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1st
Year German with Computers
German
1White/Computers/Multiple Intelligences
Criteria for 1st Year German class
The
German teacher and the Computer teacher of the class collaborated
in the preparation of these classes.
In
the Computer class we wished to enable students to become familiar
with Basic computer packages and the Windows environment.
We
wanted to incorporate Multiple Intelligences strategies into the
teaching and learning, occurring in the Computer class, while
engaging with some topics on the 1st Year German curriculum.
Content
of Classes
- The
students used Microsoft Publlisher to create Posters depicting
the Seasons of the Year in German.
The small class size of ten students facilitated interaction
and interpersonal communication between students in planning
which students would take which seasons etc. The Posters were
displayed in their classroom and provided Visual material for
aiding the recall of the German words.
- The
students had created a German rap, to enable them to learn and
memorise the German alphabet. We used a microphone attached
to the Computer to record the class singing this rap. However,
the quality of the Media player was quite poor and the students
were disappointed with the outcome.
- When
teaching German adjectives, the German teacher included the
words for each of the Multiple intelligences, as defined by
Howard Gardner (Frames of Mind 1983). Once more the students
made posters to match these words. They were very specific about
what graphics would suit and searched the Internet to find suitable
material for their Posters.
- While
learning names of the days and months of the Year, students
were delighted to find that Publisher '97 gave them an option
of creating calendars in German. Each student opted to make
a one month page of their year and date of Birth, (click here
for Sample). Then a group of students
compiled a 2003 calendar in German. All pages were bound to
make a German calendar. Click for a HTML monthly calendar
in German, starting with Mai 2002, and ending in Mai 2003,
but omitting the summer monthals when the students will not
be at school
- To
further incorporate the Seasons and Months, I compiled a Quiz
in Excel, which checked their knowledge of the Months and
Seasons in German. The students liked getting their personal
scores at the end of this Quiz. (Initially,
there was some confusion as I had entered February, March and
April as the months of Spring - apparently this does not coincide
with the seasons of Sping in German)
- For
a few classes, we had access to the new Computer Room. Here
the students set up personal e-mail addresses in Hotmail. They
sent e-mails in German to each other and sent a copy of the
e-mail to the Teacher's e-mail address. Printouts of these were
given to the German teacher for correction.
- The
students learned how to create New Folders and did some File
Management. They copied all their work from the My Documents
folder to their own new folder.
- They
copied and pasted the details from the Publisher folders and
used these to create a Powerpoint Presentation to demonstrate
their term's work. Students were allowed to have a printout
of the handouts of their final Powerpoint
Presentation.
- During
the last two classes before Christmas, students created Christmas
cards in German. Also one student volunteered to interview
all the other to find their opinions on the Computer class.
- Later,
we videod the class talking a little German, talking about their
Computer class and singing their rap on German alphabet
- After
Christmas, the students in the class made a GrammarBoard
, to facilitate teaching the German for the word "the".
They printed the words in Publisher, paying attention to the
colour coding, whereby red was for Feminine, blue for Masculine
and green for Neuter. They got the words laminated and consulted
with the Woodwork teacher and his 5th Year students, who actually
made the Board and Perspex slots for the Game (Picture
of Grammar Board )
- They
repeated the same technique to produce a Board
Game, based on one of the pages of their book. This game
teaches the vocabulary for Household items. It is played in
much the same way as Snakes and Ladders.
- The
students enjoyed working in groups. They liked producing items.
Each of the students said that the classes were "fun and
enjoyable" and they enjoyed helping each other.
Umlauts
For a PC use the following keys. Make sure that you use the Numeric
Keypad on your Computer. The Number Lock must be on. While holding
down the Alt key, type the requied combinations.
Alt 129 then release
and you get ü
Alt 132 then release
and you get ä
Alt 142 then release
and you get Ä
Alt 148 then release
and you get ö
Alt 153 then release
and you get Ö
Alt 225 then release
and you get ß
Alt 154 then release
and you get Ü
.
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