French - Year 8
How and when will I study French?
Following the introduction of French in Year 7 at The Gatwick School last year, our students now have a choice of modern foreign language going forwards. This means that from Year 8, students now invest their entire language allocation of 5 hours per fortnight on one of these languages. Students are allocated a language based on a combination of factors including student preference, progression in Year 7, the language studied in the primary phase which usually varies, and future intentions regarding language study.
Both languages are taught through electronic media based on engaging and authentic material, including great video clips and real French text. It is supplemented by Scaffolding for Productive Language, which is bespoke, editable content enlivened by great images, and our colourful and imaginative content is uploaded to Google Classroom daily, so that students can review it at home. If you don't have it already, we strongly encourage downloading Google Classroom on mobile phones or other devices you may have. The Gatwick School also subscribes to Linguascope for great interactive activities. Click on the fish icon above. Login details for students are available from MFL staff.
Sous le ciel de Paris - Under the Paris sky
Named after the famous song, this module explores the most famous sights of the French capital:
Eiffel Tower
Notre-Dame cathedral
Arc de Triomphe
The Louvre Museum
The Seine and its river boats
The Champs-Elysées avenue
We then extend to less famous but nonetheless important places of interest:
Place de la Concorde and its gruesome history
The Sacré-Coeur basilica and the artists' square at Monmatre
La Sainte Chapelle and its beautiful windows
The Montparnasse Tower
The Orsay Museum
We also encounter
Leonardo Da Vinci's most famous work, the Mona Lisa, as well as three of his other paintings
The five Statues of Liberty in Paris
This theme is studied from September to October.
Un coup d'œil aux bases - a glance at the basics
Greetings, colours & shapes
Day & date, numbers to 100
Physical & character description
Your family pets & animals
Where you live
Inside your home & bedroom
Parts of the body & ailments
Celebration
This theme is studied from October to February.
What else should I know?
Previous knowledge of French is helpful but not necessary, as we go back and do all the basics again but using different material than in the primary phase.
You will do your work in an eeBook (electronic evidence book) rather than a traditional exercise book. This is permanently shared with your teacher who will review it and make comments electronically as applicable. You will have one eeBook for classwork and another one for grammar notes.
You will need to be prepared to write reflections on your progress when asked to by your teacher.
The use of Google Translate and other translation packages and AI is not allowed in lessons. This is because you are here to actually learn the language, not to let software do the work for you.
Miam ! - Yum!
Breakfast in France, the UK and around the world
Selling fruit
Patisserie
Crêpes
Sweet and savoury
The best dates in Algeria
Smoothies galore!
A medley of vegetables
Organic products
International cuisine
Typical French dishes
This theme is studied from February to March.
Qui est le coupable ? - Whodunit?
Crime au château - a theatrical ‘whodunit’ which features storytelling, and explores descriptions, motivations and past tenses.
This is re-enacted and may be recorded as an audio or video play.
Suspects in a car theft - identify the culprit from the police interrogation video.
This theme is studied from April to July.
Chez Mimi -Mimi's place
Get to know Madame Mimi, the cantankerous concierge in an extraordinary apartment block in a typical French town.
Meet the other residents of the block and their visitors and some of the farcical goings on in this children's series.
Learn about family, friends, animals and, of course, eating and who is Mme Mimi's secret admirer?
This theme is studied periodically throughout the year.
Homework
You will definitely need to do some homework each week in order to ensure your success at language learning. This will be one or more of the following.
Learn a new Personal Response Question
Consolidate new vocabulary from a specified vocabulary list or use The Gatwick School Linguascope account, a great way to learn interactively.
Review a grammar note so you come to learn how the language works.
Review lesson slide(s) uploaded on Google Classroom
Complete any activity you were unable to finish in class or for which you were absent
How will I be assessed?
You will always get plenty of feedback from your teacher as you go along, but there are also formal eAssessments each term, which cover all four language skills each time.
eListening
This means a short electronic test on a locked, school-managed Chromebook in which the teacher plays some short Spanish audio recordings twice each, and you answer from a range of usually five multiple choice answers. There is also a transcription section in which the teacher reads out a sentence in French and you type out what you hear. Spelling and accents do not have to be totally accurate when testing this skill.
eSpeaking
Each week you will complete a Personal Response Question or PRQ, in which you will devise an answer using a range of quality, scaffolded material. You will need to learn just 4 questions of which you will be asked 3 in a random order. You will do your eSpeaking via video link to the classroom to give you some privacy and your teacher will talk to you using headphones. You must also ask the teacher a question related to the topic, which you can prepare in advance.
eReading
This is another type of short eAssessment conducted on a locked Chromebook, in which you have to answer from a range of multiple choice answers related to a very short text. There is also a translation sentence, in which you need to translate a sentence from French into English.
eWriting
For many, this is the most challenging of the four language skills. However it is also based on the same PRQs and you are asked to type out our four PRQ responses to see how well you can write in Spanish. In this eAssessment, correct spelling and placement of accents do carry weight. There is also a translation sentence in which you have to translate a sentence from English into French.
Beside the four languages skills eAssessments, you should expect eVocab tests a few times per term. These are very quick to do but will give you and your teacher a good indication of how well you are taking in new vocabulary.