Grade 7 - Acquiring Information

This organizer contains the following sections:
Prescribed Learning Outcomes
Suggested Instructional Strategies
Suggested Assessment Strategies
Recommended Learning Resources

PRESCRIBED LEARNING OUTCOMES

It is expected that students will:

extract and retrieve specific information from French-language resources to complete authentic tasks
express acquired information in oral and visual forms

SUGGESTED INSTRUCTIONAL STRATEGIES

Students who have frequently been invited to explore resources in French during previous grades are likely to approach such materials with a degree of confidence by Grade 7. Many students are ready to use age-appropriate materials to acquire information that is more detailed and specific. Their growing communicative skills permit them to begin to transfer and substitute language in the resources to suit their own purposes. Greater familiarity with listening to French permits them to recognize known vocabulary in its written form and attempt to pronounce unfamiliar words that follow regular spelling patterns. The use of a French-English dictionary or a glossary helps students explore written material more independently and in greater depth.

Invite a high school French student to class to give a short presentation about high school life. Students are to ask questions in French. Students then prepare a list of the three things they most look forward to.
Obtain recorded telephone messages from Francophone businesses, agencies, or individuals. Students listen to find out such things as at what time a shop or agency opens.
Have students select an article from a French-language youth newspaper such as Rayon Jeunesse, Le journal des jeunes, or Carrières and identify three interesting facts to report back to the class. Students present the information visually with some key French words.
Have students bring in a collection of cereal box labels that promote games or contests in French. Using available resources, students try to follow the instructions for the games or contests and explain them to their group. Visual aids and props will help clarify explanations.
Provide students with addresses to French-language web sites or a list of key words to search. Invite them to browse these sites and download information that answers specific questions. Ask students to report their results to the class.

SUGGESTED ASSESSMENT STRATEGIES

While many of the information tasks at this level continue to rely on visual representations, students should also be expected to use some basic, well-practised French vocabulary and language structures. Linguistic requirements should be simple and require only a minimum of transfer or adaptation of patterns. Assessment for this organizer continues to emphasize the extent to which students successfully find and use the information required to complete specific tasks.

While students are learning and playing games, assess their ability to:
- recognize familiar French words in new contexts
- use cognates to help them acquire meaning
- use a French-English dictionary appropriately
- use non-verbal clues (e.g., context, gesture, intonation, graphics, pictures) to support meaning
- use their knowledge of common French-language patterns to make predictions and inferences
When students are working on assigned tasks, use a class list to note observations about the extent to which they:
- approach tasks with confidence
- persevereÑtry different approaches or strategies when having difficulty
- tolerate ambiguityÑuse the information they understand without being frustrated by gaps in their knowledge
When students represent or report on information they have acquired, note the extent to which they are able to:
- identify and recount the key ideas or impressions
- include relevant and accurate detail
- reproduce some of the French words and patterns in an understandable form
- organize and sequence their information appropriately (e.g., when giving instructions)

RECOMMENDED LEARNING RESOURCES

Print Materials

Stoddart Colour Visual Dictionary French-English

Multimedia

Acti-Vie 2, 3
Savoir faire: Visages 2

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