French - Year 8

How and when will I study French?

Following the taster year of both French and Spanish in Year 7, our students have a choice of modern foreign language going forwards. This means that from Year 8, students 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. This also includes 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

🇫🇷 You will reach this waypoint point by October

What else should I know?

If you are coming from another school, previous knowledge of French is helpful but not essential, as there is still time to catch up at this point with what has been taught in Year 7.
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.

Tous à bord de l'Eurostar ! - All aboard the Eurostar!

The history of this groundbreaking Anglo-French collaboration
Service levels on board
Eurostar's approach to advertising

🇫🇷 You will reach this waypoint point by December

Bon séjour à Paris ! - Have a great stay in Paris !

Checking in at the Ritz (Pourquoi pas ?)
Meet a famous French recording artist performing on the street.
Discover a famous song about the Champs-Élysées, Paris's iconic shopping avenue
Contrast the weather in the summer and winter
Disneyland Paris (Bonjour, Mickey !)

🇫🇷 You will reach this waypoint point by Mrcha

C’est vraiment mon truc ! / That’s really my thing!

So is sport your thing?
Listening to and making music
So many pastimes, so many possibilities
Youtube - a pastime or a waste of time?
Cinema and the big screen
Reading - travelling without even stepping outside
TV and the small screen

🇫🇷 You will reach this waypoint point by July

Independent Learning

You will definitely need to do some independent learning outside of lesson time each week, in order to ensure your success in French. 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?

In class, you will always get plenty of feedback from your teacher as you go along. Listening and reading activities are self-marked with teacher guidance, whereas as developmental advice on speaking and writing is by the teacher. You will be expected to be able to show that you have learnt your Personal Responses Questions informally in lessons at this stage.

More formal testing (recorded in the teacher's eGradeBook) is done online using locked, school-managed Chromebooks in strict test conditions. The assessment types are as follows:

eVocab tests

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. They take place several times a year, according to the topic, and as they are entirely computer-based, you will get your results right away.

eChallenges

These are different from eVocab tests in that they are about applying words in a context, rather than just knowing how to translate a word. That's why they are a challenge. You can expect to have at least three per year in Year 8. You will also get your results right away for this kind of assessment.

eListening

This is a test in which the teacher plays some short, French audio recordings twice each, and you answer from a range of 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. Your results will be released via email later, following teacher review.

eReading

This is another type of short eAssessment, in which you have to answer from a range of multiple choice answers related to very short texts. There is also a translation sentence, in which you need to translate a sentence from French into English. Your results will be released via email later, following teacher review.

eSpeaking

Most weeks you will complete at least one Personal Response Question or PRQ, in which you will devise an answer using a range of quality, scaffolded material. Twice a year you will be told 4 of these questions in advance that you need to learn carefully, as these will be included in your eSpeaking test.

You will be asked 3 of these in a random order. In addition, you must also ask the teacher a question related to the topic, which you can prepare in

advance. Finally you will also need

to read an unseen sentence out aloud.

You will do your eSpeaking via video link from another room to the classroom to give you some privacy and your teacher will talk to you using headphones.

eWriting

For many, this is the most challenging of the four language skills. However it is also based on the same material and you are asked to type out the same four PRQ responses you have revised for your speaking. 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. Your results will be released via email later, following teacher marking.

Opportunités | Choix | Culture

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