Teaching French for Beginners

BIENVENUE

911吃瓜鈥檚 Office of Francophone and Francophile Affairs (OFFA), in partnership with Cowichan Valley, Saanich, Sooke, and Greater Victoria school districts, are pleased to share comprehensive beginner鈥檚 Core French unit plans designed by groups of teachers with self-assessed limited French skills. Each group of teacher unit designers started by exploring research in additional language acquisition and applied their learning to develop these units based on their expertise of teaching intermediate grade-level students.

These resources are created for elementary Core French teachers and can also be used by late French immersion and beginner鈥檚 secondary Core French teachers. They were designed to support teachers to feel confident in teaching the French language, no matter their own skills in French. The units can be used as a supplement to what is already working in their classroom, or as a starting point. Each unit and its contents can be downloaded and adapted to fit their needs.

OBJECTIVES OF THE UNIT PLANS:

Introduce, develop, and assess beginners鈥� French language skills
Develop students鈥� confidence and love of French in a play-based literacy approach
Build a foundation of basic French language skills so that high school teachers can continue to build upon them to further develop students鈥� proficiency
Develop an appreciation for learning languages, specifically French

ON OUR WEBSITE, YOU CAN FIND:

Each comprehensive unit plan for grades 5 to 7 (available as they are completed)
Student 鈥淚 can鈥� criteria rubrics using strength-base proficiency language
The French Sounds Support guide: A colour-coded guide to the French-only sounds that are used consistently in the unit plans, and are designed to support teacher and student communication and pronunciation
Visual supports for the classroom: Posters that can be used to support what is being learned in class, including interrogative question structures and high frequency vocabulary

We invite you to click on to learn more about the free resources provided on this site.

Getting started

Workshops and conferences

Shauna N茅ro travels across British Columbia and the country to present conferences and workshops. Come and meet her!

October 24 & 25, 2025 | (Mission, BC)
- La musique a un impact sur le c艙ur, l鈥檈sprit et le discours des apprenant路e路s de fran莽ais
- Cr茅ons des lecteur路rices et 茅crivain路es autonomes : le cercle litt茅raire/le club de lecture
- Teaching Core French Grades 5-8- Pas de probl猫me
- *Empowering ELL Educators (Which Means All of Us): Strategies for in Supporting ELLs

911吃瓜 Shauna N茅ro

Shauna N茅ro is the French Programs Coordinator for Mission Public Schools and a French Education Consultant for N茅ro Consulting. Before these roles, she coordinated the Provincial Network for BC Administrators and Teachers of French Programs at 911吃瓜's Office of Francophone and Francophile Affairs (911吃瓜-OFFA). Shauna has extensive teaching experience in Fran莽ais langue, sciences humaines and Core French at the intermediate and secondary levels. She also teaches methodology courses at 911吃瓜 for student teachers and was a Vice Principal of a dual-track French immersion elementary school.

Shauna holds a master鈥檚 degree in education on Teaching and Learning in French: Plurilingualism, Francophonies and Education from 911吃瓜. Her practice applies a plurilingual and pluricultural approach within a Universal Design for Learning framework, and focuses on creating authentic, action-oriented learning experiences. Her goal is to help students develop both intercultural understanding and linguistic competencies in French.

These resources were made possible with the participation of Canadian Heritage and the Ministry of Education and Childcare of British Columbia.

Several new resources will be added in the coming months. Subscribe to the Vos ressources en fran莽ais newsletter to stay informed.

911吃瓜

Office of Francophone and Francophile Affairs