Quiz Re-Test Form

Over the years I've gone back and forth over whether or not to offer re-tests for students who do poorly. Is my goal to make sure the students learn the material within a time frame, or that they learn it at all? Since I realize I cannot go as slowly or in depth within our class time that some students may need, I've decided to make some accommodations to allow these learners the opportunity to show what they know.

At times, I've offered make-up sections for the whole class if there was something as a whole they did not seem to understand. Sometimes I have them do quiz corrections to earn back some points. This year, however, I've started offering quiz re-takes.

The first step is for students to fill out a form to request a re-take (check out my TpT store for a free copy!). This form...
- covers basic info about the quiz (when it was, the topic, student original score, etc)
- asks students to explain why they did not do well the first time
- holds them accountable for doing more work to improve their understanding of the material and document what they did (study using quizlet, complete missing assignments, meet with teacher or tutor, etc.)
- asks students to specify a time when they plan on making it up.
- gets students to sign the bottom to acknowledge and verify the information on the form.
(I sometimes add a parents signature spot for repeat offenders or for particularly low scoring exams.)

At the beginning of the school year, I made it clear that quiz re-takes were an option, but I generally had few students taking me up on the offer. Now for my 7th and 8th graders, I fill out the top part of the form for them, attach it to their quiz, and make it more of an opt out situation instead of making them pursue it - they have the form with them, so it's more on their mind. I've had more students come in since making this switch.

When they do their re-take, it isn't the exact same quiz they took before. It is a secondary version that I write afterward, once I've seen the problem areas the class has had. It covers the same material but generally in a more simplified form. It helps me better pinpoint the specific areas that the student might be struggling in. For example, if the original quiz had a section for defining vocab, the make-up quiz would have the same vocab but as a matching section. This way I can see if they at least have that recognition level for the vocabulary, if it's spelling issues, or if they don't have it at all.

If students scored less than 70% on the quiz, they can try a make-up quiz. I don't let them necessarily make up the whole quiz - just the sections they did poorly on. I will award points back to them (no more than half of what they lost, and they can't earn higher than a 70% since this opportunity isn't offered to students who scored that high originally) if they can show they have at least some basic understanding of the material or have improved their knowledge base.

When students come in for their re-test, I give them the make-up quiz as well as their original quiz. They're able to see their mistakes and hopefully not repeat them as they do their second attempt.

Overall I think it's a good process for me - students get to show their understanding but it isn't an easy, automatic process. There's work on their part involved, it's not a guaranteed improvement, so it shows them that they should put the effort in first time around.

What are your thoughts? Do you offer make-up quizzes for your kiddos? How often and how do you do it?

- Frau Leonard

Miezel und Molly: Dative Prepositions

Along with the activities for der Wolf und die sieben Geißlein, I also found an activity on deutschdrang.com called Hund und Katze that focuses on Dative Prepositions.  It's a short poem written by Wilhelm Busch and is super cute (while also being super sad).


In this handout, students listen to a recitation of the story (link is included in the file - see above for another version).  They fill in the missing words from the poem, all of which are Dative Prepositions.  The included handout also has a Richtig / Falsch section at the end to check student comprehension.

I use this activity with my German 2 students when they're first introduced to Dative Prepositions.  They have a general idea of what's going on in the story, but because they haven't seen too much of the Imperfect they usually miss the "Der Herr Förster schoß sie nieder."  

In addition to the activities listed, I ask students to go back through the poem and highlight any other prepositions they find (zwischen, in, etc.) and see if they can find them all.  I also, instead of having them write the summary in English, have them do a short comic.  They have to do three panels describing the events of the poem, then a fourth panel that shows what they think will happen next with Molly - the only catch is that they have to write captions that use Dative Prepositions.

Here's some of this year's comics.  Warning: there are grammar errors!  But keep in mind that students were able to express themselves and (generally) make themselves understood.

- Frau Leonard

Zwerge sind zum Lernen

One of the grammar units covered in Deutsch Aktuell 2 is "Infinitives Used as Nouns."  It's a relatively useful topic, but it's not very difficult nor does it take very long to cover.  I usually use it as a starting point to talk about Infinitives with Zu and with Um... zu.  

A problem I was having, though, was that the text doesn't provide much practice for this topic.  There's maybe four short practice exercises total.  So last year, in attempt to give a more comprehensive look at this topic before moving on to the slightly more difficult one, I scoured the internet to see what other people do.  Luckily, I came across this activity.  

Basically, it's a cloze activity that goes along with the song "Steh auf, wenn du auf Zwerge stehst."  Instead of going through the entire set of lyrics, though, it only focuses on the parts that have infinitives.  The song is ridiculous and the video doesn't disappoint either.  If you're looking for an "answer key," you just have to look up the lyrics as a whole.

I like the song and activity, but I did end up adding to it a bit.  I found that some of the verbs were new to students, so I added a matching activity.  I then make students try to guess which verb goes where before we listen to the song and watch the video.  And at the end, I include a short sentence completion activity to get them using the structure on their own.  If you're interested in my version, click here.

There's another video of this song that's on YouTube - not as interesting, but it does include the lyrics.  Good as a self-check for students.



 - Frau Leonard

P.S.
Sadly, I couldn't back-track my steps well enough to find out where exactly I got the original activity from.  If you happen to know the original author or the site where it's found, let me know so I can credit them!

Embedded Reading: Der Briefträger kommt

Recently I've been looking into embedded reading as a way to increase student literacy in German.  After reading up on it a bit, I decided to modify a short reading I use at the beginning of German 2 as we transition into the school year.

The original story is called "Der Briefträger kommt."  I have no idea where it's from - another German teacher gave me a copy of it years ago.  Based on the copy I have, it's from "Deutsch macht Spass," but other than that I'm not sure of its origin.  It's a short reading that contained mostly dialogue.  It had a lot of vocabulary that was familiar to students, was in the present tense, and had verb exercises that went along with it, which was primarily why I used it at the beginning of German 2 as a review.

I took the original story and modified it.  I actually ended up creating the reading Top Down - I wrote the third, more detailed version first (based heavily on the original I had), then worked backwards to get the other two versions.  I also added pictures and changed the exercises that go along with the story.

Here's a look at how the stories differ in detail and length:

First reading: 112 words, 1 page

Second Reading: 220 words, 1 1/2 pages

Third Reading: 304 words, 2 pages

I came up with four activities to go along with the reading.  The first looks at comprehension, the second and third get the students to expand on the details of the story, and the fourth gets them to create their own version in comic form.

I had never thought this reading was very difficult for students, but the past few years they had found it very difficult to both understand and do the exercises.  I don't know if it's because we do it right after summer break or what, but I found that this year the students understood the story much better and were much more involved in the extension activities.  With the changes I've made, I feel I could use this later this year with my German 1 students with no problems.

If you're interested in this activity, it's available for free on my TPT account!  Let me know how it goes!

- Frau Leonard

Product Review: Colors Bulletin Board Set

PRODUCT REVIEW: Food Colors German Bulletin Board Set (Teacher's Discovery)

Product Description: Blueberries, black olives, brown bread, green grapes, orange carrots, violet eggplants, red bell peppers, yellow bananas, white rice: it's all here in mouth-watering full color! Hit two major vocabulary topics when you talk about food and colors with your class. Hang this bulletin board set to reinforce color vocabulary and healthy eating! Nine 8 x 11-inch glossy pieces, heavy cardstock, not laminated. 

Cost: $19.95

Our county curriculum for German is based on Deutsch Aktuell 1.  The way it was laid out, we were teaching colors to level 1 at the END of the school year.  Can you imagine waiting four quarters and then, as the LAST unit, starting colors?  I saw these in the Teacher's Discovery catalog and thought it would be a great reference for students throughout the year before we actually got to the unit.  

I love them!  The pictures are great and they add a bit of color (duh!) to the classroom.  Since they don't come laminated, make sure you get that done before hanging them up!  I've found the students like having them as a reference before we cover colors.  

They're a little small (only the size of a regular piece of paper) - they're not necessarily easy to read on the opposite side of the classroom - but I like the size because it makes them less obtrusive and gives you more options in where to put them up.

My only complaint is that pink and grey are missing.  I like having the posters, so I ended up making my own food-related posters for them (see above).

Practicality: 4.5/5

Great as a tool for students before they learn the vocab, and great as a quick reference for after (especially with spelling).  Only took off some points because it's only really practical for level 1 - upper levels don't need to refer to them.

Accuracy: 4/5

Only taking off because they're missing colors I wish were included.  Everything that's there is accurate (though students do sometimes complain that there's green in the white picture...).

Fun: 5/5

I love the pictures and color.  Great classroom decoration!

Overall: 13.5 / 15 (90%)

I would *highly* recommend this product if you teach elementary or middle school, or if you teach lower levels of German in high school.  Definitely worth it!

If you're looking for other color-related displays that might be a little cheaper, here are two others:

- Colors Skinny Poster (see left): Teacher's Discovery has a poster that shows all the colors (even pink and grey which are missing in the set above).  Looks good, but my concern is that it might be too small.  I like the look but didn't purchase it because I already own the item above.  Cost of this poster would be $12.00

- Color Their World: This blog post at the Creative Language Class talks about how to make super easy (and cheap!) signs for colors by going to Home Depot or Loews and getting paint strips.  Liked this idea and shared it with some of the other teachers at my school.  Very creative!

- Frau Leonard

German Desk Strips

Remember Elementary School when you had those desk strips with a number line and the cursive alphabet?

I recently saw some desk strips on Bridget Smith's TPT.  She has two sets of French desk strips available for free - one with common vocabulary and the other with rejoinders.  I loved the idea so much I thought I'd make my own for German.

I made three small strips, each with five phrases in German (English included as well).  I printed them in color, had them laminated, then tapped them to student desks using clear shipping tape.  You just have to line up the ends and maybe cut off a phrase or two to get them to fit to a student desk.  I found that each desk had room for 2 1/2 of the strips I'd made.

I'm very glad I laminated them ahead of time - it made it easier to re-do some of my worse taping jobs.  It took me a while to get a good rhythm going, so the first few desks admittedly look a little messy.  In addition to desks, I have a two tables where students sit.  I had a lot of trouble getting the tape to stick to one of the tables - I'm not sure if it was dirty or humid or what.

Although I just used plain printer paper, it might be a good idea to use card stock.

They're super colorful and have phrases that I think the kids will like and use (but that don't come up in the textbook).  I don't know how many times students have asked me how to say "I don't care" or "Never mind."  Now it's all right there in front of them!

Click here to get these colorful desk strips from my TPT page.


- Frau Leonard

The Many Faces of Finn

Here is a huge chunk of how I spent my day today.  In between copies and meetings, you can't blame me for wanting to have some fun :)

This came about completely by accident.  I was on Facebook (because I'm productive like that) when I saw some Finn Your Face pictures.  I followed the Cartoon Network link to the pdf file that included all 24 faces that are part of their Finn Your Face campaign.  Admittedly, I saved the pdf and sort of forgot about it.

I happened to see the file again this week and got thinking... there are a lot of great expressions in here.  I tried to match up as many of them as I could with emotions like traurig, froh or böse.  I printed them out, made labels with both the German word (big, bold and center) and English word (small and to the side).  After backing them with construction paper and laminating them, I hung them up and made use of some otherwise awkward board space.

Overall, I'm happy with how it turned out.  It gives the room some color, provides vocab for a topic that never comes up in any of the units we cover, and is totally adorable.

The pdf for Finn Your Face is available for free online from Cartoon Network.  Finn and Adventure Time are copyright of Cartoon Network.

- Frau Leonard

Der Treueschwur

A printable display for your German classroom - the Pledge of Allegiance in German.  My students ask me for this every year if they have German during morning announcements.  Have this up as a reference and print make copies for your students to put in their binders.

There's a PDF version available for free on my Teacherspayteachers account - Der Treueschwur: The Pledge of Allegiance in German.

- Frau Leonard

Die Sprache der Liebe

A student sent me this video - it's funny/cute, though not necessarily classroom appropriate (there is an f-bomb)... Just for fun though! Enjoy!


- Frau Leonard