Instructional Session 16
Objective: By the end of class, you will be able to… Beginner: write sentences in French to retell the story of why I became a teacher Intermediate: write sentences in French to retell the story of why I became a teacher, giving details to describe the characters’ internal AND external traits and sensory details of the setting Advanced: write a series of connected sentences in French to retell the story of why I became a teacher, giving details to describe the characters’ internal AND external traits and sensory details of the setting, and using transition words to say more
Preparation: You will need students to submit stories to the Slide Talk (or think about stories they can sketch, if you plan to do Card Talk instead) for the lessons in Session 17, Card/Slide Talk about Personal Stories. See Session 17 for more details. You might assign this for homework or set aside about eight minutes at the end of the lesson today for them to brainstorm and, if you plan to use a slideshow, upload their images and format their slide in the class’s slideshow.
A Story Mountain is a graphic organizer that is familiar to many teachers and students, because it is widely used in Language Arts classes.
Writing on a copy of the graphic organizer, or creating it on the board or paper, you will narrate a story about your life (or another personal story, perhaps of another staff member or a celebrity your students admire. This French example uses the guide words “character,” “setting,” “motivation,” “problem,” “solution/changes,” and “lesson”. You can also use a blank version, as shown above.
In the example lesson below, you will see suggested ways to use the version of the story mountain with guide words.
To prepare a personal story about yourself, such as the example of “why I became a teacher,” you will want to brainstorm stories from your life and choose the one that you think will most appeal to your students. Generally, stories about your life that took place when you were as close in age as possible to your students’ actual age(s) are the most interesting and relatable to students. So, you might want to spend some time activating Page 301
