First Enrichment Activity for Deutsch 2

Last year in German 1 during the second semester, I started assigning students enrichment or corrections after their unit tests.  The idea was to push students who struggled to look closely at their errors, learn from them, and then retake their test if they wanted to.  I also wanted to give my students who had mastered the material a chance to go further.

It worked quite well, so I've decided to expand it into the first semester of both German 1 and German 2 this year (hopefully!).

German 2 takes their first unit test next week, and I've definitely noticed a wide range of mastery among my students so far on formative assessments.  So, I expect to have students with a lot of corrections to do and others who are ready for new challenges.

The enrichment activity I've designed has students watching a 2 minute segment on the Tagesschau from August 23.  I'm trying to teach my students how to work with authentic video clips that contain a lot of unfamiliar vocabulary by focusing on what they can understand and by viewing a clip several times.

Here's what they'll do:

You will be watching a 2 minute segment from the German news several times.  Repetition is important in learning a new language!  Don't worry that you don't understand every word.  Focus on what you can understand.

Write the answers to the following questions on a separate piece of paper:

1. 1. 1.  Before you watch the video for the first time, write down what you think you might hear based on the pictures below.   
      2. Watch the video from 6:30 to 8:44.  You can turn on German subtitles by clicking on UT.  https://www.tagesschau.de/multimedia/sendung/ts-32903.html (Links to an external site.) What did you see?  Was it what you expected? 
      3. Watch the video a second time.  What do you think the story is about?  What questions do you have?
      4. Watch the video a third time, making sure that you have the subtitles turned on.  Choose 3 unfamiliar words that you think are important to the story, look them up, and record them with their English meanings on your paper.
      5. Watch the video a fourth time, making sure that you have the subtitles turned on.  Answer these questions in German:  

a)  Wie viele Menschen waren (were) in 1989 in der Menschenkette?

b)  Wie lange war (was) die Menschenkette?

Three Words: Das doofe Fischlied (Dumb Fish Song)

It was a good week in German 2.  Students had their first unit test on Wednesday, so Monday was dedicated to review.  

We played Kahoot with holidays and their German descriptions.

Then, I pulled out 4 in a Row to give students some drill on changing sentences from present tense to conversational past and from conversational past to present.  They really needed this practice, and most students really enjoyed it.

It finally occurred to me to laminate the 4 in a Row boards so that they can be reused.  Better late than never!

The test was on Wednesday.  We've moved all of our quizzes and tests to Canvas, and one thing that became clear very quickly is that my students can be very sloppy.  They had to change sentences from present tense to conversational past and from conversational past to present tense.  This required them to type the new sentence, and Canvas graded this automatically.  I can't even count the number of students who missed those questions because they misspelled a word that was in the original sentence or because they forgot a period or question mark.  I can go back and give students partial credit, which I did, but I still took off half a point for these kinds of unnecessary mistakes.  It may be a painful lesson at first, but there's no reason to misspell a word that is right in front of you or not to punctuate a sentence in high school.

Which brings us to Friday.  We started our new unit on clothing with a review of colors and coloring.  Life is good when it's Friday and you get to color in German class.  (We also had a pep rally mid-day, so this really helped everyone to settle down after that.)

We used this activity to introduce adjective endings.

And then it was time for Das doofe Fischlied:

We first reviewed definite and indefinite articles in the nominative, accusative, and dative cases and recorded them on our German Grammar reference cards.

Then, we watched this subtitled version of the song and listened for the adjective endings.

Coloring and adjective endings - pretty good for a Friday in German 2.

If you'd like a copy, the Kleidung worksheet is here.  It was modified from a worksheet at Grundschul Atelier: https://www.grundschulatelier.de/kostenlose-arbeitsblaetter/DaF-Arbeitsblatt-Kleidung.pdf 

Assessments on Canvas

I've been enjoying a relaxed summer schedule to work on things for next year at a comfortable pace.  

One of the things I'm working on is moving our assessments from paper to our learning management system, Canvas.  I was hesitant to test on Canvas when we first started using it two years ago because it was all so new and there was so much for both me and the students to learn.  

This past year we gave our semester exams on Canvas successfully, and I've been using it more for assignments as well, so I think I'm ready to put regular quizzes and tests on Canvas as well.  

It takes some time to input the quizzes, but then the grading is quick and there's no paper to deal with.  I only have German 1 and 2 next year, so it seems like a good time to switch those classes over.

Here's what a vocabulary quiz will look like:

Nouns have two boxes, one for the article and one for the noun, so that students can get partial credit if they miss the article.  Verbs have just one box.  These questions are graded automatically by the computer.  Other questions are teacher graded: 

I am requiring that students type ß and umlauts correctly.  It's something that we practice in class, and I include the special characters in the instructions for students to copy and paste if they have difficulty with the character codes.  On the first quiz of the year, students still receive full credit even without the umlaut but get a reminder that they need to use umlauts correctly on all future assessments.

All of the vocabulary questions are in question banks, so students' questions will not be in the same order as their neighbors, and it makes generating a parallel quiz for a retake a snap.  

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.  

Deutsch 4 - Target Language Participation Rubric

School has been out a week now, which means I'm enjoying the relaxed pace of summer and the chance to think ahead to next year.  Often this means working on new ideas and plans in the morning while enjoying a mug of tea and still wearing my pajamas.

I will be teaching 5/6 time again next school year.  I will have two sections of German 1, two sections of German 2, and one section of German 4.  I didn't teach any German 2 last year, and I missed it, so I'm very happy to get to teach it again. 

The exciting news for our German program is that we have fifteen students enrolled in German 4, which is enough to have a separate section and not need to combine it with German 3.  

Last year was the first year since I have been at BHSN that we offered German 4 at all, but there were only 5 students, so I had to be combined with German 3.  Since we had new textbooks for all levels and the topics in the third year book were new to the German 4 students, it worked fine to combine the groups and differentiate as needed to challenge the German 4 students.  

But now that we have enough students, we can offer a true German 4 class.  The textbook we'll be using is Denk Mal! from Vista.

One of the things I really want to emphasize in German 4 is target language usage.  In the 3/4 class this past year, I spoke German to students most of the time but still used English to explain new grammar concepts.  I probably didn't push students to use German as much as I should have.  

In German 4, there won't be any new grammar topics - just review, so I want to use German exclusively.  If I want students to use German all the time, too, I need my grading system to reflect that.  In German 1 and 2, grades are weighted at 75% for assessment (quizzes, tests, and projects) and 25% for assignments and participation.  I've decided that in German 4, grades will be 50% for assessment, 25% for assignments, and 25% for target language participation.

A little while ago, I found a Weekly Rubric for Target Language Use from Spanishmama.com which she created using materials from Joshua Cabral at World Language Classroom. 

I started with that and modified the format and rubric until I had what I think will work well for my classroom.

We have three 6 week grading periods per semester, so I made a place to record weekly scores for the semester.

Click here for an editable copy of my D4 Target Language Participation Rubric.

Into the Home Stretch

We're getting very close to the end of the school year.  We have 3 more regular class days and 4 days of finals before students are out for the summer.

My students will take a multiple choice final during the exam periods and have a speaking exam on their last regular class day, so we've been reviewing and practicing for those this past week.

Reviewing for tests is always a challenge because it's not really something I can do for the students in the same way that I teach them new material; they get the most out of it when they take ownership of their own review, but by the end of the year, motivation can be low and students are tired out from ISTEP testing, End of Course Assessments, and AP testing.  So, I try to encourage them to push on but keep my expectations realistic.

Most of our review days follow a pattern of 3 main activities:

1. Multiple Choice Vocabulary Review using Quizlet
2. Speaking Exam Practice with their Table Groups
   
3. A Study Guide
   
4.  We've also played quite a few rounds of Quizlet Live for more vocabulary practice.
   

Normally, we go over assignments as a whole class and students are responsible for correcting their own work, but with study guides, I try to check each student's work individually during the class period so that I can talk to them about what mistakes they are making and what they need to review more.  I couldn't take the time this requires every day, but I think it is worthwhile during exam review.

The study guides are tailored to our pacing and textbook, but I'll include links to the files if you want to use them or modify them to meet your needs:

• Lektion 3A: family vocabulary, possessive adjectives, adjectives to describe people, kennen, sehen, and lieben
• Lektion 3B: more adjectives to describe people, modal verbs, accusative prepositions, imperative
• Lektion 4A: mögen and möchten, prefix verbs, adverbs
• Lektion 4B: dative case, dative prepositions

Is this the Normandy Invasion or just a Retakes Tutorial?

I had my first quiz and test make-up and retake tutorial on Friday.  

Oh. my. goodness. 

32 students.

2 different levels of German.

7 different assessments, 2 of which with listening components.

Beforehand I wasn't sure if I was getting ready for a tutorial or the Normandy Invasion.  I think it required at least as much planning and coordination.

Due to some technical difficulties above my pay grade, tutorials started later this school year than usual.  Combine that with how many of my students struggled on the first quiz, and I had so many students needing to make-up or retake assessments that my tutorial reached capacity and I had to bump some students to next week.  

But thanks to my retake form and all of my meticulous planning, everyone got the right assessment.  Now I just need to grade them...

Week 3 in Review

I started participating in #teach180 on Monday, and it's been a lot of fun so far.  (Though I do have to admit I'm a little nervous about forgetting to take a picture one of these days.  It's possible that I am a little bit of a perfectionist.)  One of the benefits of taking a picture of my school life and tweeting it every day is that I have a record of some of the highlights of my school week.  

So here's a review of my third week of the school year:

Monday was Tough Love Day, which I've already blogged about.  

Tuesday was Gold Star Day: Although a lot of my students struggled on their first quiz, I did have quite a few students who scored 90% of better.  Those students got a gold star with their name and class period on it which I put up on my back chalkboard.  The title "Wir können" means We can, and then I have the topic of the quiz posted (German 1 Greetings and Alphabet on the left, German 3/4 Conversational Past, Narrative Past, and Past Perfect on the right).  The stars have magnets on the back so I can move and change them as we go on to new topics.

On Wednesday my German 1 students made their first foldable when I taught them the subject pronouns.  We used a Shutterflap 6, which is perfect for a lot of grammar topics because it has a spot for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd person in singular and plural.  

These are the student supply boxes which I have at every table.  The cards on the left are conversation practice cards - one set for 1st year and one set for 3/4.  They are available to students whenever they finish early and need something to do.  I though I had blogged about these already, but I guess not.  A topic for another post...

We also played Ich habe, wer hat? for the first time Wednesday in German 1.  Some of the students had played I have, who has? in elementary school, but it still took the classes some time to get the hang of it.  So, times were slow, but everyone had fun.  (For the record per. 4 had the fastest time, but they messed up and had to do a re-start to get that time, and per. 5 had the fastest time on a first try.)

Here's a look at my new alphabet in my new room for this year.  The colorful letters are Alphabet Circle Stamp Clip Art from Mr. Math Coach's Teachers Pay Teachers store and cost only $1 - a great deal!

On Friday, German 1 students took their first vocabulary quiz of the year.  Scores were MUCH better than on the first quiz: in one of my sections, the average on the first quiz was 64%, while on this one it went up to 87%.  I think Tough Love Monday may have had the desired effect... I hope!

Tough Love Monday

I did my first #teach180 tweet today.  I won't always be able to blog about my picture, but today I do have time to write about Tough Love Monday:

I gave my first quizzes of the year in both German 1 and German 3/4 on Thursday and Friday.  The results were mixed, which is kind of what I expected.  Some of my students have a solid understanding of what we've done so far in class and know how to prepare for an assessment.  Other students aren't always focused in class, haven't completed assignments on time, and aren't sure how they need to study for a quiz or test in German. These students did not do well.  

Before I returned quizzes today, I told students about how their quiz score gives them some important information: if they scored well, they are on the right track and should keep doing what they are doing.  If not, they need to make some changes: either in their participation in class or in how much or how they are studying.  

Then, I showed them how to fill out a retake form, using my sample quiz (Schülerin Swank = Student Swank) as an example.  This year I am requiring students to correct their first quiz or test before signing up to retake.  I hope this will push students to work harder at figuring out what they didn't understand before retaking, rather than just trying again without any serious practice and hoping they will magically score better.  We'll see how it goes...

Pre-Tests, Day 1

There are lots of changes at school this year.  One of the changes is that all of our students now have HP laptops.

Another change is that we're required to give all of our students a pre- and post-test every semester.

The pre- and post-tests are part of a new law in Indiana which requires that part of teachers' evaluations be based on a measurement of students' learning.  Since elective subjects like German are not a part of state standardized tests, our students are now given a test at the beginning and end of the semester to measure their growth over the course of the semester.

Students take the pre-tests on their laptops, and today was my first day administering them. Students have only had their laptops for about a week, and the testing platform is new to all of us, so I was a bit nervous about how it would go.  

But amazingly, it went very smoothly!  No one was absent, everyone remembered their computers, and everyone was able to take the pre-test.  Wow!  

After that, students logged on to their digital textbooks for the first time, and that went well too.  More wow!  Tomorrow I will give pre-tests to my other 3 classes, and hopefully it will go just as well.

Revising Retakes

Although the middle and high schools in my district do not use Standards Based Grading (the elementary schools do), students are allowed to retake quizzes and tests, which is a concept that often goes along with SBG.  I didn't know about this until about 3 weeks into my first year of teaching German, so I kind of had to figure out a system on the fly.  Students would ask me at all sorts of random times during class if they could retake a particular assessment.  Since I only had two classes, it wasn't too bad trying to keep track of who was retaking what and when.  

But I knew that this past year when I moved up to two-thirds time with 4 classes, I would need a better system.  I wanted something that would help me keep track of all the paperwork and would push students to think about how they could prepare differently for an assessment to be more successful.  Sarah's Request to Retest Form (scroll down to the bottom of the post) gave me a starting point, and I developed this half-page form: 

Overall, it worked very well.  Once students turned in a retake form, I printed out a their quiz or test and stapled the form to it.  I kept them in a folder, organized by date of retake.  So, when I had a retake tutorial scheduled, I could just pull out the retakes for that day, and we were ready to go.

The one continuing frustration that I have with retakes is students who score worse on the retake than on the original assessment, or who only improve by a point or two.  I don't understand why students expect to earn a different grade when they haven't done something different to prepare.  This seems to me to be a huge waste of everyone's time.

Also, it drives me crazy when students show up for their retake and ask if they can study a bit right there before they retake.  I feel like this encourages cramming, which really only gets things into students' short-term memory, rather than into their long-term memory where we want the information to be.

My goal for next year is to make it more clear to students that retaking is a privilege and that they need to put in some work in order to earn the chance to retake.  So, my policy for next year will be that students must correct their original test or quiz before requesting a retake.  (For vocabulary quizzes, students will write each missed word five times.)  Hopefully, this will get students thinking about the mistakes they made prior to retaking the assessment.  And I hope it will eliminate some of the frivolous retaking where students just hope they will magically score better the second time around without putting in any additional work.  

Here is next year's retake form:

I reduced the size to a quarter of a page.  Since my school is going 1-1 this fall, I might be able to switch to an online form eventually, but for now I still need the paper to keep myself organized.  

Click on the pictures for an editable copy of the forms.