Parent Letter Sample from Laurie Clarcq

4 thoughts on “Parent Letter Sample from Laurie Clarcq”

1. Jennifer Goldszmidt

   September 6, 2018 at 4:03 pm

   This is so helpful! I have basically copied everything here and put it into a Powerpoint to share with my students’ parents tonight. I am a 20 year veteran but this is my first year flying without a textbook — oy! am I nervous!

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2. Ben Slavic

   September 6, 2018 at 7:22 pm

   Well good luck and we are glad you are here, Jennifer. One hint is to not wait when a question arise while you are teaching in class. Write it down in the moment the question occurs. Just tell the class you need 30 seconds and scribble the question down. Or have a kid do it. Then send it here. The only way we can really make this PLC work is if we hear questions from new people. Otherwise, it’s just us talking from years and years of knowing each other here. I love that, but I really want this community to get going on sharing concerns about the new non-targeted stuff* with newer people and it hasn’t done that yet. CI Liftoff just doesn’t go narrow and deep at all and we absolutely can do that here so ask away and keep us posted! This is an order to all newer members of this group!
   *Laurie’s letter is nice but outdated, in my opinion.

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   1. Jennifer Goldszmidt

      September 7, 2018 at 10:55 am

      Best parent night ever in my 24 years of teaching. I had parents come up and tell me how much their kids love their French class (I teach level 2), and after my presentation, one parent told me she could see why.
      BTW, I did a lot of editing because it was a PPT, not a letter. But it helped me with FAQ’s — anticipating and answering them for Back to School Night was a godsend.
      I’m slowly moving toward stories from PQA and CWB — I’m nervous before every class, but it really works! My students are nodding, laughing, applauding … and that was the lesson I did to review ER/IR/RE verbs.
      Actually, since I’m writing, I’ll share what I did:
      I chose three verbs, one for each verb group, and I created a very simple and silly story with my students. My counters told me that I said each of the verbs about 35 times each. My goal was 50 reps, but I’m getting there! After the lesson, I put this assignment on their on-line portal:
      Read this story and answer the questions that follow:
      Hier, j’ai trop mangé. J’ai mangé trop de chocolat. Ethan a mangé beaucoup de chocolat aussi. Rose a mangé du chocolat aussi, mais elle n’a mangé qu’un peu de chocolat. Aujourd’hui, Ethan and moi, nous avons mal à l’estomac.
      Hier, Anne a perdu son portable! Anne n’a pas beaucoup mangé, mais elle était triste parce qu’elle a perdu son portable. Elle a cherché son portable pendant des heures, et finalement, elle l’a trouvé. Le portable n’est plus perdu, et Anne est contente.
      En plus, hier nous étions tristes parce qu’il n’y avait pas de classe de français. C’était le jour “A” au lycée. Hier, Noelle n’a pas applaudit. Personne n’a applaudit. C’est pourquoi j’ai trop mangé — j’était très triste. Mais, aujourd’hui, nous avons eu la classe de français, et nous avons applaudi! Nous étions tous très contents.
      ****** Questions ******* Answer in English, in complete sentences.
      1. Why did Madame and Ethan have stomach aches today?
      2. How was everyone feeling yesterday? Why?
      3. Why was Anne sad?
      4. How did everyone show their happiness today?
      5. What was lost and then found?

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3. Ben Slavic

   September 7, 2018 at 8:58 pm

   Very nice!

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