Extra Credit Assignment – Hänsel und Gretel (Oper)
When several of our Opera students were in our campus’s production of Hansel and Gretel, I gave my class the opportunity to go (for free!) and complete an extra credit assignment, which allowed my first-semester students to reflect in German and in English on their experience at the opera.
This activity was originally used during our annual German Day, when high school students from the area come to campus to practice their German in a full-immersion environment. This activity, however, can easily be adapted for a class taught in German.
Gustav Klimt Art Gallery Lesson Plan
Originally, this plan was designed for our annual German Day, during which high school students from around the area come to campus for a full-immersion day filled with fun activities to get them to engage with German language and culture in a variety of ways. This is also a great activity to do with your own Beginning German (1st or 2nd semester) class. Here are the pieces of artwork (with descriptions) I used, as well as the biography activity.
Hörverständnis (Listening Comprehension) Worksheet
I give this worksheet to my students at the beginning of the semester and refer to it each and every time we focus on Listening Comprehension in the classroom. This worksheet is meant to encourage students to reflect upon their own learning experiences, successes, and things on which they can improve. This handout is useful both in the beginning language classroom as well as in upper-division courses taught in German.
This “Wikipedia Assignment” was assigned to my Germany Today class in Fall 2016. It was their final project in which they were asked to edit and create new material for Wikipedia pages that had to do with topics we had covered in class.