Conversation Class Lesson Summary

Language Resident Name: Marina Simonnet

Day and Date: Wednesday, February 1

Language and Level (intermediate or advanced class): Advanced

Class theme/topics discussed: “Le conseil municipal” in France (city council)

Goal of the class: The class is about debate and how students take decisions and try to convince the others. Inspired by this website: https://leszexpertsfle.com/ressources-fle/parler-de-la-ville-organiser-un-conseil-municipal-auteur-invite/

How did you structure the class?

  1. Warm-up: I show a drawing from a video (stop at 3’02”) about how the budget of a “commune” works and the students what are the different functions of the “mairie”. Then I show the video entirely to verify their suppositions. http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x18k83n_dessine-moi-l-eco-l-elaboration-du-budget-des-communes_news
  2. Role-play: a city has different projects but a limited budget and the students are given positions about the projects (pros and cons). We review each project and they have to defend their opinions and convince the others whether one project should be led or not, according to their position. In the end, we make a vote to choose which projects are going to be led by the city.

What technology, media or props did you use? (internet resources, playmobiles, handouts, etc.)

https://leszexpertsfle.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/voter-le-budget-dune-commune.pdf

What worked well in this class? What did not work?

The video is a good warmup and very easy to understand. I let one minute to each student to defend their point of view. The activity is useful to hear each student and give them very precise feedback, but we shouldn’t do it too often because they can’t interact with each other. This class depends on the students: some of them will love this activity while the others will dislike it.

How could this class be improved/ modified? 

Review each project and give only one minute (with a chronometer) to each student to talk. This will be more dynamic and this adds a bit of challenge.

 If you have a more detailed lesson plan, please attach it below (OK to use target language for that)