Easy German Reise nach Dresden - Yule Blog

 

Easy German Reise nach Dresden Trip to Dresden

A tool I find really useful is Edpuzzle.  I've blogged about it before, and I really like it for cutting and adding questions to online videos.

This video is the first 3 minutes of a new Easy German video filmed in Dresden.  The whole video is pretty good but probably a bit long for students' attention spans.  There is also the word "Scheiße" and some consumption of alcoholic beverages (by adults) later in the video, so it may not be something you want to show in your classes, depending on your school's policies and the maturity of your students.

However, the first three minutes show some beautiful sights in Dresden and provide great opportunities to use weather, clothing, and travel vocabulary, which are all German 2 topics in the district where I most recently taught. 

I made a one page worksheet to go along with my video.  Click on this link if you'd like a copy.

Liechtenstein in the news

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-liechtenstein-anniversary/beer-with-the-prince-liechtenstein-marks-300th-anniversary-idUSKCN1V51S5

Liechtenstein made the news in the U.S. this week as it celebrated its 300th anniversary on Thursday.  

We're discussing holidays in German 2 and introducing German speaking countries in German 1, so we'll definitely be talking about Liechtenstein next week in both of my classes.  

This Reuters article gives a nice overview of the country and has a photo slide show of the celebrations.

I couldn't help noticing the tent behind the prince which says "Ein Land, ein Bier."

Deutsche Welle has this video in English about Liechtenstein and its 300th anniversary:

and this one from a few years ago:

Germany by Scooter Recording Pages

Germany by Scooter has consistently been one of my German 1 students' favorite things from the year.  (Why have I not blogged about this before???) I stumbled upon it my first year of teaching German and am so glad I did.  

There are 30 episodes, and I show about one a week so that they last until the end of the school year.

The first few years we just watched and enjoyed it, but more recently we've begun tracking Michael Wigge's progress across Germany on a map and labeling the states he passes through on his way.

This year I'd like to be a bit more intentional and organized about doing this, so I created a recording sheet and map where students can plot Michael Wigge's stops and color code the German states.

I'm thinking about offering bonus on the final exam for students who turn in a complete recording sheet at the end of the year...

If you'd like a copy, you can access the file here: Germany by Scooter Recording Pages

Landeskunde Bayern und München

I like to incorporate culture and geography into our units as much as possible, rather than making it a separate stand-alone topic.

In German 1, we begin with an overview of German-speaking countries, then look at Berlin in more detail and finish the year studying Austria.

In German 2, we start the year looking at Bayern (Bavaria), which fits in well with the topics of Feste and Feiertage (Festivals and Holidays) and Kleidung (Clothing).

I've been working on some introductory activities for students using EDPuzzle and Learning Apps.

First, I have a Discover Germany video in English with German conversation questions about Bavaria:

and another video about Munich, without questions:

After watching this video, students are ready to complete two activities on Learning Apps: 

I'm working to update my guided notes to go along with these activities.  Hopefully they'll be ready soon!

Wetterberichte in German 2

My German 2 classes presented weather reports for cities in German-speaking countries this week.  It was the first time I've done this assignment, and it went really well!

First, students showed us where their city is on a map:

Then, they told us about the weather forecast for the next four days.  In my example, I modeled speaking freely without writing out everything I would say:

Many of my students were able to do that as well:

Others felt more comfortable with more of their presentation written out:

I gave them a fair amount of freedom on that.  If they had things written out, it needed to be done correctly.  If they spoke freely, I was more lenient on grammar mistakes.  

I designed a recording page for students to complete as they listened to their peers' presentations.  I've found that having some kind of activity like this really encourages students to listen more closely to each other.  

Landeskunde Bayern

http://www.katelein.com/

One of the great things about being on break is that it gives me a chance to explore new resources and plan new activities in a more thorough way than I have time for during the school year.

Today I was thinking about our first Landeskunde (geography and culture) unit for German 2: Bayern (Bavaria).  Over the course of German 2 and German 3, students study each of the 16 German Bundesländer in detail.  I've taught the German 3 states before, but this year will be my first to teach the German 2 states.  

Bayern is the first one, and surprisingly, since it is the largest state and most well-known in the U.S., I didn't have a lot of material on it yet.  So, I visited one of my go-to sites for culture videos: Deutsche Welle.  

Their travel program Check-In has a 25 minute video focusing on Munich:  http://dw.com/p/1IsEV

I had time to watch the whole video and create a worksheet to go along with it.  This could be completed as a whole-class activity or individually.  

The first part of the worksheet refers students to our textbook, Mosaik, but the information is also readily available online.  

The back page follows the video and uses the adorable children's map of Munich that I found online.  

Here's a link to an editable copy of my Landeskunde Bayern Notizen.

Germany by Scooter

I'll be teaching German 1 again this fall, which means I get to introduce my students to Germany by Scooter!  

Germany by Scooter is a video series made in 2013 by Deutsche Welle, in which reporter Michael Wigge attempts to cross Germany from North to South by scooter in 80 days.  He chats with people he meets and stops at some of the less well-known sights in Germany along the way.  Each video is about 5 minutes long, and it's a light and humorous introduction to Germany geography and culture.  I like to use if for a quick break between classroom activities and a lead-in to cultural topics.  

Does he make it all the way in 80 days?  You'll have to watch to find out.