Personalized Classroom Library Books for French Class

Funded Mar 26, 2024

Thank you so much for contributing to my project to bring accessible French language reading material to my students!

I teach Introduction to French with a storytelling approach. For this round of storytelling, each class invented a new character, describing their physical characteristics, personality traits and biographical information - all using the French language! After talking about the characters, I typed up the stories and we read them together several times - as a whole class, in small groups, and with partners. Though this is only their first year learning the language, students read fluently and with joy because they really knew their characters. They felt attached to them because they had created them!

Then the students carefully illustrated the stories, showing the ideas expressed in the lines of text so that a student who was unfamiliar with the story would still understand. Thanks to your donation, I was able to laminate these illustrated stories and place them in the class library.

Now students can read about the characters created by other classes. Being able to read new stories helps them to stretch their comprehension skills, but with the comfort of knowing that students just like them invented the stories. The illustrations help make the text comprehensible and fun to read. And since the stories are laminated, they will stay in good condition and can be used over and over again in our classroom library!

This storytelling project has brought a sense of pride and community to my students, as well as giving them access to comprehensible and compelling reading material in the French language. I am very thankful that you were part of making it happen!”

With gratitude,

Mrs. Edelman