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It’s very important to teach in the target language. I keep the class in German as much as possible. I’m expecting students to communicate in German, so why can’t I model correct behavior for them by communicating only in German?
– Amy Garcia
YEAR AT A GLANCE
Review
Geography
The world
The 16 German states
Classroom and School
Time and Daily Routines
Family
Friendship; Adjectives
Sports
Animals of the World
Fairy Tales
Amy Garcia teaches grades preK-6 German at Brockett Elementary School in Tucker, Georgia. The school’s 470 students come from a diverse community; more than 70 percent of the students are minorities. Brockett is a pilot site for the High Achievers Program for qualified fourth-, fifth-, and sixth-graders throughout the community. The school offers German instruction at all grade levels. Students who study German as part of the High Achievers Program follow a FLES program and meet four days per week, while students in the regular curriculum study German about once per week in a FLEX program. Students in the FLES program receive traditional grades based on multiple assessments including tests, while FLEX program students are graded solely on participation.
Ms. Garcia refers to the Standards and the DeKalb County Curriculum Guide to structure her curriculum (see Resources). She orders the units and designs individual lessons based on her students’ needs. “Each lesson is tailored to the class,” Ms. Garcia says. “It all depends on the group of students. And that comes from getting to know them and getting a feel for how quickly they can handle a new topic or a certain activity.” In each lesson, Ms. Garcia includes a review of the previous lesson, introduction to new information, and multiple practice activities. She then ties the lesson to the larger unit.
In the videotaped lesson, students shared their sports preferences. Although they had previously learned how to express their likes and dislikes, and knew the sports vocabulary, this review was the first time they combined the two into sports likes and dislikes. This was also students’ first experience applying their knowledge of numbers in German to the mathematical task of interpreting graphs. After this lesson, students continued to read Das Rad magazine, looking at other aspects of German youth culture and comparing them with aspects of their own culture.