Carousel Review

One of the Spanish teachers in my building told me about this activity and it seemed like the perfect way to start out the year in German 1! I structured it as a review of the material we'd covered last year in 7th grade Flex.

Process… 

1. Choose the topics that you want students to brainstorm. Our beginning of the year review included the topics: Germany (geography, history, culture, etc), Greetings/Farewells, Alphabet/Pronunciation, Numbers, Calendar, Cognates/False Friends/Loan Words, Survival Vocab/Polite Expressions, Holidays
2. Write each topic at the top of a piece of paper.
3. Split students into groups of 3-5.
4. Make sure each group has a writing utensil. I use different color markers for each group so it's easy to identify who contributed what.
5. Give one topic to each group. I put my papers around the room on the wall and sent each group to a different topic. They rotated around to all the stations, like a carousel.
6. When you say "Go!" each group has 2 minutes to write as many things as they can about that topic. This could be vocab words/phrases, cultural info, facts/trivia, whatever they remember.
7. After 2 minutes time is up, they rotate to the next topic.
8. Groups can make additions OR corrections to what previous groups said.
9. Repeat until all groups have gotten to all topics.
10. Review their answers at the end as a class, making corrections and additions as necessary.

This is a good way to see what the class as a whole remembers or what they might need to work on. I was not terribly surprised to see they remembered numbers really well or that they need to review spelling, but I was shocked they remembered so little of the holiday topics we'd talked about! 

I also asked students a few follow up questions as an exit ticket...

1. What topic(s) do you remember the best from last year?

2. What topic(s) do you remember the least?

3. Was the review in class helpful? Why/why not?

Overall students said they liked the activity because it helped show them they do actually remember more than they think. A few students weren't happy about their groups when they rotated and some pointed out there were errors (like saying Poland spoke German but Switzerland didn't), which is definitely why the review at the end as a class is essential to clarify those big errors.

- Frau Leonard

First Day Activities: UNO spielen

I don't remember where I got this idea or where I heard the suggestion from, but I remember the idea very distinctly: Don't let the kids walk out of Day One without a chance to use the language.

Not a terribly difficult task for your upper level, returning students. For day one of level one? It's a little trickier to give them something that's practical and engaging.

The suggestion/idea I came across years ago was UNO. Most students are familiar with the game, the rules are pretty straight forward, and the language required is pretty basic. Numbers 0-9, four colors, and a few other phrases, and then students are playing and actively using the language.

This year for my Deutsch I students, I made vocabulary sheets to help them with these words (including pronunciation notes) and divided them into groups to play. They were super excited... and were absolutely aghast when I mentioned the punishment for any student I caught using English. I gave all of the student groups one of the black boxes of cards, but kept a red one for myself - they have different backings but the same shape; the punishment for speaking English was I would give them an additional card.

The different colors helped me keep track of the sets, so I could easily put my red set back together at the end of class. It also made a manageable punishment that would only really matter if it added up.

I also like this activity because I always find the pacing of the first week can be hard - you can't account for all the interruptions with assemblies, you don't know the pace of this specific class during this time slot, etc - and after they learn the routine of playing the game in German, it's an easy way to fill the last few minutes of class.

What first day activities do you do that help get your students speaking the language ASAP?

EDIT: For anyone interested, you can get my copy of the vocab list here!

- Frau Leonard

First Day Activities

The middle school where I work has three 12 week sessions of 7th grade classes that cycle through the three languages we offer here (French, German, Spanish). Today I just got my last batch of 7th graders for the year, and last week I came up with a new activity that I think is a good one for Day One with students who are unfamiliar with you, the language, and/or your room.

I frequently have had problems with students just not being aware of the resources around them - words that are on posters, where to find markers/scissors/etc, and where the homework is listed. Even after weeks together, some students still weren't aware of everything they had available to them, so I came up with a "Room Investigation" activity.

I looked at my room - the posters, the bulletin boards, the layout, etc - and came up with questions for three categories: German vocab, German culture, and class procedures. Using just the materials visible in the room, they had to answer questions such as "How do you say blue in German?" (I have color posters on one part of the wall) or "What is Oktoberfest?" (there are several Oktoberfest posters) or "Where are the German dictionaries?" (there are a bunch on a bookshelf).

You can see the full worksheet here (and if you'd like a copy, click on "File" and scroll down to "Make a Copy").

This gets students moving around the room (breaking up an otherwise procedure/policy heavy first day) and gets them some fun and also practical words while getting them a better idea of what's around them. Hopefully this will help clear up confusion as well!

- Frau Leonard

The Bluffing Game: Full Class Review

As any of my readers might know, I like to incorporate games into instruction as often as possible. It helps keep students engaged in the lesson while breaking up the monotony of students' school days. One game I like to do with students is generally called The Bluffing Game.

Overview:The Bluffing Game is a full class activity that has students both work with teams and on their own to practice vocab, culture, or grammar topics. This is a good practice activity that you can do mid-way through the unit or at the end as a review.

What You'll Need:Questions/activities for the class. You'll want at least 18 questions along with a bonus question (I tend to do translations as the last question). I tend to find it easiest to have all the questions in a Power Point so that it's easier for the students to see the questions.

Types of questions might include:
- Defining words (based on Target Language descriptions)
- Sentence completion
- Changing words: making them singular/plural, changing the case, changing the subject, changing the tense, changing the article, etc
- Identifying features of words (for example Case, Number and Gender for nouns)

I try to do multiple question types during each game to hit on a couple different topics.

For lower level classes, I like to give students a worksheet to complete the questions/activities. This way students are responsible for paying attention even if they're not actively participating to the game.

How to Play:
As I go through how to play this game, I will be using this Latin Adjective Review. It's designed for a Level 1 Latin class that is learning Adjective/Noun Agreement for 1st and 2nd Declension Nouns. I use this worksheet to go along with the game.

1. Divide the class into 2-3 teams (depending on the size).  Each team will be gaining or losing points together, but students are responsible for their own answers.

2. Each question will be presented one at a time. The entire class will get to see the question, but only one team at a time will get a chance to answer.

Present the first time with their first question.

Even though only the first team will get a chance to answer this questions for points, all students should write down their answer on their worksheets. Students are not allowed to use their notes or talk to each other - this part is an individual practice of the skills in this unit.

After giving students time to respond to the question, it's time to reveal the answer...

3. The next part is ONLY directed at the first team. Tell students that if they think they know the answer, they should stand up. Students aren't allowed to discuss with their group members a plan, they either stand up or they stay seated. If they stand up, though, they might be required to give their answer to the class. Write down the number of students who are standing on the board.
Tell the students who are standing that they should NOT call out an answer unless YOU ask them to.

4. This part is ONLY directed at the NEXT team. Ask these students to pick one of the students who is standing to answer. They can discuss with their group who they want to answer. When they've made their final decision, they tell you and then YOU ask that that student to reveal their answer.
If students who are standing call out an answer before YOU ask them to, that's an automatic wrong answer. Make sure you emphasize this to students beforehand.

5. The student reveals their answer, then you put the correct answer on the board for everyone to see.

If their answer is correct, their team gains points for each person who stood up. If their answer is incorrect, their team loses those points. So if seven students stood up, the team would gain seven points for a correct answer and lose seven points for an incorrect answer.

6. Move on to the next team. The process repeats with a new question for the next team. Cycle through all the teams until you're out of questions (though make sure each team gets the same number of questions). Keep track of the points on the board.

7. Strategy: It's called the Bluffing Game for a reason - students don't actually need to know the correct answer to help their team gain points. If they stand up confidently, they're less likely to get picked. If they hesitate and make a show of being uncertain, it might increase their chances of being called to answer. Let students know this as you go through more rounds. It adds an extra bit of fun for students :)

8. At the end of the game, I like to include a bonus round. This is usually a short translation. Students wager the points they have - if they get the sentence completely correct, they'll get that many points, but if there's even one error, they'll lose that many points. Students need to wager before they get to see the sentence.

Note: For teams that are in the negatives, tell them you'll boost them to +5 points if they get it right (or some other positive number, just so they're still in the game). 

Once wagers are in, show the class the sentence. At this point, students are allowed to work with their group and use their notes. They only need to submit one answer per team. 

9. Once all the teams have submitted their sentence, reveal how each team did and determine the winner.

Hopefully this is a game your students will enjoy playing - I know mine tend to get pretty competitive with it! Let me know if you have any questions or if you try it out and have recommendations for tweaks!

- Frau Leonard

Animal Cracker Review Box

This is a cute review activity I learned a few years ago from another World Language Teacher.  It's a great tool for review stations, especially before a large test that involves multiple choice questions.

Here's what you'll need:

• Animal Cracker Box(es)
• Golf Tee(s)
• Flashcards
• One-hole punch

Set-Up: 

1. Cut up an animal cracker box.  You might be thinking, "Why an animal cracker box?"  Well, it turns out they're the perfect size for flashcards to fit in!  You'll need to cut the front off as shown below.  

2. Create question cards.  You'll need one flashcard per question.  Questions go on the top of the card, answers right below.  Each question needs to be multiple choice and you'll need three possible answers.  Make sure everything on the card is visible when it's been placed inside the box.

3. Punch holes.  Punch 3 holes on the bottom of the box (as you may have noticed in the pictures above) and on the bottom of each card.  For the cards, you'll need one hole below each answer.  Make sure the holes on the cards line up with the holes in the box.

4. Mark correct answers.  Cut out the bottom of the holes below the correct answers on each card, as below.

5. Put it all together!  Put the finished cards int he box.  To practice, students put their golf tee in the hole under whatever they think the right answer is.  Once they've put the golf tee in, they try to (gently!) pull up that card.  If it comes up, they got it right!  If it doesn't, they got it wrong and need to try again.

This is a good review activity since it requires minimal effort from you when students are doing it.  Once they know the process, they can go through cards at their own speed and get instant feedback about how they're doing.  Students love using it, too!  The only downside is how time intensive it is to make the cards - I usually get my student aides to go through the process of actually getting the cards ready, and then I can put the questions and answers on.  

- Frau Leonard

Berlin Airlift Activity

This week our school had a World Language Fair in the evening.  Each of the languages at our school - French, German, Latin and Spanish - had students create displays and activities related to the language and culture that they're learning about.

One of the activities we did in the German area related to the Berlin Airlift.  The premise of the game was that students were trying to fly supplies into Berlin during the blockade.  We had a model Berlin set up and students made paper airplanes for the supply run.

I used the Brandenburger Tor model my students created last year, then made a "blockade" using a wall of index cards.

Here's how the activity worked:

• If a student wanted to play, they first made a paper airplane.  We also had a few pre-made ones for anyone (like me) who doesn't really know how to make a paper airplane.
  
• Students then took a short quiz on the Berlin Blockade.  There were seven multiple choice questions, all of them pretty basic.
  Questions included: How many sectors was Germany divided into after WWII?  How many people lived in Berlin during the time of the blockade?  What country controlled Berlin at the time?  How many supply runs were made during the blockade?  How long did the blockade last?
  Again, since this wasn't in class and based on a unit, they were multiple choice questions.  Most students got at least three correct.
  
• We had three lines marked at different distances from the Berlin table.  If students got 5+ questions right, they got to stand behind the closest line.  If they got 2-4 right, they were behind the second line.  If they got 1 or fewer right, they were behind the last line.  Students got three chances to try and get their airplane into Berlin.  They had to get it OVER the blockade wall but it had to land ON the table.  

There were prizes for students who managed to land it in the correct area.  Even when students didn't win, they had a lot of fun just trying to fly their planes.  A lot of students came close, but most fell very short or overshot the table completely.  Overall, it was just a quick, fun stop for students who attended our fair.

If you're looking for an informative activity to do at a fair, or if you talk about East Germany with your students, this is a quick, fun activity to do with them.

- Frau Leonard

Clothes Pins and Sentence Circles

Here's another activity that I saw through Pinterest.  It's an easy way to practice either grammar or vocab topics, especially if you plan on doing review stations for midterms.

The concept is very straight-forward.  You have a circle divided into different sections.  Each section has a sentence with a word missing, a definition, a picture, synonyms, etc.  There are also clothes pins, each with one of the answers on it (either the missing word, the word being defined, etc.).  Students then work with small groups to try and match the clothes pins with the correct part of the circle.  Once they've found the answer they like, they attach it using the clothes pin.

I actually found that I prefer to use post-its.  They can still attach the sticky end to the correct section, and as a plus you don't need all the clothes pins.  This way you can have several sets for multiple groups instead of just having one per station.

If you'd like to see an example of how I've used this activity, there's one available on Teachers Pay Teachers that goes along with Accusative Prepositions (same activity shown above).

- Frau Leonard

Question Words and Movie Summaries

German 2 always starts with a full first quarter review before moving on to German 2 material.  I break it into three main grammar review topics: Nouns and Cases; Verbs; and Question Words.  We're currently finishing up our Question Words review, and here's a fun activity that we did combining the question words and popular movies.

First I asked the students to pick a movie they all knew.  We finally settled on "Die Unglaublichen" (it's one of the DVDs I have that students sometimes get to watch).  I then put up question word signs - courtesy of German Language Resources on TPT.  Students had to summarize the movie based on the question word prompts.

The question words we used were:
- WER?  Who are the main characters?
- WANN?  When does the movie take place?
- WO?  Where does it take place?
- WAS?  What happens in the movie?  (Vocab was limited and we haven't done the the past tense - we ended up sticking to the main actions that occurred)
- WIE?  Who did those actions happen?  (For example, they said there was fighting... were they fighting with their hands or with weapons?  They said there was flying... how did this flying occur?)
- WARUM?  Why do the main actions take place?  What are the motivations of the main characters?

Here's what they came up with:

Student analysis of the movie - I basically just wrote what they came up with and helped guide them through the process.  Sorry for any spelling mistakes (there are undoubtedly several!)

I then had students work with their groups on analyzing and summarizing another movie.  I didn't want to deal with students fighting over their favorite movies, so I had cards made up that groups randomly selected.  I had more cards than groups, just in case a group picked a movie they hadn't seen before.


Here were the possible movies:
- Lord of the Rings
- Star Wars (original trilogy, obviously)
- Lion King
- Aladdin
- Frozen
- Harry Potter (just had them pick one)
- Hunger Games
- Iron Man
- The Dark Knight
- The Avengers

Students then answered the six same questions we had gone over as a class.  You can see from the examples below that some groups put more effort into giving details about their movie.

After groups had finished their summaries, they had to present the information to the class.  The class then decided if they had accurately described the movie or if they had left out important details.  Lord of the Rings fans were, for example, not happy with most of the Fellowship being left out of the "Wer?" category.

I got this idea from Frau Gorgan's activity (as found on Pinterest), though obviously I chose a different topic.  Although we focused on movies, this could easily be done with books, short stories or TV shows (though summaries of TV shows might be more difficult).  It was a fun and different way for us to approach reviewing these question words besides doing another worksheet.

- Frau Leonard

Was ist in der Tasche - Student Vocab Help

I've previously written about the activity Was ist in der Tasche?  It's a good, quick game to introduce or practice a vocab/cultural topic.  But because of the vocabulary involved in being able to ask helpful questions, it's something I haven't done much with German 1.  This year, I wanted to fix that and bring this activity down to the lower levels!

Each student got an index card.  I had them write "Was ist in der Tasche?" at the top.  First I explained the activity to them.  There was a bag ready to go, but before we started the actual 20 Questions we needed to come up with a process for not just asking random questions, but asking good questions.

Since they're limited to 20 questions total, I asked students if they thought it was a good idea to start specific.  Should they be asking things like, "Is it a cat?" and "Is it a pencil?"  The class agreed that wasn't a good strategy.  As a class, I had them brainstorm different categories and qualities they could ask about to narrow down the topic as much as possible before getting specific.  I then helped them with vocabulary and structures (as necessary).

Here are the topics they came up with (questions in English to open this up to other language teachers!):

Sample of student card

• Size:  Is it big/small/long/short?
• Texture:   Is it hard/soft/smooth/rough?
• Shape:  Is it round/a circle/a square/etc.?
• Color:   Is it blue/green/etc.?
• Location:  Can you find it in a classroom/at home/in nature/etc.?
• Living:   Is it an animal/object?
• Activities:  Can you eat it/throw it/carry it/etc.?

Again, these questions and categories were based on what the students thought would be helpful.  As I wrote their topics and questions on the board, students were writing the sample questions on their index card.  I told them to put the card in their vocab notebook and hold onto it for the next time we did the activity.

To see if their questions were good, we did two rounds of "Was ist in der Tasche?"  For the first round, there was an apple.  We haven't done food yet, but the word Apfel has come up multiple times with our cognate exercises.  The next round had a frog in the bag.  We also haven't learned very many animals, but my animal posters made it something they could figure out (especially once they found out it was a green, living creature you would find in nature).

For both rounds, students were able to figure out what it was within 10 questions.  At the end, I asked if there were any other questions they felt needed to be added based on actually going through the activity.

I think the cards will really help them ask better questions - too often the students get stuck, completely unsure what to ask about (especially the first few times they do the activity).  We'll see how it goes!

- Frau Leonard

20 Questions: Was ist in der Tasche?

 Here's a quick activity I use to introduce a new vocabulary unit and to encourage creative thinking!

I'm sure you've played the game 20 questions.  The premise is simple - you have a person, movie, object, or whatever in mind.  The other person has to figure out who/what you're thinking about.  They're allowed to ask you up to 20 questions, but the catch is that you can only answer with a yes or no.

In this case, you have a bag.  The lovely orange bag to the left is one that a mentor teacher gave to me my first year teaching (yes, it has lasted this long!) when she introduced me to this activity.

Find an object related to whatever topic you're going to be discussing.  I usually use something that's related to a topic we're about to start, but it's an object that students already can identify.  Here are some examples for unit starters:

• CD for Music
• Mr Potato Head for Body Parts
• Party Hat for Gifts/Birthdays or to introduce Piggeldy's Birthday Party
• Toy Bus for Transportation
• Stuffed Cat for Animals
• Toy Apple for Food
• Cards for Weekend Activities

It's also a good way to review vocabulary before midterms and finals, and can even be used to introduce a subset of a unit.  For example, I use a stuffed Wildschwein to introduce a reading and video we do on Wildschweine during our Animals unit.

If you start this with German 1 students, it's typically easy to explain the directions and goal of the activity (even completely in German).  The real trick is helping them figure out what to ask and how to ask it.  Help students as they start by giving examples of questions.  Good starting questions and hints:

• Adjectives: Ist es (rund/gross/klein/rot/braun/schwer)?
• Categories: Ist es (ein Tier/eine Schulsache/Kleidung/ein Spiel)?
• Actions: Kann man es (essen/tragen/fahren)?
• Location: Findet man es (zur Schule/zu Hause/im Kaufhaus)?
• Ist es normalerweise im Klassenzimmer? (I've put enough objects and toys from my classroom in the bag over time that students immediately get suspicious and start looking around for missing items.  Because of my pig collection, the first question is almost always, "Ist es ein Schwein?")

Once students do the activity a few times, they're better at narrowing down the category - though sometimes a class will hit a brick wall and you may have to subtly give clues to get them back in the right direction.

As students ask their questions, I keep track of the questions by putting a tally on the board.  Sometimes I'll tease students that they don't get to see the object if they get through all twenty without figuring it out - they always want to know what it is! - but revealing the object and discussing it is important to segue into the next part of your lesson.  If you're introducing a new unit, for example food, you can then move on to building a word web as a class, listing words they already know related to the topic.  If you're introducing a new facet of a current unit, then discuss what they already know about the object in question.

One last note: This activity is in some ways similar to Black Stories, though with some obvious differences (question limit, different topic, range of vocabulary needed).  Students in general, I find, have difficulty with creative thinking.   Coming up with questions is initially difficult for them when they're first introduced to either activity, and starting lower levels with the occasional "Was ist in der Tasche?" helps them stretch their creative muscles and build them up to Black Stories in German 3 and 4.

- Frau Leonard

Falschparker

We're still in our car unit in German 3, focusing now on how to drive.  In addition to talking about traffic signs, speed limits and general rules of the road, today we talked about bad driving.

I stumbled upon a couple of resources provided by Deutsche Welle that fit into this mini-topic.

The first one was about der Idiotentest.  I asked students to come up with what they thought it would be, then we listened to the provided audio file and edited our definition.  I then asked students to come up with examples of bad driving that would force someone to have to take the Idiotentest.

We then moved on to bad parking via a video article from Deutsche Welle: Eine App gegen Falschparker.  We watched and discussed the video using the provided exercises.  Then I asked students if they thought parking was an issue at our school.  Our senior class has already left (they graduate tomorrow), so the general consensus was that parking has improved a lot recently but that it could be bad (we often have people parking in spots that are not actual spots).  I broke students into groups and challenged them to go into the school parking lot and find Falschparker.  And just like the app we just talked about, they would need to photograph the cars.

Obviously I didn't want to incriminate any drivers at our school - students, teachers or otherwise.  This was just an extension of what we were doing in class.  To make sure that the photos stayed anonymous, students were told not to show any license plates.  And to make this part fun, I designed these European-style fake license plates.

Fake license plates based on ones found from a quick Google search :)

Each group was given one of the license plates (today we had team Deutschland, Liectenstein and Belgien).  In each of their pictures, they had to display their license plate and not the actual one.  I then gave them 15 minutes to try and find as many as they could (we have three parking lots, each on a separate side of the school - the time was necessary just to allow them to walk between them).

When time was up, each group had to send me what they thought were the five most egregious parking mistakes along with a count of the total number of Falschparker they found.

Here are some of the photos:

If you plan on doing this (and I recommend it!) make sure you tell students to include enough of the car to show how bad the parking was - some of the student photos are close ups that basically just show you a car.  There was also one group (ahem, my group of boys) who decided to fabricate some bad parking jobs... by re-parking their own cars.  Props to them on the creativity and effort, though!

Also interesting to note: both of the girl groups found a lot of Falschparker, while the boys found fewer.  The girls were looking for lots of examples whereas the boys were looking for the most obvious examples (higher - or maybe lower? - standards for what it meant to be a Falschparker).

- Frau Leonard

New Student Orientation

Each year during our pre-school staff work week, there's one day that's reserved for 9th Grade Orientation.  All of our incoming 9th graders (and new students to the school from upper grades) are invited to come in and meet their new teachers.  Students do a variety of activities with their upperclassman mentor students, go on a tour of a school, and do a quick run-through of their schedule.  They spend about 7 minutes in each class meeting with their new teachers and finding out a little bit about their classes before school starts up the next week.

My first year, I thought that would be barely enough time to introduce myself and give a brief overview of the course...  Turns out I was somewhat mistaken in my estimate and we had an awkward four minutes of me trying to come up with some relevant information.

Since then I've refined what I present to the incoming students and the activities we do together, all based around a specific goal.  The overall goal shouldn't be to teach them anything - you'll have a whole school year for that.  Instead, you should be trying to get a feel for the background knowledge of the class AND trying to make them feel comfortable with the idea of learning a new language.

Keep your introduction short and to the point, ask relevant questions that tell you about them and that get them thinking, and then play a game.  The game I've found that works best with new students is a cognate game.  Have a bunch of cognates on the board - students need to guess what the words mean.  If they get it right, have some sort of reward ready (candy works great - no one says no to candy ;) ).  I love this activity because it makes students feel a little less anxious about learning German (hey, some of these words aren't too hard!), gives them a confidence boost, and they walk away from your room after a fun activity.

Here's an outline of how my 9th Grade Orientation for German 1 goes.

I also have a Latin version of the same activities available if you're interested or know any Latin teachers who might be interested.  Here's my 9th Grade Orientation for Latin 1.

Keep in mind - if you have incoming students who have already had German as a course in their feeder elementary or middle school, this activity won't work.  An alternate game is the M&M Game that I used with my incoming French II students.

As students come in, give them a few M&M's - and don't forget to tell them not to eat them yet!  In place of doing the cognate game at the end, instead have them say something about themselves in German (again - this activity was made when I had French students).  The topic is based on what color M&M they have.  Kids take turns saying something, and when they're done they get to eat their M&M.  This could also be used as a Day One level two activity.

If your school has a similar orientation, what activities do you do with students?

- Frau Leonard