An international French dictation contest

La Dictée P.G.L. involves three months of activities both in and out of the classroom. It includes an educational component for pupils from kindergarten to the 8th grade, as well as a competition component reserved for 5th- and 6th-graders.

The warm-up
All participating pupils receive an activity notebook, Mon Magazine, which helps children familiarize themselves with La Dictée P.G.L.'s theme and provides a context for the vocabulary words they need to study for the coming dictations.

The warm-up dictation is given in participating classrooms in late January. It is the ideal way for pupils to prepare to compete in the local finals.

The sponsored dictation

The sponsored dictation lies the very heart of the project the Paul Gérin-Lajoie Foundation proposes. It is done by asking  pledges from family and friends for each word the child will write correctly in the dictation. In this way, children can take part in the Cueillette du partage and, together with other children in the class or school, they can help support access to basic education in countries where the Foundation has been working for more than 30 years.

In the spirit of sharing, your child's school could decide to keep up to 50% of the amount raised by the children to finance its own projects. The rest of the money raised is sent to the Paul Gérin-Lajoie Foundation to be used entirely in basic education projects in French-speaking Africa and Haiti. More information ...

The school finals
In February, each participating school is invited to select among their 5th- and 6th-graders a champion to represent the school in the regional finals. In Canada, more than 1,000 children will be selected to compete in the regional finals.

The regional finals
In March, thanks to the collaboration and hard work of teachers, school directors, and school boards, La Dictée P.G.L. holds some 30 regional finals throughout Canada. From these will emerge 94 of the 100 children that will take part in La Grande Finale internationale.

In most regions, local celebrities-artists, politicians, radio or television celebrities, etc.-will be asked to host the event and give the dictation. Everywhere, an enthusiastic public attends these finals which are widely covered by the media from coast to coast.

Regional finals are also held in the United States, Senegal, Burkina Faso, Benin, Mali and Niger. Two winners are selected in each of these countries. They will later be brought to Montreal to compete in La Grande Finale internationale.

La Grande Finale internationale
In May, La Grande Finale internationale brings together the best of the best La Dictée P.G.L.'s contestants from Canada, the United States and Senegal. This last competition will determine three grand winners in each of two categories: "French schools" and "French as a second language schools".