Section 2: Building upon what we know
Now that we have made some connections to your understanding of how to conjugate verbs in French for different tenses, now it is time to build on that knowledge. These are a few questions you should ask yourself after posting and responding on the group’s timeline:
1. Was I able to write at least three posts that included all the information that the directions requested?
2. Did I make some mistakes when posting that other students picked up?
3. Was I able to correctly use the conjugated verb in a sentence?
4. Was I able to identify in what situation that verb conjugation should be used?
5. Was I familiar with other conjugations that other students posted? Which ones?
6. Which verb tenses did I not recognize?
The answers to these questions are important for you to improve upon your knowledge of French verb conjugation. The following activity is a group exercise that will allow you to collaborate with others so you may build upon your understanding of how, and when, to conjugate French verbs in various tenses.
1. Was I able to write at least three posts that included all the information that the directions requested?
2. Did I make some mistakes when posting that other students picked up?
3. Was I able to correctly use the conjugated verb in a sentence?
4. Was I able to identify in what situation that verb conjugation should be used?
5. Was I familiar with other conjugations that other students posted? Which ones?
6. Which verb tenses did I not recognize?
The answers to these questions are important for you to improve upon your knowledge of French verb conjugation. The following activity is a group exercise that will allow you to collaborate with others so you may build upon your understanding of how, and when, to conjugate French verbs in various tenses.
Group Activity
This group activity will use the cooperative learning method, the jigsaw. The jigsaw requires that each group member become an expert in two of the verb conjugation tenses listed below. To do so, each member must research using any or all resources (online or offline) that are available to them, so that they have the necessary information to be comfortable and confident in conjugating a verb for their given tense. Each member will write a paragraph summarizing their findings along with providing several examples.
After group members have finished their research and summaries, they will report back together and take turns presenting their summaries to the rest of the group. After each group member has shared their summaries and answered any questions their fellow group members may have, your group is prepared to move on to the next section.
This group activity is broken down into three steps:
Step 1: create a group and make sure that all verb conjugation tenses are evenly distributed among group members.
Step 2: Research your respective topics and write a summary of your findings along with providing some examples.
Step 3: Share your findings with your group members and make sure everyone is clear about when and how to use all verb conjugation tenses.
Step 1: Group Sign-up and Tense Selection
The first step of this activity is to organize yourselves into groups of 4. To organize a group, you may ask one another in person, or write to each other using Facebook messaging. If you are having difficulties finding a group, please come speak to me in person or message me on Facebook.
Once you have organized your group, each member must pick two tenses below that they will become an expert in.
Present tense (présent), Pluperfect tense (le plus-que-parfait)
Passé compose Imperative (Impératif)
Imperfect tense (imparfait) Future tense (futur)
Conditional tense (conditionnel ) Reflexive verbs (les verbes pronominaux)
Once the group members have selected their tenses, one member needs to post on the M Summers’ French Class timeline all the members in the group and which tenses each member is responsible for.
Step 2 : Research and Summarize
Each student must research and write a summary of the rules for your given tenses. Additionally, each summary should provide information on what situation their tense is used. In other words, in what circumstance would you conjugate verbs using that tense for? Each student must provide examples to illustrate these rules by writing French sentences using the correctly conjugated verb. Feel free to translate your example sentences into English to clarify any points.
Each summary must be written on paper or saved as a word document onto a memory stick. So to summarize, each student is responsible for two tenses. As such, each student should have written at least two paragraphs, each one describing a respective tense.
Resources and Support:
For this activity you will need to find information on your chosen tenses. There are numerous resources available to you to help you in your research, which include websites, grammar books, online tutorials, other teachers, and French-speaking members of your community. However, as you will be the expert for your chosen tenses, you will need to ascertain that the information you find is correct. To do so, you may wish to use a method called “cross-referencing”. Cross-referencing means that you should seek out multiple resources and see if the information that is presented is consistent with one another. If you find the information is consistent across all the different resources, then you may assume it is correct. If you find that there are inconsistencies with certain rules, then you will need to seek out more resources and try to find which rules are most widely accepted.
For added support during the research phase, you may also wish to collaborate with other students in your class. Since each group posted on the timeline the tenses their members are responsible for, you may seek out classmates who are researching the same tenses as you are to help each other in your research efforts.
Step 3: Share your Findings with your Group
Once each member has finished writing their summaries, you will report back together. Each member will take turns presenting their summaries to their group members. Remember to show examples, and clarify and questions that a group member may have.
Once each group member is comfortable with using each verb tense, your group is ready to move on to Section 3: Applying it to our lives.
After group members have finished their research and summaries, they will report back together and take turns presenting their summaries to the rest of the group. After each group member has shared their summaries and answered any questions their fellow group members may have, your group is prepared to move on to the next section.
This group activity is broken down into three steps:
Step 1: create a group and make sure that all verb conjugation tenses are evenly distributed among group members.
Step 2: Research your respective topics and write a summary of your findings along with providing some examples.
Step 3: Share your findings with your group members and make sure everyone is clear about when and how to use all verb conjugation tenses.
Step 1: Group Sign-up and Tense Selection
The first step of this activity is to organize yourselves into groups of 4. To organize a group, you may ask one another in person, or write to each other using Facebook messaging. If you are having difficulties finding a group, please come speak to me in person or message me on Facebook.
Once you have organized your group, each member must pick two tenses below that they will become an expert in.
Present tense (présent), Pluperfect tense (le plus-que-parfait)
Passé compose Imperative (Impératif)
Imperfect tense (imparfait) Future tense (futur)
Conditional tense (conditionnel ) Reflexive verbs (les verbes pronominaux)
Once the group members have selected their tenses, one member needs to post on the M Summers’ French Class timeline all the members in the group and which tenses each member is responsible for.
Step 2 : Research and Summarize
Each student must research and write a summary of the rules for your given tenses. Additionally, each summary should provide information on what situation their tense is used. In other words, in what circumstance would you conjugate verbs using that tense for? Each student must provide examples to illustrate these rules by writing French sentences using the correctly conjugated verb. Feel free to translate your example sentences into English to clarify any points.
Each summary must be written on paper or saved as a word document onto a memory stick. So to summarize, each student is responsible for two tenses. As such, each student should have written at least two paragraphs, each one describing a respective tense.
Resources and Support:
For this activity you will need to find information on your chosen tenses. There are numerous resources available to you to help you in your research, which include websites, grammar books, online tutorials, other teachers, and French-speaking members of your community. However, as you will be the expert for your chosen tenses, you will need to ascertain that the information you find is correct. To do so, you may wish to use a method called “cross-referencing”. Cross-referencing means that you should seek out multiple resources and see if the information that is presented is consistent with one another. If you find the information is consistent across all the different resources, then you may assume it is correct. If you find that there are inconsistencies with certain rules, then you will need to seek out more resources and try to find which rules are most widely accepted.
For added support during the research phase, you may also wish to collaborate with other students in your class. Since each group posted on the timeline the tenses their members are responsible for, you may seek out classmates who are researching the same tenses as you are to help each other in your research efforts.
Step 3: Share your Findings with your Group
Once each member has finished writing their summaries, you will report back together. Each member will take turns presenting their summaries to their group members. Remember to show examples, and clarify and questions that a group member may have.
Once each group member is comfortable with using each verb tense, your group is ready to move on to Section 3: Applying it to our lives.