Les fêtes et les traditions - Unit Planner
🗂️ Unit at a Glance
Core information and scope of the unit
Language Acquisition – French
MYP 4 • Grade 9
Approximately 12 hours
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🔎 Inquiry – Establishing the Purpose
The conceptual framework that gives the unit direction
French celebrations and traditions reflect the purposes and customs of a culture and contribute to personal and cultural expression.
💡 Inquiry Questions
Questions that move learning from knowledge to interpretation and debate
Factual
What are some common celebrations, festivals and traditions in French culture?
Conceptual
How do celebrations and traditions communicate and shape cultural identity?
Debatable
To what extent should traditions be preserved as societies and cultural practices change?
🎯 Learning Goals
By the end of this unit, students should be able to...
- understand key information about major French celebrations and public holidays;
- identify facts, opinions, messages and supporting details in spoken French;
- explain the cultural significance of traditions such as the 14 July celebrations, Christmas, Mardi Gras and New Year;
- compare celebrations and traditions across cultures;
- express and justify personal opinions about cultural practices;
- communicate clearly using relevant vocabulary, appropriate grammatical structures and comprehensible pronunciation.
📝 Assessment Overview
How students will demonstrate their understanding
🎧 Listening
Students listen to an authentic or adapted text related to French celebrations and traditions.
Students will:
- identify explicit and implicit information including facts, opinions, messages and supporting details;
- analyse conventions;
- analyse connections.
🎤 Speaking
Students speak about a celebration, tradition or cultural practice and respond to questions or prompts.
Students will:
- use a wide range of relevant vocabulary;
- use a wide range of grammatical structures generally accurately;
- use clear pronunciation and intonation;
- communicate the required information clearly and effectively.
Criteria A and C are assessed summatively. Reading and writing skills may be developed formatively throughout the unit to support the final assessments.
🌱 Formative Assessment
Low-stakes opportunities to practise and receive feedback
Short video and audio comprehension tasks.
Pair discussions and one-minute cultural presentations.
Blogs, short articles, posters and cultural information texts.
Short descriptions, opinions and comparisons of celebrations.
🧭 Approaches to Learning
Skills explicitly developed through the unit
📚 Language and Cultural Content
What students need to know and use
🗣️ Vocabulary
- celebrations and festivals
- dates and public holidays
- family and community traditions
- food, decorations and activities
- opinions and preferences
🧩 Language Structures
- present tense
- past tense for describing celebrations
- expressions of frequency
- comparatives
- giving and justifying opinions
- connectives for comparison
🇫🇷 Culture
- 14 July
- Mardi Gras
- Christmas and New Year traditions
- public holidays
- commemorative dates
- comparison with other cultures
🛤️ Learning Journey
Suggested sequence for teaching and learning
Brainstorm celebrations students already know. Compare personal and family traditions.
Introduce vocabulary, useful expressions and language for describing and comparing traditions.
Use videos, images, short texts and presentations about French celebrations and public holidays.
Identify purpose, audience, conventions, messages and connections in authentic material.
Compare French traditions with those represented in the class or local community.
Complete Criterion A listening and Criterion C speaking assessments.
🧑🏫 Learning Experiences and Teaching Strategies
Personal experiences, opinions and cultural comparisons.
Videos showing French celebrations, festivals and public holidays.
Simulated conversations and preparations for celebrations.
Think-pair-share, speed conversations and mini presentations.
Short descriptions, comparisons and personal reflections.
Research into the origins and meanings of selected traditions.
🌈 Differentiation and Support
Providing access while maintaining appropriate challenge
| Area | Support | Extension |
|---|---|---|
| Vocabulary | Word banks, visuals and sentence starters | More precise cultural and descriptive vocabulary |
| Listening | Repeated listening and pre-taught keywords | Infer implicit messages and analyse conventions |
| Speaking | Planning frames and visual prompts | Spontaneous follow-up questions and extended justification |
| Content | Accessible texts and selected information | Independent research and cross-cultural comparisons |
🌱 Learner Profile Connections
Students consider traditions and values that may differ from their own.
Students communicate cultural information clearly and appropriately in French.
Students analyse why traditions exist and how they express cultural identity.
Students compare what they learn with their own cultural experiences.
📦 Resources
- Philpot Education – French Language Acquisition resources
- 1jour1actu videos and articles on French celebrations and public holidays
- Authentic French posters, images, short videos and advertisements
- Teacher-created vocabulary activities and comprehension tasks
- Presentations on French festivals, public holidays and 14 July
- Student devices for listening, research and oral recording
🪞 Reflection
Questions to guide planning, adjustment and evaluation
⭐ Indicators of Successful Learning
Students are successful when they can:
- understand the key ideas in authentic spoken French;
- distinguish factual information, opinion and message;
- explain how traditions reflect culture;
- compare French celebrations with other cultural practices;
- communicate confidently using relevant vocabulary and appropriate grammatical structures;
- justify opinions using examples and cultural knowledge.
Related unit resources:
- Fêtes, traditions et jours fériés
- La fête nationale – le 14 juillet
- Les jours fériés en France
- Comparing cultural traditions
- Criterion A – Listening
- Criterion C – Speaking