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Dear French Class Parents and Students,
Bonjour et bienvenue à la clase de français! I look forward to being your French World Language teacher for the 2014-2015 school year. In order to have a positive learning experience in the French classroom, I need everyone aware of the rules and procedures we will be following in class. Merci, thank you in advance for your cooperation as we prepare for another exciting school year!
Les régles de la salle de classe/Classroom rules:
- Follow directions the first time they are given.
- Respect the teacher, fellow classmates, classroom guests, and property.
- Raise your hand to speak and do not speak out of turn while others are speaking.
- Keep your hands, feet, and other objects to yourself.
- Speak French at as much as possible.
- Come prepared with completed homework and supplies indicated.
- Food/gum and cell phones are NOT permitted in the classroom.
In addition to the rules above, Murray Language Academy is a CHAMPS school. The CHAMPS acronym stands for “Conversation, Help, Activity, Movement, Participation, and Success.” Each major classroom genre of activity or transition has a CHAMPS procedure associated with it to help students know and understand what the teacher expects of them. Students will be learning the CHAMPS procedures for French class throughout the school year. I will be reinforcing this program and its elements during the first several weeks of school and will expect full adherence to this program by all of my students.
Things you need daily for French Class:
Please refer to the list of supplies printed on a separate piece of paper.
Grading (IMPORTANT: Please note differences from previous years):
- Reading: 20%
- Listening: 20%
- Speaking: 30%
- Writing: 30%
Our goal at Murray Language Academy is for students to gain proficiency and cultural awareness in their target language of study. Proficiency demonstrates what students can do in a language. In order to better demonstrate students’ performance in their respective languages and based on best practices and research in World Language pedagogy and grading, the World Language department will assess students based on evidence of achievement of language objectives in the four domains of communication: reading, writing, speaking, and listening, RATHER than by assessment method (projects, tests/quizzes, participation, classwork/homework, etc.). Academic grades will be based on students’ proficiency levels rather than in the number of assignments they submitted. A variety of assessment methods will be used each quarter in order to gather evidence of student achievement of lesson objectives and standards in the 4 domains. This is also known as standards based grading.
Participation in all class activities, practice at home, and turning assignments in on time is crucial. Students will communicate in all 3 modes of communication in French: interpersonal (speaking), interpretive (listening and reading), and presentational (speaking and writing). I expect students to engage in all activities to the best of their ability.
It is also essential that students turn their work in on time, as each assignment in class builds on the other. French homework will be assigned from 2nd-8th grade, but will not necessarily be assigned each class period. I highly recommend that students practice French each day at home, whether or not they have homework. Students will write their homework in their assignment notebook. Students may NOT use Google Translate or any similar online translators for their classwork or homework, as these tools do not demonstrate language that the student can produce on his/her own.
It is expected that students meet all assignment deadlines, for both in-and-out-of-class work. Late work is unacceptable. For every class period work is late (with the exception of absences), it will be deducted a letter grade. If the work is more than four class periods late, the student will get a “0.” If students have an absence, they must find out the next day what they missed by either asking me or a classmate. Excepting extenuating circumstances, they are expected to finish the work within 2 class periods. If students in 5th-8th grades are absent they may also look up the assignments they missed in edmodo. Students are creating edmodo accounts in class. Edmodo is an online social network appropriate for school settings. Assignments will be given through this site and students can connect to me and fellow students.
Lastly, I have a class blog which is linked to the MLA website. On my blog, I place links to videos, games, and other resources, as well as periodic updates to classroom activities and other news.
I look forward to working with you and your child in the year to come. Please feel free to contact me with questions, concerns, or ideas. You can reach me at [email protected]. If you need to meet with me before or after-school, you may do so by setting up an appointment with me.
Thank you for all your cooperation and support throughout the year.
Madame Korpalski
For several classes I have created study sets on the topics we have been studying on the website www.quizlet.com. Students can go to this website, search my username which is MKorpalski1, and select the topic they are studying. There are online flashcards, games and practices tests which are a great way to study for upcoming quizzes.
Check it out!
There are some wonderful events coming soon.
May 16 is the World Language Fair sponsored by the Murray PTO. It should be a lot of fun and more information will be given soon.
May 23 is the World Language Assembly for Kindergarten through 4th graders. It will take place in the Murray gym from 9:15-10:30. Watch students perform songs in their languages of study.
See you then!
It is now the 4th quarter. Everone is starting fresh so let's stay on track this quarter.
Tuesday is "Poisson d'avril," or as most of us know it, April Fools' Day. Remember to say "Poisson d'avril" when someone finds the paper fish you taped to their back!
The 2nd-8th grades are continuing to work on the Middlebury Interactive program once a week in class, but they are welcome to work on it at home as well. The website to access is www.pglms.com. To log in students enter their student ID number for their username and password.
What are we doing in class this week?
5th-8th grades: We just took a quiz last week so we are starting a new unit. We'll have a brief review of definite articles (le, la, l', les) and then dive in to conjugating -er verbs. This is a very important skill as most verbs in French are -er verbs. Knowing the pattern to conjugate any regular verb that ends with -er will give students the ability to say an innumerable amount of things. This is a definite French I requirement. We will be spending a good deal of time on this unit so everyone can master this skill. There will be homework assigned on Day 3 of class.
4th Grade: Last week we finished talking about time and this week we will begin talking about the weather. Once we get this vocabulary down we will start our main project for the quarter which is to create a weather report video which includes the time, date and weather conditions. There will be homework 2 nights this week.
2nd-3rd grades: We are continuing to work on body parts. Some activities to look forward to this week will be a game of Jeopardy, Simon Says, and a crossword puzzle. The only homework will be if students do not finish assignments in class.
1st grade: This week we will finish our study of animals from Africa. As we study these animals we are also reviewing the farm animals we learned earlier in the year. This topic is important because the REACH assessment the students take at the end of the year is in large part on animals. There will be a quiz Friday.
Kindergarten: We are still working on family members. Most students have mastered this vocabulary, but we are using it to introduce other people and to say how old other people are. I hope all students brought home the books they made in class last week and read them to you.
Bonjour a tous!
February is very exciting. We're getting more snow. Lincoln's birthday is coming up next week, and there seem to be a lot of other birthdays this month as well. To wish someone a happy birthday you can tell them "Bon anniversaire" or "Joyeuse anniversaire!"
Strive held their firtst French Club and Homework Help meeting this Monday. Did anyone make it? Let me know how it went.
Parent and students, this is what we are doing in class this week:
8th Grade: We are starting a project for the African-American fair coming up February 21. In class we will go over the parameters and expectations of the projects and the rubric. Research will be done in class, but students should also work on the project at home.
7th Grade: We are reviewing the verb "AVOIR" (to have) and learning 9 expressions that are formed with avoir. Students will get a homework assignment Thursday that should be completed by Monday. For a fun song to help you remember how to conjugate AVOIR, check out this Youtube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=puUFkMr_GyU
5th/6th grades: This week we will finish our unit on the verb "AVOIR." Monday and Tuesday we will be working on a number of review activities. Students should study for the quiz they will take in class Wednesday. For a fun song to help you remember how to conjugate AVOIR, check out this Youtube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=puUFkMr_GyU
4th Grade: This week we are studying the days of the week and the months of the year. Students should be able to write these words and state the date and say when their birthday is. Here's a list to review:
Days of the week - Les jours de la semaine
Monday - lundi
Tuesday - mardi
Wednesday - mercredi
Thursday - jeudi
Friday - vendredi
Saturday - samedi
Sunday - dimanche
Months of the Year - Les mois de l'annee (some words are missing accent marks)
January - janvier
February - fevrier
March - mars
April - avril
May - mai
June - juin
July - juillet
August - aout
September - septembre
October - octobre
November - novembre
December - decembre
1st-3rd grades: This week we are working on vegetables. You can review the vocabulary with your child. Some helpful websites are: http://www.languageguide.org/
In addition to the vocabulary, students are working on stating what they like and don't like.
Kindergarten: Many students feel comfortable counting to around 11, 12, 13 in French, but this week we are focusing on getting more of us up to 20. We're also being introduced to how to say how old we are. A few resources we are using in the classroom and you can use at home are: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UsEz58BblMY, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qnT1-XGtAzg, and BBC Primary French: numbers and age.
Quick and easy to set up
