Gaynes School French Scheme
YEAR 9: weeks 26-30
MFL – French
Year 9
Unit 14 Déjà
About the unit
Expectations
This unit consolidates and extends pupils’ knowledge of the perfect tense. They learn to talk
and write about a variety of past events.
At the end of this unit
New language content:
• perfect tense of verbs with avoir
• all persons and types of verb other than -er verbs
• words and phrases referring to the past
• further work on the perfect tense, including être verbs and reflexive verbs
New contexts:
• past birthday or other special occasion
• recent events in the wider world (via the news)
Alternative contexts: home, school and spare-time activities; a recent weekend; diary.
This unit is expected to take 12–15 hours.
most pupils will: understand the difference between present and perfect tenses and apply
this knowledge in different situations; ask/understand questions and understand/give
answers about past events within their own experience and that of others, in new and
familiar contexts; summarise an event or story, with prompts or other aids
some pupils will not have made so much progress and will: show some understanding
of the perfect tense; produce simple sentences in the perfect tense, probably with help, on
a small number of topics, chiefly using the first person; understand short, straightforward
spoken or written passages such as diaries, perhaps with visual clues
some pupils will have progressed further and will: handle most aspects of the perfect
tense with confidence and largely correctly; understand texts which use the perfect tense,
and summarise these in their own words, or read them for pleasure
Where the unit fits in
This unit builds on pupils’ initial encounters with the perfect tense of -er verbs in unit 10
‘Qu’est-ce qu’on mange?’ and unit 11 ‘A la mode’ by exploiting the tense more
comprehensively. Pupils respond to an increasingly complex range of reading and listening
stimuli.
© QCA 2000
Browse, save, edit or print Schemes of Work from the Standards Site at www.standards.dfee.gov.uk
French - Unit 14 Déjà
1
Prior learning
Out-of-school learning and Homework
It is helpful if pupils already know:
• present tense of regular and common irregular verbs, including avoir and être
• perfect tense of -er verbs (avoir)
• adverbs of time (present)
• how to skim and scan texts, write paragraphs, report back information gathered in pair and
group work
• language to discuss home and school life, spare-time activities
• how to use verb tables
Homework is set via means of a booklet and or worksheet at the start of each unit and
includes core vocabulary for learning and use as well as reading, listening and preparation
activities for speaking assessments.
Pupils could be encouraged to note, over a period of time, events covered on TV news
(especially news programmes designed for younger viewers) in preparation for work later in
this unit. In particular they could note news items relating to French-speaking countries.
Future learning
• A secure knowledge of the perfect tense, and a good grasp of the differences between
Resources
Resources include:
• calendar
• access to the internet
• PCs and word-processing software
© QCA 2000
present and past, will help provide a firm foundation for further work on other tenses in
both key stages.
• The simple ‘summarising’ activities in this unit look ahead to more detailed and complex
summaries of stories and plots in unit 17 ‘A mon avis’.
Browse, save, edit or print Schemes of Work from the Standards Site at www.standards.dfee.gov.uk
French - Unit 14 Déjà
2
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
PUPILS SHOULD LEARN
POSSIBLE TEACHING ACTIVITIES
LEARNING OUTCOMES
PUPILS
POINTS TO NOTE
1
• to know the difference
between present and past,
by reusing verbs previously
encountered in present and
perfect tenses
• how to form regular past
participles
• to become familiar with rules
about être verbs, including
rules of past participle
agreement, and combine
with existing knowledge of
perfect tense; to know how
to find past participles of
irregular verbs
• Revise known verbs (present) using mime or gap-fill activities.
• Revise avoir from previous unit; ensure pupils know paradigm of avoir.
• Contrast activities being done or completed, eg using pairs of pictures
showing an activity being done and the same activity finished. Use, for
example, visuals or photos of household chores, eg washing up, cleaning,
washing the car. It may be possible to use video material, pausing to
describe what people are doing, then pausing a second time to describe
what people have done.
• Pupils produce simple oral/written narrative(s) incorporating the above.
Pair work on dimanche dernier with reporting back on who did what. Pupils
needing more support can match sentences to pictures and make two lists
of present tense and perfect tense actions under the headings
Normalement and Dimanche dernier.
• To check that pupils can form the perfect tense of regular -er verbs, get
them to find some in a dictionary or glossary and to make up sentences
using them in the perfect tense.
• Present time words/phrases using, eg calendar, diary, TV guide – pupils
match time phrases to tenses, eg d’habitude + present, hier soir + perfect.
• Revise être from previous unit; ensure pupils know paradigm of être.
• Teach principle of être verbs in the perfect tense – and, if pupils are able
to grasp them, rules of agreement.
• Pupils could try tense spotting in selected authentic articles or listening
extracts.
• Combine avoir and être verbs with a sentence-building game. Pupils work
in small groups. Pupil A makes a sentence using an être verb, pupil B
repeats it and adds a sentence or phrase with an avoir verb, pupil C
repeats both and adds a new type of être verb idea.  Encourage pupils
not to confine their examples to je, and to use negatives, and joining
words.
• recognise and produce as
appropriate all parts of the
verb avoir (present tense)
• understand the difference
between present and past,
eg D’habitude je prends le
déjeuner à la cantine mais
hier j’ai mangé chez moi.
• use the perfect tense (avoir
verbs) with time phrases, eg
Ma mère a travaillé dans le
jardin samedi dernier.
• understand the use of
common avoir and être
verbs, eg Samedi soir, nous
sommes restés à la maison.
Papa a joué au Scrabble
avec ma sœur ...
 demonstrate mastery of the
rules of agreement with
support
• distinguish (perhaps with
support) between avoir and
être verbs in the perfect
tense and say or write, eg
hier je suis allé au cinema
où j'ai vu un bon film.
• A mnemonic such as MRS
VANDETRAMP is helpful to
remember which the être verbs are.
• Pupils will need to be reminded of
the dictionary skill of looking up
verbs in reference tables. This was
covered in unit 8 ‘Fais ceci ... Faites
cela!’.
• A further related activity can be
found in Optional Tests and Tasks
7.6.
Any activities marked  might be better suited to higher-attaining pupils
© QCA 2000
Browse, save, edit or print Schemes of Work from the Standards Site at www.standards.dfee.gov.uk
French - Unit 14 Déjà
3
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
PUPILS SHOULD LEARN
POSSIBLE TEACHING ACTIVITIES
LEARNING OUTCOMES
PUPILS
POINTS TO NOTE
2
• to adapt language
encountered so far in this
unit to speak or write about
a different past event
• Pupils speak or write, using aural or visual stimuli or cues, about an event,
eg mon dernier anniversaire, une surprise.
• Pupils prepare an oral presentation, word-processed version or multimedia
presentation on computer of one of the above events.
• write one or two paragraphs
about themselves and/or
someone else, using the
perfect tense, or give an oral
or multimedia presentation
• Pupils could be taught some set
phrase opinions as a gentle
introduction to the imperfect tense,
eg C’était extra!
• Further related activities can be
found in Optional Tests and Tasks
3.6, 7.7.
• Revise present tense of reflexive verbs; contrast Normalement ... with Ce
matin le réveil n’a pas sonné using a series of linked sentences; role play
En retard pour l’école, with pupils giving reasons for lateness.
• Pupils read and write about une grasse matinée or une journée de
détente, with or  without support.
• Pupils read one or two selected poems from Paroles (J Prévert).
• Pupils listen to the poem Déjeuner du matin. In groups, they prepare to act
out the story as it is read aloud. Provide the text of Déjeuner du matin with
each section cut up into sentences. Pupils put the sentences into the
correct sequence. Each group in turn then mimes/acts out its section of
the poem. The class reconstructs the poem from the mime cues orally.
• Give pupils the text of the poem, leaving gaps for them to complete orally
and in writing. Pupils make simple substitutions and create their own
poems.  Pupils might tackle a wider range of selected poems. Some
pupils may be able to write their own poems following the style of those
read.
• understand and use
reflexive verbs in the perfect
tense, eg Dimanche dernier
Amina s’est réveillée tard ...
• Pupils might set out their poems on
the computer, which offers
interesting visual possibilities for
presenting their own poems in the
style of Apollinaire’s Calligrammes.
• The internet has sites containing
poems that can be downloaded into
a word processor. The text could
then be enlarged for whole-class
presentation on the overhead
projector. Alternatively, the linebreaks could be removed and the
poem presented to pupils as a piece
of continuous text. Pupils must read
the poem carefully and restore the
line-breaks where they think they
should be.
• A further related activity can be
found in Optional Tests and Tasks
4.10.
3
• to incorporate use of perfect
tense of reflexive verbs,
including past participle
agreement, into now familiar
perfect tense work
Any activities marked  might be better suited to higher-attaining pupils
© QCA 2000
Browse, save, edit or print Schemes of Work from the Standards Site at www.standards.dfee.gov.uk
French - Unit 14 Déjà
4
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
PUPILS SHOULD LEARN
POSSIBLE TEACHING ACTIVITIES
LEARNING OUTCOMES
PUPILS
POINTS TO NOTE
4
• to read or listen to
narratives/reports of recent
events
• to summarise the story of a
recently seen film or TV
programme
• to use knowledge of
language creatively to talk
about current events
5
• Pupils skim/scan newspaper snippets or French language news websites
and listen to a native French speaker giving a summary of news events,
eg doing a voice-over to recorded TV footage.  Pupils might listen to this
at normal speed.
• Provide a picture story with a section missing. Pupils imagine what
happened in the missing section.
• Pupils script and video a two-minute ‘news summary’ of recent events.
• Pupils read a summary of a plot and fill in missing key words or correctly
order jumbled sentences recounting the plot.
 Pupils summarise a story orally or in writing.
• understand the gist of heard
or read items which use the
perfect tense
• use the perfect tense for real
purposes
• produce a simple summary
of a plot, eg Un homme qui
s’appelle Dick a volé ...
• It may be necessary to download
news items from the internet and
simplify the language.  Pupils
could use their knowledge and
deduction skills to try to understand
the main points.
• Pupils will have studied the
language features of TV news
reports as part of their work in
English.
• write at greater length using
a variety of verbs in the
perfect tense
• Pupils will have learnt about diary
writing in year 6 in their National
Literacy Strategy work.
End-of-unit activities
• to apply knowledge, skills
and understanding learnt in
this unit
• Pupils write their equivalent of Diary of a nobody, recording the minutiae
and trivia of their lives over seven days.
• Pupils needing more help could make a brief sports commentary on a key
player or favourite team using support material, eg a writing framework or
text with gaps to complete with particular details. They could describe
where the player/team played, when, against whom, what the score was at
half-time/full time, who scored, etc.
Any activities marked  might be better suited to higher-attaining pupils
© QCA 2000
Browse, save, edit or print Schemes of Work from the Standards Site at www.standards.dfee.gov.uk
French - Unit 14 Déjà
5