colour.

Resources: les billets (available for purchase from TPT, we had them printed in colour at Staples and then cut out and laminated them)

Francocraft Levels – Les niveaux

This system tracks how much French students speak on a daily basis. All students start at Level 1 (Niveau 1), which is the grass level – to represent the grass in the game Minecraft. In Minecraft, characters dig below the surface to find different stones and gems. As students speak more French, they break through the grass level to get to the dirt level. The more French, they speak, the higher the level they will attain. Each level represents a different aspect from the game – the higher the level they are, the rarer the gem they are. Each level also has its own success criteria that students must meet in order to obtain that level. I track their progress with a game board in the classroom that is always displayed. Their levels are displayed with actual items that represent the grass/dirt/gems from the game Minecraft. They move up in levels gradually as the year goes on, depending on the amount of marbles they win. Therefore, if a student speaks frequently in French, that student will receive marbles, which in turn increases his/her level in Francocraft.

Resources for Levels Board:

-Bristol board (for levels success critera), photos of tokens for each level (printed online), success criteria

Resources for Display Board:

-bristol board (for Francocraft display), Minecraft calendar (for cutouts as decorations, purchased at Wal-Mart), mini plastic shot glasses (purchased from Dollarama, used for holding the tokens for each level), labels for names for display (purchased from Dollarama), tokens for each level: 

grass = wooden blocks from Dollarama, painted green

dirt = wooden blocks from Dollarama, painted brown

rock = wooden blocks from Dollarama, painted gray

coal = black glass stones from Dollarama

lapis = dark blue glass stones from Dollarama

gold = wooden blocks from Dollarama, painted yellow

diamond = light blue glass stones from Dollarama

emerald = light green glass stones from Dollarama

I make sure that I have enough tokens for everyone to be at the same level.

Petit Profs

Once students have demonstrated a strong commitment to the language by making a concerted effort to always speak in French with the teacher and their peers, thereby helping to create a truly French environment, then they are awarded the distinction of Petit Prof. This distinction is only provided to those who have achieved the highest level in Francocraft, which is the Emerald level. Becoming a Petit Prof entitles the student to certain privileges but also requires some extra responsibilities as well. Petit Profs are identified by either a bracelet, a necklace or a badge that says Petit Prof and these students chose our weekly P.A.T. game, which the class has earnd based on positive behaviour. During P.A.T, we play a game that reinforces what we are learning in class. The Petit Profs are given a selection to choose from and vote on which activity they would like for the class to do during P.A.T. As part of their responsibilities, which they accept once they become a Petit Prof, they are also required to provide assistance to students who need help speaking French. When students need help speaking in French, they are advised to seek out a Petit Prof as a resource before coming to the teacher for assistance.

Resources:

-bracelets (custom silicone bracelets in green and white with the words Petit Prof printed on them)

-necklaces – malemite board (purchased from Lowe’s), Petit Prof diamond printouts (printed at Staples, cut out, and laminated), green cord (purchased from Dollarama or Lowes)

-badges – wood (purchased from Michaels), green spray paint (purchased from Michaels), bar pins (purchased from Michaels)

Tally Counters

Petit Profs are tasked with the additional responsibility of tracking how often English is spoken in our class. Petit Profs are given a tally counter and keep track of how many times English is spoken. At the end of class, we update our Record Board, which is where we keep track of how many times we spoke English each day.

Resources :

Tally Counters, with lanyards (purchased from Amazon)

Record Sign (printed and laminated)

Trophies – les trophées

I keep a list of the students who are Petit Profs, and each week, the five students at the top of the list, get Minecraft trophies (that accompany them for the day) and as a reward, get to stay in at recess and build cooperatively in Minecraft: Education Edition together. Then those five names will go to the bottom of the list, until we have cycled through all of the Petit Profs. In order to keep their place on the list, students must continue to achieve the success criteria for a Petit Prof (i.e. speaking in French on a consistent basis with peers and teachers, and always assisting others with speaking in French). If students are not maintaining these standards, then their names are moved to the bottom of the list and will not move up the list until they are achieving those standards again.

Resources:

Trophies (Minecraft plush toys, purchased from https://www.minecraftshop.com/shop/cat/toys/toys/plush/coll/minecraft/ (the Official Store of Minecraft)

Trophy case (drawer organizer, purchased from Wal-Mart)

5 devices with Minecraft: Education Edition

*Modifications* - Alternate Route to Petit Prof Status

Sometimes, despite students’ best efforts, they may not be able to achieve Petit Prof status. For some of my students, I have created an alternate path for them to become a Petit Prof. I have created a card, that they keep on them during class time. This card has 8 sections. Whenever I noticed that they are making a concerted effort to speak in French, I will initial a box. When the card is filled, they get to “level up” to the next level in Francocraft.

Additional Resources to Support French Speaking

I have created a variety of resources that serve as scaffolding to help my students communicate in French. Many of these resources are available for purchase via TPT.

Reference Pages & Posters

Each group has copies of desk references with common phrases/expressions in French, as well as language structures for playing games in French.

I also have a poster that I created for dismissal so students can ask to leave the classroom at the end of the day in French.

Games

We play a lot of games in my classroom to help students build a strong oral foundation. I enjoy playing games myself so I try to make sure that they have an element of fun to them, but also have an emphasis on speaking and listening in French. I find that when students are engaged, they are more motivated to speak in French, and it helps when they actually want to play the games. I also try to incorporate new vocabulary into the games whenever possible. For a complete listing of the games that I have created for my students, please check out our games section on TPT.

Vocabulary Development

In order to help facilitate the vocabulary development of my students, I have created a high frequency interactive word program. While we do the interactive lessons for the new words, students can earn marbles and tickets. I also have games to support the new vocabulary, which gives students more talking time in French. This in turns helps to develop their communication skills in French. As my students become more proficient in their speaking and listening skills, I have observed that their reading and writing skills develop and improve as well.