French Lesson Plan The Family (La Famille)

French Lesson Plan
The Family (La Famille)
Purpose and requirements:
The students will learn how to talk about their
families and describe family members and their
relationships. The lesson is ideal for pre-teen
children or early beginners.
It is mainly focused on the indicatif présent and
adjectifs possessifs. Students at this point should
know the pronoms personnels (je, tu, il...) verbs
like to be, to have, and to live, so they are able to
make simple present tense sentences, ask simple
questions and answer them. They should also have
used the negative form with ne...pas. Ideally, they
know il y a or c’est or both.
Lesson objectives:
−
−
−
−
−
Communication: talk about/describe their
family
Grammar focus: adjectifs possessifs,
interrogation (c’est / ce sont, il y a, qui,
où). There is no est-il or est-que or y’a t-il;
questions are only presented based on the
intonation.
Vocabulary: family members
Culture: French names, French jokes
Pronunciation: intonation when asking
questions in the affirmative form
Material:
−
−
−
−
A vintage family portrait, the dialogue (listed
below), and the labels with names
Students’ family portraits (to bring for the
lesson)
Small portraits of various men, women, and
children of all ages: about 10 to 15 portraits
per student.
Scissors, glue, paper, pencils
Visit www.PimsleurApproach.com for more free French language learning resources
French Lesson Plan
The Family (La Famille)
Bridge-in:
Guidelines:
−
The dialogue could be recorded with two voices, but it
should be read by two students, only after listening to
it at least twice (either with a recording or the teacher
reading). Intonation is important as the questions do
not always use the (grammatical) interrogative form.
−
−
−
−
−
−
−
−
−
−
−
−
−
−
−
−
−
−
−
−
−
Thomas : Grand-mère, qui sont les personnes
sur la photo ?
Louise : Ce sont mes grands-parents avec leurs
enfants.
Thomas : Avec leurs enfants ? Alors... sur la
photo, il y a ton père ?
Louise : Non, mon papa n’est pas sur la photo :
c’est la famille de ma mère.
Thomas : Ah bon ! Et... où est ta maman ?
Louise : Ma maman, c’est la petite fille à gauche,
elle s’appelle...
Thomas : … je sais ! Elle s’appelle Jeanne !
Louise : Oui, c’est ça ! Ma mère s’appelle Jeanne
et ma grand-mère, c’est Thérèse.
Thomas : Thérèse ? Comme ma maman ?
Louise : Oui, ma fille a le même prénom que ma
grand-mère, c’est un hommage.
Thomas : Alors, le monsieur avec la moustache
et la barbe, c’est ton grand-père ?
Louise : Oui, c’est mon grand-père, il s’appelle
Henri.
Thomas : Et qui sont les enfants ?
Louise : Ce sont mes tantes et mes oncles !
Thomas : Tes oncles ? Tu as des oncles ?
Louise : Oui, à droite, c’est mon oncle Pierre, ton
grand-oncle, tu comprends ?
Thomas : Oui, je comprends. Alors Pierre a
quatre sœurs ?
Louise : Mais non ! Il y a trois filles et deux
garçons sur la photo ! Pierre a un frère et trois
sœurs.
Thomas : Il y a deux garçons sur la photo ?
Louise : Oui, devant ma grand-mère, c’est un
petit garçon, mon oncle Jean.
Thomas : Ah d’accord ! Et comment s’appellent
tes tantes ?
Louise : L’aînée s’appelle Émilie, ensuite il y a ma
mère et la plus jeune, c’est Françoise.
The goal of the activity is to complete a family tree.
The teacher draws the following structure (empty,
except for Thomas) on the board before reading or
listening to the dialogue.
Thérèse
Émilie
Jeanne
Henri
Françoise
Pierre
Louise
Visit www.PimsleurApproach.com for more free French language learning resources
Thérèse
Thomas
Jean
French Lesson Plan
The Family (La Famille)
Continuing the Lesson:
Once the family tree is correct, the teacher can check
that the vocabulary list has been understood by
asking questions :
1. Qui est le père de Jeanne ? (Henri)
2. Qui est la mère de Louise ? (Jeanne)
3. Qui est le grand-père de Louise ? (Henri)
4. Qui est la grand-mère de Louise ? (Thérèse)
5. Comment s’appelle la fille de Louise ? (Thérèse)
6. Comment s’appellent les filles de Thérèse et
Henri ? (Emilie, Jeanne et François)
7. Comment s’appellent les fils de Thérèse et
Henri ? (Pierre et Jean)
8. Comment s’appelle le frère de Jean ? (Pierre)
9. Est-ce que Jeanne a trois sœurs ? (Non, deux)
10. Est-ce que Louise a trois tantes ? (Non,
deux)
Activities:
1. For this lesson, students were asked to bring a
family portrait. It can be any type of family portrait
with anyone in the picture from one person to
many more. The student does not have to be in
the picture. It could be an old family portrait or a
recent one.
2. The family tree dialogue uses the following
adjectifs possessifs : mon / ton – ma / ta – mes /
tes (and leurs). The teacher shows students how
they are used depending on the person (je or tu)
and the gender – feminine or masculine, plural or
singular. Examples should be extracted from
the dialogue:
Ma mère s’appelle Jeanne.
Où est ta maman ?
C’est mon grand-père, il s’appelle Henri.
Sur la photo, il y a ton père ?
Ce sont mes tantes et mes oncles !
After the dialogue and vocabulary explanations, the
teacher gives big labels to students with the following
names on them: Louise, Thérèse, Thérèse, Henri,
Émilie, Jeanne, Françoise, Pierre, Jean.
Students have ~five to ten minutes to place the labels
at the right places on the family tree. They should be
free to discuss together and they should choose one
student to place the labels on the family tree chart.
Tips:
1. Before the labeling activity starts, the teacher
should extract the main family member
vocabulary to write a list on the board adding a
few words for feminine/masculine equivalence. It
should not be necessary to translate at this point:
le père (papa), la mère (maman) le grand-père,
la grand-mère, la fille, le fils (be careful with the
possible confusion with une petite fille) un enfant,
des enfants, un frère, une sœur, un oncle, une
tante, un grand-oncle, une grand-tante.
2. This is a good opportunity to introduce or revise
qui est-ce / qu’est-ce que c’est and est-ce que
/ est-ce que c’est as well as to work on the
intonation.
The table below shows how adjectifs possessifs are
used. This should be provided after the activity.
Masculin Féminin
Pluriel
Je
Mon frère Ma sœur Mes frères /
Mes sœurs
Tu
Ton père
Ta mère
Tes parents
Il / Elle
Son oncle Sa tante
Ses oncles /
Ses tantes
Nous
Notre grand-père /
Nos grands
Notre grand-mère
parents
Vous
Votre fils / Votre fille
Vos enfants
Ils / Elles Leur fils / Leur fille
Leurs enfants
Visit www.PimsleurApproach.com for more free French language learning resources
French Lesson Plan
The Family (La Famille)
3. A – Preparation : Students have five minutes
to look at their family portraits in order to get
ready to answer questions from other students.
They should also look at the dialogue to extract
possible questions. They can:
− write a description of their family on their own
− train in pairs to ask each other questions.
B – Questions : the teacher should ask which
students would like to answer questions about
their family portraits. The teacher then collects
pictures and lets students raise hands to ask their
questions. It is easier for them than going in front
of the class with their pictures.
Tips:
–
–
–
With the dialogue, students have a few questions
to ask and answer: qui sont les personnes sur
la photo ? Qui est la petite fille, qui est le petit
garçon, etc. but the teacher should go from pair
to pair to answer students’ vocabulary questions.
Small class: the activity allows all students to
answer questions about their family portraits.
Bigger class: when some students have not
answered questions, they can:
- exchange pictures and prepare questions for
the next lesson
- present their family directly; if so, these students
should be advised to use the questions phase to
prepare their presentation.
Game:
The goal: Using an imaginary family tree, students will have to find one family member with the help of hints.
Instructions/Preparation: The teacher distributes 15 portraits of various people of all ages on a sheet of paper.
Students (in pairs, in groups, or on their own) have to create an imaginary family tree by cutting out people’s
portraits and gluing them on a tree they draw.
Internet connection: If the class has an internet connection, there are websites providing lists of typical French
names; one of the most complete lists can be found here: http://www.lesprenoms.net/lustrehf18901998.htm
No Internet connection: The teacher can write a list of French names on the board while students prepare
their family trees classifying them as male or female and older or contemporary.
→ New family member vocabulary may appear in this activity: cousin / cousine, petits-enfants, petit-fils, petitefille (petite-fille meaning grand-daughter, not petite fille meaning little girl)
The Hints: Students give their family members names and write them on the tree, they pick one family member,
and then have to prepare two hints to give to the class so students can guess who it is. They should give a
difficult hint first and then an easy one.
The teacher must provide examples of hints (je suis une fille / un garçon – mon père a un frère – mes parents
ont trois enfants – je suis le cousin de... – je suis la fille de....) and inform students that hints using the negative
form could be even more difficult (mon père ne s’appelle pas … - … n’est pas ma grand-mère – ma mère n’est
pas sur l’arbre …)
The teacher should check that students will not give the answer with their first hint.
Visit www.PimsleurApproach.com for more free French language learning resources
French Lesson Plan
The Family (La Famille)
Pre-test:
Students are asked to complete the missing cells of the table below with sentences for Thomas and then add
their own personal information. If students have no information of their own to add, they can leave the cell
empty as students will raise their hands to answer only when they have the ability to answer.
L’information
Le verbe
Thomas
La mère Thérèse
s’appeler
Sa mère s’appelle Thérèse
Le père
Professeur
être Les grands-parents Paris
habiter à
Le chien
Rex
s’appeler
La sœur
10 ans
Les cousins
Le grand-père
Strasbourg
Moi
avoir
habiter à
Sur sa photo de
être
famille
Son grand-père n’est pas
sur sa photo de famille
Closure:
To use the adjectifs possessifs, students can make sentences for the list of people/things/places below. A
table can be filled in on the board for each student’s name in columns or rows. The table does not have to
be completely filled in for bigger classes. Some students probably know the answers for other students and
therefore should answer for them, using son / sa / ses. The teacher should ask some students directly and for
others, ask if anyone knows, then ask the students to confirm it is correct. Ideas for the table topics:
−
−
−
−
−
−
−
−
meilleur(e) ami(e)
chanteur préféré / chanteuse préférée
loisirs / sports préférés
adresse
matière préférée (à l’école)
marque préférée
film préféré
animaux
Visit www.PimsleurApproach.com for more free French language learning resources
French Lesson Plan
The Family (La Famille)
Assessment:
Worksheets and quizzes are possible assessments but they can be done either as homework or in class to start
the next lesson. Quiz 1 introduces further family member vocabulary.
This is the vintage family picture used to create the dialogue and the first family tree activity.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/imnotquitejack/4153783693/
Copyright © 2000-2012 Internet Order, LLC. All rights reserved. “Stroll” and “Internet Order” are trademarks of Internet Order,
LLC. Internet Order, LLC sells Pimsleur® products but is not an affiliate of Simon & Schuster, Inc. (the publisher of Pimsleur®
products) or of Beverly Pimsleur (the owner of the Pimsleur® trademark, which is licensed exclusively to Simon & Schuster).
Any use of the Pimsleur® name or associated marks is solely to identify the products sold by Internet Order, LLC. Internet Order,
LLC is solely responsible for the contents of this document.
Visit www.PimsleurApproach.com for more free French language learning resources