Group 2: French B - Pupils take the lead

Three Lower Sixth IB French students (Alya Luk, Ginevra Bonnaud and Christophe Linne) put their skills to the test in order to teach an Upper Fourth lesson on the theme of jobs. This was their first experience of teaching a class in the target language and, although understandably apprehensive at first, the IB students quickly settled into their role and established a good rapport with the pupils.

You can view a couple of short clips on our YouTube Channel here. 



The Upper Fourth were attentive and participated well when asked. The IB students were able to pass on their knowledge of French and help the class with their comprehension and pronunciation. In planning and delivering the lesson they also gained a useful insight into what it is like to be a teacher. Here is what one student had to say about the experience:

Christophe Linne
Today Ginevra, Alya and I taught an Upper Fourth French lesson about the advantages and disadvantages of different jobs. After getting a feel for the class when they corrected their prep with Miss Tyrrell we went up and started actually teaching the lesson. We introduced a video and helped them to understand and write down the key words. Following this we did two other exercises with them which included understanding if some given phrases where positive or negative.

At first I was not quite sure about how to pitch the lesson because I did not want to make it too easy nor did I want to demand too much of them. But after a few minutes I got into the swing of things and from then on I found the teaching very enjoyable.

From this lesson I have learned that it is not as easy as it seems to teach but that it is achievable if you have well-planned materials and maintain a good pace.

Finally I am glad that I got to teach this class as everyone showed respect for what we were doing and most people seemed to try hard to help us and give the right answers.

Overall the class contributed a lot and made it a really enjoyable experience.




Ginevra Bonnaud
Today a couple of my classmates and I taught a French lesson to a class of Upper Fourths. She had kindly helped us organize the PowerPoint presentation that we would be using to teach her pupils about different types of jobs. The three of us took turns explaining the exercises they would have to do and writing up difficult vocabulary on the whiteboard. After explaining what they had to do we walked around and answered any questions they had about the vocabulary or the task they had to do. Although it was slightly nerve-wracking, it was a nice experience because we got to interact with some other students we weren’t used to being around.