Language Residents

an archive of lesson plans

Author: Julia (Page 3 of 4)

DE S10 ADV Baking1

April 27, 2010 /

Conversation Class Lesson Plan

Section: Advanced Conversation
Date: April 27, 2010

Class theme/topics discussed: We’re baking!

How did you pick this theme or topic?
Some of the students had mentioned that they would like to bake or cook some traditional German food. Since the semester is almost over, I thought this was a great time to do that.

How did you present the material? (handouts, group work, general discussion, student presentations, etc.)
We went to the FLRC and browsed the internet for German recipes. Every student had to find 3 interesting recipes that he or she liked and prepare it to the group afterwards. We then decided on starting off with German chocolate cake, since I had almost all the necessary ingredients for that in my apartment already. For the next lesson we decided to bake Laugenbrezeln and I offered to get all necessary ingredients until the next lesson.
Once in my apartment, we gathered all ingredients and baking supplies. Then, the students baked the German chocolate cake. Since all students were free after the end of the class, they stayed until the cake was done. We tried some right away and split the cake into 4 pieces, so that the students could take some pieces of cake home with them.

How did students react?
They were excited and very motivated!

Did they engage with each other and you?
Yes, they did. They were talking a lot, asking a lot of questions, and had a great time.

 

What materials or media did you use? (articles, satellite tv, digital projector, etc.)
Computers, internet, recipes website
Recipe
Baking supplies
Ingredients

 

Would you recommend this activity for a future class? Why or why not?
Yes, definitely! The students enjoyed themselves very much.

DE S10 ADV Board Games

April 26, 2010 /

Conversation Class Lesson Plan

Section: Advanced Conversation
Date: April 22, 2010

Class theme/topics discussed: German Games

How did you pick this theme or topic?
The students had asked for it.

How did you present the material? (handouts, group work, general discussion, student presentations, etc.)
We played different kinds of German board games.

How did students react?
They were thrilled!

Did they engage with each other and you?
Yes, they did.  They talked a lot and we had a lot of fun.

What materials or media did you use? (articles, satellite tv, digital projector, etc.)
Taboo
Activity
Tick Tack Boom

 

 

Would you recommend this activity for a future class? Why or why not?
Yes, it was a nice alternation from regular conversation classes.

DE S10 ADV Project

March 9, 2010 /

Conversation Class Lesson Plan

Section: Advanced Conversation
Date: March 9, 2010

Class theme/topics discussed: Talking about our class project

How did you pick this theme or topic? Since we’re in the middle of the Spring Semester, I thought it’d be a great idea to start working on our class project.

How did you present the material? (handouts, group work, general discussion, student presentations, etc.)
In the beginning of the lesson I told the students that I would like to use this lesson to talk about our class project. I asked them what kind of project they would be interested in. We did some kind of brainstorming and I told them a little bit about possible projects that we might do. In the end, the students agreed on creating their own news show and videotaping it.
At first, I asked the students to make a list on the White Board with all the different aspects relating to a news show. Then, I asked them to do an outline of their news show and organize it into parts. After that, the students divided all parts among themselves. One would be the main anchor, talking about global news, economy, and an interesting crime scene. A second student would be in charge of sports and entertainment. And the third student would be in charge of local news, fashion, and the weather. For the last minutes of this lesson we brainstormed about topics which we could use for the different segments.

How did students react?
The students were excited to get started on their projects.

Did they engage with each other and you?
Yes, they did. The news show was their own idea and they were very creative in terms of how to implement it and make it fun and interesting to watch.

 

What materials or media did you use? (articles, satellite tv, digital projector, etc.)

Would you recommend this activity for a future class? Why or why not?
Yes, definitely. I think students always enjoy working on projects, because it is something that they create themselves. I also think that a news show is a great idea for a project and allows many different approaches and activities.

 

DE S10 ADV Poems 2

March 2, 2010 /

Conversation Class Lesson Plan

Section: Advanced Conversation
Date: March 2, 2010

Class theme/topics discussed: German poems (continued)

How did you pick this theme or topic?
See previous lesson.

 

How did you present the material? (handouts, group work, general discussion, student presentations, etc.)
I asked my students to recall what we did the lesson before and to sum up some of the poems that they found intriguing. Then, I asked them to discuss which one they would like to choose in order to recite it for the upcoming German “Liederabend”. They agreed on Goethe’s “Erlkoenig”. We discussed the poem in great detail and the students came up with different, very interesting analyses. Afterwards, I gave them the English translation of the poem and we critically compared the German and English version.
Then, I asked the students to discuss the way in which they would like to recite the poem. After they’d agreed on that, we spent the rest of the lesson practicing how to recite the poem and how to ‘act’ on stage.

How did students react?
I think the students were really happy with the poem they finally selected. They had fun rehearsing it and really got into character. I think it was a good way for them to rehearse the poem and to make them more prepared and comfortable for the upcoming “Liederabend” event.

Did they engage with each other and you?
Yes, they did.

What materials or media did you use? (articles, satellite tv, digital projector, etc.)
Copies of the “Erlkoenig”

Would you recommend this activity for a future class? Why or why not?
Yes, the students were very motivated to rehearse their recital and they were excited for the upcoming “Liederabend”.

Der Erlkönig

DE S10 ADV Poems 1

February 25, 2010 /

Conversation Class Lesson Plan

Section: Advanced Conversation
Date: February 25, 2010

Class theme/topics discussed: German poems

How did you pick this theme or topic?
The “Musikabend”, an event hosted by the Scripps German and Music Department, was coming up soon, and my students wanted to take part in this by reciting a poem. Thus, I thought it would be a good idea to talk about famous German poems and to learn how to recite them.

How did you present the material? (handouts, group work, general discussion, student presentations, etc.)
At first, I asked my students if they knew any German poems. They did know a few and I asked them to summarize and analyze them as well as they could. Then, I handed out three pages with popular German poems, ranging from Goethe to Morgenstern to Fried. We read each poem, talked about vocabulary, discussed the meaning of the poems and the author’s intentions. At the end, I asked each student to pick their favorite poem, explain why it’s their favorite and try to recite it to the rest of the class as good as possible. Myself and the other students gave feedback.

How did students react?
I think the students liked talking about the poems, although some of them were rather dated and did not have any kind of reference to them, I think.

Did they engage with each other and you?
Yes, they did. At first, they were a little shy while reading out the poems, but the further the lesson progressed, the more comfortable they got. They asked a lot of vocabulary questions and seemed quite interested in most of the poems.

What materials or media did you use? (articles, satellite tv, digital projector, etc.)
Copies of poems (from 18th – 20th century)

Would you recommend this activity for a future class? Why or why not?
Yes, I think you can integrate poems into a conversation class very well. I think I’d spend even more time on choosing the ‘right’ poems for my class next time to keep them interested and motivated.

 

DE S10 ADV Language Games

February 23, 2010 /

Conversation Class Lesson Plan

Section: Advanced Conversation
Date: February 23, 2010

Class theme/topics discussed: Language Games

How did you pick this theme or topic?
I thought that my students had been working really well during the last couple of weeks, so I wanted to do them a favor and spend one lesson playing different games they were interested in.

How did you present the material? (handouts, group work, general discussion, student presentations, etc.)
At first, I asked my students what kind of German games they knew. Then I told them about different language games and exercises and asked them which ones they would like to play. We agreed on our own version of “Stadt, Land, Fluss” (with all things German: cities, famous people, traditional food or drinks, sports, and hobbies), “20 Fragen” and “Kofferpacken”.

How did students react?
The students were very excited about the games. We had a lot of fun playing the different games and relaxing a little bit.

Did they engage with each other and you?
Yes, they did. They were talking very much and they asked a lot of questions about vocabulary.

What materials or media did you use? (articles, satellite tv, digital projector, etc.)
Blank sheets of paper.

Would you recommend this activity for a future class? Why or why not?
Yes, it was a nice break from the other lessons. The students enjoyed playing games and were quite competitive. They also learned new vocabulary and things about Germany.

DE S10 INT Project

February 23, 2010 /

Conversation Class Lesson Plan

Section: Intermediate Conversation
Date: February 23, 2010

Class theme/topics discussed: Class project

How did you pick this theme or topic?
My students preferred to start working on the project early.

How did you present the material? (handouts, group work, general discussion, student presentations, etc.)
I asked my student what kind of project he would be interested in. We did some kind of brainstorming and I told him a little bit about possible projects that we might do. My student chose to do a funny, short little video about Pomona College.
In the next few classes, my student did research about Pomona College, we visited different places on campus, talked to students and professors, made notes and wrote little texts, videotaped my student’s performance, and edited everything until we had his final project. This process took about 3 weeks.

How did students react?
My student was very excited to work on the project. Since he is a Pitzer student, it was interesting for him to find out and learn about Pomona. He worked very well and independently.

Did they engage with each other and you?
Yes, he talked very much and seemed to have a great time working on his project.

What materials or media did you use? (articles, satellite tv, digital projector, etc.)
Flip Camera
Internet

 

Would you recommend this activity for a future class? Why or why not?
Yes, I think it was a great idea and resulted in a wonderful final project.

DE S10 ADV Cooking

February 18, 2010 /

Conversation Class Lesson Plan

Section: Advanced Conversation
Date: February 18, 2010

 

Class theme/topics discussed: We’re making a German chocolate cake

How did you pick this theme or topic?
See previous lesson.

How did you present the material? (handouts, group work, general discussion, student presentations, etc.)
First, I presented my students three different recipes of the different cakes and asked them to choose the one they would like to do most. My students agreed on a chocolate cake. Thus, we went over the recipe, discussing the ingredients and the instructions. Then, we prepared everything for the actual baking: The students lined up all ingredients (which I had bought before) and necessary appliances in the kitchen. Then, they followed the instructions step by step, explaining what they were doing while doing it. After they had prepared the dough, the cake was ready to be baked and was put in the oven. We had about 10 minutes of the lesson left, so we sat down and talked about food a little bit more until the end of the lesson. Later that evening / the next day, the students stopped by my apartment to pick up their shares of the cake.

How did students react?
The students loved baking! They were very motivated and seemed to have a lot of fun.

Did they engage with each other and you?
Yes, they did. They were talking very much and they asked a lot of questions.

What materials or media did you use? (articles, satellite tv, digital projector, etc.)
Copies of recipes
Ingredients for cake

 

 

Would you recommend this activity for a future class? Why or why not?
Yes, it was a nice break from the other lessons. The atmosphere was very relaxed and the students seemed very comfortable. The only thing that I didn’t ‘love’ about this lesson is that you can’t do everything in ONE lesson – i.e. the cake won’t probably get done in time of just one lesson. Thus, the students had to come back at a later time to see the actual result and to pick up their pieces of cake. But my students didn’t mind that, so it was not a big problem.

DE S10 ADV Restaurant

February 16, 2010 /

Conversation Class Lesson Plan

Section: Advanced Conversation
Date: February 16, 2010

 

Class theme/topics discussed: In a restaurant

How did you pick this theme or topic? My students had told me that they would like to bake or cook something together, which I plan to do the following lesson. As an introduction I thought it might be interesting to talk about food in general and do this with the help of a role-play.

How did you present the material? (handouts, group work, general discussion, student presentations, etc.)
First, I asked my students what they generally liked to eat and drink and what not so much. We had a lively discussion about American food and my students’ favorite dishes. We also talked about their favorite restaurants and great places to eat in the area around Claremont. Then, I suggested an exercise: Each student was supposed to impersonate a restaurant owner. They had to come up with a type of restaurant, a name for it, and their own menu with their favorite dishes. Then, we did different kinds of role plays, where the students would play customers, waiters, and chefs in their respective restaurants. The students practiced some restaurant-related small talk, they discussed the menus, they placed orders, and they gave feedback about the food they had ‘ordered’.

How did students react?
The students had a lot of fun were very creative when it came to their own menus. They also loved the role play.

Did they engage with each other and you?
Yes, they were talking to each other very much and they learned some new, useful vocabulary.

 

What materials or media did you use? (articles, satellite tv, digital projector, etc.)
Draft of menu

 

Would you recommend this activity for a future class? Why or why not?
Yes, definitely. It is a great exercise to make your students talk and get creative.

DE S10 ADV Creative Writing

February 9, 2010 /

Conversation Class Lesson Plan

Section: Advanced Conversation
Date: February 9, 2010

 

Class theme/topics discussed: Creative story telling

How did you pick this theme or topic? The students had really enjoyed the previous lesson and working creatively, so I thought of another exercise, where they had to use their imagination a lot and create something new.

How did you present the material? (handouts, group work, general discussion, student presentations, etc.)
To get my students’ imagination going, I played a game first. I put a sheet of paper on the table which showed a little guy, we called him Manni. I asked the students to describe Manni, think about what he might like to in his free time, what he likes to eat, where he works, etc. The students were supposed to work together while describing him: Each student was only supposed to say one word, and then the next student would continue the sentence and so on.
Then, I gave each student an ABC-list, which they were supposed to fill with German words starting with letters A-Z. After that, the students were supposed to share their words and write a story or dialogue, using as many words out of their lists as possible. Then, they presented their product.
Finally, we played a well-known game to end the lesson: 20 questions. Every student (one after another) was supposed to think of a German word and the other two were supposed to ask questions to guess the word.

How did students react?
The students love Manni! They had fun doing teamwork in order to describe him. They also liked to write their own story and present it.

Did they engage with each other and you?
Yes, they talked a lot. They seemed to have a lot of fun too.

 

What materials or media did you use? (articles, satellite tv, digital projector, etc.)
Sheet of paper with ‘Manni’ picture
ABC list

 

Would you recommend this activity for a future class? Why or why not?
Yes, I would. The first exercise could also be used at the end of lessons, if you need to fill a couple of minutes, because you can end this game whenever you want, there is no certain time range required.

Manni

DE S10 ADV Speed Dating (Improved)

February 4, 2010 /

Conversation Class Lesson Plan

Section: Advanced Conversation
Date: February 4, 2010

Class theme/topics discussed: Speed Dating

How did you pick this theme or topic? I used this activity last semester and the students really enjoyed it. I also thought it was a great way to continue the previous lesson, where we had talked about men and women in detail.

How did you present the material? (handouts, group work, general discussion, student presentations, etc.)
Since it is easier to play this game with an even number of students, I participated in this exercise. First of all, the students created 2 different personalities. For that matter they wrote short portraits and collected pictures from old magazines. Then, we played Speed Dating. The students would talk to each other for about 5 minutes and try to get to know the other person. They would do this the same way with ‘both their personalities’. After each of the two rounds I had the students fill out a survey to comment on their respective dates. At the end I asked my students to sum up what they thought about their dates, which ones they liked / didn’t like and why, and who they thought would be their perfect match.

How did students react?
The students had a lot of fun and told me they really liked this exercise. They were also very creative.

Did they engage with each other and you?
Yes, they were talking to each other very much and they learned some new, useful vocabulary.

What materials or media did you use? (articles, satellite tv, digital projector, etc.)
Old magazines
Portrait sheet
Survey sheet

Would you recommend this activity for a future class? Why or why not?
Yes, definitely. It is a great exercise to make your students talk. They also had a lot of fun creating different characters and acting a little bit.

DE S10 ADV Famous German (Improved)

January 28, 2010 /

Conversation Class Lesson Plan

Section: Advanced Conversation
Date: January 28, 2010

Class theme/topics discussed: Famous and popular Germans

How did you pick this theme or topic? I thought it would be nice, if my students knew famous German people and what they did to become so famous.

How did you present the material? (handouts, group work, general discussion, student presentations, etc.)
First of all, I asked the students to write down all (famous) Germans on the White Board that they knew. They made quite a long list, which was very impressive. Then, I asked them to say a few words about these people and about their lives – as far as they knew. Afterwards, we played a memory game. I had prepared cards with famous and popular German people – half of the cards had their names on them, the other half showed their faces. I asked my students to name these people (some of them they had already written on the White Board before) and match the pictures with the names, just to get to know who these people were. Then, my students played memory.
Afterwards we played “Wer bin ich?” about German people, which is a question-and-answer game. The students prepared little post-it notes with a name of a famous German person and gave it to one of the other students, who then stuck the note on his forehead. Then, the students were to ask questions in order to guess what name was on their post-it i.e. which famous German person they represented.

How did students react?
My students were very motivated and eager to participate. They had fun listing all the German people they knew (a lot of soccer players for example). They also loved the memory game and wanted to play a 2nd time.

Did they engage with each other and you?
Yes, they were very talkative and they seemed to have a lot of fun.

What materials or media did you use? (articles, satellite tv, digital projector, etc.)
Memory game
Post-it notes

Would you recommend this activity for a future class? Why or why not?
Yes, definitely. The students seemed to have enjoyed this lesson and they were talking a lot.

DE S10 ADV Stereotypes 2

January 26, 2010 /

Conversation Class Lesson Plan

Section: Advanced Conversation
Date: January 26, 2010

Class theme/topics discussed: Stereotypes about Germans and Germany (continued)

How did you pick this theme or topic? The students enjoyed the previous lesson and thus I thought, it’d be a good idea to continue with this topic.

How did you present the material? (handouts, group work, general discussion, student presentations, etc.)
First of all, I asked my students to summarize what we talked about in the previous lesson and I had them make a list of all the German stereotypes we had talked about. Then, I showed the students a video on youtube, ‘Frag nen Deutschen’, where a German man talks about German stereotypes. After this, I handed out a transcript of the video and showed it a second time, so that this time the students could read along while listening. Then, we talked about the stereotypes that were mentioned in the video and whether or not they are rather true or false. Afterwards, I asked the students to make a similar, short video where they would talk about stereotypes about America and Americans. The students made some notes and then we recorded their show with a flip camera. The last activity for this lesson was a fun exercise about international stereotypes. I had prepared slips of paper that each had a one-sentence-statement on them regarding a certain stereotype. I asked the students to read these sentences and discuss who the respective stereotype might be about. Finally, I asked my students if they knew any other stereotypes about different countries or people.

How did students react?
The students seemed to like the activities very much and were eager to tell their impressions and their experiences about certain stereotypes. They were laughing a lot and seemed to enjoy the topic.

Did they engage with each other and you?
Yes, they talked a lot with each other and we had a lively discussion. They were also very interested in my opinion and wanted to know, if those stereotypes were really true or not.

 

What materials or media did you use? (articles, satellite tv, digital projector, etc.)
Flashcards of German stereotypes (Flashcards are printed and in my ADV conversation folder).
My Laptop + TV in the German Lounge.
Video on youtube : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQ0Bgw2vkAM
Slips of paper with one-sentence-statements about different stereotypes

Would you recommend this activity for a future class? Why or why not?
Yes, definitely. The students were very motivated and eager to share their thoughts and experiences. I think they really enjoyed this lesson.

Frag_nen_Deutschen_Transcript

DE S10 ADV Stereotypes1

January 21, 2010 /

Conversation Class Lesson Plan

Section: Advanced Conversation
Date: January 21, 2010

Class theme/topics discussed: Stereotypes about Germans and Germany

How did you pick this theme or topic? I thought it was a good way to start talking about Germany and to see what impressions they might have of Germans and Germany.

How did you present the material? (handouts, group work, general discussion, student presentations, etc.)

I put about 10 different flashcards with pictures of German stereotypes (e.g. Bratwurst, Dirndl & Lederhosen, Mercedes & VW) on the table and asked the students to each chose one and say what they can see on the picture and what it might have to do with Germans / Germany. The students quickly guessed that those were all stereotypes. I asked them about their experiences and what they thought about those stereotypes. I had prepared three pieces of paper saying ‘Stimmt oft’, ‘Stimmt manchmal’ and ‘Stimmt gar nicht’ and asked the students to put the flashcards on either one of the papers to say whether they believed they are mostly true, sometimes, and not at all. I also asked them to say why they thought so, this way we had a very lively discussion.
At the end of the class I asked the students, if they knew any stereotypes about the Claremont Colleges and they told me about stereotypes of each of the five colleges.

How did students react?
The students seemed to like the activities very much and were eager to tell their impressions and their experiences about certain stereotypes. They were laughing a lot and seemed to enjoy the topic.

Did they engage with each other and you?
Yes, they talked a lot with each other and we had a lively discussion. They were also very interested in my opinion and wanted to know, if those stereotypes were really true or not.

 

What materials or media did you use? (articles, satellite tv, digital projector, etc.)
Flashcards of German stereotypes (Flashcards are printed and in my ADV conversation folder).

 

Would you recommend this activity for a future class? Why or why not?
Yes, definitely. The students were very motivated and eager to share their thoughts and experiences.

DE S10 ADV Intro

January 19, 2010 /

Conversation Class Lesson Plan

Section: Advanced Conversation
Date: January 19, 2010

 

Class theme/topics discussed: Introduction to the Conversation Class

How did you pick this theme or topic? Informational meeting for the first class to discuss important aspects of class and to get to know each other.

How did you present the material? (handouts, group work, general discussion, student presentations, etc.)
First of all, I introduced myself to the students and told them about me and my job as a Language Resident. Then, we went over the syllabus together. I asked the students, if they had questions and I told them more about the study breaks, cultural events, and German table. Afterwards I asked them, if they were interested in any specific topic or subject that they would like to discuss in this class. I wrote their answers down in order to respect their interests regarding the planning of the semester. Finally, I said that I’d like to know a little bit more about them too, so they were supposed to interview and find out interesting things about each other. They made notes and afterwards we talked about what they had found out.

How did students react?
The students seemed to like the activity and were eager to ask each other questions. The three students, who enrolled in this class, already knew each other before, so the atmosphere was very relaxed and informal, but the students still enjoyed getting to know one another more.

Did they engage with each other and you?
Yes, they talked a lot and they had fun interviewing each other and presenting the results.

What materials or media did you use? (articles, satellite tv, digital projector, etc.)
Copies of the syllabus

Please attach a copy.

Would you recommend this activity for a future class? Why or why not?
Yes. It was a nice way to get to know the students and to motivate them to talk in German.

DE S10 INT Intro

January 19, 2010 /

Conversation Class Lesson Plan

Section: Intermediate Conversation
Date: January 19, 2010

Class theme/topics discussed: Introduction

How did you pick this theme or topic?

How did you present the material? (handouts, group work, general discussion, student presentations, etc.)
At the beginning of class, I introduced myself to my student (there is only one student in intermediate class this semester) and I asked him to tell some things about himself. Then, we discussed his interest in this class and how we would work throughout the semester.
We both agreed that it might not be very adequate to do exercises or activities, which are mostly suitable for conversation class groups, but rather ‘just make conversation’. We agreed to talk about all things of interest to us and I suggested to always having different articles, texts, and games ready, just in case we might need to fall back on those in a future lesson.

How did students react?
My student was very motivated and seemed excited about being the only student in this class.

Did they engage with each other and you?
Yes, he was very talkative. His German was very good – probably more on an advanced level than intermediate. But due to conflicts with other classes, he was not able to take advanced conversation class.

 

What materials or media did you use? (articles, satellite tv, digital projector, etc.)

Would you recommend this activity for a future class? Why or why not?

DE F09 ADV Chat

December 8, 2009 /

Conversation Class Lesson Plan

Section: Advanced Conversation
Date: 8. Dezember 2009

Class theme/topics discussed: Last class

How did you pick this theme or topic? Since this was our last class of the semester, I invited my students to the Coop Fountain to get something to drink and to reflect about the semester and to talk about anything they wanted to talk about.

How did you present the material? (handouts, group work, general discussion, student presentations, etc.)

How did students react?
They liked it a lot!

Did they engage with each other and you?
Yes, they were talking very much!

What materials or media did you use? (articles, satellite tv, digital projector, etc.)

I gave them the evaluation forms at the end of the class.

Would you recommend this activity for a future class? Why or why not?
Yes, definitely. I think this is a nice ending to a conversation class.

DE F09 ADV Christmas

December 3, 2009 /

Conversation Class Lesson Plan

Section: Advanced Conversation
Date: 3. Dezember 2009

Class theme/topics discussed: Christmas

How did you pick this theme or topic? Since it was December, I thought it might be nice to talk about Christmas and Christmas time in general.

How did you present the material? (handouts, group work, general discussion, student presentations, etc.)
First, I asked my students how they generally celebrate Christmas and what they like about it. We also talked about how other countries celebrate Christmas and what’s different in comparison with the US. Then, we read and discussed a poem called “Little Christmas Gedicht” which was a funny Christmas poem in “Denglish” – i.e. in German and English. Afterwards I asked my students if they had already thought about what presents they were going to give out this Christmas and what kind of presents they would like for themselves. My students wrote down their wishes on a wish list and then explained their choices. After that, I told my students a little bit about how Christmas is celebrated in Germany and what some traditional things we do during Christmas time are. I mentioned how children enjoy making ginger bread houses and then I told my students that we would do some little ones of our own (made of biscuits). I handed out the recipes and my students started building their ginger bread houses. Meanwhile, we talked about all things related to Christmas and listened to German Christmas songs.

How did students react?
The students were very excited when I told them we would spend this lesson talking about Christmas. I think they loved the ginger bread houses.

Did they engage with each other and you?
Yes, they were talking very much and were eager to share their knowledge and experiences.

What materials or media did you use? (articles, satellite tv, digital projector, etc.)
Poem “Little Christmas Gedicht”
Blank copies of “My wish list”
Recipes for mini ginger bread houses
Baking supplies
German Christmas music on my computer

 Would you recommend this activity for a future class? Why or why not?
Yes, definitely. The students had a lot of fun and spoke German the entire time of the lesson.

 

 

LITTLE CHRISTMAS GEDICHT

DE F09 ADV Famous Germans

December 1, 2009 /

Conversation Class Lesson Plan

Section: Advanced Conversation
Date: 1. Dezember 2009

Class theme/topics discussed: Famous and popular Germans

How did you pick this theme or topic? I thought it would be nice, if my students knew famous German people and what they did to become so famous.

How did you present the material? (handouts, group work, general discussion, student presentations, etc.)
First of all, I asked the students to write down all (famous) Germans on the White Board that they knew. They made quite a long list, which was very impressive. Then, I asked them to say a few words about these people and about their lives. Afterwards, we played a memory game. I had prepared cards with famous and popular German people – half of the cards had their names on them, the other half showed their faces. I asked my students to name these people (some of them they had already written on the White Board before) and match the pictures with the names, just to get to know who these people were. Then, my two students played memory. Afterwards we played “Wer bin ich?” about German people, which is a question-and-answer game.

How did students react?
My students were very motivated, because they already knew quite a lot about this topic. They were eager to share their knowledge.

Did they engage with each other and you?
Yes, they were very talkative and they seemed to have a lot of fun.

What materials or media did you use? (articles, satellite tv, digital projector, etc.)
Memory game

Would you recommend this activity for a future class? Why or why not?
Yes, definitely. The students seemed to have enjoyed this lesson and they were talking a lot.

DE F09 ADV Games

November 24, 2009 /

Conversation Class Lesson Plan

Section: Advanced Conversation
Date: 24. November 2009

Class theme/topics discussed: Games

How did you pick this theme or topic? Since this was the last lesson before Thanksgiving Break, I thought it might be nice to have a more relaxed lesson where we would play German games.

How did you present the material? (handouts, group work, general discussion, student presentations, etc.)
I told the students that we could play German games that day and asked them to chose their favorite(s). They both immediately agreed on Tabu Extreme. The time went by very quickly and we played this game till the end of the lesson.

How did students react?
The students were very excited when I told them we would spend this lesson playing games. They even stayed longer after class to finish the game.

Did they engage with each other and you?
Yes, they were talking very much!

What materials or media did you use? (articles, satellite tv, digital projector, etc.)
Game: Tabu Extreme

Would you recommend this activity for a future class? Why or why not?
Yes, definitely. We had a lot of fun and we spoke in German the entire time of the lesson.

 

 

 

 

 

DE F09 ADV Music

November 19, 2009 /

Conversation Class
Lesson Plan

Section: Advanced Conversation
Date: 19. November 2009

Class theme/topics discussed: Music in Germany

How did you pick this theme or topic? The students had told me earlier that they were interested in German music and bands, so I thought it might be interesting to talk about this topic with them.

 

How did you present the material? (handouts, group work, general discussion, student presentations, etc.)
First of all, I asked the students about their music taste and if they did some sort of music themselves. Then I asked them about their knowledge of German bands, songs, and music in general and their opinion on it. Afterwards, I put 10 flashcards on the table which had pictures of 10 different German singers / bands from the 80s until 2009 on them (Herbert Groenemeyer, Marius Mueller-Westernhagen, Die Toten Hosen, die Aerzte, Xavier Naidoo, Tokio Hotel, Culcha Candela, Sportfreunde Stiller). Next to that I put 10 flashcards with the respective names, 10 cards with song titles and 10 cards with dates on them. I told my students that they were supposed to match each singer / band with their name, their most famous song and the year of that song. To help them do this, I showed them all the songs on youtube. Although this was quite challenging, the students got most of it right. Afterwards I had them glue everything on a large poster and name it “Musik in Deutschland”. As a last activity, I asked my students to write a short German poem / song using the song titles we had listened to before.

How did students react?
The students were very interested and seemed to have fun. They wrote down some of the singers they liked, because they said they wanted to listen to them at home.

Did they engage with each other and you?
Yes, they talked a lot. Especially when they working together on matching all the songs, dates, names with the respective singers or bands.

What materials or media did you use? (articles, satellite tv, digital projector, etc.)
Flashcards of bands / singers, names, song titles, dates
Computer + youtube videos
Large blank poster

Would you recommend this activity for a future class? Why or why not?
Yes, I would use this activity again. The students seemed to like it and they had fun working on it. I might change the number of bands / singers though.. maybe to the 5 or 6 most popular ones.

 

 

 

 

 

 

DE F09 ADV News

November 17, 2009 /

Conversation Class Lesson Plan

Section: Advanced Conversation
Date: 17. November 2009

Class theme/topics discussed: News in Germany

How did you pick this theme or topic? In the week before I had noticed that my students did not seem to know too much about what was going on in Germany a few years ago and even today. So I thought it might be interesting to talk about recent things that happened in Germany and how they are portrayed in the news.

How did you present the material? (handouts, group work, general discussion, student presentations, etc.)
To start off, we played the game 2 truths and a lie. Then we talked about how easy it is to tell a lie and how people believe it. I asked my students if they thought that media can be like that too, i.e. that news shows or newspapers sometimes told lies or changed stories to a certain extent. We then talked about things that recently happened in Germany and how they were portrayed in the news, I showed my students a few articles from the Bild Zeitung for that purpose. Then, I asked my students to design their own front page of the Bild Zeitung. They were supposed to write 3 true stories on something they thought was interesting and 1 lie about something they made up. The students typed their stories into the computer and we printed their ‘own newspaper’.

How did students react?
The students enjoyed the game at the beginning of the lesson and they enjoyed working on their own newspaper. They did not seem very interested in the articles I had brought.

Did they engage with each other and you?
Yes, the students talked a lot and raised some interesting questions. They were also very creative.

What materials or media did you use? (articles, satellite tv, digital projector, etc.)
Articles from the Bild Zeitung
Blank draft of the Bild Zeitung in word file
Computer

Would you recommend this activity for a future class? Why or why not?
Yes, the students had fun and they were very talkative. I would try to find different kinds of articles though.. maybe some that are more interesting to young students.

DE F09 ADV Travels

November 12, 2009 /

Conversation Class Lesson Plan

Section: Advanced Conversation
Date: 12. November 2009

Class theme/topics discussed: Reisen nach Deutschland

How did you pick this theme or topic? We had the ‘Kaffee and Kuchen’ the week before and talked about the city of Berlin. My students said they would like to talk more about Berlin and other big cities in Germany.

How did you present the material? (handouts, group work, general discussion, student presentations, etc.)
Only one student came today. I talked to her about her knowledge of German geography and she told me about her visits to Germany. We looked at a map of Germany and talked about big cities, what they are famous for, and why people might like to travel there. Then, I asked my student to design a poster of a German city she liked and include some fun facts that would motivate young people to visit that city. At the end of the lesson we talked about how to motivate students to travel to Germany and how Germany could improve their advertisement so that more young people would travel there.

How did students react?
My student was very interested and seemed to like the topic. She also enjoyed working on the poster.

Did they engage with each other and you?
Yes, she was very talkative and engaged with me very well.

What materials or media did you use? (articles, satellite tv, digital projector, etc.)
Map of Germany
Blank poster

Would you recommend this activity for a future class? Why or why not?
Yes, I would use this topic again. I think it is interesting for young students and it gives them the chance to talk a lot about their own experience.

 

 

 

 

 

DE F09 ADV Fall of the Wall

November 10, 2009 /

Conversation Class Lesson Plan

Section: Advanced Conversation
Date: 10. November 2009

Class theme/topics discussed: The fall of the Berlin Wall

How did you pick this theme or topic? This lesson was one of the last ones before the German Special Dinner, which will be centered on the fall of the Berlin Wall. So I thought it might be interesting for my students to learn and talk a little bit about how the Berlin Wall was built, separated Germany and then finally fell.

How did you present the material? (handouts, group work, general discussion, student presentations, etc.)
I asked the students about their knowledge of the Berlin Wall and how it came down in 1989. Then, I handed them an article about the Fall of the Berlin Wall, which we read and discussed. I asked them some more questions (e.g. “Do you think everyone was happy that the Wall fell?” or “Do you think it is possible that there might be another Wall sometime in the future?”) and the students discussed these quite lively. Then, I told them about the upcoming German Special Dinner and my ideas for it. I told them that we would like to have bricks on every table to represent pieces of the Berlin Wall and that they could draw on these bricks. I handed out 4 bricks to them (2 each) and pens and my students started drawing. Meanwhile we were talking about the German Dinner.

How did students react?
At first, the students did not seem very excited about the topic, maybe because they are not especially interested in German history. But later in the lesson, when I asked them about their ideas for painting the ‘Wall’ and when we started to paint the bricks, the students had a lot of fun.

Did they engage with each other and you?
Yes. More in the second activity.

What materials or media did you use? (articles, satellite tv, digital projector, etc.)
Article on the Berlin Wall
Slideshow on computer
Bricks

Would you recommend this activity for a future class? Why or why not?
Yes, I would. But I would try to make the theoretic part of this lesson more interesting.

 

 

DE F09 ADV Men-Women

November 3, 2009 /

Conversation Class
Lesson Plan

Section: Advanced Conversation
Date: 3. November 2009

Class theme/topics discussed: Typisch Mann und typisch Frau

How did you pick this theme or topic? I did this with my German 33 class and they really liked the topic. So I thought my other students might like it as well.

How did you present the material? (handouts, group work, general discussion, student presentations, etc.)
First of all, I asked my students about stereotypes of men and women. We made a list and they drew a cluster. Afterwards we read a text about men and women (“Wer putzt und wer verdient das Geld?”). I asked my students about their opinion on this and we had a very interesting talk. Afterwards, I told my students to have a discussion. One of them was supposed to be in favor of traditional roles and the other one in favor of a modern view.

How did students react?
The students were very interested and were eager to share their opinions.

Did they engage with each other and you?
Yes, they talked a lot. We had a very interesting and lively discussion.

What materials or media did you use? (articles, satellite tv, digital projector, etc.)
Whiteboard
Text (“Wer putzt und wer verdient das Geld?”)

Would you recommend this activity for a future class? Why or why not?
Yes, I would. The students liked the topic and it stimulated a great discussion. It might have been more interesting though, if we could have heard a man’s point of view (both my students are female).

 

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