This year’s events were a big success, both the face-to-face and online iterations.
Of course, the face-to-face atelier benefitted from the joyful ambiance of students meeting one another for real, and the possibility for them to exchange freely. Positive feedback from teachers, coaches and students was very heart-warming to read. Students really liked the relaxed atmosphere and felt confident in engaging with the coaches and other students. They enjoyed the discussion content as well. The fact that the sessions - both General Conversation and Discussion - were centred around the marking criteria was very helpful for the students. Most of them reported they left the matinée feeling empowered for the exam.
We continue to work on improving the event for next year, in particular ensuring the feedback to students always helps them to develop their confidence to keep improving between now and their examination.
We thank all coaches who have joined us on this adventure!
Metropolitan: Thank you to Glen Eira College for hosting.
Regional: Thank you Zoom and Jules, for the IT support. There again, there is room to improve the efficiency of the breakout room agility. Still, students, teachers and coaches reported how helpful the sessions had been.
Please see below coaches' feedback:
« J’ai trouvé que les élèves étaient vraiment bienveillants les uns envers les autres avec beaucoup de maturité. Ils sont venus pour pratiquer et aussi écouter le niveau des autres, donc je pense qu’il faut garder les élèves mélangés dans les groupes ( différentes école et différents niveaux), Dans l’un de mon groupe, il y en avait 2 qui venaient de la même école mais je pense que les élèves apprécient bien d’entendre des ‘inconnus’ ( je sais que la logistique pour mélanger les groupes doit être difficile, il faut aussi éviter de mettre le prof des élèves participants, c’est effectivement beaucoup de paramètres à prendre en compte et ça je comprends tout à fait). Même si le niveau varie les élèves se sont bien prêtés au jeu et savent qu’ils leur restent quelques semaines et donc encore du temps pour intégrer le feedback. C’est donc une bonne idée de garder cet atelier à ce moment-là du term 3. Ils ont tous dit que c’était une expérience très positive. Ils ont beaucoup apprécié la partie sur le visuel également dans l’amphi.
Ce que j’aime bien dans ces interactions avec les élèves, c’est qu’ils ont la maturité de faire une auto-évaluation. Ils sont souvent assez durs avec eux-mêmes donc j’aime bien faire le point en équipe à la fin pour les encourager. »
Please see below student feedback:
« The experience overall was very rewarding, in particular the conversation exercise in small groups. I felt it allowed me to understand what I need to work on before the final oral exam, as well as understand what will be expected in both parts of the discussion. Having a chance to also talk to other people doing French at other schools and provide feedback to each other was a major highlight for me and something I found extremely useful. »
« I found the workshop really helpful specifically the conversation section. The mock oral was useful as it enabled me to get a feel for the exam in a more foreign environment (without people I know) which emulates the actual exam. It helped with my nervousness as it was still daunting but it was nice to not be alone with an examiner, a good in between step I think. The feedback from other students was good but I also liked being able to see what level I was at in comparison to others and therefore what I can improve on. The discussion section was okay but not as valuable to me as we had covered most of it in class, however it was good listening and speaking practice to be immersed in French for a couple hours nonetheless.»
1. Conversation Workshop – preparing for the CONVERSATION GÉNÉRALE (either face to face or online)
In small groups of 4 students:
2. Discussion Workshop – preparing for the DISCUSSION (either face to face or online)
THIS ACTIVITY WAS PRESENTED AND SUBSIDISED BY THE AFTV (THROUGH DET FUNDING)
Online French conversation classes, tailored specifically for French teachers, will be offered in Term 4 2022.
The online classes are delivered by Marilyne Lopez of Almaje Language School.
Dates Wednesday 12 October to Wednesday 16 November
Time 6.15pm to 7.45pm
We are pleased to offer face to face Language Maintenance classes in Term 4 at Castlemaine Secondary College, delivered by
Delphine Laboureau-Ormancey of French Tête-à-Tête.
Dates Thursday 3 November to Thursday 1 December
Time 4.15pm - 5.45pm
TEACHING & LEARNING POST-COVID FRENCH: CHALLENGES & NEW DYNAMICS
Date Friday 11 & Saturday 12 November 2022
Venue The University of Melbourne
Conference program now available