How I encourage positive self-esteem in the French classroom

How I encourage positive self-esteem in the French classroom

Helping students to improve their confidence in the FSL classroom can be challenging at times. So, I wanted to create a way to celebrate students’ strengths in the French classroom. I wanted something that was visible, incorporated a learning opportunity, and engaging for many different age groups.

I first decided to create these posters to display. I knew that, by presenting the language in the first-person point of view, and accompanying vocabulary activities to help build student vocabulary in the target language, that students would begin to feel more confident speaking about their strengths with others. I feel that, in empowering students to learn to speak positively about themselves in French, they can learn to appreciate compliments, and also celebrate the strengths of others.

Mountain-themed posters

Some ideas for use of these motivational posters include:

1. Have students form a line, standing across the front of the classroom. Hand out a poster that is applicable to each student. Have them read the poster aloud to the class.

2. Display the posters in the classroom. Have students choose a statement that best describes themselves. Have them read the statement aloud to the class.

3. Have students sort the posters into categories for masculine and feminine words using a dictionary.

4. Create a beautiful bulletin board for your classroom, including student photos or self-portraits.

5. Take a photo of each student holding the poster that they have chosen. Print to create a powerful display to remind students of their positive qualities.

As I mentioned, I also wanted to incorporate a learning opportunity to accompany the posters. I created an 8-page mini booklet with 7 different vocabulary activities that would help students learn positive trait vocabulary in French and how to identify their own strengths.

vocabulary activities for positive traits

The 7 activities include, English-French translation, dictionary work, masculine-feminine word sort, writing compliments, and a poem of similes.

I also wanted to help students to find motivation/encouragement and have access to positive talk whenever they needed it. I created a tear poster to hang in the classroom. It features several positive statements. I would invite students to tear a statement to keep whenever they needed it.

These are a few of the intentional ways that I use to encourage self-esteem in the FSL classroom. I always want to empower students to have the confidence to try and to succeed. How do you encourage positive self-talk and positive self-esteem in your French classroom?

I have made my positive self-esteem activities available in my TPT shop. They are available in a tropical floral or mountain theme.