Kreuzworträtsel / Crossword Puzzles

I liked to use crossword puzzles in my classes as a way to sneak in some vocabulary drill in a way that was slightly more enjoyable to students.  It also has the perk of being self-correcting, so no need to spend a lot of time grading/going over it.  Win-win!

The tool I have always used is the Criss-Cross Puzzlemaker from Discovery Education.  It's not fancy, but it gets the job done.

I take the puzzle that is generated by Puzzlemaker and paste it into a PowerPoint template so that I can save it and use a format that is similar to other paper assignments.  This certainly isn't necessary, but I think it's a nice touch.

I recently made a puzzle to be used as a review for the beginning of the year for incoming German 2 students.  It reviews typical German 1 vocabulary, such as school, numbers, colors, family, and food.  I made two versions.  One is easier and has the clues as the English definitions.  Students fill in the German word.  The other version is more difficult.  The clues are in (very simple) German, and the answers are German as well.  I feel like this is attainable for strong German 2 students and might even be challenging to German 3 students who are working on using the target language only.  Both versions are included in the same file, which is available here: Willkommen Deutsch 2 Kreuzworträtsel.  Here is the list of words for a key and for easy modification to tailor the puzzle to your own students without needing the retype the whole list: Willkommen Deutsch 2 Kreuzworträtsel word list.

Advice for Multilevel Classes

I was recently corresponding with a new German teacher in South Carolina (schöne Grüße, Frau Becker!), and she asked for advice about planning for a class with both German 2 and 3 students in it.  Multilevel classes are pretty common in upper level world languages, so I thought I'd put my reflections here in case they can help anyone else.

The combination of two levels is tough for teachers. Administrators don't seem to understand how much more work it is for the teacher and how the students are shortchanged. They just look at numbers. As I was told, just be grateful we're letting you do this level at all.  At my school it was a 3/4 split. (And one year I did a 4/5 split, though we only had German 5 that one year!)

When facing a multilevel class, first of all, be kind to yourself. This isn't easy and you won't be able to give the students the same learning experience as if they were separate classes. You are one person and can only do what you can do. 

The upper level students (I'll call them German 4 here for clarity since that was my experience) should be seniors and, at least theoretically, more mature, so focus on the German 3 students, and give the German 4 students more independent work. 

You may be able to have your German 4 students play the role of conversation partner or assistant teacher. Give them a note card with a speaking question that they ask of the German 3 students one on one or in small groups. 

This isn't what you'd do if you had separate sections, but it is using the language and does benefit them. If parents complain, explain that it isn't under your control and ask them to take their concerns to administration. Overall, focus your energy on German 3, where you likely have more students, and do what you can about German 4, but don't expect yourself to be two people.

I need bells!

Me and Pavlov's dogs, I guess!

I've learned during the first few days of online learning just how dependent I am on bells.

This is our schedule:

It pretty much mirrors our in person schedule, though live classes are now only an hour (instead of 80 minutes), and there's a live instructional support / independent work time block to start the day which we don't have in person.  

But because I'm not in the school building, there are of course no bells.  And apparently I really need bells to help me not lose track of what class period it is.  

So, this morning I got smart and set timers on my computer to ring to remind me when a period is almost over.  (I tried my cell phone alarm first, but it kept startling me.)

It's a really good reminder to get up from the computer, stretch, and maybe get a little fresh air.  If you're teaching remotely, I highly recommend it!

 

Virtual Manipulatives

Lots of things have to be done differently this year.  For example, my beloved Pronoun Dice:

These are a great hands-on tool for practicing verb conjugations.  Students work in groups and use the dice, white boards, and dry erase markers.

But obviously, groups and shared supplies are a no-go right now.  So, I started by googling "virtual dice" and pretty quickly came upon Flippity.net.

I used the Randomizer to make a simple spinner for subjects and verbs.  (Unfortunately, you can't embed flippity tools, but you can link to them.)

Success!  Hopefully some of the flippity tools will be helpful to other teachers, too.

I leave you with this thought:

Choice Board for Enrichment

Choice boards have become popular in teaching as a way to give students choices in how they learn a new concept.  

I designed my choice board for students who finish their work quickly and are ready to go deeper (or need something concrete to do so they don't immediately reach for their cell phones).  

This board is designed for German 1 students at the beginning of the year.  I hope to switch out some of the elements as we progress, both to keep things interesting and to provide more challenging choices.

I'm very proud that I've learned how to publish my choice board on Google Slides so that I can embed it into Canvas - and this blog!  You should be able to click on any element in the board and see where it takes you.

I've put a button for the choice board at the top of my Course Resources page

and included a link in the daily agenda.

This will be the first time I've tried a Choice Board.  Since we're starting the year online, it may be hard to know how much it's used, but I hope to keep it when we return to the classroom, too.

Kuchen Rezept

I love to bake!  When we're in school, I really enjoy baking with my students.  

This spring one of my German 2 classes opted to bake Pfannkuchen (thin German pancakes, much like crepes) for Faschingsdienstag (Mardi Gras/Shrove Tuesday).  We watched this great video from Easy German and then gave it a try.  The results were delicious! 

 

 (Here's a newer video in Super Easy German.)

We made Lebkuchenhersen this fall for Oktoberfest.

And last year we baked Apfelkuchen.

Andrea Thionville, who makes great beginning German videos, has a Kuchenrezept video.

I've converted the recipe to U.S. units, and it's my hope to try out this cake sometime next school year with my German 1 students.

Transport in Berlin Video from Easy German

My German 2 students just started a new unit on Transportation before Spring Break and the school closures.  I used Edpuzzle to insert comprehension questions into a video from Easy German about Transport in Berlin:



We watched the video as a whole class first without the questions and pauses.  Then, students were assigned to watch the Edpuzzle video and answer the questions in Canvas (our LMS) at their own pace.  Overall, it worked pretty well.  Now, with schools closed and students learning from home, I may be doing more of these videos.

März Musik Bracket Up

The März Musik bracket is now up in my classroom!  

On Friday after their test, my German 2 students received their brackets.  I played a very short snippet of each song, and students filled out their brackets, making predictions of which song they thought would win the whole thing.  

I've invited my colleague, Frau Nessi, to include her German 2 class as well, so for the first time I've tried creating a page in Canvas (our LMS) with dynamic content that updates automatically.  Cross your fingers that it works!

Students have to have their brackets filled out by next class to be eligible to win the prediction contest, and the first vote will be Tuesday, March 10 and Wednesday March 11.

We're a bit behind some of the other schools that are participating in the group bracket, but since we just finished round 1 of sophomore ISTEP testing and spring break starts in a week, this seems to work best for us.  March Madness runs into April, and we will too!

März Musik 2020

modified from https://drive.google.com/open?id=1mdc2dxcQ2-jRsgEwRrQl999IF2qGgH625Na_cObqYp0

It's almost March, and once again, I am incredibly grateful for the internet and German teachers who share their fantastic resources!

Last year, I debuted März Musik with my German 2 classes, and it was a big hit.  Some of my students from last year have already been asking if we'll be doing it again this year.  It's a lot of fun, but also a lot of work to set up.  Here's where the German Teacher Blogosphere steps in:

A German teacher in Wisconsin shared her list of 16 songs to compete in this year's March Music Madness, as well as activities, brackets, and more.  Other teachers have contributed their materials, and now there's a whole Google Folder full of great stuff!  

So, I think I'm ready to go.  Like last year, I'll be doing März Musik with my German 2 classes, and I'll open it up to my colleague's German 2 class and her 3/4 classes as well.

Podcasts for German Learning

I've become a big fan lately of Podcasts, and there are several that are good for German learning.

One that's been around for a while is Slow German Podcast from Annik Rubens.

Annik has been podcasting for more than 10 years and has some great episodes for German students.  The podcasts are usually 8-10 minutes long, and she speaks slowly and clearly.  

You can download them to your mobile phone or subscribe through a Podcast App, or you can listen online.  There is also a transcript of the episode available for free as a pdf download.

If you listen online, there's a really nice feature where she has translated some of the more difficult words, which you can see if you move your cursor over the word:

My German 2 students are now working on a unit about travel, and we listened to part of the podcast about Jugendherbergen (youth hostels) this week.  These podcasts are challenging but understandable for intermediate level students. 

I've blogged previously about using videos from Easy German in my classes.  They have recently started a podcast, which I think is fantastic!

These podcasts are much longer than Slow German - usually at least an hour - and are geared at more advanced students.  They speak at a regular speed but keep their German learner audience in mind and explain (in German) particularly tricky words or cultural references.  

Again, you can download them to your mobile phone or subscribe through a Podcast App, or you can listen online.  The podcast is free, but if you subscribe for $2 a week, you have access to a transcript as well as a really neat vocabulary feature on certain Podcast Apps.

I use Overcast, and when I am listening, the vocabulary and English translations for the current section of the podcast show up automatically on my phone:

Since I only teach first and second year German currently, I wouldn't use these podcasts with my students, but parts of them could definitely be used in an upper level class, and they'd be great for students who want to challenge themselves.  

I enjoy listening to hear native speakers and keep my German fresh, and the hosts Manuel, Cari, and Janusz are voll sympathisch!

Finally, the Tagesschau evening news is also available as a free video or audio only podcast for your phone or mobile app.  

I often listen while driving to or from school, and frequently hear a story I want to share with my students on the video version so that they have visual supports and subtitles to support their understanding.

Viel Spaß beim Zuhören!

Advent Calendars for German Teachers

There are quite a few online Advent calendars each year for German teachers and their students.  

Some years I'm better at keeping up with them than others!  It's always tricky since we have semester exams before winter break, and there's not always a lot of time to celebrate German Christmas traditions amid the review and end of semester craziness.

But here are links to some of the calendars I'm enjoying this year:

• AATG Advent Calendar: https://www.aatg.org/page/AdventKalender 

• Klett - USA Adventskalendar: https://www.klett-usa.com/adventskalender/c-3101

• Die Sendung mit der Maus Adventskalendar: https://www.wdrmaus.de/extras/mausthemen/adventskalender/2019/index.php5 

• Erster Österreichischer Dachverband Legasthenie:  https://legasthenie.at/Weihnachten2019/

Viel Spaß und schöne Adventstage!

Oktoberfest 2019

After last year's exhausting Oktoberfest, I wasn't sure I'd want to attempt another one, but with my new half-time schedule and wisdom gained from last year's failures, I thought I might just give it one more try.

This year, my colleague and I were able to schedule things so that we could both be at the Oktoberfest, and two teachers are definitely better than one!

We started planning earlier and more students volunteered to bring in food.  My colleague also emphasized to the students that they should only take a small serving until everyone had been served, and there was enough for everyone.

This year I pre-made dough for Lebkuchenherzen, which we rolled, cut out, and baked during the Fest.  

Our Success period (intervention/enrichment time) is only 40 minutes long, so not all of the students' cookies were baked and cooled by the end of the period, but I was able to stay and finish up and students picked up their cookies later on the way to lunch.  They were delicious!

Most students had time to do their own dishes, though there was still quite a lot of cleanup to do afterwards.  My colleague had a class right afterwards, but I was done for the day and could enjoy some peace and quiet and dish washing.

Overall, it was a big improvement over last year and a good experience for students.  It's still super tiring for teachers, and the 40 minute Success period really isn't long enough for what we wanted to do.  Maybe we'll need to scale it back for next year and/or use some class time for part of it, but I'm glad we tried again.

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?

Listening Feature in Quizizz

I'm a fan of Kahoot, Quizizz, and Quizlet Live.  All three games provide a fun way to practice material, and each has its own strengths and classroom situations when it works best.

I really like the way Quizizz allows students to work at their own pace.  It also shows the answer choices on students' own screens, which can be very helpful if the answers are long or quite similar to each other.  I have also had classes which are not mature enough to handle the whole-class competitive aspects of Kahoot (or choosing an appropriate name), and Quizizz offers a good alternative.

As I was looking at my collection of Quizizz this week, I found a Quizizz made by another teacher for the German alphabet:

 https://quizizz.com/admin/quiz/57c3570c9debbafb240a341f 

It asks students about the German names for the letters of the alphabet: 

My students usually really need practice in hearing and recognizing a letter of the alphabet.

As I was looking at this Quizizz, I found that you can upload 10 second MP3 files or record yourself very easily to give an audio clue.  Perfect!

I found a great website, https://www.thoughtco.com/the-german-alphabet-1444644, which has individual MP3 files for the letter of the alphabet which you can download.  

I'm going to record myself spelling words as well for my students to practice, and there are lots more possibilities for listening practice on Quizizz with this function.  I hope you find it useful as well!

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:

Typisch Deutsch Video Activity

Was ist Typisch Deutsch?

School started this week on Wednesday.  I'm always glad when we start with a short week because the first week is tiring for everyone.  It went very well!

One of the activities I did with my German 2 classes was to watch the German in Me video from Easy German.  

It was a nice way to engage the students in the target language without overwhelming them since there are German and English subtitles.

As we watched, students were asked to select one key German word for each typically German characteristic and to make some notes in English about what it meant:

We did one example together as a class:

We didn't have enough time to get through the whole video in either of my two German 2 classes, but we did get to several typisch Deutsch characteristics, and I think students were getting the hang of it.  Definitely something to do again.  I may turn this activity into an enrichment assignment for students who score 90% or better on the first test.

Friday Fun: Speed Dating, 4 in a Row, and Quizizz

We're really into the semester now, and both German 1 and 2 have some big quizzes and tests coming up, so Friday was dedicated to fun ways to get students reviewing and practicing.

German 2 tried Past Participles Speed Dating for the first time  

and played 4 in a Row

Both activities got thumbs up from students and got them actively practicing past participles, kennen, and wissen.

German 1 has their next unit test coming up, and we played Quizizz to review:

All in all, it was a good Friday.

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