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German III Honors
  

Recommended Prerequisite: German I and German II (Standard, Honors, or IB)
Grades Offered: 9-12
Credit: 1/2 to 1
State Code: 3053
MNPS Course Code: FLA1352


Course Description
German III Honors is an advanced course with strategies preparing the students for the Advanced Placement German Language 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. The course continues to expand the students’ control of the language with emphasis on written and oral production of German. All four skills of reading, writing, listening and speaking are strengthened. The students review the grammar from levels I and II, and extend their knowledge to most of the major grammatical and structural items in German. Reading, writing, speaking and listening skills are enhanced using books, tapes, videos and narratives from authentic sources appropriate to their level. Conversational skills are strengthened through work in pairs, extemporaneous speaking, and class discussion on a variety of topics. Students will write short anecdotes, critiques, three paragraph essays, and letters. Oral production skills will improve and may be evaluated using audio-taping of story telling via pictures and group and individual video work. Culture is presented in context and includes some exposure to the history and current political realities in both German-speaking countries and within the European community. The End of Course evaluations must demonstrate the honors standards. The honors students will have a portfolio, journal, or some other evaluation device in addition to the final exam. 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…

  • 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 both with werden and with an adverb of time.
  • Subjunctive II tense in expressing unreal, wishful, and polite thinking and speaking.
  • Some basic idiomatic expressions
  • Word order – verb second and last position except after subordinating conjunctions.
  • The five coordinating conjunctions: und, aber, denn, oder, and sondern.
  • Expanded subordinating conjunctions: besides weil, dass, and question words used as subordinating conjunctions, the difference between als, wenn, and wann.
  • Relative pronouns as subordinating conjunctions in describing a modified noun.
  • All commands: du, ihr, Sie and the inclusive wir.
  • Some differentiation of adverbs and verb prefixes showing location versus motion.
  • Flavoring particles: “denn, doch, mal”
  • Case with declination of articles for nominative, accusative, dative and genitive cases.
  • Use adjective endings that are dependant upon the case, including those preceded by ein words, der words and unpreceeded adjectives.
  • 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 – recognition of prepositions requiring accusative, dative, and genitive cases and the prepositions that can be either accusative or dative.
  • Verbs that require specific prepositions – many idiomatic.
  • Plurals – recognition and use of the various formations of plural nouns.

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

  • Doing everything from level I and II 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 and past.
  • Describing a series of pictures orally and written to tell a story.
  • Following instructions and commands in the classroom.
  • Taking notes on what the teacher and others students present in German in order to answer questions later or write a summary.

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.
  • Correctly read aloud with accurate pronunciation.
  • 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 basic novel written for their level.

Thematic Vocabulary

  • Can recognize, use, and elaborate on basic 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, clothing, entertainment, weather, shopping, health, house, vacation, autos and driving and professions.
  • Can recognize and use some idioms, slang, and colloquial expressions.
  • Recognize German word building strategies including: compounds, prefixes and suffixes used to form nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs.
  • Recognize that there are many synonyms and expressions for expressing the same or a similar meaning and be able to give a similar word for the same idea for many of the basic verbs and adjectives.

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 selected short stories, fairy tales, anecdotes, and novels in German that are supplemental to the basic text and be able to answer written questions about the content, write a summary of what they read in their own words, write a critique of the story/novel 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, research and oral presentations. (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: Expand the vocabulary with more abstract ideas and continue elaboration of vocabulary with everyday themes. Develop an understanding of how German builds words and use that knowledge in reading by figuring out the meaning of the word without having to use a dictionary.(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, recipes, editorials, critiques, articles and create their own short stories or fairy-tales. (2, 5, 6, 8)
  8. Complete projects from various themes, researching, compiling and then presenting to the class. (2, 3, 4, 6, 7, & 8). The topics can range from:
    1. role-playing a famous person and telling about their life from 1st person perspective
    2. Students playing expert: Students pick out a hobby, interest or activity to present a “how to” workshop in German.
    3. Presenting to the class an article, poem, story, song lyrics they read.
    4. Assist/tutor a level I or II student.
    5. Serve as the pen pal for a level I or II student.
    6. Make a video/DVD of a play, fairy tale, story, newscast, and personal ad. Etc.
    7. Retelling a children’s story from their heritage language into 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

Textbook

Wolfgang Kraft. Deutsch Aktuell 3 St. Paul, Minnesota: EMC Publishing,

2004.