Galore Park: So you really want to learn French

[TheAttachedMama]

Hi Everyone,

 

I am considering using Galore Park SYRWTLF next year with my fourth and fifth-grade children.    

 

If you have used it before, could you tell me how much time per day you spend on French with this program?   Also, could you give me a typical weekly or daily routine for French?   I can't really get a feel for the program based on the VERY limited samples.    

 

Also, it looks like there are about 10 chapters in each book.   Do you spend about 1 week on a chapter?   Is it meant to be a year-long program?   

[Loesje22000]

It is about 4 weeks per chapter = 40 weeks program,

We only used syrwtlf 3 to fill some holes, so never established a routine.

[wendyroo]

I recently bought SYRWTL Spanish to use next year when DS is in 3rd.  It was....underwhelming.

 

Mostly, I just found it really confusing.  There were all these boxes of vocab scattered about, and I couldn't figure out when you were supposed to teach them.  In fact, it seems that lots of the vocab (and some really important stuff) was only mentioned in passing in the instructions for one of the exercises.

 

For example, at the end of one of the chapters it has a master vocab list of everything the child should have learned.  It listed that they should know how to ask when something happened.  I searched and searched the chapter to find where that was taught, and I finally found it mentioned once in an exercise where the student was supposed to ask a partner when their birthday was.

 

I found the whole thing disjointed and hard to follow.  The explanations were confusing and I could not for the life of me figure out how I would proceed through the book in a semi-organized fashion.

 

Also, we found the illustrations bizarrely creepy.

 

I no longer plan to use it next year...or perhaps ever.

 

Wendy

[Laura Corin]

I was very happy with SY French.  As with all Galore Park materials, it was meant to be taught by someone with knowledge of the subject.  I wouldn't recommend it if you can't supplement the oral work in some way, as the oral materials are inadequate in themselves (because a classroom teacher would naturally be working in French and conversing with the students).

 

I have a degree in French.  I did one chapter per month, two mornings a week with extra review sessions (vocabulary, mostly).  Each lesson would begin with re-doing orally the exercises that we had done as written work in the previous lesson.  They weren't allowed to read their answers out loud.  Then I would offer more oral practice based on those exercises.

 

The curriculum is designed for ages 10 to 13.  I found that it worked better with my 12yo than it did with my 9yo, and combining them didn't work at all.  The younger one needed a lot more review and the elder was bored.

Edited January 27, 2017 by Laura Corin

[TheAttachedMama]

As with all Galore Park materials, it was meant to be taught by someone with knowledge of the subject.  I wouldn't recommend it if you can't supplement the oral work in some way, as the oral materials are inadequate in themselves (because a classroom teacher would naturally be working in French and conversing with the students).

 

I have a degree in French.  I did one chapter per month, two mornings a week with extra review sessions (vocabulary, mostly).  Each lesson would begin with re-doing orally the exercises that we had done as written work in the previous lesson.  They weren't allowed to read their answers out loud.  Then I would offer more oral practice based on those exercises.

 

The curriculum is designed for ages 10 to 13.  I found that it worked better with my 12yo than it did with my 9yo, and combining them didn't work at all.  The younger one needed a lot more review and the elder was bored.

 

Hi Laura,

 

Can you elaborate some more?  I'm not sure exactly what you mean.    Are you saying I would need to feel comfortable helping them with the dialogue activities in the galore park book?   Or I would need to supplement listening/speaking French in other ways (French audiobooks, easy french readers, French TV shows, or practice conversations through italki or skype?)   

 

I took four years of French in high school, but I am not fluent at all.   Since high school I have been supplementing with duolingo practice and Paul Noble CDs.   The only thing I have to go by is the small sample available online which shows PART of Chapter 9 of book 1.   I think I would feel comfortable doing those activities with them.   Does that mean the program will work for me?  Or do I need to find another resource?   

 

Thanks!  

[Laura Corin]

Hi Laura,

 

Can you elaborate some more?  I'm not sure exactly what you mean.    Are you saying I would need to feel comfortable helping them with the dialogue activities in the galore park book?   Or I would need to supplement listening/speaking French in other ways (French audiobooks, easy french readers, French TV shows, or practice conversations through italki or skype?)   

 

I took four years of French in high school, but I am not fluent at all.   Since high school I have been supplementing with duolingo practice and Paul Noble CDs.   The only thing I have to go by is the small sample available online which shows PART of Chapter 9 of book 1.   I think I would feel comfortable doing those activities with them.   Does that mean the program will work for me?  Or do I need to find another resource?   

 

Thanks!  

 

I think that, as it stands, GP is inadequate for oral practice.  So if you use it as written, and are not a fluent speaker who can elaborate the programme, I think you need to add in something else that will really get them speaking.  I'm afraid that I don't know enough about the other two programmes you mention to know if that would work.

 

GP is a really solid, grammar-based approach.  But it wasn't designed for home educators.  I think that the gap is most evident in the language texts.

 

I would ask the company for another chapter sample.  I haven't dealt with them for a few years (since the company was bought out) but they used to be responsive.