You’ve got total control with the Deuxieme Livre because it’s so good in terms of making the grammar understandable. Don’t feel like teaching CI? Teach the Deuxieme Livre. Don’t feel like teaching Deuxieme Livre? Tell a story or do a tableau. Cake.
Don’t forget that the title says “second year” but goes nicely from beginning French to level 4. It’s like your ultimate grammar book. The kids have to buy it, and can find it on Amazon for $5 used. It’s on Etsy also for cheap. That it has been around since the early 1970s says something about it!
So what I suggest is that, if you are a French teacher, use the grammar workbook half the time. It completely removes the stress of doing CI the entire period. Of course, the kids start complaining because most of them want more CI, but you stick to your guns for your own mental health.
The thing is that when you are NOT doing grammar for half the period, the kids – usually under parental pressure – tend to accuse you of not teaching right. This eliminates that problem.
It also effectively deals with the whole articulation to upper levels madness when your kids have to go to a grammar teacher, and it also effectively deals with the inane request that we all teach the same way “in case a kid comes into our class in the middle of the year from another school”, which I better not comment on because you’d have to read some rather salty language, to put it mildly.
