Wednesday

French

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Last month I started a little French club with some of my younger children and some of their friends.  For the record, I don't speak French even though I had years of it in starting in 6th grade in Canada and then through my sophmore year of college.  Therefore, I'm not calling myself a teacher, I'm merely learning (or re-learning) alongside the kids.

We are using L'Art de Lire by Nallenart. The French Canadian bent suits me just fine. I figure as the kids get a little further along I'll add in Pimsleur and the accents will balance each other, and most hopefully of all, cancel out their Tennessee drawls.

So far the things I like:
  • phonetic layout and presentation
  • grammar within a story line context
  • useful vocabulary
  • easy to divide up daily work
  • the audio track reinforces daily work
  • almost no prep work required
All in all I'm finding the first book to be a very gentle introduction to a foreign language.  Very doable for my younger students and an easy extra-curricular for my older students. 

I'm looking forward to seeing how the programs builds and grows.