Project Week Reflection survey link

Here, below, is the link to the survey I would like you to do when your descriptions project is all done! 

Don't forget to email or hand me your project and audio, and then hand in your checklist when you're completely finished.

Thanks for your hard work this week!

Miss G

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?pli=1&formkey=dEdJNWtfWmpHVVZPa2V1cnMtT3JPV2c6MQ#gid=0

Useful Websites and Resources

I would like you all to draw from your worksheets, packets, and handouts for the Descriptions project, but I wanted to help get you started! Here are some resources, both websites new and old, and lists of materials that you all have on paper that will be helpful in creating sentences and looking up words:

Generally useful French words:

• http://www.vistawide.com/french/top_100_french_words.htm - You may have passed through this website via Mrs. W's Delicious page at some point (#words). This is a list of 100 common French words such as: 'the', 'some', & 'and'. A great resource!

Sports phrases:

• Video on sports vocabulary: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VbySLfxeH4c 
• Sports phrases (and some movie related!): http://www.smartphrase.com/French/fr_going_out_phr.shtml

Hobbies and general leisure activities:

• http://www.french-linguistics.co.uk/phrase_book/en/hobbies_games.html    - This site has a nice variety of leisure activities to refer to.
  

Animals:

• Your 'Les Animaux' lists from the lesson when we worked at different, creative stations (drawing, writing, sculpting, etc)
• http://french.lovetoknow.com/Names_of_Animals_in_French

Likes and dislikes (as related to hobbies and things):

•  You have practiced likes and dislikes in your interviews! Maybe your character likes a certain food, or hates an animal - you have access to a lot of ideas from this year, be creative.
• http://frenchtasticpeople.com/expressing-likes-and-dislikes-in-french/ - short but sweet link. Here you will find the verb 'aimer' conjugated.
• http://quizlet.com/186710/french-likes-dislikes-flash-cards/ - This quizlet link has pronunciation and several useful links for activities and preference!

Describing frequency/how often with hobbies and activities:

• http://njfraser.typepad.com/files/hobbiestrananwers.pdf - This site puts frequency in context with some great activity ideas, and you can see various conjugations here.
• http://www.cliffsnotes.com/study_guide/Common-Negative-Words-and-Phrases.topicArticleId-25559,articleId-25503.html - Here you can explore ways to add to your sentences, by negating. Say things like 'never', 'no longer', and 'no one'.

Word lookup (English to French):

• www.wordreference.com/fr - A fantastic reference! Type a word into the search bar in English, and it will give you several options in French and tell you what the difference is (noun, verb, different uses). It will help you make sure you are finding the right words, unlike some online translators!!

Subject/adjective agreement and conjugating verbs:

• Your 'Phrase du Jour' lists have some useful verbs used in different ways
• You know how to use the verb 'être' and conjugate it - for an online resource, this site is great: http://www.laits.utexas.edu/tex/gr/virr1.html

• For this project, everyone will be using Je, Il/Elle. You have some examples of saying 'he/she is', 'he/she has', etc on your 'Describing Celebrities' worksheet, and how to make adjectives masculine or feminine
• A good web resource for masculine vs. feminine adjectives is this one: http://www.cliffsnotes.com/study_guide/Changing-Masculine-to-Singular-Feminine.topicArticleId-25559,articleId-25510.html

Fun phrases for 'beyond the basic 5!':

• http://www.smartphrase.com/French/fr_problems_phr.shtml (try to add some intrigue to your story once you have hit the 5 required, 'prior knowledge' sentences with emergencies, more activities, and more description!)

Setting the scene:

• Maybe you'd like to describe the weather, to give your character's life some context! Here is a link on the weather: http://www.cliffsnotes.com/study_guide/Weather.topicArticleId-25559,articleId-25473.html 

Comic strip generator:

• Note - if you use this, it will print out very small! When you give your draft to Miss G for review, you'll have to type it in, and she will print it out on bigger paper before you start drawing: http://www.readwritethink.org/files/resources/interactives/comic/index.html

Storytelling Preferences

8th graders: here is the link to let me know what you're thinking of using for your character and project style!

Even more on music and language...

Click here for an interesting NPR story on the place of conductors within orchestras! Below is an excerpt that is related to what we talked about around the time of the (8th grade) rap assignment. 

The article mentions a relation between the music parts of the brain, and communication! So cool. Plus, if you believe that conductors are not necessary in an orchestra (what the article explores)...maybe you as students can help teach yourselves and each other. Think about it - if you taught yourselves more, and could learn about whatever you wanted (related to the subject still), what would you investigate?

If you think of what you would teach each other and yourself in French, let me know on Thursday or Friday, and we will try to work it in to class next week!

Miss G

"You have a signal that is originating from the conductor, because he is moving his hands and his body," Aloimonos explained. "And then the players, they perceive that signal, and they create another signal by moving the bows of the violin appropriately. So you have some sort of sensorimotor conversation."

(The research study is part of a larger project where Aloimonos is trying to figure out if human movements share something in common with human language; he suspects both are not only governed by a grammar, but that both may be based on similar processes in the brain.)

Music, Language and the Brain

Hello, class!

(This post is most related to what the 8th graders are working on now, but I think it's a fantastic subject for any age: music, language, and the brain.)

Borrowed from another teacher's blog for educational use, from : http://www.pianimation.com/2012/07/23/this-is-your-brain-on-music-part-1/

Here is a cool 5 minute snip of a TED-Ed video that legendary bass player Victor Wooten narrated.
Wooten seems to be a man that has practiced what he preaches: check out his biography if you are interested in how he got into the music scene.

He talks about the way we learn our first language as babies, and the way music should be taught. Think about the connections between what he says about learning music and the process of learning second or additional languages.

If you're interested in learning more, a lot of fantastic stories about music and the brain are in one of my favorite books, Musicophilia by Oliver Sacks. Stories involving language come into play for several chapters. It gets a little technical at times with brain-related words, but if you are up for the challenge, it is a great read!

                                                  

Miss G