Conversation Class Lesson Summary
Language Resident Name: Martin Siebert
Day and Date: Wednesday, February 1, 2017
Language and Level (intermediate or advanced class): German Intermediate Conversation
Class theme/topics discussed:
Zoo plan cooperation game.
Goal of the class:
Students learn or recap vocabulary (animals) and cooperate to solve a small riddle.
How did you structure the class?
5-10 minutes: Vocabulary quiz. The LR shows the students a power point with pictures of different animals in a quick sequence. The students write down the animals’ names if they know them. After the sequence the students compare; the student with the most correct vocabulary wins.
25 minutes: Zoo plan. The students receive a plan of a zoo with different enclosures and the respective animals living in it. They are handed out a plan and slips with the different animals on it and work together in groups. Following a few rules they have to come up with a new layout that regards all these and decide on new animals for the zoo, too.
20-25 minutes: Sentence starters. Students draw a slip of paper from a box. The slip contains a sentence starter. They have to complete the sentence and provide some more details (a few sentences) to reveal something about themselves. The other students are welcome to ask questions.
What technology, media or props did you use? (internet resources, playmobiles, handouts, etc.)
Pictures of different animals on the TV screen, Zoo plan layouts, animal paper slips, printed rules of the game, sentence starter paper slips.
What worked well in this class? What did not work?
Students liked the initial vocabulary quiz and enjoyed the sometimes very simple compound words that are used in German as the animals’ names. The zoo-plan layout game worked quite well, students cooperated and talked much. The sentence starter game is a good way to have people reveal interesting things about themselves.
How could this class be improved/ modified?
Good class, would keep it as it is.