OBJECTIVES:
The student should be able to:
•French
From memory, the learners will be able to know and understand the meaning of words related to the human body. Therefore, they will be able to use them appropriately in the right context. They will also master the spelling of those different words. This a chance for them to practice their writing skills (print or cursive).
• Dance
The learner will act and dance on a beat that is carried on a song with the different names of body parts. The learner will then sing the song while the actors are miming the role of the different parts of the body: touching in different postures and movements the head, the nose, the mouth, the shoulders, the legs and the feet as indicated by the song.
TIME: (5) 55 minute class periods
MATERIALS
A poster exposing a picture of a boy
French is Fun: body parts
Acti-Vie: body parts
Visages: body parts
A set of lap top, LCD projector, and Elmo projector on a cart
Percussion instruments (Djembé, Conga, Balafon, Maracas, Bongo, Talking-drum…)
www.puzzlemaker.com/wordsearch/les+parties+du+corps
INTRODUCTION/PREPARATION/ANTICIPATORY SET:
The study of body parts in a real context of true life will offer a necessary load of knowledge to the students who will be able to use it in their daily activities in class or at home with French speaking or learning friends. The students will tell with ease what the name of a part of his body is: la tête, les cheveux, la bouche, les yeux…
ACTIVITY:
Day 1
Set Induction: The teacher set the class before the students arrived. He set the poster on the board and the page of the book on body parts on the table of the projector which was also set, ready to go once everybody is inside the classroom. He then let the students get into the class, take their sits. They said the pledge in French before he started brainstorming, touching some parts of his body showing a sign of pain: oh! Ma tête, mes yeux! Mon nez...This introduced the class to the notion of parts of human body when the teacher started calling some students, asking to know the parts of their body that hurt.
Then he projected drew the class’s attention onto the displayed poster to show the image of the labeled person. Due to the number of body parts, only the parts of the head were covered on day 1.
Regardez: Voici le nez, la tête, les cheveux, la bouche, les épaules, la poitrine... He can then ask questions such as :
C’est quelle partie du corps ici?
Qu’est-ce que c’est ?
Montre-moi le cou, le coude, la poitrine!
Teaching/Modeling:
The teacher brainstorms the class by touching his body parts showing what the lesson is going to be about. He then pronounces each word that designates a part of the head while he shows it. He says all the parts while the students remain silent and listen. At the end, he finally asks them to repeat each word after him. This can be done for about three times after which he asks individual students to repeat the same thing. Mispronunciations are corrected on the spot for every body to get the right one. The teacher proceeds thus for about five minutes so that each student gets his chance to say the words and understand the correct pronunciation and the part that is called.
Guided Practice: He will then ask groups of students to say the different words taught so far after him. The wrong pronunciations are detected and corrected immediately. He can also ask the groups to say them while he touches the parts of the body. Still, the mistakes are corrected to avoid their repetition. Finally, individuals do what the groups have just finished to do with the teacher still showing the parts and the students saying its name.
Independent Practice: At the level of individual practice, the students should be able to say the name now by themselves. This will go on until everybody has taken his turn. Those who cannot say them in a whole will take after the good students who said everything correctly.
This will be a chance for the students to be rewarded. Anybody who says the whole words correctly gets a treat.
Closure: This is the closing part of the lesson when the teacher passes out parts of the body to the students. Each student should be able to tell him the name of his picture. When everybody is done, he then calls the pictures names one by one and the students have to bring them to him.
Day 2
Teaching/Modeling: The teacher will have to review for about five minutes the parts of the head taught the previous day as a warm up activity. This will introduce the class to the notion of the second section of body parts.
The teacher will then move on to the parts of the trunk up to the heap: la poitrine, les épaules, le dos, le ventre, le nombril, la hanche… Then he/she projects the picture in the book or displays the poster to show the image of the labeled person.
He/she will finally go over the vocabulary taught during the two days lesson plans. At this point, he/she can start to initiate some actions movements for the integration of dance in the lesson plan. He gives an order calling the name of a part and the students show it, touch it, move it, shake it or stare at it in acrobatic and comic ways.
At this step, the teacher can introduce his musical tool of support of the dance rhythm he/she wants to integrate. Here, Alouette and Tchétché Coulé are songs that can do well with the subject matter. I implemented Alouette in this lesson and it was a great success.
Closure: The closing part of Day 2 lesson plan can be achieved by the teacher in the same way as Day 1 by showing pictures of body parts and asking the students to identify them or match them with their names. He/she can also pass out parts of the body studied so far to the students. Each student should be able to tell him the name of his picture. When everybody is done, he then calls the pictures names one by one and the students have to bring them to him.
Day 3
Teaching/Modeling: The teacher will have to review for about ten minutes the parts of the head and trunk taught the previous two days as a warm up activity. This will introduce the class into the third section of the lesson on body parts.
The teacher will then move on to the parts of the arms and the legs: le bras, le coude, la main, les doigts, les ongles, la cuisse, le genou, la jambe, le pied, les orteils. After the teaching of those new words which should be easy enough, the teacher can move on to the next dance steps including these parts freshly taught.
At this level, all the vocabulary taught on the human body parts is covered together with the movements. Note that each part has its own sign and gesture like both hands on top of the head, two fingers of each hand around each eye, one finger of each hand pointing to the nose, swinging the heap…
When all the movements are reviewed and understood by the students, the teacher then introduces the song. He sings by himself first from the start to the end. Then, he sings one line a time that the students repeat after him
Integration: Time is now to review all the movements and mimes covering the parts of the whole body starting from the head down to the toes. Once the students can connect each movement to the right body part, the teacher will introduce the song Alouette written or typed for a visual support. He sings for the students who repeat after him until the tune is known. Then, they sing and dance, miming and acting to the names of human body parts: Alouette, gentil alouette, alouette je te plumerai…
Closure: The closure can be assimilated to the assessment here. It will consist in testing the knowledge of the students that the teacher will gather in front of the class. He/she will say each part individually and the students will have to touch it with the appropriate mime. If they fail to do it, they just go to their seat. The last person to remain is the winner and gets a treat which should be something allowed by the School Board. Animal crackers, Graham crackers or cookies are the ones that I use.
Day 4: Hands-on activities
The fourth day of this lesson plan will be reserved to intensive activities on body parts. Many tasks can be planned. There is the word search activity that the students can be given to do. It can also be a criss-cross word. Some teaching books may contain pages of such activities. But the easiest way is to make them on www.puzzlemaker.com or www.edhelper.com/foreignlanguage. The activity focuses on the spelling of the words taught. It keeps the students familiar with the new vocabulary and helps them to memorize them quickly. It can also be an inclusion of all the summative assessments activities put together in a texting format with many multiple choices.
Day 5: Integration with music
The activities of this day are very specific. It consists in adapting the song Alouette on body parts to percussion music. The song is sung by the students while the teacher demonstrates the beat and the rhythm. Then some players are asked to join the teacher on the instruments and play while the others sing.
For two or three times, the beat is played to get it in everybody’s mind. Then, the teacher allows the better players to keep playing when he works with some volunteers who decided to dance. They practice over and over until the beat, the song and the dance steps are coordinated.
EVALUATION/ASSESSMENT:
Day 1:
Formative: The assessment of the students’ knowledge at the level will consist in spreading the pictures of body parts on a table and asking each student to come and arrange them with the right name under each picture.
Summative: On a worksheet with a picture of a human body, the teacher can ask the students to find the right name underneath and write it on the right part of body. It can also be a scrambled list of body parts names that the students are going to unscramble and write correctly. Finally, the student can match names to pictures of body parts. It can also be a multiple choice test format showing a picture of body part with three names. The students have to circle the right one that represents the picture.
Day 2:
Formative: The assessment of the students’ knowledge at this level will consist in spreading the pictures of body parts on a table and asking each student to come and arrange them with right name under each picture.
Summative: On a worksheet with a picture of a human body, the teacher can ask the students to find the right name underneath and write it on the right part of body. It can also be a scrambled list of body parts names that the students are going to unscramble and write correctly. Finally, the student can match names to pictures of body parts or do a multiple choice test format activity.
Day 3: Assessment/Evaluation
Summative: On a worksheet with a picture of a human body, the teacher can ask the students to find the right name underneath and write it on the right part of body. It can also be a scrambled list of body parts names that the students are going to unscramble and write correctly. Finally, the student can match names with pictures of body parts.
ART CONTENT/CONCEPTS:
none provided
COMPREHENSIVE
CURRICULUM, GRADE LEVEL EXPECTATIONS AND STANDARDS/BENCHMARKS:
CM-1-B4: Identifying familiar people, events, places, animals and things based on oral and/or simple written descriptions.
CL-1-B3: Focus is on students’ participation in age-appropriate cultural activities, such as music, rhythm, dance, games, and/or celebrations.
D-CE-E2: Explore and demonstrate basic movements and the elements of dance (space, time, and energy).
D-CE-M2: Use the elements of dance to execute basic movements with increased skills and develop a movement vocabulary.
The learner will explore, discover, select, learn, focus, relate, coordinate, repeat, demonstrate, refine and perform in dance.
MODIFICATIONS | ACCOMODATIONS:
Slow retaining students can be awarded more time to memorize the names of human body parts. The teacher can associate them with students of quick relation who can help them say and repeat the words. The teacher can also issue a picture with all the names labeled on it and ask them to just read them and see what part is called this or that way.
For the individual practice, the slow students can be asked to say a limited number of names shorter than the quick students. They can get a reward for that short list too.
For the practice of the movements, the teacher can keep the poster with the names on it for them to see. That can help them memorize easily.
VARIATIONS | ENHANCEMENTS:
none provided
TEACHER REFLECTION:
The teaching of a foreign language like French integrated to dance and music is tremendously rewarding. Of course, it help the students to easily memorize the new vocabulary through the dance and music techniques, focusing their attention on the pronunciation and the spelling of the words. But it mainly creates a mood and atmosphere of happiness, joy, entertainment and fun. Thus, it keeps the learners into a good mood, facilitating their learning process.
In the case of our lesson on human body parts, there was happiness, smile and laughter all along the class activities. The students were so much amused with the mimes and dancing steps that they gave the impression that we were not in the process of learning thing that were new to them. The class became a game station where the learners’ attention was more captured by the game than the difficulty of the lesson they were being taught. The acquisition of the new notions was simplified by the context of joy, thus facilitating the learning process.
Every mime or dance step created a situation of laughter. The ones with more laughter were the nodding of the head help in both hands, the down and up movements while holding the two ears, the shaking of the heap, the moving up and down of the belly, the loud stamp on the floor to present the thigh o r the leg… Anyway, each movement brought its specificity to the class. It was great fun and the students loved it. The proof is that every day we start a new class, they request similar activities of ask to sing Alouete. The relaxation the students get is definitely undeniable.
REFERENCES:
Louisiana Foreign Language Content Standards. Bulletin 1966. Baton Rouge, 1997.
www.lafourche.k12.la.us
www.frenchimmersion.org
www.puzzlemaker.com
www.edhelper.com
NDEO. Arts Education: State and National Standards. Compiled by Lafourche Parish School Board, 2006.
The National Association for Music Education. National Standards for Arts Education. Lanham. New York, 2007.
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