Exciting News!

Mr. Stetz, our French teacher, is now also a published author. He has written three books in French and his daughter is the illustrator for these books. The three books focus on the Canadian culture, Halloween, Christmas and Valentine's Day.

French as a Second Language 

At Colonel Sanders Traditional Learning Centre, all students participate in learning French. 

Oh Canada is sung in French on Mondays and Fridays.

Dear Families,

Your child has begun a French program, called Histoires en action!. For many of you this is a continuation of the work we completed last year, but for new students it will be an exciting new challenge. This program has proven to be a revolutionary new approach to second language instruction. It is based upon the use of stories and music for the teaching of French. Specifically designed stories that are written in the form of plays become the focus for a range of motivating language activities that help students develop confidence and competence in the language as they progress through each story unit. 

For young students, the use of stories is a very important way to contextualize vocabulary. It allows language development to be supported and nurtured within the familiar, predictable context of a story that is the focus for the unit’s work. Music is integrated with the story, and in each unit of this program, students will learn to perform a play and a dance to accompany that play. There are a few songs, chants and raps that help students who learn well through rhythmical activities. The vocabulary that is taught in this method has been carefully selected as it is essential vocabulary for students during the initial stages of their language learning.

Another component of this program is the Gesture Approach, a technique that uses hand signs to help students learn and remember this important vocabulary found in the plays, songs and other activities. Each word is associated with a gesture, so that the language is represented visually and kinesthetically for the benefit of those students who learn best this way.

There is an equal, strong emphasis on the development of all four language skills (reading, writing, listening and speaking) through this program; however, for younger students, the written word will be gradually introduced and the initial focus will be on oral language acquisition with plenty of pleasant repetition.

There is an online portal that our generous Parent Council has provided for your child that allows them to practice at home. You will find your child’s username and password along with the URL of the website https://class.aimlanguagelearning.com/account/ on a sticker in their agenda. Home study will be assigned on this portal through Google Classroom. I host an information session every September to give a program overview for new families.

Monsieur Stetz