German I - For High School Credit

Recommended Prerequisite: None

Grades Offered: 7-8

Credit: 1

State Code: 0875

MNPS Course Code: FLA1059Y

Course Description:

The emphasis in this course is on developing a solid foundation of reading, listening speaking and writing skills within the context of basic topics.  Students will be able to use the present tense in a conversational exchange and answer some basic questions in the conversational past. They will be able to read short narratives as well as authentic items from German culture (menus, announcements, signs). They will be able to write short personal paragraphs and picture descriptions. On the ACTFL's proficiency scale, students will reach between novice beginning to novice-mid in all four skills: reading, writing, listening and speaking. Culture will be taught in context. The teacher will use and encourage the students to use German as much as possible. The focus of the course is on active personal communication.  At the end of the course, students must pass both the course and the End-of-Course exam to earn one Carnegie unit of high school credit.

Course of Study

Standard Conventions of German Grammar: Using the German language, the student is able to use, understand and answer…

• Simple interrogative questions with the question words: Wer, Was, Wann, Wie, Wo, Woher, Wohin, Was für, Wie viel, Wie viele, and Warum.
• Yes/No Questions
• Present tense use of regular, irregular, and modal verbs.
• Future tense with werden or with adverbs of time.
• Limited conversational past.
• Word order – verb second and last position except after subordinating conjunctions.
• Four of five coordinating conjunctions: und, aber, denn, and oder.
• Commands
• Case with declination of articles for nominative and accusative cases.
• Pronouns – in nominative, accusative and recognition of dative cases.
• Numbers – cardinal numbers in counting, in amounts, time expressions, recognize some ordinal numbers.
• Sequencing words in speaking and writing.
• Prepositions – recognition of prepositions requiring accusative or dative cases.
• Plural formation – acknowledge the many variations.
• Possessives recognize all and correctly use first and second person.
• Negation – recognition of negating various words – nicht with adjectives, adverbs, verbs and prepositional phrases and kein with nouns.
• Understand the difference in usage of informal you – du and formal you - Sie

Standard German I functions: Using the German language, the student is capable of functioning successfully in…

• Introduction of self
• Giving basic information about self, family members and friends including name, age, interests, and appearance.
• Expressing likes and dislikes and favorites.
• Answering questions and asking limited questions about school, hobbies, interests, and food choices.
• Following simple instructions and commands in the classroom.
• Writing as a dictation what the teacher says, spelling the words correctly.
• Counting and telling time.

Is capable of performing the following tasks:

• Listen to a passage and answer simple written questions or pick out simple information.
• Correctly read with accurate pronunciation a series of interview questions to ask another student.
• Correctly answer a series of interview questions.
• Correctly write a number of basic interview questions to ask another student.
• Read simple passages and answer questions about basic content.

Thematic Vocabulary

• Can recognize and use basic vocabulary associated with daily functions of life in situations such as school, family, hobbies, house and housework, and eating.
• Can recognize and use vocabulary for basic situations to include: city, clothing, entertainment, body parts, weather, and shopping.

Standards

Standards are based on the American Association of Teachers of German (AATG) and American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Language (ACTFL) standards.

AATG: http://www.aatg.org/

ACTFL:http://www.sil.org/lingualinks/LANGUAGELEARNING/OtherResources/ACTFLProficiencyGuidelines/TheACTFLGuidelines.htm

Tennessee: www.state.tn.us/education/ci/ciforeignlang/ciflmodern1.htm

Textbook