Eine Reise

German 2 started a new unit about travel on Friday.  Since we were just at the very beginning of the unit (students received the new vocabulary list the previous class), I wanted to do some activities that got them interacting with and using the new vocabulary.

I found this great picture at Illustratoren für Flüchtlinge which we used to start our discussion:

Then, we wrote a story about a trip.  First, we chose our destination.  Period 1 chose Berlin.

Period 3 discussed this for a while and finally decided on Honolulu.

Next, each table group received a picture card and was asked to write a sentence using the new vocabulary to describe what was on the card.

I wrote the first sentence as an example.  When groups has finished, they read their sentence out loud to the class, and I typed it into the story.

An observant member of period 1 noticed the Sydney opera house in the background of picture 6 and insisted that we include this in the story.  It added an interesting plot twist.

Period 3's trip went more to plan.  I had a little more time in that class, so we added a few more details.

That was it for Friday.  Energy levels were low and cell phones kept appearing.  Time for the Handy Haus.

My plan is to use these stories for additional activities during the unit.  I hope to have them add details, using adverbs and coordinating conjunctions, and change the story into the Futur, which we'll be learning this unit.  

If you'd like a copy of the file, click here: Ich mache eine Reise Schreiben.

Peer Editing in German 2

I've always found peer editing with my students to be a challenge.  

On one hand, I think it is a useful activity for them to read a classmate's work and see if they can understand it and help correct mistakes.  It's also practical because I just can't edit 28 paragraphs in fifteen minutes of class time.

On the other hand, I find that they often don't do a very good job of it.  They will read through the paragraph quickly, say "It's fine," and hand it back to the owner, even when there are obvious basic errors - nouns not capitalized, words misspelled, etc.

As with most things, I've found that my students have more success when I give them specific instructions, like in the picture above.

I introduced the Perfekt (conversational past tense) to German 2 at the beginning of the year, and we've been working hard on it for the past 2 weeks.  This week, students began working on their first writing assessment: a paragraph about a special event such as a birthday that has happened in the past:

We did some pre-writing and brainstorming in class to think of words and phrases we've learned in this unit that could be used here:

Then, students wrote a rough draft that was due on Thursday.  My hope was that giving them a specific checklist would improve the quality of peer editing.  

Overall, I think it was a success.  In my first class, which is generally pretty strong in language skills and students do an excellent job of following directions, almost everyone got through the editing checklist and I saw lots of papers with highlighted helping verbs and past participles and some helpful changes.  

In my second class, which has a little bit weaker language skills on average and has students who are easily distracted and not as good at following instructions, I had fewer successfully edited paragraphs (It didn't help that several students hadn't done a rough draft, so they had to use the time to write one and didn't get the opportunity to benefit from peer editing.) but still a reasonable amount of success.  

Here are the files if you'd like a copy:

Mein besonderer Tag writing assignment

Peer Editing for Mein besonderer Tag