Rosetta: Books Are My Comfort Food

I just got back from a very discouraging two hours. This was my last two classes before the three day weekend and I had already done the whole group thing plenty of times to feel comfortable. I start off with 'Hello, my name is Rosetta and I like chocolate chip cookies. Can you tell me your name and something you like?" I think this is a good way for me to hear their names and learn something about them. Well, all that is well and good but todays students were a lower level and as the teacher had given me the same directions: 'just talk about whatever you want,' I had prepared some topics of conversation as well as a couple of games to get the students talking. However, the students were unable to understand even the most rudimentary phrases and if I asked a student to say something they spent a good amount of time hemming and hawing and je-ne-sais-pas-ing before finally saying one or two key words to try to get their meaning across. All in all there was a lot of silent waiting time and a lot of me saying the phrase to help the student out. To be fair the first three groups weren't terrible, they tried to participate and seemed to enjoy the activities even if they didn't understand everything, but the last group I could barely get to say three words in a row and they would just sit blankly if they didn't understand. Although, I still don't know if the problem was that they didn't understand, that they didn't know what to answer, or if they didn't know how to say their answer in English because they would not talk to me (sometimes they would whisper to each other in French to get help). It was very frustrating, however I kept going for the full 20 minutes. I talked to the teacher afterwards and he explained that these were lower level students and agreed with me that further groups like that would not be helpful to the students. He told me not to worry and that next time he will give me a live of phrases to go over with them. As in make them all repeat the same phrases until they get them right. That sounds very boring to me, however much more useful than them staring at me blankly the whole time. So I was pretty discouraged and worn out from struggling to communicate for two hours because I have to talk to the students in English even if they have difficulty understanding. But luckily I am now done with class for almost 4 whole days (the rest of today, Friday, Saturday, and Monday morning). I went to the library after class to cheer myself up. I got a book in French that seems interesting, a book I have read in English and in French on tape in French (for comprehension) and a movie for tonight with my roommates (in French). So I am feeling reasonably cheered and still motivated to try again with the students so that is good. Oh, and I'm not sure if I've mentioned this but there was a girl at school who would simply say 'Rosetta' every time she saw me. Finally, I asked her was her name was and the next times she said 'Rosetta' I responded, 'Margot' in the same tone. Today for the first time she greeted me with 'Hello'.