Bring current French culture and politics into your classroom with this differentiated French reading comprehension activity about the 2027 French presidential election. Students learn about the major issues facing French voters as well as several of the political figures and viewpoints shaping the election.

The resource includes three versions of the reading at different proficiency levels, making it easy to use the same topic with multiple classes or differentiate within one class:

• Novice High
• Intermediate Low
• Intermediate Mid

Students first learn how the 2027 presidential election works and explore five major issues affecting France, including the cost of living and salaries, immigration and integration, crime and policing, retirement and government spending, and climate and energy. Each reading level presents the same essential content with increasingly sophisticated vocabulary and sentence structures, so you can choose the version that best matches your students.

The readings also introduce students to Marine Le Pen, Édouard Philippe, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, and Gabriel Attal, with accessible explanations of their political positions and proposals. Rather than simply reading about an election, students get an introduction to some of the real debates taking place in contemporary France.

Vocabulary support is built directly into the readings, helping students tackle authentic topics such as les retraites, les impôts, les frontières, les soins, les énergies renouvelables, and les cotisations without needing to stop constantly to look up unfamiliar words.

Comprehension activities included

Students can demonstrate comprehension in several ways. The resource includes:

• True/false comprehension statements
• Short-answer questions
• Multiple-choice comprehension questions
• Questions available in both French and English
• Complete answer key

The French and English question options give you additional flexibility: use the English questions when you want to focus primarily on interpretive reading comprehension, or use the French version when students are ready for more target-language processing.

The resource also includes a page of related videos, websites, and articles that can be used to extend the lesson, introduce the French electoral system, or lead into additional cultural discussion.

This activity is a great choice for French 2, French 3, French 4, AP French, or mixed-level classes, depending on which version of the reading you assign. Use it as a stand-alone cultural reading, an interpretive communication activity, a springboard for class discussion, or as part of a unit on French government, elections, contemporary France, or current events.

Give your students a chance to practice their French while learning about an important event they may actually see unfolding in the news!