What a great first week we’ve had in the German room!
The Year 6/7s started their lessons off by brainstorming the purpose of language learning. Each group had a piece of paper with WHY written in the middle. They then needed to think about why it is that language learning is so important. The students came up with many great ideas, such as:
- if they wanted to travel overseas one day
- if they one day have a job that needs a language
- if an exchange student came to stay with them
- to learn about another culture
We also discussed the benefits language learning has on their learning in other subject areas and the problem-solving skills it promotes.
The students then reflected on what they feel they are successful at in German and formed goals for German in 2016. It was interesting to read that the majority of students want to speak, speak and speak! Conversational German is certainly an area the students want to develop so we will be working extra hard on that this term!
The students then formed pairs and worked their way down an ‘interview’ list. Without any translations, the students had to use their problem-solving skills by finding keywords in the questions and working out what they were asking. I was very impressed with their ability to do this.
The Year 3-5 students started off their German year with a ‘Leute Bingo,’ or ‘People Bingo’ game. They had to move around the classroom asking students questions about themselves. If they received a ‘ja’ answer, they wrote that students name in the box. If it was a ‘nein’ answer, they moved on. This was a fun way to break the ice and get chatting ‘auf deutsch!’
All students have enjoyed the new classroom and we’ve had a ‘wunderbar’ first week!
