Mmmm Pizza

So I have a policy in my classes that if the entire class gets a 90% or above on a test or a quiz, I buy them pizza.  It may seem like a daring proposition to make, but I have to say, in my entire time teaching, I haven't had this happen yet.  I've been close several times, but never had it happen.
Until last week.  I gave a verb quiz on the chapter verbs and my French 3s all got above a 90%.  It was a hard quiz too because there were a ton of irregular verbs (they're working on the chore unit right now).  So I am getting them pizza today.  Being the end of the month, it's the chapter test, so I'm going to let them munch on pizza while they take the test.  Hopefully that is motivation for them in the future (and for other classes) to do well.
I must say, though, thank God for Little Caesars.  I don't have to break the bank to get them all a slice of pizza :)

I don't get it.

My previous post talked about my French 1s and their horrible quiz scores.  My second set of quizzes from school 2 ended up much better than school 1.  Which confuses me of course considering I taught it the same in each place.  But...that could be the problem.

I'm about 6 quizzes in from my French 2/3 kids.  I gave them a verb quiz today on the verbs that are part of their chapter vocabulary.  Verbs that, mind you, they have had for about 2 1/2 weeks now and they've done numerous upon numerous assignments on and done very well.  So hopefully this explains why I'm really upset that they are abysmal so far.  One kid even got a 5/20.  And he's a French 3.  And some of these are verbs that they have had since French 1.

Part of my frustration is that I feel like they just haven't been adequately taught thus far.  I've been told by multiple teachers, and even the students, that the previous teacher just didn't have her heart in teaching anymore.  She often just had videos and worksheets and didn't do much to explain grammar.  She had them write a lot more than they spoke.

To top it all off, it's cold and drizzly outside.  Thankfully we have a three day weekend coming up because I'm feeling very burnt out.  Hopefully I can recharge and get back to it on Monday!

Their chapter tests are on Thursday because I have a conference on Friday.  Hopefully this is something they can get a little more prepared for.  I did talk to the 1s about their study habits.  I did see a huge correlation between the people who studied and people who got As.  I think part of the problem is that they simply don't know HOW to study.  I give them practice activities online, but they don't use them.  So we did take some time yesterday to make a list of different ways we can study.  They came up with some great ideas so hopefully they can apply those ideas for the test Thursday.

To be or not to be...that shouldn't be the question

For my French 1 students, obviously their skills are extremely minimal.  They just started.  When teaching a language, you can't just pick and choose what topic to do when.  Many topics require previous knowledge.  For example, you can't teach the past tense without teaching avoir (to have).  There is a general, logical flow to how to teach any student a language, and it's common to start with square one: to be.

It's hard to describe anything in any language without knowing how to conjugate "to be".  She is a student.  I am smart.  We are American.  "Is", "am", and "are" are all forms of "to be".  French is very similar to English.  Like you wouldn't say "I is" in English, you wouldn't say "je est" in French.  It just doesn't make sense.

You also need to teach subject pronouns fairly quickly.  You can't constantly be saying Emily is smart, Emily is pretty, Emily is fun.  You say Emily is smart, she is pretty, she is fun.

So in Chapter 1 of our book series, part of it is to introduce être, which means "to be".  When I taught it this time, I taught them in conjunction of one another.  I taught "to be" at the same time I taught the subject pronouns.  BIG MISTAKE.  They started thinking that "je suis" meant "I" instead of "I am".  I ended up taking a step back and emphasizing that je, tu, il, elle, etc. never change.  It's the VERB that changes with each one.  For a solid ten minutes, I gave real life examples.  I asked the class which pronoun I would use if I was talking about my mother.  Or if I was talking about my mother AND myself.  Or if I was talking about my mom and her friends.  A bunch of different examples.  They seemed to have it.

So color me confused that their average score was a 20/30 on the être quiz I just gave them.  Well at school 1.  School 2 took it today, so we'll see how they do.  I clarified a few things differently for the School 2 kids and made a few more examples on the board before the quiz, so we'll see if that helps.

I'm thinking, next time around, I will probably start with JUST subjects one day and then add être the following day or a few days later.  They will never have a grasp on verbs if they can't get subject pronouns.

There is a really catchy song I like to use with the kids that helps them remember the different forms of être.  It can be found here.