anabelneri Posted January 7, 2014 Share Posted January 7, 2014 Hello! I was wondering if anyone teaches their French speaking kids in the Charlotte Mason style, especially with the readings, short narration, and copywork? My 5th grader has been taking French for 6 years, but her teacher just isn't doing enough with her, probably because the curriculum want pretty interactive discussions so it's hard to give homework. But most of the French curricula out there is too easy. We've done Charlotte Mason style work in English, and I think she could do it in French if we just backed up a couple grade levels. I've started making copywork sheets from Fables d'Esope, but thought if someone else had already created it, I could stop :) Thank you! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jean in Newcastle Posted January 8, 2014 Share Posted January 8, 2014 http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/467843-can-someone-walk-me-through-the-french-dictee/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Monica_in_Switzerland Posted January 9, 2014 Share Posted January 9, 2014 Hello! Like you, I want to teach French in a CM style as much as possible. French is already taught in schools using dictation as a big component, as my old thread that Jean linked will attest to. I have and like the looks of this book, except that it teaches some obscure tenses from the beginning. Not sure if I'll modify that or not. Reading and oral narration- yes, we do that. There is a real lack of kid's lit in French, so avoiding "twaddle" is hard to do. We just do our best and I try not to worry too much about twaddle, as long as books are getting read in French. A link that I think is a treasure- a vintage science text for children, written in French. Very CM style. The passowrd for the pdf file is given just above, in the last sentence of the article just before the download button. My personal opinion is that French grammar is complicated enough that it deserves direct instruction to be understood well, and that copy work is not sufficient. Spelling is very regular though, so for a natural speller, enough copywork/dictation is probably adequate. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pmeilaen Posted January 9, 2014 Share Posted January 9, 2014 Have you looked at the program The Easy French? It incorporates Charlotte Mason ideas. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pmeilaen Posted January 9, 2014 Share Posted January 9, 2014 There will also be a book/talk called Speaking French with Miss Mason and Francois soon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
C_l_e_0..Q_c Posted January 16, 2014 Share Posted January 16, 2014 My personal opinion is that French grammar is complicated enough that it deserves direct instruction to be understood well, and that copy work is not sufficient. Spelling is very regular though, so for a natural speller, enough copywork/dictation is probably adequate. THIS! There is no spelling in French after grade 4-ish, but there's dictation all the way to high school. And copywork doesn't hold a candle to dictation! And you can't just pick a paragraph off a book for dictations, because there will most likely be rules that the kid hasn't seen yet. Very tricky. I tried. It didn't work. And my kids are native French speakers. Graded dictation is the only approach that truly works. French grammar cannot be learned by osmosis, like English grammar can. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roadrunner Posted January 16, 2014 Share Posted January 16, 2014 THIS! There is no spelling in French after grade 4-ish, but there's dictation all the way to high school. And copywork doesn't hold a candle to dictation! And you can't just pick a paragraph off a book for dictations, because there will most likely be rules that the kid hasn't seen yet. Very tricky. I tried. It didn't work. And my kids are native French speakers. Graded dictation is the only approach that truly works. French grammar cannot be learned by osmosis, like English grammar can. Can you recommend guided dictation and grammar workbooks? We are currently using phonics program written for French schools 40 years ago alongside SYRWTLF. While my kids aren't native speakers, they are picking up the language really fast (their father is a native speaker, so that helps a lot). I would like to start dictation very gently once we finish the phonics book. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kfamily Posted February 5, 2014 Share Posted February 5, 2014 I really wanted to do this with both of my girls...and now that we have progressed a little more in our books I think that I would like to make an effort to get this going for them. Here is an older blog post of mine that includes several links to free books online that I thought might help me accomplish this. http://giftsforgirlsacademy.blogspot.com/search/label/Foreign%20Languages-French Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Monica_in_Switzerland Posted February 8, 2014 Share Posted February 8, 2014 Can you recommend guided dictation and grammar workbooks? We are currently using phonics program written for French schools 40 years ago alongside SYRWTLF. While my kids aren't native speakers, they are picking up the language really fast (their father is a native speaker, so that helps a lot). I would like to start dictation very gently once we finish the phonics book. Sorry I didn't see this earlier! This board is so slow, I rarely check it. We just started using this- La Bonne Methode de Dictée. My son is first grade, technically this book is for CE1 (2nd grade US), but our trial week went so well that we are continuing on. There is a second level (CE2) in the same series, but that's it. The only issue I have with these books is that they teach some obscure verb tenses. I plan on just skipping those and using those weeks as review weeks. Once we've done those two, I'll probably just go to the local bookstore and pick up a progressive dictation book- there are lots of choices. I don't like the grade level workbooks because they just seem too complicated to me. The all-in-one books seem better to me. I use these spelling pages as we learn to spell each new sound. Many of them have little hand motions to help you remember how to spell. For example, spelling the [wa] sound has you hold up a hand in the form of a circle to your eye, then hold up one finger in the distance, so that you are looking at a star through a telescope. This reminds you that "étoile" has the wa sound spelled as oi. Hopefully that paragraph made sense... And we are using a standard reading workbook for reading after finishing a phonics (syllabique) reading program. There just isn't enough French children's lit to ensure a thorough coverage. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roadrunner Posted February 8, 2014 Share Posted February 8, 2014 And we are using a standard reading workbook for reading after finishing a phonics (syllabique) reading program. There just isn't enough French children's lit to ensure a thorough coverage. Thanks for the recommendations! I want to ask you about the reading workbook you mentioned. We were planning on ordering "J'apprend a lire" magazine (I do t know what else is available). Should I reconsider? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Monica_in_Switzerland Posted February 8, 2014 Share Posted February 8, 2014 No, I think the reading mags are pretty good. We borrow them from the library. There are also book series- J'aime Lire is one- that are similar to any graded reader system in English. Also, the Magic Treehouse books are translated (Cabane Magique) and Magic schoolbus books as well. The reader we are using is: Francais CE1 Livre de Lecture. There is a language arts book to accompany it, but I don't like the fill-in-the-blank method in it. Another good brand it L'ile Aux Mots, which is what our public school uses. I like that the other one I linked had the reading book seperate though. We moved to straight into it after finishing Leo et Lea, which is the syllabique reading book we used. All French reading is done by dh, because I want to ensure proper pronunciation, and he can explain any words on the page whereas I might be stumped by one or two. :-) I do the grammar and orthographe, and those lessons are in franglais. :-) My poor children... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Monica_in_Switzerland Posted June 30, 2014 Share Posted June 30, 2014 Is this the next level: http://www.amazon.fr/mots-cont%C3%A9s-Lecture-expression-l%C3%A9l%C3%A8ve/dp/2701116201/ref=lh_ni_t?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A1X6FK5RDHNB96 ? Is it just leveled reading ? And can I find sample pages? I have no idea were dd is, Yes, it's just a graded reader. It has two page spreads that correspond to about 1 week (there's 34 or 36 of them if I recall)- the spreads seem to rotate between fiction, non fiction, etc, to give a variety of genres. There are sometimes some comprehension questions at the bottom of the page, and/or a few vocab words defined in the side bar. I was just looking for the next level the other day and couldn't find it, but what you linked does look like the next level. The CE1 level contains a few passages from Petit Nicolas towards the end. If you can find an online sample of that book, it might give you some idea. I don't know if your kid is a native speaker or not. The hardest thing I think for a non-native will be that all verb tenses (or at least most tenses) are used in the texts. So even though the vocab may or may not be the right level, your kid will need to understand subjunctive tenses, which are usually a somewhat advanced topic for French learners. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Monica_in_Switzerland Posted June 30, 2014 Share Posted June 30, 2014 We are not native speakers. But dd worked last years through a Wallonian* schoolmagazine, we recieved it biweekly and the last level was 'Dauphin' written for 8-9yo. She did fine with it, although she considered it boring... I'm not sure what path to follow with dd. Looking for French resources I stumbled on this thread. I think a graded reader could be an option to improve her French. I don't have clue though, which level would be 'good'. *Wallonie is the Frenchspeaking part of Belgium, so the magazine was geared to native speakers. I have no idea though wich conjugations it used. We read the texts and made the exercises... Your dd might be ready to just read books- you can look at the J'aime Lire series for example. We were very satisfied with the CE1 Belin book though. I wish I had seen the CE2 level before I purchased what I ended up purchasing! I got the thematic readers from Hachette- they have a history series and science series. I figured these would be good reinforcement for other subjects and they are also set up in two page spreads with a variety of genres- fiction, narrative, expository, poetry, cartoon, biography... They are a two level jump though from CE1. Shoot, maybe I'm going to order that CE2 book as well... lol! Anyway, if your dd can read a magazine for native speakers, she shouldn't have any problems using these resources as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Monica_in_Switzerland Posted July 25, 2014 Share Posted July 25, 2014 Do you also use the teacher guides? Or are they not necessary? We got art history, and dd loves the idea learning French while using it in a content subject: that's the way she learned English. I hesitate to go that way for French too. My French is much more worse then my English, and we have required exams here. But somehow she doesn't seem to learn French the traditional way.(French as a foreign language} I've never used the teacher's guides, so I can't say if they are helpful or not. Sorry! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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