city running commentary

This half term with Year 5 in French, Spanish and German we will be working on language we may need if we visit the target language country .We will make virtual tours of a famous city and explore the sights and buildings of the cities.

We go to Paris , Sevilla and Berlin.

I have used this idea of a running commentary with KS2, KS3,KS4 and also with adult intermediate learners at primary French Upskilling that we offer as part of our network support.

It can be organised and delivered on a variety of grammatical levels. 

• To recap familiar nouns
• To practise adjectives
• To create a present tense description of a city using the phrase in the target language for  “there is / there are…”
• To give directions and add prepositions of place to descriptions
• To talk about a virtual visit you have made etc

Take a look at this famous you tube clip of a tour of Paris: 

Here’s how we will be using this activity with our Year 5 and our intermediate French upskilling group this half term…….

 Stage One

Let your pupils or students watch the clip and enjoy the sights and the sounds.

Stage Two

Now all you need to do is create cards that have the key nouns for the buildings you can see in the clip. 

Here are three French examples

Le pont

Les magasins

La cathédrale

With beginners I would use maximum of 10 cards and we would have talked about the cards and what they could mean first. With Year 5 and intermediate adult learners we would look up unfamiliar nouns   in a bilingual dictionary and discuss gender and whether the nouns we can see on the cards are singular or plural.

If you colour code the words they can see the patterns more clearly e.g. green for masculine singular / blue for feminine singular nouns/red for plural nouns/

Ask your learners to familiarise themselves with all the key nouns which they have spread out in front of them on the desk.

Stage Three

Now play the clip again! Can the pupils sort the noun cards into the order they see them or notice them in the video clip?

Here is the Spanish clip we will use:

Stage Four

Ask the pupils to work in pairs and share their order with a second person, comparing their orders. They will need to use the phrase for there is / there are (il y a …../hay……/es gibt …….)

It’s not a case of being right or wrong as they may have missed an item the first time it appears on the screen.

Stage Five

Can the pupils now change the nouns in the descriptions they have created from definite article nouns to indefinite article nouns. 

Share examples they will need – masculine singular/ feminine singular and plural indefinite articles.

Stage Six

Now play it again Sam! 

Here is our German video selection for a tour of Berlin: 

Invite volunteers to create the running commentary for the video clip. 

Turn down the sound and the volunteer just like a tour guide should describe what they can see, using their descriptions and saying the key phrases as they see the items on the screen.
 

Further Development?

This activity could be an activity that bridges the gap between UKS2 and KS3 because in KS2 we could add adjectives, directions or add prepositions to develop and enhance our descriptions.

And in KS3 there’s the opportunity to use a familiar resource, familiar nouns and a familiar activity to , change tenses  , create dialogues, add adjectives  and intensifiers, create more complex sentences using relative clauses and make comparisons .

Thanks go to Julie Prince too @PrinceLanguages who alerted me to these wonderful city tours to the tune of Happy 
Take a tour round  Paris and Sevilla!