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

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

Ice-Breakers for Day One

In my last post I mentioned I'd have other Ice-Breakers for Day One, so here I am with some activities for each level of German!

GERMAN ONE

• Deutsch I: Find Someone Who...  This is a basic find someone who activity that's (almost) all in English.  Students look for other students who already know a little bit about German culture and language.  

• Deutsch I: Survival Vocabulary  Maybe not as much fun as the other activities, but this is a list of words and phrases that are important to surviving in an immersion classroom.  Have students try to figure out what the words mean first, then go over as a class.  I usually have a 

• Cognate Activities   Another way to build student confidence early on is with cognate activities.  You do need to remember to warn students, though, that not every German word is a cognate and it won't all be this easy.
  
  The activities linked above are really useful.  I wish I could take credit for them, but to be honest I have no idea where I got them from.  If anyone recognizes them, please let me know so I can give credit where credit is due!
  
  I have other cognate activities available on my TeachersPayTeachers site - please take a look at German Cognate Cards and German Cognates: A Pre-Quiz.

• Wer bist du?  This is a homework assignment I give out each year.  Students have to create their own personal page with their name and at least five pictures that represent them.  They can draw their pictures, use actual photos, take pictures from magazines, or use their computer - it doesn't matter.  This is a great way to begin associating each student with what makes them them.  Students love to make their personal pages and like seeing what other students put on theirs.  Definitely have them share these with their classmates and put them on the wall!
  
  Examples:

    

GERMAN TWO AND UP

• Classroom Expressions  Similar the Survival Vocab worksheet above, this has a list of phrases that will be important throughout the school year.  This list is much more thorough and can be used by any class above level one (in fact, by the end of level one a lot of these phrases will be familiar to students already).  The list is broken down into two lists - what students need to be able to say and what the teacher will say to them.  There's even room at the bottom in case students have other phrases they want to add.
  
  This list is based off of a list I received from my mentor teacher way back when.  I'm not sure if his was the original or if it came from somewhere else first.

• Partner Interviews  Here are a couple of partner interview activities.  These get students both listening and speaking in German and on a topic they know a lot about (namely, themselves!).  The first interview activity in the file is one I have my German 2 students do, while the second is for German 3.  Note that for Level 2, the questions are already there and they can just focus on the answers.  For Level 3, they will have to generate both the question and the answer.

• Culture Review  Quick "quiz" for students to try and complete.  All the questions relate to German speaking-countries, but mostly Germany.  This is a nice little review for German 2.
  
  Also check out my German Trivia Cards if you're looking for a similar type of activity for upper level classes.

• Find Someone Who...  Unlike the version above for Level 1, these two are entirely in German.  The first one is a bit more basic in vocabulary, while the second one is slightly more complex.  Both use primarily the present tense, but the second one does have some more difficult grammar forms (past tense).  Typically I use the first one with German 2 and the second with German 3.  Unfortunately my German 4 classes are usually so small that activities like this don't really work.
  
  Both of these boards are, I think, based off of ones I received from other teachers.  I've changed them over the years based on which boxes are almost always left blank.

• Scattergories: Vocabulary Review  This is a review game I do with my students based on the board game Scattergories.  Students are given a list of themes.  A letter is randomly drawn (or you can pick it).  Students then have to come up with a German word that starts with that letter for each of the themes on the list.  After a few minutes, students compare words.  They get a point if they wrote a word that no one else has.  No points if multiple people wrote the same word.  I really like doing this game because you can adjust it to any themes you've covered in previous levels and it can be quick - an end of class review or a beginning of class opener.

• Most Used Words  About.com hast a list of the Top 30 Spoken Words and the Top 100 Written Words in German.  With upper levels, I like to have them guess the top 20 from each list, just to see what they think the most common words are.  It's a fun (and often frustrating) game for the students and a quick way to review very core vocabulary words.  Also a great discussion for the differences between spoken vs written language.

Hope you enjoy these activities and get the chance to try them out!  Let me know how they go or if you have any recommendations.

- Frau Leonard

Prepping for the School Year

I know what you're thinking - it's still summer, I don't want to start thinking about the new school year!  These are just a few things that I like to make sure I have ready to go for the first day of school.

1.) Syllabus
I have the same generic syllabus for all of my classes.  Obviously some changes are necessary depending on the level (AP German gets a whole spiel about the AP exam, some levels get a section on county exams or Honors vs Regular sections, etc.), but having generally the same syllabus is helpful when you teach multiple levels of the same language.  I spend a lot of time going over the syllabus with German 1 students, but then German 2 and up just need a quick refresher.

Here's a look at my German 2 Syllabus for next year.

Important things to include in your syllabus:

• Materials needed (which may include dictionaries, workbooks, and how to divide their binder)
• Information on your grading policy
  I give a general look at my grading policy and then give more specific information about how participation, homework, classwork and assessments will be conducted throughout the year.
• Attendance and absent work: What do students need to know if they're absent?  How much time do they have to make up work?  Where can they find make-up work?  When can they make-up missed quizzes?
• Contact information: How can students and parents get in touch with you?  When are you available for extra help?  Do you have a class website?

2.) Policies and Procedures Power Point
In addition to the Syllabus, I like to go over more day-to-day procedures with my new Level 1 students.  This covers more basic information like what to do as you enter the room, how to behave during classwork activities, where to find the drill, how to hand out papers, if you can go to your locker during class, etc.  None of this would be appropriate in the Syllabus, but all of it's still important for laying a solid foundation for the year.


Take a look at my Policies and Procedures Power Point.


3.) Student info sheet
Through our school's digital database, I can find out their parent contact info, but I like to have a reference sheet for all students' school-related activities.  And it's great not just having access to a student's schedule in case you need to find them during the day, but it's really helpful if you need to talk to their counselor or coach to get some more support.

Take a look at my generic Student Information Sheet (available for free at Teacherspayteachers.com).


4.) Immersion Promise
I think by now we're all familiar with the concept of immersion and the benefits thereof.  I try to run an immersion classroom as much as possible, even in Level 1.  Kids in general seem to understand immersion too - they know it'll help them in the long run.  But... kids need to be told that immersion is a two-way street.  It's not just the teacher who needs to be speaking the target language, but they do too.  That's why I use an Immersion Promise.  I tell the kids that I promise to try and use German as much as I can in class, but that they need to promise to try and do the same.  We all sign it day one - everyone knows what they're in for and everyone agrees to try and do their best with it.

Take a look at my Immersion Promise.


5.) Student Flashcards
I have all of my students fill out a 3 x 5 flashcard each year.  They give me background information about them as a person, which is especially great for new students.  They tell me their previous experience and their goals for the year, which gives me an idea of their expectations and can help focus the class to make sure I cover their needs.

But what's also great is now I have a card for each of them - when we do activities where I want to randomly call on students or randomly generate groups, I can use the class' flashcards to do it.

All you need to do is get one or two sets of those flashcard packs that have several colors.  Pick one color per class (for example, every year German 4 gets the blue flashcards and German 1 gets the yellow).  This way you can keep the classes separate.  Just get a little container to hold them all and keep them at the front of the room.

Here's what I get the kids to fill out:

6.) Ice-Breakers
The first day of school tends to be on the dull side for kids.  They get a bunch of sheets on policies and procedures and do's and don't's for the year.  They fill out the same info sheets a half dozen times, get slightly different versions of each teacher's classroom set-up.  I'm not particularly thrilled with doing it five times in a row, and I'm sure they're not particularly thrilled to hear it five (or six or seven...) times in a row.  You HAVE to do something that's fun to both start and end class, to make them happy they stepped into your classroom.

My favorite drill for German 1 is to just put up the question "Why study German?"  Students brainstorm different reasons to study German, we discuss it as a class and add to the list as we go.  I find this a great way to get students motivated and interested early on.

My favorite drill for German 2 and up is ABC's auf Deutsch.  I write the alphabet on the board, divide students into groups and have them try to come up with a German word that starts with each letter of the alphabet.  It's easy to turn this into a competition - groups get points for having a word that starts with a given letter and two points if no one else in the class thought of the word.  It's a great activity to get students back into thinking in German without stressing them out.

 I'll talk more about Ice-Breakers for Day One in my next post.

Hope this was a helpful look at how to prep for next school year!  Feel free to take, use, and modify anything I've put up.  If you have any suggestions, please let me know!

- Frau Leonard