Integrating Social Networking

Subject/Grade:   French 2 - 8th grade

Unit/Lesson:  Unit 3 - Speaking in the past tense

Outcome: Students will be able to describe past events using a various vocabulary and structures

Standards: Maryland Voluntary State Curriculum 
                  1.0   COMMUNICATION

1.1   Interpersonal

b. Students engage in exchanges about familiar and personal topics in the present, past, and future in the target language.

Common Core State Standards

 CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.9-10.3 Apply knowledge of language to understand how language functions in different contexts, to make effective choices for meaning or style, and to comprehend more fully when reading or listening.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.9-10.6 Acquire and use accurately general academic and domain-specific words and phrases, sufficient for reading, writing, speaking, and listening at the college and career readiness level; demonstrate independence in gathering vocabulary knowledge when considering a word or phrase important to comprehension or expression.

CCSS.Math.Practice.MP7 Look for and make use of structure.

Social Networking Site:  Twitter

Rationale:  In French 2, one of the biggest topics is speaking in the past tense.  It is introduced in Unit 3, and reinforced and expanded upon in all the units after.  Students can not pass the comprehensive final exam (and therefore can not receive high school credit for French 2) if they do not have a firm grasp on speaking in the past tense.  As there is a huge push in my school district to use authentic language in authentic scenarios, Twitter provides a wonderful platform for communication.  Students would get away from translation and meaningless scenarios, and would be able to use what they have learned in a way that is meaningful and exciting for them.  Twitter's character limits would force the students to think critically about what they are typing, and will encourage self and peer editing.  While Twitter is not currently approved for use with students in my school district, we have been informed that it may be a possibility for the upcoming school year.  I am hopeful that I will be able to complete this lesson with my students in the fall!

Lesson idea:  Twitter would be incorporated in this unit as a way to reinforce the lessons while students are outside of school.  Every day, I would post a question to Twitter, like below:

This question asks "What did you do yesterday after school?".  Each student would be required to respond to the question I post.  Then, each student would have to ask a classmate a follow up question to their answer.  For example, if a student responded to my question and said "I played soccer with my friends", a classmate could ask "What time did you play soccer?", "Where did you play soccer?", etc.   By doing this, students would practice understanding questions in the past tense, responding in the past tense, and formulating their own questions in the past tense.  I could tailor the initial question to touch on whatever nuance of the past tense that we learned in class that day.  Since my students spend a huge amount of time on Twitter outside of school, this would be an effective way to get them to use French outside of the classroom.

Differentiation: Above-level learners could be challenged to ask more than one follow up question.  Below-level learners would be provided with sentence starters (or tweet starters, if you will) to provide the framework of how to respond to the daily question.

Assessment: At the end of each week, I would grade students on their tweets using the following rubric

	4	3	2	1	0
Response to initial daily question	Student responded to the initial daily question all 5 days	Student responded to the initial daily question on 4 of the 5 days	Student responded to the initial daily question on 3 of the 5 days	Student responded to the initial daily question on only 1 or 2 of the 5 days	Student did not meet any of the requirements described
Follow up questions	Student asked at least one follow up question of a classmate on all 5 days	Student asked at least one follow up question of a classmate on 4 of the 5 days	Student asked at least one follow up question of a classmate on 3 of the 5 days	Student asked at least one follow up question of a classmate on only 1-2 of the 5 days	Student did not meet any of the requirements described
Responses to follow up questions	Student responded to at least one follow up question asked of them on all 5 days	Student responded to at least one follow up question asked of them on 4 of the 5 days	Student responded to at least one follow up question asked of them on 3 of the 5 days	Student responded to at least one follow up question asked of them on only 1-2 of the 5 days	Student did not meet any of the requirements described
Prompt Requirements	Student’s responses to the daily question show a high level of understanding.  Student regularly attempts more complex sentences.	Student’s responses to the daily question show a good level of understanding.  Student attempts more complex sentences.	Student’s responses to the daily question show a basic level of understanding.  Student rarely attempts more complex sentences.	Student’s responses to the daily question show minimal understanding.  Student does not attempt more complex sentences.	Student did not meet any of the requirements described
Spelling/ Grammar	Spelling and grammar are used effectively with minimal errors that interfere with comprehension	Spelling and grammar are used effectively with some errors that interfere with comprehension	Spelling and grammar have many errors that interfere with comprehension	Spelling and grammar usage make comprehension difficult	Student did not meet any of the requirements described