Project: Make French flash cards.
Instructions
- Choose format: Index cards, blank business cards, anything of uniform size and moderately stiff. If you'd rather use regular paper, you'll need to laminate each flash card or they won't last.
- Write the French word/phrase on one side of the paper and the English translation on the other.
- Keep a rubber band around the cards and carry them in your pocket or purse.
Customization
- Vocabulary:
- Separate sets of flashcards with different themes (restaurant, clothing, etc.) vs a single master grouping
- Words and phrases with their translations
- Expressions: Main word (e.g., donner) on one side and a list of expressions on the other
- Abbreviations: Abbreviation (e.g., AF) on one side and what it stands for (Allocations familiales) on the other
- Creativity: If you're a teacher, you can make a set of flash cards to use in class, or you might consider asking your students to make their own. The cards can be made on the computer or by hand, using colors, magazine pictures, drawings, and anything else that inspires students to think about French.
- Usage: Flash cards can be used in class, of course, but they are also great to have when you're waiting at the doctor's office, sitting on a bus, or riding a stationary bike. Carry them with you so that you can work on you French during time that would otherwise be wasted.
Resources
Notes
The great thing about flash cards is that making them is a fun project which results in a useful learning tool for students of all ages and levels.
From other teachers and students
- I now use pictures to teach everything in my class from idiomatic expressions to verbs to nouns. You can get any kind of picture you need from Google Image Search. It's been a great resource for me so I don't always need to buy magazines to find pictures. Plus, the students learn what each action/item is in the target language without using their English.
I've seen flash cards bound together with a large metal ring (the kind kids hang their sports patches on - can be found in craft stores and hardware stores for about $1). Each flash card was punched in one corner and then slipped onto this ring. What a great idea! No breaking rubberbands or index card boxes to carry, and the card is fully visible - it's a key chain concept. I require my French 1 students to make cards for each chapter.
I use flashcards for each chapter at almost every level. My students especially love playing 'autour du monde' which involves one student standing next to another in his or her seat. I flash the word and the first student to correctly translate it gets to move ahead and stand next to the next student. When the standing student loses, s/he sits in that spot and the winner gets to move on. Students move up and down rows and the goal is to make it all the way back to where s/he started - around the world. Sometimes it gets pretty heated but students love it! Another version is 4 corners where one 4 students stand in each of the four corners of my room. I flash a word and the first to correctly translate gets to move counter clockwise and 'knock out' that student who then sits down. Last student standing (of course) wins.
Color coding flash cards works great. I use blue for masculine nouns, red for feminine (I don't have a pink sharpie :-), green for verbs, orange for adjectives. It really helps on tests to remember the color.
