Saturday, 1 February 2014
Writing in French can be very scary for my students. If they aren't confident with their writing in English, then it's an extra scary new challenge.

This week I let me students write on their desks. Their DESKS. They didn't believe me when I told them to take a dry erase marker and sit at their desks. When I told them to start writing, they looked at me as though it was a trick! Through the giggles and squeals, I noticed that ALL of them started writing within a few minutes. In French! I didn't have any of the resistance that I get when I give them paper and tell them to start.

For some of them, I wrote prompts on their desks for them to reply to. For others, I wrote sentence starters and they finished them (with words and pictures). It was so easy to differentiate! As they finished, I walked around and we looked at editing. I made notes down the sides of their desks and they edited their work (capitals, periods, word wall words).

I now have kids begging to write on their desks when they finish their work :) **Some of our desks had some grime on them, so the dry erase markers didn't perfectly erase. When we were completely done, we used some water and a paper towel and it came right off :)
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