Hello and welcome

Hi parents.

This is the homework blog page used by Mr. Gelder, your daughter's/son's FSF2D1 (grade 10 French) teacher. I will try and share as much information here as possible.

For the first week, we will be doing review work from grade nine, as well as some other diagnostic activities (reading, listening, etc.). We will dive into the grade 10 curriculum work some time next week and distribute textbooks, etc.

We try to deliver as much of the course as possible in French, which means I will be speaking almost exclusively French to students while in class. This may seem daunting to some, but it is indeed the best way for a language learner to learn the language; replicating the "immersion" experience as much as practicable and possible.

In the mean time, please feel free to contact me any time at the particulars over on the side of the screen over any matter.

Excited about the new school year.

Course checklists

Parents:

Have a look at the image above, which contains all of the assessments currently due or past due in FSF1D1 (grade 9 French).  Has your son or daughter completed all of them?

This checklist (or Liste de rappels) is always available to students in the Hub and provides them with a convenient way to ensure they are on top of assignments that are due.

Currently, the class has just been assigned a culminating task for our brief unit on movie monsters that introduced them to the "Dr. and Mrs. Vandertramp" verbs you might remember from your own study of the language. It involves the writing of a 100 - 150 word paragraph, in the past tense, of the day in the life of a movie monster or one they make up themselves.  The written work is then transferred onto an iPad app called "Explain Everything", has images added and then a voice - recording of the paragraph.  The project is then converted to video and then uploaded to the course drop box, via hwdsb.tv (a much simpler process than this sentence makes it to be!).

Ideally, the work is handed in on or before Wednesday, April 4th. There is class time on Wednesday and Thursday of this week, in addition to a four-day weekend for students to do a little bit of homework on this.

Parent-Teacher interviews this Thursday, March 22nd

Good morning. I hope you enjoyed March Break insofar as you were able to (perhaps you didn't have a week off, like your son/daughter).

Currently, the grade nine French classes are finishing up the recording/presentation of their dialogue assignments for the Cris et frissons unit, in an effort to build confidence and profiency in oral language skills.  We then move on to the ever-fun monster movie unit, and an indtroductio to our favourite topic, "Dr. and Mrs. Vandertramp" verbs (you remember those from high school French, right?).

Parent-teacher interviews are scheduled to proceed this Tbursday, March 22nd from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. A reminder that an on-line booking is necessary and there are only a few spots left, so act now! The on-line booking will close Wednesday evening at 11:00 p.m. (I believe).  The site for an on-line booking is Parent-teacher interview booking site. There are instructions in the previous post, but simply make sure you have your student's six-digit student number in order to book.

Look forward to meeting many of you this Thursday.

March Break, Dialogues and Parent-Teacher Interviews

Good day parents of FSF1D1 students!  We are almost at March Break where we all get a well-deserved rest, students, teachers and parents.

The class is currently working on a dialogue assignment for the Cris et frissons unit. The topic is Qui est le coupable and deals with storyline in one of our units. Groups of three will be preparing and presenting a dialogue about the final scene where the police inspector confronts the guilty party in a bank heist/cyber-crime. Although preparations will be made in advance of the March Break, most will likely be presented in the first days coming back.

Speaking of the week back after March Break, it will be time for parent-teacher interviews. Hopefully, you will see an interim report card which will be sent home Friday, March 9th. That report card will not have an actual mark, but one of three indications; that your student is either "Progressing with difficulty", "Progressing well” or "Progressing very well". A vast majority of students will fall into the middle category.  In addition, there will be some general comments and a current snapshot of student learning skills.

The interviews themselves will take place Thursday, March 22nd from 6:00 p.m. until 8:00 p.m. Appointments must be made on-line at http://dvss.parentinterview.com  Instructions for booking an appointment are right here below. Ignore the dates; the site will open for bookings on Saturday, March 10th:

Option Sheets

Parents! Urgent! Option sheets are now due.

If your son/daughter has not yet submitted his/her options for next year (make sure they take grade 10 French), our school's guidance department would be grateful if it could be done tout de suite.

The option sheet can be accessed via "Career Cruising” under the students "Guidance” course in the HUB. To make it easier, I have created a link in the News section in the FSF1D1-24 French course in the HUB.

If you have any questions, concerns or difficulty, please do not hesitate to contact me or the school via the particulars under my pretty face to the right.

LET'S GET THOSE OPTION SHEETS  DONE!!

Friday, February 23rd, 2018

Friday is one of those days I am absent (also next Tuesday and Wednesday, February 27 and 28).

Friday's assignment is a reading one from the anthologie. We have a spent a good deal of time preparing for a brief introductory interview involving expressions of activity, adjectives and daily routine. We have some work to do with oral skills, particularly in thea area of confidence, but literacy is another important aspect of French.

Students are to read a short story called Le Tunnel de la peur in their Anthologies, pp. 16 -19. Instead of answering questions from the book, there is an on-line quiz linked in the news section.

Interim reports are coming up and you should ask your son/daughter if they have submitted ALL of the following reading and writing assessments to the drop box:

1. Une journée à mon goût;
2. L'Exploitation des enfants;
3. Quiz - Les verbes pronominaux;
4. Le Tunnel de la peur (outlined herein).

The interim reports will be going home just before March Break and will have one of three marks:

Progressing with difficulty;
Progressing well;
Progressing very well

A large majority of students will likely be in that middle category, which is where they should be. I have a personally very high threshold for "Progressing very well" that few students will achieve.

I will also be forwarding information about parent-teacher interview scheduling. I understand that interviews are scheduled for Thursday, March 22nd from 6:00 p.m. until 8:00 p.m.

First oral interviews and a string of absences

Good day parents and families of FSF1D1 students! It has been too long, and I know I am already breaching my pledge to keep you frequently updated.

We are working through the first unit of the course, Moi-même.com and we will be doing our first mini-culminating activity this week. It is an oral interview, using the three language conventions learned during the course of the first couple of weeks: irregular adjectives, reflexive verbs and expressions of activity.  This exercise will give students the chance to express themselves orally about a topic they know best; themselves. What we are looking at working towards is a confidence level in spontaneous oral fluency. Granted, the exercise isn't entirely spontaneous as there will be some advance preparation, students are encourged to converse with the interviewer (ie. me) rather than merely read from a prepared script.

Ultimately, we want students to be orally proficient in French, a tall order even for someone going through to grade 12. To this end, we encourage students once they hit grade twelve to challenge the DELF (Diplôme d'études en langue française), which is a test given by the government of France that certifies students at levels of proficiency in the French language. It is a great thing to earn going forward into post-secondary studies and into the workforce.

I must also apologize in advance for absences occurring Friday, February 23rd, Tuesday, February 27 and Wednesday, February 28, as I will be at various school sporting events (Indoor track and field and OFSAA swimming). Work will be left for students, available on the HUB.