La class de français à l'école Saint Jean!
French at St. John Regional Catholic School

Mrs. Sirois loves French. It is part of her heritage and she loves to share it with her students. She has been teaching Grades K-1 French at the school for 6 years and Grades K-5 for the last 4 years.

Mrs. Sirois has been trained in and uses the ever-growing TPRS method (Teaching Proficiency through Reading and Storytelling). This method, originally developed by Mr. Blaine Ray, is based on helping children acquire the language as compared with simply memorizing vocabulary and grammar. The method is based on two very important pieces: CI + P (Comprehensible Input + Personalization). There are 3 steps involved:

1- establish meaning,
2- personalization with mini-situations and
3- reading.

New vocabulary and structures are introduced in groups of three and practiced with a circling technique which allows the new words to be repeated between 70 and 80 times. This repetition helps the students to internalize the language. Only 3 structures per story are required, but new vocabulary is introduced as we ask and tell the stories, so students are learning more than they think! Gestures are used to help establish meaning. Music is used on a regular basis to also provide comprehensible input. Reading is an important step that leads to writing. Many of the books used are from the Reading A-Z web site. Others have been purchased through Scholastic and other companies.

Students in Mrs. Sirois' French class also get exposed to culture especially during annual school wide Country units. Countries that have been studied include France, Canada and Martinique.

Fifth graders look forward to putting on a French play. This is done every 2 or 3 years. This year, the students performed "Petit Chaperon Rouge- ç la Halloween" for our fairy tale celebration on Halloween.

French is alive at St. John Regional Catholic School! Venez voir!