“Le Petit Journal Francophone” : comprehensible news for your Novice students

Interpreting current events is so central to becoming a global citizen but it is too often out of reach for our students for a variety of reasons I describe here. Enters Martina Bex, whose blog I follow regularly and eagerly. She has been publishing weekly news from the Spanish speaking world to help Novice students read read read about current events. I have been so inspired by her publications that I reached out to her and asked if I could do something similar in French. She not only thought it was a great idea, she actually designed a logo for me, shared her publication format, and showed me the ropes of Teachers Pay Teachers. Un grand merci, Martina!

So my dear colleagues, I present to you: “Le Petit Journal Francophone” (PJF), a weekly **2019: now monthly** news summary for French students. Specifically targeted for Novice High readers, PJF contains high interest stories from the francophone world, written in simple language. For further exploration of the topic, I also provide links to authentic resources.

Whether you use this publication in your Free Voluntary Reading program, or integrate it in a lesson plan, a sub plan, or a fast finisher activity, I hope you will find it relevant to your classroom.

You may purchase PJF on TPT or on this site.

photo credit: Tony Yoka, olympic champion 2016. http://commons.wikimedia.org

20 comments

  1. Not that I am aware of! Maybe you can make it happen? 🙂 If you plan on reusing the format, I would get in touch with Martina Bex!

  2. Do I purchase the item each week or do I buy the one on TPT and then I get the semester of news? Please give some further details so that I know how much to budget for this awesome resource. And thank you so much for taking this on!

    • Hi Angela, thanks for your question. Each weekly issue is priced separately at $2.50 a piece and will be published every Sunday. So there will be a new product available next Sunday Sept 18. My plan is to have a new one every week except when I am traveling to France or during the holiday! I hope this answers your question.

  3. I am thrilled to find this resource in French! Thank you so much – I just purchased the first issue and can’t wait to use it in class! I will spread the word to my colleagues and encourage them to check out “Le Petit Journal” on TpT. This issue is especially timely because my French 1 students are going to learn raï singer Khaled’s “C’est la Vie”. Merci!

    • De rien. I am so excited to hear that you find “le Petit Journal” relevant for your curriculum and your students. Thanks for the feed-back!

  4. Thank you for doing this! I read the article “Le Burkini…” with my French 3 class this week and it generated good discussion. Merci encore et j’ai hâte de voir le prochain!

    • Merci! I am so glad to hear this: this particular article took me forever to write because 1) sorting opinions from facts is difficult 2) how do you simplify the language without sacrificing the complexity of the debate? I am so glad to hear it generated good discussion in your class.

  5. Thank you so much for your contributions to the larger world language teaching body. I am new to FVR and finding that even the small articles in Mon Quotidian are difficult for novice learners. I am eager to try your articles out this week to evaluate for my curriculum. Merci.

  6. Bonjour Cecile.
    Mon lycée a suffisamment de fonds pour acheter un abonnement à un journal. Est-ce que le Petit Journal Francophone sera disponible en 2019 ?

  7. Is it possible to purchase Le Petit Journal Francophone somewhere other than TPT? Our school district does not allow funds to support that site because there is apparently a lot of copyrighted material that is being sold. I would love to put a line item in our budget to cover a yearly subscription. Merci!

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