We hope that you will enjoy this classbuilding activity which is called MON AMI(E) IMAGINAIRE. My wife, Barbara, who also teaches French, learned about this one on a course many years ago, but where it comes from and who created it we do not know. So we give credit to that person or persons. I hope that you and your students will find this a fun one to play with.
To begin the activity, I usually model what I expect the students to do.
I will stand in front of the class and put my arm around some fresh air which is "mon ami imaginaire". I will then introduce this friend in French to the class by saying: "Je vous pr�sente mon ami imaginaire. Elle s'appelle Sophia. Elle a les yeux bruns et les cheveux noirs. Elle habite en Italie et elle est actrice. Elle est tr�s grande et elle aime regarder les films au cin�ma. Sa nourriture favorite est le poulet r�ti et elle adore le vin blanc."
I will then invite students to give back a full description of "mon ami imaginaire".
Once this is done, I ask the students to create their own "ami imaginaire" - they must include a name for the "ami" and four or five details. I ask them to practise inside their heads the description until they are completeley comfortable with it..
Now the fun part begins! Have the students stand up and relocate themselves anywhere in the class. They have to find another student to talk to and then present to that student the "ami imaginaire" which they have just created. They must ensure that the student to whom they have just presented their "ami imaginaire" can remember ALL the details. Once done the student to whom they have just described their friend , in turn describes her/his "ami imaginaire" - again ensuring that all the details are remembered.
Once this part of the activity is completed, have the students move again - but this time they are all carrying around a totally new "ami imaginaire" (!) - the one their classmate just introduced them to. They now have to present this friend to a different classmate and vice-versa.
You can have the students rotate four or five times exchanging friends.
After the fourth or fifth rotation, stop the activity and ask student X for the name of the original "ami imaginaire" which she/he created. Let's say the name of that "ami imaginaire" was Vincent. Ask who was the last person in the class to be introduced to Vincent and have that student, in French, describe Vincent - it is really neat to hear how close or far away the description of Vincent was from the original by double checking with the student who first created Vincent.
I hope that you will enjoy this classbuilding activity. It takes no time at all to set up and gets the students communicating in the target language.
You can also have fun by having the students create a "magic box" into which they place three objects. They present their magic box to classmates and recive a magic box from them in return which they then present to other classmates just like the "ami imaginaire." You will have to number the magic boxes 1, 2, 3, 4 etc. in order to keep track of them. Some of the fun things which have gone into them are: Le billet gagnant pour la loterie, un stylo qui sait toutes les r�ponses aux tests de fran�ais et un voyage autour du monde.
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SO FAR
VISITORS HAVE DROPPED BY
THANK YOU FOR BEING ONE OF THEM
RETURN TO COOPERATIVE LEARNING IN THE MODERN LANGUAGE CLASS
Be sure to visit Volterre
Best Wishes from Whitby, Ontario, Canada - Pete and Barb Jones
Credits:
The music playing is Farewell To Nova Scotia sequenced by Barry Taylor
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This page was updated on September 2nd 2000