Perfick (tense in French that is)

I hate teaching the perfect tense in French. It is (as the kids in my school say) "proper solid". I have finally (I think) cracked it using the most basic but effective of tools - a flow chart. Actually when you break it down, the perfect tense in French is very logical so using a decision flowchart is a good way of externalising the thought process needed to successfully conjugate this compound tense. The attached picture is a flow chart which should help students to conjugate any verb. I have road tested it with a couple of classes who spotted some mistakes but I think it is basically there. I am going to try to make an interactive flash version over the holidays which I will post when it is ready. Happy tensing...

Comments

[Nick Walmsley]

Hi Chris,
Liking the tense formation flow chart - was recently thinking along similar lines myself although from the other direction i.e. would asking pupils to create a flow chart to IDENTIFY the tense from the French give them a better understanding of how to put it together? First question could be something like: 'Does the tense use a part of avoir or etre' and then filter out from there.

[Chris]

Definitely Nick. I think the big issue is that we sometimes shy away from using graphic organisers when looking at grammar because we feel that it is just something mystical that should be learned in tables! It was like a light went on when I worked through this with my classes. As mentioned before, I am working on an interactive version which should (in theory!) allow you to conjugate any verb in the perfect tense. I will put it on the blog for download when it is ready. Let me know if you do create any more graphic organisers as I would love to see them.
cheers
Chris