Hello!
As I am learning more about our class and what strategies work best for each learner, I am adapting our routines and activities. I sent home an updated reading log, or Journal de lecture, in a duotang labelled “La lecture à la maison“. While until now, I have been asking students to track the minutes they read each evening, the updated reading log asks them to record the titles of three to four books they read, and whether they read alone or with support. Once per week, they are asked to write a short summary or reflection of one of the books. One of the evenings, students are offered the option to visit a website with many links to French language activities – some recorded books, some vocabulary activities, some reading comprehension challenges. Currently, the links are on another teacher’s site, but I will be working to make these accessible on our own classroom website as well. Please click here to see the amazing list of online resources available: Resources for Students .
I have set up a class account for a site called Lalilo, which can be used for phonics, word-recognition and comprehension practice. The school code is WUCQKY at Lalilo.com.
For weekly homework, students will be responsible for selecting 2-3 classroom books each Monday, and returning the books and their Journal de lecture duotang every Friday. They are expected to complete the following tasks:
- 4 French readings OR 3 French readings and 1 visit to the website (monsieurhartnell.blogspot.com), where students can choose from a variety of educational French activities, including listening to books online, practicing French sounds, and listening and comprehension activities.
- 1 Réponse de lecture (reading response), written in French, using the Sentence Starters from the Journal de lecture – reference.
More important information:
- Students are responsible for picking a “just-right” book – not too easy and not too hard. This is an instructional level, which means that they should be able to read most of the book on their own, with very few errors.
- Students are responsible for changing their books at the beginning of the week when they come into the classroom.
- Homework is meant to be flexible; if your child can only write one sentence, then start there.
- If your child needs more of a challenge when writing, encourage your child to write more.
- If you find that some nights of the week are busier than others, then have your child complete their homework when there is time (you can spread it out or do it all in one night (or two, or three)).
- Students do not have to do homework over the weekends, but if that is a better time for your child to complete it, then just let me know and have your child hand in their Journal de lecture on Mondays instead of Fridays.
- If your child forgets their books at school, you can find many books on the monsieurhartnell.blogspot.com website (Resources for Students ► French Books Online).
- If your child needs help with help pronouncing a word, you can find a text-to-speech tool on the
- the monsieurhartnell.blogspot.com website (Resources for Parents ► Text-to-Speech). You can always write a note for me in their Journal under the Signature/Comments Section and I can help your child at school with that word/sound.
- If your child needs help writing the reading response, please encourage your child to use the Journal reference page provided, the vocabulary from the book, and if need be, the online French-English dictionary WordReference.com, which is on the website (Parent Resources ► WordReference).
- Encourage your child to tell you about what happened in the book (maybe first in English and then challenge them to explain it in French).
Please let me know if you have any questions regarding this updated at-home reading program. Thank you for all you do!