Welcome to Pete Jones' page on Concept Attainment in the French class. It is a wonderful instructional strategy which I learned about many years ago and which I have used ever since in my French and German classes. Concept Attainment can be used in any language class and indeed in many subject areas.Beneath you will find a complete lesson which you can use right away with very little preparation using Concept Attainment. The idea for the theme of the poem which the students compose as a result of this instructional strategy comes from Robert Desnos' poem "Une Fourmi". Merci Robert!
If you would like to see a grammar lesson using Concept Attainment, please click here.
Concept Attainment has four steps:
- Focus statement.
- Presentation of data set.
- Sharing thinking and hypotheses
- Naming and applying the concept.
FOCUS STATEMENT For this activity I tell my students that they are going to see a series of statements. Some will be blue and some will be red. Their task is to work in groups of two to see if they can decide what makes the blue statements different from the red and vice-versa.
PRESENTATION OF DATA SET My data set is in a table below. In the class I usually have the statements cut out on bristol board strips and them I attach them one by one under their blue and red columns headings on the blackboard using masking tape.
BLEU PLUSIEURS LANGUES
DANS LE MONDEUN CRAYON QUI
EST JAUNEUN MIROIR QUI
DIT LA VERITEUN PROF QUI
DONNE DES DEVOIRS
ROUGE UNE SEULE LANGUE
DANS LE MONDEUN CRAYON QUI SAIT LES REPONSES A UN TEST UN MIROIR QUI
VOUS REND PLUS BEAUUN PROF QUI NE DONNE JAMAIS DE DEVOIRS
SHARING THINKING AND HYPOTHESES In pairs students now think about and then share their hypothesis with their partner. No one shares with any other group and no one shouts out what the concept may be. We then continue with more of the data set. For example:
BLEU UN PINGOUIN QUI HABITE
EN ANTARTIQUETOM CRUISE/MERYL STREEP QUI
GAGNE UN OSCARUNE VACHE QUI
NOUS DONNE DU LAIT
ROUGE UN PINGOUIN QUI SAIT BIEN
PARLER FRANCAISTOM CRUISE/MERYL STREEP QUI
DANSE AVEC MOIUNE VACHE QUI
DISTRIBUE LES OEUFS DE PAQUES
SHARING THINKING AND HYPOTHESES In pairs students now continue thinking about their hypothesis and again share their hypothesis with their partner. Again no one shares with any other group and no one shouts out what the concept may be. We then continue with what are called TESTERS.
TESTERS are more statements which I have on rectangular pieces of bristols board. This time the statements are not written out in blue or red. They are all the same colour (you decide). One by one I hold them up and the students tell me if they are blues or reds. They can do this orally or can go thumbs up for red, thumbs down for blue or thumbs parallel to the desk if they don't know. As they tell me whether they are blues or reds I place them accordingly on the blackboard with the rest of the data set.
Here are some of the testers: Une boisson qui n'est pas alcolis�e, une rose avec p�tales, il neige quand il fait chaud, un livre sans pages, la pluie au printemps, un avion supersonique, une maison sans murs, une pomme qui est violette, un zoo sans animaux, une guerre sans bless�s - as a punch line I usually throw in Pere Noel!
NAMING AND APPLYING THE CONCEPT Once the concept has now been agreed on by the class it needs a name. Here I call it "Things which don't really exist!" or "Ca n'existe pas!"
How I apply the concept is as follows: I tell the students that they are going to compose a poem called "Ca n'existe pas!" where they will talk about things that don't exist - but wouldn't the world be a wonderful, marvelous, unusual, strange, different place if they did!
Here are some gems from my grade 11 students after the Concept Attainment lesson.
CA N'EXISTE PAS! Les murs qui disent:"Ne vous appuyez pas sur moi!"
Et les chaises qui disent:"Attention, vous me faites mal!"
Ca n'existe pas, ca n'existe pas!Une grenouille qui se transforme en prince
Sur un lac sans eau
Ca n'existe pas, ça n'existe pas!Des licornes qui se promènent avec
des centaures dans le parc
Ca n'existe pas, ça n'existe pas!Le monde sans guerre
La paix pour tous
Ca n'existe pas, ça n'existe pas!Eh! Pourquoi pas!!
CA N'EXISTE PAS! Une vache qui se lave dans une flaque
Et distribue les oeufs de P�ques
Ca n'existe pas, ça n'existe pas!Une vache qui dit:"Tu es magnifique!"
Et participe aux Jeux Olympiques.
Ca n'existe pas, ça n'existe pas!Une vache qui est chimiste
Et en été est fleuriste
Ca n'existe pas, ça n'existe pas!Eh! Pourquoi pas!!
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