Le Défilé de Mode

In Ms. Hall’s Grade 7 French class, students have been practising their vocab with festive fashion shows. Ms. Hall created the game, which she dubbed “le défilé de mode,” as a way to get kids excited about learning adjective agreement and placement. The rules are simple: first, students dress up in costumes that Ms. Hall keeps in her classroom. They get as creative as possible, then parade their outfits for the rest of the class to see. The other students then choose a model and write two sentences with at least two adjectives describing their outfit. As soon as they think they have two correct sentences, they put up their hand. If the sentences aren’t quite right, they have the opportunity to correct them. If they succeed, the model they described sits down, and the student with the correct sentences gets a turn to create a unique outfit for their classmates to describe. As students advance, Ms. Hall increases the difficulty of the game to make sure they’re still being challenged. “Everyone loves dressing up,” Ms. Hall says. “And using the vocabulary they know for this kind of fun, challenging activity increases the likelihood that they’ll remember it in the future.”