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By Karen Wilson

Language: French

Level: Exploratory

Grade level: 7

Objectives:

• Discover the variety of French Speaking Countries worldwide
• Discover, compare and contrast some distinguishing features of those areas

Materials

• Computer with access to the World Wide Web
• Student worksheet

Procedure

1. Ask students to name which French Speaking Country they would expect to visit if given the means.
2. Have students list preferred characteristics of their ideal vacation spot
3. Have students select 7 different French Speaking Countries according to varied geographical locations
4. Have students compare the features of their chosen countries to those of their ideal vacation spot.
5. Have students select 1 French Speaking Country which best approximates their ideal vacation spot.
6. Have students write additional features of their chosen French Speaking Country
7. To help students understand any French information presented in their searches, have them look for and list cognates.
8. Then have them look for meanings of unknown words in context
9. Ask students to list the words they don't understand and think they need to know. Let them work with partner and a dictionary to figure out the meaning of the word. Discuss with the class.

Extension

Have students make their own brochure (or poster) which includes information about their chosen French Speaking Country or Territory. This would be the introductory project for the quarter. The student would have to present his/her brochure (or poster) to the class.

By Karen Wilson Name______________________________

Le Monde Francophone

In this activity we will be visiting web sites for French Speaking Countries and Territories.

1a. Make a list of all of the vacations away from home that you have taken either with or without your family or vacations you would like to take. Also, write the name of one French Speaking Country or Territory that you would like to visit either with or without your family.

1b. Congratulations! You won a free 7-day vacation for four to any French Speaking Country or Territory. Based on the vacations that you have taken before, or would like to take, complete the list of features that you would enjoy while on your ideal vacation. List these items in their order of preferences

	most enjoyable	somewhat enjoyable	tolerable
climates:	_________________	_________________	_________________
area types:	_________________	_________________	_________________
cultural activities:	_________________	_________________	_________________
recreational activities:	_________________	_________________	_________________
food preferences:	_________________	_________________	_________________
type of accommodations:	_________________	_________________	_________________

2. Go to the following web site:

http://www.kusd.edu/schools/lance/foreign_lang/know_fr1.html

3./4. With your world atlas open to page ___, choose one French Speaking Country or Territory from each area below that you would consider visiting. List your 7 countries of choice under the "Country" column.

Then go to:

http://www.infoplease.com/countries.html

Look up each country listed under your "Country" column and rate each country according to whether or not it has the features you listed above in your vacation preferences. If the majority of your preferred features are found in the description of your country, give it a "best" rating. If appr ox. half are found, give it a "better" rating. If only a few are found, give it an "o.k." rating. If you can't find any of your preferred features, do not give the country a rating.

	Country	Features
		best	better	o.k.
Europe:	______________________	_________	_________	_________
Africa:	______________________	_________	_________	_________
Asia:	______________________	_________	_________	_________
North America:	______________________	_________	_________	_________
South America:	______________________	_________	_________	_________
South Pacific:	______________________	_________	_________	_________
Caribbean:	______________________	_________	_________	_________

5. Did you give the French Speaking Country that you chose in #1a a "best" rating? _____

If not, list the country or countries below that received a "best" rating. If you don't have any "best" ratings, list the country or countries that received the highest ratings.

6. Of the highest rated countries, choose one and write its name below.

7. Now go back to the first page of

http://www.infoplease.com/countries.html

(Shortcut: you can click on <back> until you get to the first page)

and look up list at least 5 additional features that weren't mentioned in #1b that would be interesting to visit or to explore while on your trip. List them below. Include 2 features that a parent or adult would enjoy experiencing on your list.

Write a descriptive paragraph of at lease three sentences about each one of the things you listed above. Also, write one paragraph about the features you listed in #1b.

a. _______________________________________________________________

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b. _______________________________________________________________

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c. _______________________________________________________________

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d. _______________________________________________________________

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e. _______________________________________________________________

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f. _______________________________________________________________

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8. In your research you might find some French words. List here 5 French words discovered while doing #7 that are similar to words in English. These are called cognates.

9. List here 5 different French words that are not similar to English but are understandable based on the other words. Write their English equivalents next to them.

10. List here 5 French words that you didn't understand.

11. Now, using all of the information that you have gathered, create a brochure about your vacation place of choice. Be sure to include information about both your original features and the news ones you described in #7. Make it enticing, include graphics, and be prepared to present this information to the class.

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This page is maintained by Lewis Johnson. For question or comments, please write to lcjohnson@eee.org.