AP Exam Debriefing

Last week was the German AP test.  All six of my students signed up and the next day when they were back in class I got the chance to "debrief" them.

I had the following chart up on the wall:

I broke down the AP exam into three sections: Multiple Choice, Speaking and Writing.  I gave them a difficulty scale that somewhat coincides with the AP scores (1 being very difficult and therefore harder for them to do well on and 5 being really easy).

The general consensus was that the exam was easier than they had expected and that they thought they did decently well.  We talked about each of the sections, looking at how difficult they found it and the topics that were covered.  I then asked them to rate the test (overall) - I told them this score should coincide with how the score they think they'll get on the test.  Here's how it broke down:

Why yes, I do organize my dry erase markers by ROYGBIV!

Multiple Choice
Topics that came up were Umwelt, Arbeit and something along the lines of the future (they weren't terribly clear on this part).  They overall didn't seem to think it was too hard, which was great news for me - since the test format changed a few years ago, I've been worried about the multiple choice section.

The school was nice enough to buy us some AP workbooks from College Board several years ago... and then the format changed two years later and the rigor of the workbooks no longer matched the rigor of the exam.  Even though they don't line up anymore, I still use these books with my students.  I assign them sections from the listening and reading sections throughout the year to do at home.  Even if the styles and difficulty aren't quite the same, I feel that it gives them more exposure outside of class that can help them build vocabulary.

For the previous two years, we have had no suitable practice workbooks for German AP.  Since College Board has yet to publish any (unlike for French...), most of the resources I had were from other German teachers who were nice enough to share what they had produced with their students via the College Board AP German Teacher Community.

Cornelsen recently started publishing an AP test prep workbook which we got at the beginning of this year.  I really like this workbook - it's actually designed around the current AP exam and has lots of practice exercises and even a full practice exam.  It gives strategies for students to use on each section of the test, the teacher's addition has lots of suggestions, the manuscripts for the listening exercises, and vocabulary lists for the exercises.  We've been using this workbook in class (in addition with the other one), and I think it's helped a lot.

Speaking: Cultural Comparison
The cultural comparison prompt was rated as easier than the multiple choice.  The topic was Arbeit.  The AP unit on work and professions probably helped with vocabulary, making it easier for them than the multiple choice.

Speaking: Conversation
This was apparently even easier than the Cultural Comparison.  The prompt was related to Technologie.  Based on my students last year, who did very poorly on the conversations we did in class at the beginning of the year, I decided this was something I needed to emphasize more this year.  I think the extra practice gave this year's students a better understanding of how the exercise works, the types of prompts they'll see, and appropriate ways to respond.

Writing: E-Mail
This was a mixed back - half said it was very easy while the other half said it was moderately easy.  The topic was Reisen.  My only worry is that they didn't appropriately begin and end the e-mail.  I also find that students tend to forget to ask for additional information.

Writing: Essay
Overall they related this easier than the e-mail.  The topic was Ausbildung.  With the help of the Cornelsen book, which provides a useful graphic organizer, I don't think they had any problems structuring their answer.  Their scores on this will most likely come down to their grammar.

Overall Scores
None of them thought they got below a 3, which is always a plus.  It'll be interesting to see how these scores compared to their actual scores.  I'm glad I took the picture just so I'll have it when I get the score report this summer.

Most of the feedback this year was positive about their experience - one student felt it went by faster than the other AP tests he took; several students felt they did better than they had thought (last week a student confessed he expected to get a 1 but today felt he had gotten a 3); they said the test was "just like what we've been doing in class" with our regular AP-style practices (every other week we spent our Wednesday practicing multiple choice questions or one of the free-response sections).  Their reaction was more positive than last year's group (not that theirs was negative, it just wasn't as confident) and much more positive than the group two years ago who were the first to take the new format (one student complained that the exam hadn't even been in German but in some "runic language he had never even seen before").  I'm glad that they can look forward to instead of dreading getting their scores.

Did you "debrief" your AP students?  I feel it's an important part of the AP experience - if they feel they did poorly, they get a chance to vent; if they feel they did well, they get a chance to be proud of themselves.  It's also important for me as the teacher - they can tell me topics that were covered and areas they think they did well so I know what's working and what to emphasis in the future.

Fingers crossed that they did well!

- Frau Leonard

Der Lehrling: Marketing Internship for German 3/4

In German 3 or 4, we do a unit on professions.  It starts basically how you'd expect such a unit to start - we learn German words for various professions (der Lehrer, der Arzt, der Richter, etc.) and do various activities describing/grouping these professions.

As we move through the unit, however, we get into what I like to think of as more practical applications of the vocabulary and themes.

This part of the unit, called "Der Lehrling," is based largely on the free unit provided by College Board.  I first did these activities three years ago, had success (and my students had fun doing it), so we did it again this year.

The overall premise is that students are given an "internship" at a local marketing company that wants to produce a new soft drink.  During their internship, they will study marketing (video and print ads), create a new soft drink, and then create a marketing campaign to promote their drink.

The unit provided by College Board has most of what you would need to do this unit, including rubrics and a student packet.  I would highly recommend taking a look at it.  I only want to talk in detail about some aspects of the unit as a means of facilitating teachers who want to try this out for the first time.

Tips and Suggestions:

• I break students into groups of 3-5 (depends on class size).  These groups will be working together throughout the entire project.
• Before I even introduce the idea of creating a new soda, the first part of the "internship" consists of studying ads.  It's important that students become aware of the way people respond to different print and video ads - it'll definitely help them plan out their own versions later on.
  
  As homework the night before, ask students to bring in two ads from magazines.  It doesn't matter what the product is at this point.  With their groups, students complete this worksheet for the ads that they brought in.  Go through some of the ads together (or analyze some German ones you might have).
  
  I also like to include commercials.  I usually pick a couple for us to watch and analyze as a class.  I recommend finding German commercials (via YouTube) for products like Fanta, Pepsi, Coke and Red Bull.  (I usually do drink specific commercial ads as a transition into the rest of the project.)
  
  There's also a great activity available on TES for the 10 Worst German TV adverts.  Students can now see what does and doesn't work.
• When students make the "new sodas," they're basically mixing current sodas together in different amounts to get a new flavor.  I briefly explain what they'll be doing and ask students to sign up to bring different sodas.  I recommend that every member of a group bring in something different, but that they should also consult with other groups to try and get a larger variety.  Tell students at least a few days in advance of when they'll start mixing - students forget to bring in the soda!
  
  On your end, there are some materials you'll want to have handy when they actually start mixing: paper towels (one roll per group); funnels; lots of plastic cups (for mixing samples and tasting); plastic spoons; food coloring (just for fun).  If you have a smaller class, you might also want to bring in an extra soda or two (try to bring in something weird that no one else would have thought of - I brought in this pineapple flavored soda I found).
  
  Students will probably need a whole class period to mix and try different combinations.  Warn them to make small samples of each drink - they don't want to waste all their soda on a combination that tastes horrible.  They'll also need an empty container to put their "final" drink in.  Usually it works out that they've used up enough of one of the drinks they brought in that they can dump out the rest and use the freshly emptied container. 

• Students will need at least a couple of days to make the labels for their drinks as well as the ads.  Warn students that the ads should in some way demonstrate what we talked about when analyzing ads earlier.
• Once students have turned in the ads, I like to show them to the other German classes.  Each class gets to sample the sodas (this is entirely voluntary - some students might shy away from blue soda), and then judge the product on taste, the label on how it looks, and the ads on how persuasive they are.

After this part of our "professions" unit, we move on to analyzing German resumes.  Ultimately the unit ends in them writing their own Lebenslauf and having a job interview with me - and on their Lebenslauf, they need to include what they did during this "internship" and answer any questions about it that come up in the interview :)

- Frau Leonard

Stammtisch: Class Lead Discussions for German AP

During our World Language Inservice Meetings we sometimes have “Swap Shop Workshops.”  I love these workshops – you bring in several copies of one or two activities you do, sometimes related to a theme like speaking activities or writing activities, and trade ideas with others in the shop.  It’s a great way to get activities and new ideas, and usually there are people from multiple languages so it gives you ideas you may have never thought of otherwise. 

Last year at one of these Swap Shops, one of the French teachers at Mt Hebron High School, Christina Crise, introduced a speaking activity she does with her AP students.  I immediately fell in love with the activity and vowed to implement it this year with my AP students.  Over the summer I spent time modifying the material she had given us for German.  The end result was Stammtisch.

So… what is Stammtisch?  Well, a German Stammtisch is a “regular’s table” where friends come together at a restaurant or café and discuss different topics.  With this set up in mind, German 4 students prepare and discuss a topic in a relaxed “café” setting.  By café setting, I mean they’re allowed to bring in food. 

We start with a list of topics.  There are serious topics on there like, “Should doctors be allowed to help their patients commit suicide?” to more trivial ones like, “Who would win in a fight – Darth Vader or Voldemort?”  The point is that the questions don’t have a clear cut answer – everyone has an opinion on it (sometimes very strong opinions), and it’s unlikely everyone will be able to agree. 

Students work with a partner to prep a topic.  They pick from the list of questions (or come up with their own).  Their job is to find new vocabulary words related to that topic that they think will be necessary to discuss the topic.  For example, for the topic of “Should doctors be allowed to help their patients commit suicide?” words might include suicide, patient, doctor, and terminal.  They submit those words to me for approval/correction, then the rest of the class has time to work with and learn them.

On Stammtisch day, students first take a short vocabulary quiz.  Then we re-arrange our desks into a circle and start discussing the topic.  The students leading the discussion can bring in food – not a requirement – and have to actually further conversation.  Each student represents one side of the issue, either pro or contra.  They need to have questions ready that will help re-open discussion if it fizzles out, but the idea is to let the conversation evolve naturally when possible.  Obviously some topics with some groups will get more discussion than others.

Students get graded for both parts – when they lead a topic and when they participate in someone else’s topic. 

I didn’t want to overwhelm them at first.  This was something totally new.  I didn’t introduce the idea until towards the end of 1^st Quarter.  I told them what Stammtisch was and what they’d be doing, but I started with an example that I ran.  Our topic was “Should there be school uniforms for students?”  I gave them a list of relevant vocabulary words and lead the discussion, representing both the pro and contra sides.  After the discussion, I gave them a copy of the questions I had used as examples.

So far it’s been a huge success – the kids enjoy it and look forward to it.  Often I’ll ask a question in class and after brief discussion they’ll decide that it’s a “Stammtisch question” that we should discuss in more detail later.  We do one every two weeks, usually on a Friday or a shortened day.

My favorite parts so far have been:

• It builds off the Socratic Seminars they’ve been doing for the past two years.
• It’s teaching argument forming, which is a skill they need for the AP exam. 
• It emphasizes impromptu speaking – there are no scripts, no notes, just the words they learned and what they already know/feel about the topic.
• It builds vocabulary for topics we don't normally cover and that are interesting to the students.
• It’s more informal than other means of assessment.  I like performance based assessments, and this feels really natural as a task – what’s more practical than knowing how to argue!
• You really get to know your students better and they get to know each other better.  It’s really interesting to see what they think about some of these topics, and to see students who normally don’t interact with each other team up on an issue. 
• Best of all… it tricks them into building vocabulary and speaking skills while having fun!

It’s been so successful with German 4 that I plan on introducing it during 4^th Quarter with German 3 as a fun way to end the year and to prep for German 4 next year.

If you’re interested in trying Stammtisch with your German students, my resources are available on my TPT account – just click here.

- Frau Leonard