ND Curriculum Initiative

Subject & Standards

Understandings & Goals

Enduring Understanding:
I want them to know how to construct past tense in German, be able to talk about their past, and ultimately know more about and talk about their own family.
Goal(s):
Use past tense correctly. Present information in German in front of the class.

Questions Answered

Essential questions:
What did you do as a child?
What type of child were you?
Why should the person be remembered?
What was significant about the person’s life?
What are some favorite memories?
Have you changed during the years? What do you notice?
Objectives:
Students will discuss their past using both perfect and imperfect tenses. Students will present their PowerPoint project tot he class on their past and their family. Students will compare what is different now to their past. Students will identify the importance of one’s life and in relationships.

Assessment

What quiz and test items (e.g. simple content-focused questions that require a single, best answer) will provide evidence of understanding?
  Translation - write about the weekend. Write about family members and their contributions to the family.

What academic prompts (e.g. open-ended questions or problems that require students to think critically and then to prepare a response / product / performance) will provide evidence of understanding?
  Write about your weekend. Write/speak about childhood.

What performance tasks and projects (e.g. complex challenges that are authentic, mirror the real world and require a performance or product) will you include that will provide evidence of student understanding?
  Create a family album/tree with some members of your family and why they were significant to you or to the family. Conversations with others about their weekends.

What other evidence (e.g. observations, work samples, dialogues, student self-assessment) of understanding will you collect?
  Games, both student and teacher directed, homework

Instructional Strategies

Since I am working with a skill which the students could use on a daily basis, whether speaking, listening, writing or reading, I have chosen a project-based strategy. I want the students to be able to talk about their childhood intelligently in a conversation, and even activities that happen on a day-to-day basis. We learn the most from what happened in the past, and I want to give students the tool to use to be able to discuss it. Since this class is still considered fairly basic, with many instances of higher-level thinking - many of the observations and realizations will not be on a profound or age-equivalent level with their peers in the native land, or even in Germany. Students will be given the building blocks to build on a more expansive and in-depth look into their lives.