World Language students had several opportunities to build their conversational skills in immersive events this month. Upper Schoolers in French 1B stepped into a café conversationnel this month, as French teacher Jillian Nicks transformed their classroom into a French café complete with menus, café tables, and a few sweet treats. As students entered, they found café tables arranged throughout the room and a “menu” of conversational prompts waiting for them.

They began with les entrées—light, introductory phrases to warm up their French and get the dialogue flowing. Soon, the chatter deepened into les plats principaux, where students used targeted question prompts to ask their tablemates about weekend plans, either reflecting on past activities using the passé composé or looking ahead with le futur proche. To prevent a conversational lull, Jillian provided short phrases students could use to respond to comments or follow up, as well as fun “dessert” questions, such as favorite kinds of movies and places they want to travel. 

World language teachers Erin Overstreet and Rachana Sudhaman’s French 2B and sixth grade students teamed up this month for a lively cross-divisional conversation workshop. With only two students enrolled, French 2B is the Upper School’s most advanced French class, making this a perfect opportunity for them to model confident language skills while giving sixth graders the thrill of practicing with older peers.

The groups began with warm-up questions familiar to the sixth graders to help them get comfortable and build camaraderie. Then, together, they brainstormed new prompts about likes and dislikes before circulating the room to interview one another. Laughter, curiosity, and some “Comment dit-on…?” filled the space as students practiced asking and answering foundational questions in French. Finally, they finished the class by creating Mad Lib monsters together. Each student designed a monster by following French prompts to add different body parts. Periodically, they passed their papers to a neighbor, adding details to a new monster, and learning new vocabulary as they were asked to describe the finished monsters with adjectives.

These events offered French classes fresh, fun ways to build community—and their conversational French—at the same time.