Encouraging students to speak French in the classroom - French tickets
I’ve been feeling really defeated with the lack of oral French that my students use. I think we all are! Well this year I started something new, the “Je parle en français” ticket system. I got the idea for this from some intermediate colleagues who use this system in their classes, so thank you to both of them!
This works great in my grade three class, but you could use this in any grade, you’d just change your expectations and what’s required to receive a ticket.
How it works
Listen, I am not above bribery to encourage speaking French. When they are caught speaking French to me or to peers, they get a ticket. Their name goes on the back and it goes into the big jar. I pull one name per day to receive a small candy. If you can’t give out treats, maybe they get to choose a sticker, get a point to work up to something bigger, sit in a special chair...
I empty the jar at the end of the month and we start fresh.
You could do a weekly draw instead of daily if you prefer.
Managing giving out tickets
Mostly I am the one giving tickets. I have a basket of fresh tickets at my desk and other places around the room so that I can grab them when needed. I will also often say “un billet de français” and the student will go write their own ticket to save me the time. I have a basket of fresh tickets and a pen for students to use beside the jar. So far no one has been cheating and adding their name.
The rules
They do not get tickets for frequent use phrases like using the washroom or getting a drink because my expectation is that we are in grade 3 and they should be saying this anyway. I am looking for spontaneous oral production and EFFORT in speaking French.
This is a “fair not equal” system in that I do change the rules for certain students. Basically I have different expectations for some students. For some students, getting a couple words out might be a huge accomplishment and I want to reward that. For others, they have stronger skills and I would expect a complete sentence.
For all students if you say most in French but need to throw in an English word or two, you still get your ticket because you tried instead of just saying it all in English.
I’ve been amazed at the level of motivation this provides many students. They work pretty hard for a CHANCE to win a little candy.
Does it work for all students? Nope. Some names are never in there and that’s the way it goes. My hope is that by watching their peers try to speak and through our speaking activities that they will gain some more confidence/desire to speak in the future.