Sunday, May 12, 2013

Chanson de Dimanche... volume #1

Happy Mother's Day!

I've recently been inspired to make French music a more regular routine in my classroom. La Chanson de Dimanche has been born!

image from Teaching FSL's weekly feature "Chanson de dimanche" for using songs in French class

Students have always enjoyed most activities I've tried that incorporated music, yet I still hear from my students that they wouldn't DARE to audition with a French song for our talent contest, or related high-profile school activities that certain teachers at my middle school arrange.

I think this is where I say "The opinions expressed...."

This year, I used an activity I found on the TES Connect website that went over REALLY well with my students. What on earth is that acronym, you ask? Think of it like the Ontario Educational Resource Bank is to teachers in Ontario bur for the UK. Except, here in Ontario we restrict people who are not employed by a publicly-funded school board from accessing the OERB, and TES is available for ANYONE to join (yes, for free!) There are lots of great FFL resources to be found there, including some submitted by Canadian teachers, and teachers of other subjects (English, Math, Science... why not?) should definitely check it out too!

So what did I use? You're dying to know!  I can tell!  I taught my students how "si clauses" in French use the imparfait rather than the conditional when talking about hypothetical situations. We used this resource (I'll try to link directly to it, but if that doesn't work, search for "conditionnel chanson" once you've logged in to TES, and be sure you're searching in the Resources, not the Jobs section. It was shared by SkierMeetsBoarder)
Screen capture of video "Si tu n'existans pas" originally by Joe Dassin, sung by Willy Denzey
Still image taken from "Si tu n'existais pas" video by Willy Denzey
The original video link provided did not work, but I found an alternative one pretty easily. Maybe it's because I found a different version of the video, but I found that we didn't have the last verse SkierMeetsBoarder had provided in his (or her?) handout.  Here's the version I edited to make it work for me. The "Learning Goal" stuck with most students right away, and almost all of them with a tiny bit of classroom reinforcement of the concept. One student shared the video we watched on his facebook page (LOVE that!) and some of them are still singing or humming the song regularly. My students actually just included "Si tu n'existais pas" by Willy Denzey on their DANCE REQUEST LIST... not even joking!  Both classes that I played it for, and they decided this independently and separately!

Since I'd mentioned that it was a remake, some students inquired about the original, so I shared that video too. They weren't nearly as impressed, to say the least. LOL

So, about this feature... I hope to make it a weekly thing to be released each weekend, hence the name La Chanson de Dimanche. It will build up my bank of activities to use in class. That's my ulterior motive,but feel free to benefit from what I share as well!. At some point, it would be great to make this a weekly linky party, but alas, my French-teacher-blogger network still isn't all that strong, and I'd hate to host a linky party where I was the only participant!

Also, I wish to mention that I came up with the name by myself.  Then I did a little searching, and it doesn't seem there are any other bloggers out there on the "interweb" already using that term.  I did find however, the Chanson du dimanche project, which is two musicians who have challenged themselves to put out a new song every Sunday.  Kind of cool... so check that out too!  I'm hoping that the world of francophone musical appreciation is big enough for the both of us! I'm also not sure if they are still actively doing this, but I certainly won't be writing (or playing and singing!) my own songs any time soon!


  1. J'adore l'idée d'une chanson de vendredi! J'ai aussi imaginé une chanson de lundi comme une façon amusante et détendue de commencer la semaine. Mais il me semble que je n'ai jamais le temps de faire ni l'un ni l'autre. :( Quand j'enseigne des chansons, je suis d'accord avec vous, et j'avais les mêmes expériences: les élèves l'adorent (Garou: Je suis le même) et en parlent pour des années à l'avenir. Peut-être l'année prochaine...

  2. C'est exactement la raison que j'ai choisi dimanche... comme ça, les profs ont toute la semaine pour le faire (lundi ou vendredi... c'est à toi de décider!)

    Merci pour le commentaire!

  3. New to your blog. Wonderful work, Tammy! Why not crowd source ideas so a bunch of us could contribute just one amazing song to end up with a song for each week of the year? Let me know if you could coordinate among all your followers.

    1. I think that's an amazing idea.... as you may have noticed, I didn't keep up this "weekly" feature all the way through. It was taking me hours to put together content I am happy with, along with cute fonts and

  4. Here is a piece you might find suitable.

    1. Actually, I know this one is a popular choice, but one I struggle with... I've played it as background music to get us moving, but there is a drug reference and the word "merde" in it.


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