In spite of the very public criticism of Google Books by the administrators of the Bibliothèque Nationale, the latter has engaged for years in a similar digitization project called Gallica. Ironically, you can often find texts on Gallica that are…
Online Sources: Interview with David Belle, Parkour’s inventor, on ParkourFrance Parkour Blog with an article about David Belle you can download New Yorker article on Parkour from 2007
This is a quick warm-up activity I use to review comparative adverbs (plus, moins, autant). It’s in the format of one of the most successful kind of oral exercise: a table to “find someone in the class who…” You can…
When learning adjectives in an elementary language course, I often use examples from the visual arts to create a comparaison exercise. Two paintings that lend themselves well to this kind of exercise are Manet’s Déjeuner sur l’herbe (1862-1863) and Monet’s…
What student of 19th-century literature doesn’t remember the striking portrayal of the young Charles Bovary that begins Flaubert’s 1857 novel? The opening passage – which depicts the child as an awkward “nouveau” joining a class of students younger than him…
You can use any French song to create some sort of grammar, vocabulary, or culture lesson. The song “Octobre” by Francis Cabrel lends itself particularly well to a review of the futur simple. About half of the lines of the…
You may want to file this one under “The Obvious,” but this was a revelation for me: After many years of piles collecting and covering every flat surface in my surroundings, I’ve finally settled on a way to keep my…
Digging through some course materials that have been handed down to me, I came across Alphonse Daudet’s short story La Dernière classe. As is the case with most any short story from the 19th century, this is a great text…
The Google Books project – like that of the Bibliothèque Nationale’s Gallica site – has revolutionized the way we find and access texts, particularly those with expired copyright and available in full-text format. To make the most of this tool,…
The first day of a course I’m teaching is fast approaching and I’ve been thinking about the importance of organization and the communication to students of what is expected of them each day. Microsoft Word Templates simplify the planning of…