The prerequisites for this class are German II.
Based on the National Standards for Foreign Language Learning, the objectives for our German III course are:
- Communication: Students engage in conversations about topics such as leisure time activities. They present and exchange information about themselves; express their feelings and reactions to themes expressed in some of the texts and exchange opinions about children's responsibilities. Students study global reading skills in order to understand a variety of authentic texts. They work with spoken language by listening to the episodes of a radio play. Students present information after researching selected websites, texts and other sources of information.
- Cultures: Students gain an understanding of different German cultural practices, products and perspectives by studying German youth centers, reading maps, preparing food, working with German poetry, teaching concepts of German culture to elementary students and working with the play "Faust."
- Connections: Students reinforce and further their knowledge of other disciplines by working with figurative language, metaphors and similes; by practicing map reading skills and by exploring logical connections and conclusions.
- Comparisons: Students learn about language in general and about the concept of culture by studying German poetic language, contextual clues, grammatical concepts, and problems of communication.
- Communities: Students use German both within and beyond the school setting by teaching German to elementary school children and exploring selected German websites. Students use German for personal enrichment and enjoyment by writing their own poetry, learning how to read German novels and studying a classical German play.
Unit 1 - Kinder an die Macht
Students study a German pop song and will discuss the concepts presented in this song. They use global reading skills to get the basic information of a related newspaper article.
Unit 2 - Keine Panik
Students listen to 15 short episodes of a radio play about two German teenagers.
Unit 3 - Die Ilse ist weg
Students use global reading skills to understand this novel.
Unit 4 - Fun with Words
This is a unit on figurative language, word pictures, concrete poetry and imagery. Students will look at examples, then write their own German poetry.
Unit 5 - Die Suche
Students will follow some students on a scavenger hunt in and around Dresden, Saxony.
Unit 6 - Faust
Students study this classical play by the German writer Goethe. Students will discuss the treatment of timeless topics in classical literature and will read excerpts of the play by Goethe in the original.
In addition to quizzes and tests, students will work on several projects: they will create and record a short scene based on the radio play; they will make a detailed description of themselves; keep a diary for a limited time; create a booklet with their own poetry; prepare lesson plans and teaching materials to teach German to elementary students; illustrate scenes of the theatre play or write the script for a puppet play.
* Kinder an die Macht (Pop Song), Herbert Grönemeyer
* Kinder an die Macht (Newspaper Article)
* Keine Panik (Radio Play), Angelika Raths
* Die Ilse ist weg (Novel), Christine Nöstlinger
* Fun with Words (Graphic Words, Word Pictures, Poems), Various Authors
* Faust (Drama), Goethe