Oct 9, 20234 min read

Master French Reading Comprehension with Cross-Curricular Texts: Boost Your Language Skills!

Updated: Jul 29

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Are you looking to enhance your students French language skills and boost their reading comprehension all while using cross-curricular texts? If so, you're in the right place! Reading comprehension is a fundamental aspect of language learning, as it helps understand the language better. Take a look at my weekly shared reading routine below, with a reading example.

Please note that the downloadable lesson is at the bottom of this post!

Day 1

Step 1: The text is on the smart board and I read it aloud to students.

French Reading Comprehension Texts with Questions and nswers

Step 2: Students are placed in groups of 2 at random and read it a second time, taking turns. As they go over the text, they must underline 3 words that they don't understand.

Step 3: They will then write their 3 words on a sticky note and go place it on my chart paper.

Day 2

Step 4: Pick three words (from what students wrote on their sticky notes yesterday). Open the shared reading on the smart board.

Step 5: Write one word down. Ask students to ﬁnd sounds that they recognize in the word. Together, we sound out the word (I realize that this may seem "childish", but it is great to review French sounds, even in Grade 4, 5 and 6).

Step 6: Pick two students at random to come to the front, back to the shared reading, facing the class. When you say go, they must turn and ﬁnd the word as fast as possible. They really enjoy this "race" type of game.

Step 7: Once the word is found, I read the sentence aloud, and as a class, we discuss what the word could mean. I ask them to avoid simply saying the word in "English" as a deﬁnition.

Step 8: Repeat steps 5-7 for all 3 words.

Step 9: As a class, pick one of the 3 words to add to your word wall. I always explain to students that we want to pick a word that we will hopefully see often throughout the year, and might help us make our writing a bit more colourful.

Step 10: Students then start their own mini dictionaries. Using cue cards and loose leaf binder ring, they start up their ﬁrst word of their new dictionary. They separate their cue card into 4 parts. They add the word, a picture of the word, the deﬁnition of the word (in words they will understand) and the antonym of the word (please see picture at the top of the post). They will do this every week, adding new words to their own dictionaries as we go.

French Word Work For Upper Grades Free Download

Day 3

Step 11: Read questions going with the text aloud to students.

Step 12: Students will answer the questions independently.

Day 4

Step 13: Go over the questions with your students. I usually do it this way: multiple choice = 1 point for students. Then, for short answer questions, if they have a capital letter (1pt), if they took the words from the question to answer (1pt), if they answered the question right (1pt) and if they have a period at the end of their sentence (1pt). They get a total of 4pts.

They then mark their total amount of points so 6/6 if they got it all right. I then let students share their results IF they want and I make sure to be clear (you can share your total if you want to, but do not have to). Maybe you are proud because this week, you got 4/6 ans last week you only got 2/6. Share your successes. I will say 6/6 and they can raise their hand if they got this and share, then I say 5/6, and I continue until 2/6. I tell them that if they got 2/6 this week, I want them to try to get 3/6 next week, and same goes for all of their scores. If they got 6/6 , they should always try to maintain the 6/6.