Les contes d’ailleurs: Antilles et Caraïbes

Fables are stories that are central to our upbringing and our culture. When teaching the French language and literacy skills, I like to base lessons on content that isn’t Eurocentric as I want students to learn about other places where French is spoken. This time I wanted to share with them fables from the Antilles, asking students, What characterizes the fables from the Antilles and the Caribbean? What animals are used to tell the story? What ideas are explored?

I was delighted to find a collection of very short fables in the book Les Contes d’ailleurs: Antilles et Caraïbes. The stories are extremely accessible and work for the beginning of a French 2 class, (an Intermediate Low Proficiency level). I was able to purchase a copy of the book and intend to purchase a class set at a later date. *

Check the speaker’s notes on the slides for links and explanations.

This unit on literacy and culture offers lots of opportunities for fun and participation as well as support. Here are the games, activities and teaching strategies that I used:

Petit Jean et le Géant
Map Talk
Game: Animal guessing
Literature circles
Il était une fois graphic organizer
Google form quiz

Compère Chevreuil et Compère Tortue
Video
Game: Boggle
Web graphic organizer, students draw it for themselves
Group retell of the story
Game: Le jeu de la cuillère

La Naissance de Brise Montagne
See, think, wonder with picture
Pictionary
Identify differences in two works of art
Music video
Game: Tout débout
Find your partner term and definition pairing
Le récit graphic organizer

* If that is not feasible, the three stories that I highlight here are available on the Internet and I supplied the links in the speaker’s notes on the slides. Please note that you will need to make changes to the stories to make them more appropriate, so read the free copies carefully.

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