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North East Independent School District
German Resources
Classroom Learning Activities
Click here to see some activities
Checklist for writing Assignments
Essay writing checklist
Use this checklist to correct your rough draft. Go through your essay step by step,
checking off this list as you go.
If so, the subordinating conjunction kicks the conjugated verb to the end of the clause.
Sie weiss nicht, dass ich schnell in die Stadt gehe.
If so, the modal verb is in the second position, and the other verb is at the end in the infinitive form.
Ich darf schnell in die Stadt gehen. Er kann ohne dich in die Stadt gehen.
and the past participle (such as gefahren) goes at the end of the sentence or clause.
and re-write your essay NEATLY on nice paper. The essay must be either typed or written neatly.
A subject, prepositional phrase, adjective or adverb can be in the first position.
conjunctions don't count as the first component of a sentence or clause.
- Subordinating conjunctions kick verbs
to end of clause.
Verbs not kicked are circled and arrow drawn to end of clause.
- Modal verb in second position, other verb
at end or sentence
or clause in infinitive form. Modal verbs in incorrect position underlined.
Other verbs not at end of
and past participle at the end of the sentence or clause. Helping verbs
not in correct position underlined. Past participles not at end of sentence or
clause circled with arrow drawn to end of clause.
Writing projects
go to http://www.geocities.com/hschwab57/roman.html
Storytelling posters
you need to scroll down to Author's gallery and click
on it.
This will take you to theposters. There are different stories with downloadable
posters and information.
The information is available for both PC and MAC.
Translation
gibt es im Internet auch eine Online- Uebersetzung. Ein neues Lexikon
(es ist kostenlos unter http://www.koeller.de/abkurz.abk.htmzu finden und zu benutzen)
bringt Licht in den Buchstaben-Dschungel
Children's CD's
I did a search and found that CD and other Sesame Street,
Muppets and other German educational CD's for children at
http://sms-kidware.com/homepage.htm
Use of Digital Cameras
a virtual tour of a school.Take a look at the almost-finished product.
The touris available in both German and English at:
Student Journals
Many students write journals every week. In German one and two, they
are assigned topics that relate to the material covered in class. In the higher
classes, they can choose topics. Journal entries in German one are one page
long (double-spaced), in all other classes two pages. All journals are entered
in a notebook that goes back and forth between students and me. To
avoid frustration for the students (and a lot of work for the teacher)
do not correct every mistake. If a student uses a wrong word (e.g. bekommen
for to become) I underline the word and give the correct choice above. Other
than these lexical errors, only correct certain mistakes. For each "Tagebuch",my
students receive a check sheet, that lists certain kinds of errors. Only errors
that fall into these categories are corrected.
Each "Tagebuch" is worth 20 points; one point is deducted for each mistake
from the check sheet; the points for journals that do not have the required
length are adjusted accordingly. For lat submission two points are deducted.
To give a brief example of a "bad Tagebuch": length 1.5 pages, submitted late,
3 errors from the check sheet = 10 points.
The most important part of my method is the check list: Always start with the three cardinal sins: subject-verb agreement (s/v), verb forms (v), and verb placement (w/o). The check list briefly reviews the rules (or refers to the corresponding chapters of a review grammar) and gives examples of frequently made mistakes:
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e.g.:s/v:falsch:
richtig:
v:falsch:
richtig:
richtig:
w/o:falsch:
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ich hat lange geschlafen
ich habe lange geschlafen
Peter musst viel lernen
Peter muss viel lernen
Gestern ich bin in die Stadt gegangen
Gestern bin ich in die Stadt gegangen
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Initially students write their entries with this very brief check list. Once the majority has caught on to theses concepts, I expand the check list by adding one other item a week.We briefly discuss the new item in class and do a few practice exercises before the next "Tagebuch" is due.To add one item at a time has the advantage that students are dealing with only one "new" major grammar concept a week. If a student has a question about one of these items, it normally takes only five minutes to explain her/his errors and to practice the correct forms.
Some other items that appear on my check list with regularity are (not in order of appearance):
(e.g.: description of a room, giving someone a "make-over")
ref:reference of pronouns and possessives:
e.g. Der Tisch ist alt. Es steht in der Ecke.
Herr Weber, wo ist dein Auto?
time:wrong time phrase (e.g.: "in die Abend")
to:what is the correct word for "to": "nach", "in", "zu", "an", or "auf"?
tmp:word order: time, manner, place
woaw: use of "wenn", "ob", "als", "wann"
When grading the journals,Be fairly strict.
If a student writes three times "Ich hat", she or he loses three point, not
just one.
Because my intention is to alert the students to frequently made heinous mistakes,
Allow rewrites for journals that have received an intial grade of 14 or less
(the equivalent of a C minus or worse). If the student submits a corrected version
of the entire entry within a week, he or she can receive half a point for each
corrected error.
Therefore, a carefully rewritten 14 point journal (C-) can bring the student's
grade up to 17 (B).
In assigning these journal for the past years, one observes the following:
There appears to be some delay between writing and speaking, however.
Students who write "Gestern bin ich ...." quite effectively still keep on saying
"Gestern ich bin .." for a while; about two to four weeks after they have mastered the word order in writing, they progress to a stage of self correction: "Gestern ich bin ..., ah, nein, gestern bin ich ......
" Eventually most of them will reach the stage where the correct word order comes up immediately.
Activity: Me In A BAG
In your sack, put a favorite book,a favorite food, pictures of your family and your pets, your favorite CD and a cookbook
Explain the significance of each item as you pull it out of the bag. This discussion helps the kids get to know you as a person.
Each student then has a turn to bring in his/her own 'Me In A Bag,' giving everyone in the class a chance to shine."
Grammar Tips
in colloquial speech, but that's not because German speakers don't learn it in school or read it in newspapers
and magazines or hear it in formal situations, but because possession in German can be expressed in a variety of ways.
The Genitiv is only one of them. Here are some of most common:
c. paraphrase - mein Freund hat ein Buch; das ist das/sein Buch
When people (Americans mostly) say that
the Genitiv is "dead" in modern German, they conveniently overlook
fixed phrases that would never be restated without the Genitiv. For example,
I've heard from dialect speakers things
like "ein Ding der Unmoeglichkeit" or "im Schweiss deines Angesichts" or "im
Falle eines Falles". Yes, these are whole
chunks of language, not just spontaneous creations using the Genitiv.
two-way prepositions
This is one of those "fun" things. Even though ,,die Metter
laeuft ..", i.e. shows motion (active = accusative vs still/dead = dative,
as I tell the kids), in this case it doesn't answer "wohin" as in ,, ...laeuft
in den Rhein, in die Nordsee etc" but rather
the question ,,wo" = where would I look to find it. Another way to demonstrate
this (and I usually wait till 3rd or 4th year
to explain those nuances - the kids go nuts enough with the 2-way preps) is
to think of dancing. I make a big show of
doing just that: ich tanze in das Zimmer - wohin (dancing into the classroom
from the hall), aber jetzt tanze ich
in dem Zimmer - wo (doing the Polka/Twist/whatever in the room) - both
times you are dancing, showing activity etc
and wohin could come to mind but ...!
At Die Wunderschöne Seite vom Herrn Schwab
Hotpotato quizzes on welcher, dieser, jeder, and ein-words.
German Names
Why give kids German names?
Here are some reasons
1.Kids generally expect it.My German 1 kids
just asked me today (the second day of school!)
"when are we going to get German names?"
2.It familiarizes kids with names of another culture.They will never think that "Johannes" is a girl, for example, if someone in the classhas that name.
3.It makes the class special.In what other class do they get to "be someone different"?
4.It helps "loyalize" students to that language.My kids call each other by their German names out of class too, and they then feel part of "the German kids".
Sports Vocabulary
new English-German Sports Glossary with Olympic vocabulary:
Independent Assignment Ideas
2)Write a story write an original (or updated) fairy tale, or a ghost
story, or finish a story, with illustrations, to be bound in a book
when all are in. Search Internet for sample stories
3)Create an e-mail portfolio.If your students are involved in e-mail
correspondence, have them print all e-mails they send and receive, and summarize
what they learned. The writing can be graded by a writing rubric.
5)Market a product:My students of the same age but with one more year of German instruction use an idea from a book no longer published called "Was Sagen Sie Dazu?".They design a new soap product (paying attention to the name, scent, color, effect of the packaging on the consumer).They then devise a simple marketing scheme - with a magazine ad, a radio commercial and a video TV commercial.(For their commercials they may "employ" other actors - some have taught parents and little brothers and sisters to say the lines in German - but they have the ultimate responsibility for the quality of the commercial, including the pronunciation). Check out the Internet sites that are advertisements, like Haribo.
6)Actually the interview with a German-speaking
person can be interesting if there is a theme.
A few years ago the "Transatlantic Classroom" project suggested for the 50th
anniversary of the end of World War II that students interview someone who was
alive at the time.Students wrote about these people's experiences and included
their own reactions to the stories.
7)Have students create a web project - if
you do not have your own sources for WebQuests,
I could probably find a good one for you.
8)Design a TV schedule.Check out the real schedule of programs on the Net.
9)Design a vacation spot - with explanations of why things were included and placed where they were.
10)Create a board game, with the list of rules.
11)Choose a news story, then access as many
newspapers from the Internet as possible and compare how they cover that story.
Sometimes it helps NOT to discuss it.By comparing the three, you set up a
you might luck out and they won't find it confusing.
Whole Class Pictionary
learned from the beginning of the year. I typed the list with lots of space between each line and then cut them up and put
them in an envelope. Since I type fast, the preparation time was less than 10 minutes. I used the paper cutter instead of scissors.
I divided the class into 2 teams, males vs. females. In one class I had 3 teams with 6 to 7 kids on a team.
One student goes up to the board and picks a word out of the envelope. That student has 45 seconds to draw the word.
| S/He draws for the entire class. Whoever guesses the word first, gets the point for his/her team. If the person who chose
the word doesn't know the meaning of it, the other team(s) automatically receive(s) 1 point.
This is TPRS in a small nutshell
http://www.blaineraytprs.com/explanationpage.htm
While I am on the topic, can I discuss a little about TPRS?
1.TPRS is a relatively new method.It still has rough edges.Even in the 10 years it has been around, it has undergone some major changes. Each change has made it better, though, so maybe in another 10 it will be perfect ;-)
2.TPRS is not a miracle.However, I do think it's the best method I've ever used, and I've used a lot of them.
3.TPRS for German teachers is even newer than TPRS.Blaine Ray, the "inventor" of TPRS, was a Spanish teacher. So most materials are geared for Spanish.The exception is Mike Miller's material.
4. TPRS is going to change the way we view language education.It is spreading by leaps and bounds by word of mouth from language teachers.
5.Personally, I think if your colleagues who teach another language use TPRS, you should as well or you risk losing your program.It's that popular with kids.
6.TPRS helps enrollment, not only initially,
but also in keeping kids in your program.The only exception to this I am aware
of is a German teacher whose entire department uses TPRS.Then German is not
unique in that situation, so the big draw
is not there.I am lucky, because I am the only teacher in my department using
TPRS, so it is a big draw for the program.
7.TPRS is not the old audio lingual method rehashed.(People who don't know about TPRS jump to this conclusion, because superficially, it seems that way.)With TPRS, kids learn can use the language in various ways, circumstances and tenses.They simply don't repeat memorized phrases as with ALM.
8.TPRS really is a totally different approach
to language learning. It took me about two years to even adjust to the idea
of even switching to TPRS.Almost everything I learned about how to teach a language
had to be re-evaluated, and most had to be discarded.But after two years of
teaching TPRS, I am convinced that traditional methods just don't work as well
with today's kids.We have to meet kids where they are at, and take them up from
there.It won't do any good to bemoan the fact that kids don't know grammar,
that kids are coming unprepared to learn, and other things we love to bemoan
TPRS is that realistic solution
Weather Activity
Niederschlag/Regen, Wind, Sonneschein, Schnee, Hagel, Wirbel, Donner, Blitz ? Warum?
Das Wetter wird kontrolliert. Dort findet man Lebensraum, Gaerten, und Spielplaetze.
Leute haben schon bis zwei Jahren darin gewohnt. Moechtest du lieber da wo das Wetter kontrolliert wird wohnen,
oder lieber da wo das Wetter unsicher ist?
Jeopardy with Power point presentations
There's the "home" slide with Categories (which will be on the test) and points.The students get in groups and
answer the questions as a team.So if they choose, for instance, "Accusative Prepositions for 300", then I click
the box under that category for 300 and it takes me to another slide with the question (I don't do the answer like
the real Jeopardy, but you can of course change that).When they've given their answer, I click on an icon at the
bottom of the page and it takes me to the answer.Then there's an icon at the bottom of every answer page which
is the home button and takes me back to the home slide with the categories and points.The kids always get excited
when we play and its a fun and effective way to review for a test and to use PowerPoint! Although it would take some
time to make the board, but you can use it over and over again after a template is made.
"Who Wants to be a Millionaire?" -type
game, culture and history questions in English. It can be accessed directly
at:
Quia - Rags to Riches
Ice Breakers
Websites with some good ideas for ice breakers http://www.ynpn.org/enewsletter/0105v2/0105myth.asp
Emil und die Detektive
It was more of a challenge for the 3's
but that was not unexpected. My students did not find the story childish, but the males got into
the story more than the females. Here are some internet links that you and your students might find useful:
http://www.zlb.de/projekte/kaestner/start.htm
(comprehensive with excellent info on Kaestner and Berlin)
http://www.mtholyoke.edu/courses/dvanhand/1999germ201/emilfrag.html
(Donna Van Handle's comp check questions which are based upon the Deutsche
Taschenbuch Verlag version)
http://www.mtholyoke.edu/courses/dvanhand/1999germ201/emilvoc.html
(Donna Van Handle's vocab list. Also based on DTV)
http://www.muskingum.edu/~modern/GERMAN_304.html
(assorted grammar concepts compliments of Van Handle)
http://www.emil-film.de/flash.html
(Constantin Film's site about the new movie)
Cornelsen Verlag has published an even more simplified version "Einfach lesen. Emil und die Detektive.
Aufgaben und Uebungen" which includes several exercises at the end of each chapter that should appeal to students.
ISBN is 3-4646-0166-8 and costs EUR 7.41 if bought from Adori.de. A strong 4/AP class could handle the
Easy Reader and should breeze thru the simplified version. I have no experience with the DTV version.
Larry Perkins Pebblebrook HS Mableton, GA
please feel free to use them.I'd be happy, If you'd just e-mail me a one-liner letting me know you're interested.
Thanks.http://www.goethe.de/uk/chi/netz3131.htm
For those making, or interested in online
quizzes for specific texts, may I humbly suggest you check
out http:/www.geocities.com/hschwab57/quiz.html,
and go to OTHER QUIA PAGES?
try this on-line utility for making bingo cards using vocabulary word
http://www.educationalpress.org/educationalpress/
German Class as Family
members prepare a cake (Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte, simplified recipe with cake mix) and give some small presents.
other for Kaffee und Kuchen usw., make conversation in German etc.
New web-based activities on Goethe Institute site
For those of you who have contacted me about using my web-based activitiespublished on the Goethe Institute Chicago site, below are the new URLs. Also, two new projects are up:one on the Amish and one with 23 more web-based activities.The latter includes several Power Point ideas as well as some activities for the younger set (Gummibears, Yodeling, Animals, Harry Potter, etc.)Feel free to use any of the activities with your students. Goethe Institute Chicago Website
Learning with the Internet - 30 Activities http://www.goethe.de/uk/chi/netz31/netz31.htm
Halloween auf Deutsch
As many of you know, Halloween has become increasingly popular
in German Europe. There are even
German e-card sites with Halloween greeting cards. Here's vocabulary and cultural
info for Halloween
and other fall holidays: http://german.about.com/library/blhallowvoc_ger.htm
Scherenschnitte
Click here to see other pages on this web site
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Contact
melbe002@neisd.net
Updated in September 2003