Topic title: School
Year group: 9
When taught: January to March
What are we learning?
- Talking about school life in France and Francophone countries.
- Talking about school subjects and opinions and rules.
- Using the perfect tense to say what has happened at school.
- Saying what you used to do at school using the imperfect tense.
- Talking about learning languages.
- Using negatives in different timeframes.
Why is this important to know?
- We are reminded how to use the verbs ‘avoir’ and ‘être’ as an auxiliary in the past tense and how to form past participles.
- The imperfect tense is the next important tense to be studied and enables pupils to work at a more sophisticated level.
- It is important for us to learn about the differences in school systems in France and Francophone countries and make comparisons with the UK, especially as our pupils will have the opportunity to host and visit French pupils on an exchange in Year 10.
- The topic enables us to practise new skills of reading aloud, picture cards and dictation.
Where does this link into our past and future learning?
- This links to the topic of school in Year 7 and builds further on the expression of varied opinions and reasons.
- The topic allows us to further consolidate the present, perfect and near future tenses which are essential for making progress at a higher level.
How will we be assessed on this topic?
- The Year 9 assessment will contain reading aloud, a vocab test and dictation.
What makes a strong piece of work in this topic? What are teachers hoping to see?
- Expression of a variety of opinions and justifications.
- Inclusion of different negative structures.
- At the highest level, pupils will include be able to use all three tenses together.
- They will be able to compare what life used to be like when they were younger to what it is now, using the imperfect and present tenses.
What key words are there in this topic?
- Please see your vocabulary booklet in your file.
- Extra vocab on Quizlet: Quizlet
What can I try if I want to stretch and challenge myself on this topic?
- Practise the imperfect tense and negatives on Languages Online:
Languages Online – The Imperfect Tense
Languages Online – Using Negatives
- Visit BBC Bitesize to learn more about the topic: