Tackling Subordinating Conjunctions in Deutsch 2

Our current German textbook, Mosaik, introduces coordinating conjunctions in 2nd year but doesn't introduce subordinating conjunctions until 3rd year.  

This year my colleague and I decided that we wanted to give our 2nd years at least an introduction to subordinating conjunctions so that they had more structures to say some of the things they want to express in their writing and speaking and so that subordinating conjunctions wouldn't be so overwhelming in 3rd year.  Denken, glauben, and scheinen are part of the vocabulary in this unit, so this gives them a structure for stating opinions.

I started out our first lesson by playing Conjunction Junction while students were doing their bell work - always a hit!  

Students learned coordinating conjunctions in the previous unit, which was before winter break, so we began our discussion by reviewing those.  They're pretty solid on those, though aber vs. sondern is still a bit tricky for some.

Then, I introduced subordinating conjunctions as verb kickers:  

Time for Color with Purpose: blue = independent clause

                                               red = dependent clause

                                                orange = conjugated verb

                                                  green = conjunction

We've decided to concentrate on 10 frequently used conjunctions for now and add more next year.  Those conjunctions are 

We're espeically emphasizing dass so that students can express what they know, believe, or think.

We finished the first day with more investigation of where the verbs are when we have sentences in the past tense.  

I gave students an assignment on Canvas which had them practice the meaning of the subordinating conjunctions and rewrite some simple sentences starting with "Ich weiß, dass..."  The assignment in called D2 L3A Subordinating Conjunctions 1 Aufgabe and is public if your school uses Canvas.

On the second day, we went in to more detail about the word order when the independent clause is first and when the dependent clause is first.  More Color with Purpose!

I ended each section with some open-ended examples.  Some classes were more creative than others!

This time students did a written assignment, which we discussed and edited the following class.

Here are the Subordinating Conjunction Guided Notes and the Subordinating Conjunctions 2 Worksheet.