"Dossiers Documentaires"?

[yvonne]

Joan or Cleo or ??

 

Can you explain what this would be? Is it basically a reader with short stories and comprehension questions afterward?

 

Lecture silencieuse, CE1 : 16 dossiers documentaires, un conte

 

 

Also, what exactly are "dossiers documentaires" and "fiches de lecture"?

 

 

Also, do either of you happen to have a scan/photo of the inside of a Cahier de Conjugaison? (I sure wish amazon.fr had the Look Inside feature that amazon.com has!!! Do you happen to know of any sites where you can see inside French books?) Thanks for posting a photo of your daughter's notebook, Joan. I think I'm going to have the boys do something like that. I'm wondering if there's any reason to get a Cahier de Conjugaison?

 

 

Thanks!

yvonne

[Joan in GE]

They are basically 16 worksheets (one page folded over to the A5 size). There is a short story - one to two paragraphs, then various kinds of questions. I think sometimes there is the option of writing your own little story - or I might be mixing that part up with some similar type of "fiches" but not for silent reading...Anyway, definitely a very short story (at the higher level it gets a bit longer - continued, for example, from one sheet to the next) - with comprehension questions.

 

I do not know if they are really worthwhile. I guess it depends on how much time and money you have.... The children didn't mind doing them. It was very easy to just hand over a sheet a day to do....no definitive judgement about it from me...

 

The Cahier de Conjugaison gives practice questions. It complements the study of the verbs otherwise they do not really have to answer any questions using the verbs in a context and they don't get practice making the connections between verbs that are similar.

 

I forgot something important about that notebook - that it was started using the Geneva method - where they group by sound, when the students are younger....So the top line was done when she is younger and they put the plural 3rd person together because the ending sounds the same as the single 3rd person. So in the top row, it goes 1,2,3 person singular, then 3, 1,2 person plural.

 

On the bottom row, I think she had changed to the typical format (now in 6th grade) with 1,2,3 person singular, then 1,2,3rd person plural. (I'm going to add this to the other thread so people are not confused.)

 

I'll try to scan later today when my son is up, well, actually a photo is easier than a scan....but I'll have to get on a different computer. Maybe Cleo has something?

 

Joan (ETA - I've just tried uploading the photo but it keeps failing. I don't know what the problem is as it doesn't say why it failed.)

Edited May 15, 2010 by Joan in Geneva

[Joan in GE]

My son says the file is too big. But then I have no idea how I got the other notebook picture on because when I go and look at the details, it is almost as big as the pic I just took of the Cahier de conjugaison and certainly well above the limit (6x) that it shows for attaching files....

 

Scanning will probably be worse...maybe if I get on when no one is one it will work better? Cleo, any ideas?

 

Sorry,

Joan

[C_l_e_0..Q_c]

A 'dossier documentaire' is a documentary. It would contain a text, pictures, possibly games, and questions. A 'dossier' implies a collection of things. Mind you, it could be a collection of many of the same thing (many texts on the same subject).

 

I would assume this little book is a series of documentary texts, pictures, and comprehension questions. I would not assume it would contain stories, unless the stories are a disguised way of passing information.

[yvonne]

Thank you so much, Joan & Cleo! I guess I don't really want/need the dossier documentaire. We've got plenty of other reading material for now.

 

I think I might try to get hold of one of the cahier de conjugaisons. Joan, do you think you could just email me the scan you did? I would so appreciate it. The cahiers aren't expensive, but I don't want to ask my in-laws to bring over anything I won't end up using....

 

Thanks, again! I don't know what I'd do without you! (Hm. Now that I think of it, I know I would waste a lot of money buying stuff I wouldn't use..... My husband thanks you! :) )

 

yvonne

[Joan in GE]

A 'dossier documentaire' is a documentary.

 

Cleo you have jogged my memory. Story was the wrong word. They were little informative texts with questions at the end. But they are sheets in a packet.

 

Then see how it says "un conte" underneath the middle bar? That part is a fairy tale/legend type thing. I forget whether that was separate...for the older grades the sheets were I think stapled together for what they called "une nouvelle" ( a mini novel but you could not classify it as book)...I forget for the younger grades..

 

I used these with ds3 in primary school. Now that I have slept on it and remember more, they are not bad little worksheets if you want to be checking comprehension. Plus they are science or history if I remember correctly now.

 

I used several different types of these packet things...One was for writing.....that might be helpful, especially for the lady whose daughter did not know what "virgule" meant. They are a gentle introduction to various aspects of anything written. Eg one worksheet was about "affiches"...One at a higher level was about how you present the lettering on a poster. I think it went over letter writing...all kinds of writing situations, but I can't remember what was taught at what level. They are buried in some box in our basement now...

 

J'ecris seule

 

I had not used any of those BELIN or Bordas type textbooks before 6th for dd and before 7th for ds3...Instead we were doing various workbooks and one thing was these two types of sheets listed above. They go through the different grades to 5th grade (US level).

 

"Fiches" in this case is worksheets. What is handy about these worksheets is that they can fill in the blanks (vs the textbooks). What is not handy is that for one of the series, I think the J'ecris seule, there are not answer pages. Most of it is pretty easy at the lower levels. I think I had spend time thinking about some of the higher level answers.

 

Look, the Cahier de conjugaison" picture uploaded today! ETA - I've taken it off to make room for other photos. PM me if you are interested..

 

Joan

[yvonne]

Thank you, thank you, thank you, Joan! I can tell from the picture that the cahier de conjugaison is exactly what I've been looking for! Oh, I am so excited that I do not have to make up, type, and print a bunch of practice sentences myself! Woo hoo!

 

Thanks for the explanation about fiches, too.

 

ETA: Joan, what level cahier is the photo from?

 

And I just went to look at the J'ecris seule book. I think I'll try that, too. The more angles I can use to come at this speaking/writing/answering in French, the better. (If only my dh would insist that the children answer in French, they'd have a genuine reason to speak in French. They understand so much just from my dh only speaking to them in French, but I can't seem to get them to jump the gap from passive listening and answering in English to actively generating the language on their own....)

Edited May 16, 2010 by yvonne

[Joan in GE]

ETA: Joan, what level cahier is the photo from?

 

It is from the CE level...

 

You are welcome....:001_smile:

 

I'll tell you one mistake I made with those worksheets. I would let them pile up and then correct them...I think my dc would have gotten more out of them if we would have talked over each one right after they had finished and linked it to other books they were reading. Eg for the J'ecris seule worksheets, when it went over letter writing, if I would have had and found the textbook pages that go with letter writing, it would have been great reinforcement...Better to go slow and deeper than to whip through them...

 

Joan

[jld]

It's great that your dh has at least always spoken to your kids in French, Yvonne. All that input over the years, plus even a short stay in France, should result in your kids' speaking French in no time.

 

Ds4 is in France right now with ds8 and dd15, and he went from not saying more than a few words in French, to speaking several sentences to me last night before switching to English! That was after just 5 weeks there.

 

I understand that you may feel frustrated with your dh for not requiring the kids to respond in French. I totally relate. I have told dh many times he's not doing the kids a favor. But when I see how quickly the progress comes after even just a short immersion experience, when there is already a solid foundation, well, let's just say my heart softens towards dh, lol!

[yvonne]

jld,

 

Do your children fly over on their own? How long do they stay there with your in-laws?! My boys will be 10 soon, but they're fairly timid. I wonder if they could fly over on their own.... That is just a fantastic arrangement. And then there's the question of how well they'd do alone with my in-laws... Hm. AND how well the in-laws would do :)

[jld]

Well, in Dec. ds8 and dd15 flew on their own, though we paid the babysitting fee on the airline, so they weren't exactly on their own. Bil picked them up and took them to their grandparents, then brought them back to the airport 6 weeks later.

 

Ds4 threw a fit that he couldn't go, too, so this time we sent him along. He is very close to dd15, or I wouldn't have considered it.

 

Dh had business trips lined up to America the middle of April, and then again the middle of June, so that way he just rented a car at Roissy and drove them there, and will pick them up. It's nice not to have to depend on bil.

 

Nine weeks is a long time to be gone, but it is so hot here in India, and there is so little to do, that the kids really appreciate the break. And they are improving their French, to boot. Yes, they know how grouchy Grandpa is, and how different from Mom Grandma is, but that's okay, and actually very good for them. I'm sure they appreciate dh and me more now, lol.

 

Once again, just the fact that your dh always speaks French to them is huge. So many native speakers just speak the language of the monolingual spouse and call it a day. Your dh, and mine, are really giving their kids a gift, even if it's not the whole package that you and I might want for the kids. We have a lot to be grateful for, and our kids will one day be very thankful to their fathers, if they aren't already.:)