10 ideas for exploiting the Poster of “France and its overseas regions” with classes Written by Louise Glen & Anne Sophie McNeish (SCILT)

The Institut Français d’Ecosse has created the poster “la France et ses régions” for French classrooms in Scotland. Each teacher can get it for free and pick it up at the Institut Français d’Ecosse (contact: education@ifecosse.org.uk) or at the Alliance française de Glasgow.

WARNING ! This poster “la France et ses régions” conceived by the Institut Français d’Ecosse was conceived as a teaching aid, to be used interactively with your classes, and not just for decorating your classroom …

Number Name of the activity Description of the activity Year group

Skills E’s and O’s

1 Tes connaissances sur la France Show the map to the pupils. Ask them to discuss with the rest of the class what they know about France and their regions. Do they know the name of the regions? Discuss the symbols for each region/cities. Talk about food, festival, customs… With junior classes, discuss as much as you can in French. With Senior classes, discuss in French. Everyone has to take notes.

S1-S6 Whole class discussion Listening and Talking

Notes taking

MLAN 3-02a MLAN 4-02a

2 Présentons les régions françaises Pupils have to work in groups (3-4 pupils). They have to choose one region in France (Make sure they all take a different one). They have to do some research about that region and make a presentation that they are going to present to the rest of the class. Each group can make a poster to present the region. Everything should be written in French or as much as possible for junior classes. They can talk about food, customs, attractions, weather …) They also have to write in French why they chose this one.

S1-S6 IT project (research) Group work

Writing in French Presentation skills Speaking in French

MLAN 3-06a MLAN 3-06b MLAN 3-07a MLAN 4-06a MLAN 4-06b MLAN 4-07a MLAN 4-09a MLAN 3-12a MLAN 4-12a

3 C’est quelle région? A toi de trouver! Prepare or ask a native speaker (FLA if you have one in your school) a PPT where you put different pictures and facts about the 22 regions. Ask the pupils to sit in group. Within their group, they have to guess which region it is about. You can also simply write a small paragraph in French where pupils have to guess which region it is. Adapt the facts and languages to the classes. Everything should be written in French. You can use resources from The Institut Français d’Ecosse (http://www.ifecosse.org.uk/Online-resources-for-S4-S6-new.html?lang=en) for some photos. Then they have to

S1-S4 Group work Listening in French

MLAN 3-01a MLAN 4-01a

replace the regions on the map.

4 C’est où en France? Use the videos from the The Institut Français d’Ecosse (http://www.ifecosse.org.uk/Online-resources-for-S4-S6-new.html?lang=en). Then, they have to replace the different regions onto the map.

S4-S6 Listening in French MLAN 4-01a

5 C’est un vrai puzzle! Make colour photocopies of the map, laminate them & cut out the regions (actually, get someone else to do this for you, it’s a mindless task), pop each set into a plastic wallet & hey presto – you have a set of jigsaw puzzles, which groups/pairs can complete against the clock, or against other groups.

S1-S3 Group work Competition

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6 La France et l’Europe By looking at the map, ask the pupils to answer these questions:

- Quels pays touchent la France? - Sont-ils des mots féminins ou masculins ?

pourquoi ? - Quels sont les pays où on parle français ? - Quels sont les différents océans/mers qui bordent

la France ? - Quelles sont les différentes rivières en France ? - Pourquoi Toulouse est-il célèbre ? - Pourquoi Clermont Ferrand est-il célèbre ? - Pourquoi Dijon est-il célèbre ? - Pourquoi la Belgique est-elle célèbre ? - Pourquoi l’Italie est-elle célèbre ?

The pupils can work by themselves and write their answers. They can also work within a group and discuss the right answers.

S1-S3 Reading Understanding a map

Group work

MLAN 3-09a

7 Quelle région en France préfères-tu? Pupils have to choose one of the French regions and they have to write a paragraph explaining which region and why they prefer this one. The length and level of the language would depend on their level.

S1-S6 Writing in French Use of a bilingual

dictionary

MLAN 3-12a MLAN 4-12a MLAN 3-13b MLAN 4-13b MLAN 3-14a MLAN 4-14a

8 La France dans le monde Ask the pupils to look at the bottom of the map “ Les régions françaises d’outre-mer” With their partner they have to pick 5 of them and write a small paragraph about where they are situated in the world. For example: La polynésie française se situe à l’est de l’Amérique du Sud dans l’océan pacifique.

You can previously work with the pupils about directions and continents in the world. They have to develop depending on their level.

S1-S4 Understanding a map Writing in French

MLAN 3-12a MLAN 4-12a MLAN 3-14a MLAN 4-14a

9 Présentons “les régions françaises d’Outre-Mer”

Pupils have to work in groups (3-4 pupils). They have to choose one “région d’outre-mer” (Make sure they all take a different one). They have to do some research about that region and make a presentation that they are going to present to the rest of the class. Everything should be written in French or as much as possible for junior classes. They can talk about food, customs, attractions, weather …). They also have to write in French why they chose this one.

S1-S6 IT project (research) Group work

Writing in French Presentation skills Speaking in French

MLAN 3-06a MLAN 3-06b MLAN 3-07a MLAN 4-06a MLAN 4-06b MLAN 4-07a MLAN 4-09a MLAN 3-12a MLAN 4-12a

9 Les régions françaises d’Outre-mer Use excerpts of the BBC video –“Quinze minutes plus” which is set on Guadeloupe. If you don’t have the video, there are clips of it on www.bbc.co.uk/learningzone/clips . There are also plenty websites out there with pictures/footage of many of the regions. Use these as a basis to explore similarities/differences between lifestyles here & over there. Ask the pupils to take notes about what they hear about La Guadeloupe.

S4-S6 Listening Notes taking

MLAN 4-01a

10 La place de la France dans le monde With seniors, the bottom section of the map could be used to initiate discussion investigating France’s immigration policy, integration issues, political asylum policies, French national identity etc.

S5-S6 Discussing in French about a topic for their

Speaking exam