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German I Honors
  

Recommended Prerequisite: None
Grades Offered: 7-12
Credit: 1/2 to 1
State Code: 3051
MNPS Course Code: FLA1152

Course Description

German I is the introductory course. The course is based on the State of Tennessee Foreign Language Standards, the State of Tennessee Framework of Standards for Honors Courses, and the National Foreign Language Standards. During this course students develop the skills on which to build proficiency through the areas of listening, speaking, reading, writing as well as knowledge of languages and cultures. The emphasis in this course is on developing a solid foundation where 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. Culture is 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. The students in the honors course will learn more content with regard to the basic topics and have developed more speaking, writing, listening and reading skills than what is covered in the District Assessment. Therefore, the honors students will have an additional evaluation demonstrating the Honors Standards, such as a portfolio, journal, or some other evaluation device. Under the Tennessee Framework of Standards for Honors Courses, students must complete work in five of the recommended categories.

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.
  • Simple past of haben, sein and the modal verbs.
  • 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, accusative and limited use of dative 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.
  • Describing pictures orally and written.
  • 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 and take notes to simple recorded, read, or video passages.
  • Summarize both orally and written to simple readings, recorded or videotaped material.
  • 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.
  • Read some basic advertisements, announcements, informational cards 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.

Strategies for Honors Courses: Students will complete all standard German objectives, functions and tasks. In addition, students will:

Maintain a portfolio to demonstrate at least 5 of the components mandated by the state of Tennessee for honors courses. In parenthesis is the number of the particular honor component as specified on the Tennessee Framework of Standards for Honors Courses.

Students will:

  1. Read short stories and fairy tales in German and be able to answer written questions about the content, write a summary of what they read in their own words, and orally retell the story. (1, 5, 7)
  2. Show an understanding of oral language through testing and writing after listening to authentic German songs, videos, stories, and conversations from the Internet, DVDs, radio and TV stations. The emphasis of the auditory input could be grammatical, content and/or cultural. ( 1, 6, &7)
  3. Understand how English is a German language and the two are related. This will be done through readings, research and linguistic exercises. (1, 7)
  4. Understand and connect the German language with its history and culture to other academic disciplines such as history, geography, science, government, and sports. This will be done through reading, writing, and research. (1, 2, 3, 6, 7, and 8)
  5. Speak the language. This will be done through interviews, extemporaneous speaking, story telling and re-telling, role-playing and describing. This can be recorded on tape or videos or live with one person or in groups. (3, 6, 8)
  6. Develop a broader vocabulary: Learn the expanded vocabulary with basic functions of daily life: School, family, hobbies, house and housework, and food. (7)
  7. Demonstrate writing skills in summarizing what they have read, seen (video), or heard (tape, CD or live), write letters, postcards or e-mails and create their own short stories or fairy-tales. (2, 5, 6, 8)

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

Textbook

Wolfgang Kraft. Deutsch Aktuell 1 St. Paul, Minnesota: EMC Publishing,

2004.