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AP German Language
  

German Language Advanced Placement (AP)

Recommended Prerequisite:  German I, II, III &/or IV
Grades Offered: 11-12
Credit:  1/2 to 1
State Code:  3085
MNPS Course Code: FLA1356


Course Description
The Course objective is to continue to develop higher proficiency in the target language but this course will follow the National College Board guidelines for Advanced Placement, which will culminate in the AP test given in the spring.  This course has essentially the same course of study as a level IV or V course but will need to be more comprehensive, structured, detailed and faster paced because of the AP test.  Students will review and expand their mastery of grammar and structure to include the finer points to allow accurate understanding of more sophisticated texts and audio and video presentations.  Their ability to express ideas in German will increase as they learn to write compositions on more abstract topics.  Students will develop their speaking ability through class discussion on a variety of abstract and concrete themes such as politics, education, careers etc. and as they present individually and in groups.  Students should also be able to converse in lengthy interviews, and state their opinion on a variety of topics.  Students also learn to answer question prompts accurately and thoroughly, and to tell a two-minute story based on pictures.  Students will read a variety of authentic texts over a variety of topics from science, business, politics, history and personal anecdotes.  One goal is to increase the students reading comprehension with a development of vocabulary in most fields because university expectations are that the students have an excellent reading ability.

Course of Study

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

  • Interrogative questions with the question words: Wer, Wen, Wem, Wessen, 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
  • Conversational past and narrative past of regular and irregular verbs.
  • Future tense
  • Subjunctive II tense in expressing unreal, wishful, and polite thinking and speaking.
  • Passive tense
  • A large number of idiomatic expressions
  • Word order – verb second and last position except after subordinating conjunctions.
  • The five coordinating conjunctions: und, aber, denn, oder, and sondern.
  • Most subordinating conjunctions and be able to choose the best one between conjunctions that are similar.
  • Relative pronouns as subordinating conjunctions in describing a modified noun.
  • All commands: du, ihr, Sie and the inclusive wir.
  • Differentiation of adverbs showing location versus motion.
  • Flavoring particles
  • Case with declination of articles for nominative, accusative, dative and genitive cases.
  • Use adjective endings that are dependant upon the case
  • Comparative and superlative of adjectives and adverbs.
  • Pronouns – Personal and reflexive pronouns in nominative, accusative and dative cases.
  • Numbers – cardinal numbers in counting, in amounts, time expressions, and ordinal numbers in dates.
  • Prepositions – Use prepositions requiring accusative, dative, and genitive cases, the prepositions that can be either accusative or dative, and idiomatic usage of prepositions.
  • Plurals – recognition and use of the various formations of plural nouns with the added exceptional pronouns with some masculine nouns and the dative plurals.

 

 

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

  • Doing everything from level I, II and III and…
  • Introducing not only self, but also others and can give more details to include adjectives and adverbs about present and past activities for two to three minutes.
  • Giving detailed information about a variety of topics including: vacation, interests, their home, city, and state, movies, music, health, future plans and goals, and careers.
  • Expressing likes, dislikes and favorites and why they feel the way they do.
  • Answering and asking others questions about most topics in present, future, past and in the subjunctive or unreal condition.
  • Describing a series of pictures orally and written to tell a story.
  • Taking notes on what the teacher and others students present in German in order to answer questions later or write a summary.
  • Speaking about a topic not related to self, for example, something in history or politics or giving instructions on how to perform something.

 

Is capable of performing the following tasks:

  • Listen and take notes to longer recorded or video passages.
  • Summarize both orally and written what was read, recorded or on video.
  • Listen to a passage and answer more complex written questions and pick out important information.
  • Analyze a reading passage and give the major points of the article even if some vocabulary is unknown.
  • Correctly answer a series of questions and elaborate on the answers they give.
  • Read short stories, newspaper articles, anecdotes, and fairy-tales and condense and rewrite in their own words.
  • Read a novel written for their level.

 

ThematicVocabulary

  • Can recognize, use, and elaborate on vocabulary associated with daily functions of life in situations such as health, relationships, school, sports, hobbies, and eating giving detail with adjectives, adverbs and prepositional phrases.
  • Can recognize and use vocabulary for most situations to include: city, entertainment, media, health, vacation, geography, history, and government.
  • Can recognize and use many idioms, slang, and colloquial expressions.
  • Can use German word building strategies including: compounds, prefixes and suffixes used to form nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs.
  • Acknowledge that there are many synonyms and expressions for expressing the same or a similar meaning and can adjust speaking and writing to include more of those words for a more sophisticated German.

 

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

College Board: http://apcentral.collegeboard.com

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

 

Textbook:

There is no German AP textbook available on the market.  The teacher needs to use a variety of college texts, authentic resources such as movies, tape, books, and newspaper and magazine articles.  The teacher needs to align and test as done on the AP German exam.