Coucou les French learners,

j’espère que vous passez un bel été ? I hope you are a having a beautiful summer?

I have just finished the two intensives courses for advanced-beginners and intermediate. C’était génial ! It was a total blast!

In the advanced-beginner class, for two weeks, each day, we read a chapter of my new book about Marie and her dog Médor (coming soon!). Médor has disappeared and Marie is desperately looking for her dog in the streets of Paris. We traveled virtually to Paris, learned about Parisian and Belgian culture and most of all we had a lot of fun!

Christina, who joined the course wrote to me: ” Merci beaucoup Alice! Out of all of the language learning classes I’ve taken in my life, this was my favorite.”

In the intermediate class, we always started the class by reading an authentic text and we then would discuss it.

Lidia, who is a dear member and who joined the course wrote: “ This class was challenging yet comprehensible. It was a joy to experience being a student in a class where there was a variety of rigorous yet engaging texts and activities in French that were made accessible. I felt motivated to participate and be vulnerable because Alice is such a positive and supportive teacher. I highly recommend this class.”

The goal of those daily live sessions were to create a daily French habit and to encourage learners to read in French.

Reading is certainly the most powerful way to acquire new words and new structures. Reading makes you become fluent in French.

#trusttheprocess

The reader in you

I am reading The book whisperer by Donalyn Miller. As a language arts and social studies teacher, Donalyn Miller reflects on her journey to become a reading teacher. She describes how she inspires and motivates her middle school students to read 40 or more books a year!

At the start of the book, Donalyn Miller explains there are three kinds of readers. What kind of reader are you?

Developing readers lack reading confidence, experience, or ability, but are somewhere on the path toward developing reading self-efficacy. Miller prefers this term to struggling readers because development implies progress and effort instead of failure. You may have started to read in French but you read slowly and you find it hard to understand the meaning of a sentence, a paragraph or a page.

Dormant readers don’t find reading personally meaningful beyond school or other outside expectations. Dormant readers haven’t experienced enough pleasure or engagement with reading. You can read in French and understand the plot but you do not find yourself engaged in the story.

Underground readers are avid readers who live two reading lives–one at school and one outside of school. These are often avid readers who may under perform on school reading assignments because they don’t find them meaningful.You read in French because you feel you have to but in truth, you do not really enjoy reading in French.

Your goal is to read in French for PLEASURE. Le plaisir de lire !

Awaken the inner reader in you. Become an avid reader in French.

After taking the two intensive classes for two weeks (BRAVO !!!), Nancy Jane wrote: ” I am reading La Classe Des Confessions & Carl ne veut pas aller en France. It really is amazing how much better I am reading since the immersion!”

Le club de lecture

To turn into an eager reader, JOIN THE BOOK CLUB!