On Thursday, in celebration of World Poetry Day Year 11 and 12 French classes studied a poem by Jacques Prevert.  He is a poet well known for his use of simple language and style which is easily accessible by students of French. We looked at the poem Paris de Nuit which is a simple love poem of 6 lines and includes language which both groups could grasp easily.  Our first point of focus was to learn to say as much of the poem as possible and with the help of a PowerPoint presentation the students were encourage to read the poem aloud to a partner a number of times as words disappeared randomly from the screen.  By the end of the exercise all were confident enough to produce largely accurate versions of the poem on individual whiteboards.

Pictures were then re-arranged to tell the outline of the story and at this point the students began to focus on specific grammar points such as the use of different adjectives, infinitive phrases, use of number and possessive pronouns. Once they had completed this task they were asked if they could write an English version of the poem. Our final task of the lesson involved working with a partner to produce short poems on the theme of light and darkness.  It was astounding what the students produced in such a short period of time.

Ms Hornung

Dans la nuit je vois la lune au ciel

Comme une bougie dans l’obscurité

C’est l’espoir

C’est la mémoire

C’est belle

Je reste debout devant e ciel

Jusqu’à ce que le matin arrive

puis tout est fini

 

(Corbin /Wiebke)

 

Quand les étoiles commencent à briller

Je me rappelle de toi

Tu es mon ange dans le paradis

Tu es mon guide

Parmi l’obscurité tu brilles toujours

Par le paradis et l’enfer

Tu seras toujours à moi

(Paula/Issy)

Sans toi

Toute est perdue

Tu es une étoile qui brille

Dans l’obscurité

Tu es le soleil qui allume

Un jour de pluie

Sans toi

Il n’y a pas de paradis

Seulement l’enfer.

Sharron and Anna Luisa)

D’abord tu me vois heureuse puis tu me vois

Tombée et cassée

J’ai la lumière et l’obscurité dedans

De temps en temps on voit l’obscurite

De temps en temps en voit las lumière

Ils se battent et

Je ne peux pas les échapper

( Bel/Annabelle)