Bio:

Catherine Théfenne is a French educator with experience teaching learners from elementary school through adulthood. She currently teaches French at St. Joseph's Academy in Baton Rouge and serves as Vice President of the Louisiana chapter of the American Association of Teachers of French (AATF). Her work focuses on building comprehension through engaging, context-rich strategies that make language accessible and meaningful for all learners.

Title:

Making Time Visible: Annotating Verb Tenses for Deeper French Reading

Abstract:

This presentation explores how annotating verb tenses while reading can improve students’ comprehension by making meaning more visible. Grounded in second language acquisition research, it demonstrates how guiding students to identify and label verb forms supports their ability to interpret time, sequence, and perspective in texts. Participants will see practical classroom applications, including modeling and scaffolded annotation techniques, that help learners recognize patterns in context. By connecting form to meaning during reading, this strategy promotes deeper processing, strengthens grammatical awareness, and builds student confidence with increasingly complex texts.