Teaching Portfolio.
Under Construction
German I.
About Me and My Family: Final Assessment
After the chaotic first two weeks of the academic year, we delve into practical, conversational German and topics that are intrinsically interesting and fun. Through communicative learning and TPRS, students are able to speak freely about themselves and their loved ones, describing likes and dislikes, free time activities, personality, and appearances. In this particular project, students introduce members of their made-in-the-classroom family as a presentational task, speaking freely after creating a "scrapbook."
Written Task
As a way to practice transition words, students are asked to write about their semester schedule and describe their classes and teachers. While reviewing descriptors from the previous unit, students build a basis upon which they can then compare the U.S. with the German school day and system, thereafter listing the pros and cons of each, all in the target language.
Free Time
final assessment
After analyzing Infographics and the Olympic Games of the Weird Verbs, students are asked, in groups of four, to visually represent each season and write about the free time activities that pertain to each, based upon the weather. Thereafter, they present via a spoken gallery walk to small groups and show off their creations.
FINAL
RUBRIC
German II.
First Project and German I Review
Following a crash review of German I and freetime activities, students review, through clothing, a fashion show, shopping, and online-shopping vocabulary, accusative, sentence structure, and immersion into the German language. We discuss self-expression and how it differs across cultures, as well as common stereotypes.
German II Cities and Past Tense final assessment
In German II, students are introduced to the spoken past tense (Perfekt) through learning about German cities. Students then teach each other, while practicing what they have learned language, thus entwining culture while synthesizing their knowledge. They are also encouraged to include short video clips in order to "show off" their city.
German II Health Video Assessment
In order to reinforce their speaking skills while checking understanding of content, students were given the enjoyable task of fixing their broken friends. After discussing the differences in health between Germans and Americans and learning pertinent sentence constructions and vocabulary, we turn them loose with a healthy amount of creative freedom. These two did a great job!
German III Honors.
Past Tense Review
After a long summer break, students recover their German knowledge via a variety of activities. After review games, they combine their former past tense knowledge with an introduction to the written past tense via the modal verbs. These sculptures represent their favorite vacations and were presented via gallery walks.
Learn the Future
In order to extra-enjoy how to speak about the future (this is intrinsically interesting to the students, anyhow), they make fortune tellers, as we did in the third grade. Upon creation, they then run around the rooms, speaking entirely in the target language and thus writing, reading, listening, and speaking, all within a matter of minutes.
Introductory Dice
An activity that can really be used any time in the semester and at any level, students have the enjoyable homework assignment of representing themselves in some way, via cube, and according to a list of question requirements. Then, without the aid of a notecard or otherwise written text, they speak freely about their six topics to other students in the class.
German IV Honors.
Dornröschen, or our rendition of Sleeping Beauty
My students put forth a great deal of effort in order to create a show for about sixty of their peers. Not only were they reading and hearing a great deal of the target language, but also working intensely upon the pronunciation and delving into the fairy tale culture and history. This is one of my favorite assignments due to the creative license and the students' taking ownership of their own learning. Only one of my students had ever performed on a stage before! I was beyond impressed with their bravery and ability to work together.
World Problems
This particular assignment is utilized to assess student knowledge as the finale of the globalization unit. After learning pertinent vocabulary and grammatical constructs, we investigate problems in different societies around the world and what is/should be done to help mitigate those. Students are asked to write an essay detailing first the problem, then propose a solution, all in the target language. They create a supplemental visual including statistics and infographs to explain to their peers.
German AP.
German Club and Honors Society.
