La vie en ville : extended writing and speaking, photo description
Lesson details
Learning outcome
I can describe a town in detail, using the imperfect and present tenses. I can describe a photo and draw comparisons between two photos.
Vocabulary and transcripts for this lessons
Key learning points
- We use present tense for describing a photo, but a range of tenses, including imperfect, to extend the discussion.
- Use 'plus' and 'moins' followed by adjectives and 'plus de' and 'moins de' followed by nouns for contrasts.
- Immediate repetition of a speaking task, with reduced support, improves performance.
- It's important to plan to incorporate a range of past, present and future tenses when writing an extended text.
Keywords
Imperfect tense - tense used to describe how things were or used to be in the past, or to say what was happening
Adjective - a word that gives more information about a noun
Noun - word for a person, place, or thing
Common misconception
Only the near future and future tenses can be used to refer fo the future.
It is possible to refer to the future using the conditional mood: phrases like 'je voudrais' and 'il voudrait' which are followed by an infinitive. This creates the idea of what someone would like to do, clearly referring to possible future events.
Teacher tip
You may wish to have current and historic photos of the town or area your school serves to use as prompts for students to practise writing sentences about their town using present and imperfect tenses.
Equipment
Mini whiteboards and pens are useful if available.
Licence
Lesson video
Loading...
Some of our videos, including non-English language videos, do not have captions.
Prior knowledge starter quiz
6 Questions
Q1.Match the imperfect verb forms with the subjects.
mangeais
mangeait
mangions
mangiez
mangeaient
Q2.Match the imperfect verb endings with the subjects.
-ais
-ait
-aient
-iez
-ions
Q3.Which statement is a disadvantage (un inconvénient)?
Q4.Which sentences describe the way things used to be?
Q5.Match the French verbs with their English meanings.
invent, invents (I, you, he, she)
wish (we)
used to advise (they)
used to invent (I, you)
used to wish (we)
advise (they)
Q6.What is the missing verb in this sentence? 'Je mes amis à bien travailler en classe'. I used to advise my friends to work hard in class.
Assessment exit quiz
5 Questions
Q1.What is the acronym to remind us of things to talk about when describing a photo?
Q2.Which sentence refers to the future?
Q3.What is the imperfect stem of 'être' to be, being?
Q4.Put these words in order to make the sentence: He often used to go cycling with Pierre.
Q5.Which word is missing to make this question about the future? 'Tu aller en ville avec moi samedi ?'
To help you plan your 10 French lesson on: La vie en ville : extended writing and speaking, photo description, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs...
To help you plan your 10 French lesson on: La vie en ville : extended writing and speaking, photo description, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs.
The starter quiz will activate and check your pupils' prior knowledge, with versions available both with and without answers in PDF format.
We use learning cycles to break down learning into key concepts or ideas linked to the learning outcome. Each learning cycle features explanations with checks for understanding and practice tasks with feedback. All of this is found in our slide decks, ready for you to download and edit. The practice tasks are also available as printable worksheets and some lessons have additional materials with extra material you might need for teaching the lesson.
The assessment exit quiz will test your pupils' understanding of the key learning points.
Our video is a tool for planning, showing how other teachers might teach the lesson, offering helpful tips, modelled explanations and inspiration for your own delivery in the classroom. Plus, you can set it as homework or revision for pupils and keep their learning on track by sharing an online pupil version of this lesson.
Explore more key stage 4 French lessons from the My neighbourhood: Là où j'habite unit, dive into the full secondary French curriculum, or learn more about lesson planning.