1. The Big Picture – La Grande Image! Year 8 What is involved in learning French in Year 8? In Year 8 you will learn the four skills of speaking, listening, reading and writing in French through a wide range of activities. What will I be learning? The topics for each term are: Term 1 ____ Unit 1 Greetings, Where you live, Likes and dislikes ____ Unit 2 Brothers & sisters, Age, dates, birthdays, Numbers 1- 100 ____ Unit 3 School subjects, School equipment ____ Unit 4 Food & drink in a café, Places in town, Family Term 2 ____ Unit 5 Sports, Daily routine, Weekend activities ____ Unit 6 Town, Arranging to go out ____ Unit 7 Free time activities, Visiting other countries ____ Unit 9 Hobbies & music, Past tense activities Skills - Now I am able to… Unit 1 Use my knowledge of sounds to say words correctly Understand instructions Unit 2 Ask how to say something in French Listen for key sounds Unit 3 Look up words Work out the meaning of new words Unit 4 Recycle words I know already Skills - Now I am able to… Unit 5 Learn verb endings by heart Listen for pronunciation Unit 6 Make statements into questions Read for gist Use a dictionary Unit 7 Work out meaning in a text Unit 9 Say longer phrases Winter revision Summer revision

2. Term 3 ____ Unit 10 House, bedroom ____ Unit 11 School day, uniform, travelling to school, favourite subjects ____ Unit 8 Talk about your favourite things, talk about a friend / a group. ____ Unit 12 Holiday plans and activities Skills - Now I am able to… Unit 10 Say that something belongs to someone. Recognise links between some French and English words. Unit 11 Use a dictionary. Recognise different word order. Unit 8 Raise the level of your French. Explain patterns based on what you know already. Read a longer article in French. Unit 12 Learn key phrases for letter-writing. Summer revision What about exams and tests? At the end of November / May, you will have an exam, which will test each of the 4 language skills (Listening, Speaking, Reading and Writing). Throughout the year, you will also have regular spelling tests! These are important as you cannot learn a language in a few days before an exam! Also read over the ‘stratégies’ in each unit to help you deal with unfamiliar language and recycle language you already know. (see table of contents p4-5) What about homework? You will have regular learning homework and written homework. Progress in a language depends on thorough learning of new words! Refer to your checklists in your Learning Organiser for how to learn vocabulary and how to set out written homework. What will I need? You will be given the text book Voilà 1 and an activity booklet. In addition, you will need 3 lined exercise books and a small notebook for tests. It is a good idea to keep all your French books in a plastic folder to protect them. Can I use computers to help me learn a language? Of course! You will have the opportunity to use computers in class. Your teacher will also give you some useful websites with lots of fun activities. E.g. www.linguascope.com (Your teacher can tell you the user name and password)www.linguascope.com www.bbc.co.uk/languages/frenchwww.bbc.co.uk/languages/french www.channel4learning.netwww.channel4learning.net www.mflgames.co.ukwww.mflgames.co.uk www.languagesforall.co.ukwww.languagesforall.co.uk www.zut.org.ukwww.zut.org.uk (free after 4pm, Year 7 England = Year 8 N.I.)