Teaching Portfolio
Samples of student creativity, 2015-18
German IV, Honors
Dornröschen, or our rendition of Sleeping Beauty
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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.
German III Honors Travel Brochure
Following a more basic city travel unit in German II, students review but also learn a great deal more about how to travel in new countries and cultures. After learning a myriad of new constructs, eg genetiv, komparativ, superlativ, and 2-way prepositions in an integrated manner, they then demonstrate their knowledge throughout the unit in online blog posts. This is one of the interim assessments pulling their learning experiences together.
German II Cities and Past Tense final assessment
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In German II, students are introduced to the spoken past tense (Perfekt) through learning about German cities. Students then teach each other about various German-speaking cities, while practicing what they have learned language, thus entwining culture into their presentational assignment. They are also encouraged to include short video clips in order to "show off" their city.
2017-18 Snapshots
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Apart from class time, my students are also involved in German Club and Honor Society in order to foster greater community involvement and give them greater sense of belonging in our massive high school. The top two photos are of our induction ceremony, followed by a row of our Christmas cookie (Lebkuchen) decoration contest. Bottom left is pictured our German food cook-off (complete with short presentations in the target language), followed by our German cultural table at one of the middle schools in the area.
German III Hotel Commercial
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After viewing/interpreting commercials and learning about different accommodation possibilities, students design their own and practice becoming more comfortable recording themselves/their voices, with a great deal of freedom for creativity. They always learn best when they know that their acquired knowledge will be displayed in an enjoyable activity at the end of the unit.
German IV World Problems
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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.
Samples from Student Teaching
Northville, MI
Jose and Sam did a great job of speaking in German throughout the presentation of their poster...while including (and jokes about) some prominent American and German political figures.
Bassel, more commonly now known as Basileo, prepared this script to study for his presentation. He blew us all away; while presenting, he merely glanced at his notecards a couple of times and spoke very fluidly in the target language.
Basileo also did a fantastic job of including an introduction, body and conclusion, something that was taught in the target language in the week prior to the project.
Jose and Sam did a great job of speaking in German throughout the presentation of their poster...while including (and jokes about) some prominent American and German political figures.
Each of these mindmaps was created after a Hörverstehen, brainstorming, and generate-sort-create thinking routine.
Each of these mindmaps was created after a Hörverstehen, brainstorming, and generate-sort-create thinking routine.
from Sarah, an aspiring softball star in German 2. This was completed as part of the motivationally differentiated stations in class, during which time the draft for the printed version was created. The following week, students had a bit of work time in the computer lab to organize and complete their menus, which they then used as props for their skits.
Here we see Nikki's Tagebucheinträge, a couple of entries pertaining to the Essen & Gesundheit unit for German 2 Honors. In the first entry, my edits, and some of the commentary, are apparent. Below is her unedited work.
Ryan, an aspiring Michigan freshman, created this mind map as part of a motivationally differentiated stations activity in class in order to better make connections between food words and their meanings.
from Sarah, an aspiring softball star in German 2. This was completed as part of the motivationally differentiated stations in class, during which time the draft for the printed version was created. The following week, students had a bit of work time in the computer lab to organize and complete their menus, which they then used as props for their skits.
German 2 Honors in action
February 13, 2015
Cut from a 90 minute Friday morning class, this video demonstrates student oral engagement with the target language before and during speed-dating, as well as some cultural references and vocabulary around Valentine's Day in Germany. A small branch off from the unit we were immersed in at the time, the connection to the holiday motivated the students and resulted in a great deal of engagement around topics like love and relationships in the target language.
mein Traumhaus Präsentation
February 2015
To wrap up our unit on Heimat/zu Hause, students in both the German 2 and German 2 Honors classes created presentations on their dream houses, which were then performed in front of the class. Included below are the directions and rubrics for the presentations, differentiated based on ability and motivation. It was interesting to see how students used their imaginations and choice of a variety of media to display their dreams, while speaking entirely in the target language with the help of only a couple of note cards.
German 2 & 2 Honors
Heimat/zu Hause
January-February 2015
Mind-maps! Illustrations! Skits! Assignments! Lesson plans! These (examples to the left and below) and more were included in our first unit together, with content involving "around the house" and what it means to be "home." Our driving questions was, "Was bedeutet Heimat für uns?" or what does Heimat mean to Germans/do we have an equivalent concept, during which we unpacked the massive meaning behind a single word, one rather difficult to translate into English.
das Endprojekt:
eine Werbung
German 2 Honors
As the project to demonstrate their learning at the end of the Food & Health Unit (discussed a bit more below), students were required to create a short Werbung (commercial) with certain grammatical, vocabulary, speaking, and creativity stipulations. For more on this assignmet, view the Word Document here.
German 2 & 2 Honors
Essen & Gesundheit
March-April
A small sampling
These samples are a mix of German 2 and 2 Honors students' work, demonstrating some of their learning and creations during our five week long Food & Health Unit. The driving questions were: How can I be more healthy and fit? What types of effects do my choices have on my life? What is prioritized in American culture that contributes to health or lack thereof? What is prioritized in German/European cultures?