Qui est Louis?

One thing I absolutely adore about teaching is how much I learn from teaching them.  Anyone can go to school or study abroad and feel like they are well versed in their subject matter.  However, depending on who you ask, it can take a decade (or more!) of work or research to become an expert at something.  I only started taking French in high school eleven years ago..and I hate to say it, but those 4 years of high school French didn't even total what I learned in the one year I was abroad.

Needless to say, I'm still learning.  I love to learn, so this isn't a bummer to me.

One lesson I never got completely straight was that about each different King Louis.  For the longest time, I thought that the next was always the son of the previous.  Eventually I realized it skipped generations, but I never got it totally straight.

So I decided to make an activity to not only further my knowledge, but to further the knowledge of my students so that they don't continue on as confused as I was for several years.

This activity is two-fold.  The first part has students searching online to fill out a box on each Louis between Louis XIV and Louis XVIII.  This includes those who never were king.  They must fill in the dates of life of each one, as well as his father and mother.  Using this, they must do the second part of the activity, which is filling in a family tree.  I didn't include the siblings (unless they were a Louis who became king), however I did include the Dauphins in between who never got to be king.  For each one who did get to be king, I put a crown on top of the spot, where the students must also fill in the dates that the specific Louis reigned.

I love how much I learned from making this activity.  I am hoping the students feel the same way!

CLICK HERE to download this activity