9GER - German

German culture is an integral part of language learning and students gain an appreciation of another culture and another way of thinking. In particular, there is a focus on the lifestyle of people in Germany and other German speaking countries.

If you study German at Year 9, you will be able to study German at all year levels. Learning German offers a range of pathways, such as:

•  career – German is useful in many fields - commercial, scientific, and technical and tourism – when studied in conjunction with other subjects. Scholarships and zero-fee opportunities are available for New Zealanders wishing to study at German universities

•  leisure – knowledge of another language makes travel more interesting

•  travel to Germany in Year 12 – all Year 12 students can apply to go to Germany for two months at the end of Year 12. Students stay with a family and attend school.

The main language focus will be on communicating in German and every effort will be made to speak as much German in the classroom as possible. In class we will be using the Stimmt One course. You  will be using your device to record spoken interactions and videos, for research and inquiry projects and for simple writing tasks.

By the end of this year, you should be able to:

•  cope with a variety of routine situations when talking to German speakers

•  use familiar language with some flexibility and pick up some new language from its context

•  read and write short emails, blogs and letters, and fill out simple forms

•  interact and converse appropriately in familiar social situations according to the norms and conventions of German-speaking people

•  use a range of language-learning strategies and be able to relate these to their own language.

You will get a taster of German language and culture. This introduction will challenge you with lots of speaking, in class language competitions and games. It will also also provide you the opportunity to learn about the rich culture and attractions Germany has to offer. 

Topics Covered

1. Meine Welt und ich: numbers, alphabet, introducing yourself and describing your character, asking and answering questions about your belongings, preparing a poster, learning about famous people.

2. Familie und Tiere: talking about pets, talking about family members and age, talking about birthdays, finding out about German traditions.

3. Freizeit – juhu!: talking about which sports you play, talking about leisure activities, talking about mobiles and computers.

4. Schule ist Klasse!: talking about school subjects, talking about days and times, describing your teachers.

This course is open to all Year 9 students.

There will be an investigation of an aspect of the culture of the German language. Regular Topic-based vocabulary tests. There will be two short JAF tasks, speaking and listening and reading and writing. The Junior Assessment Framework will be used for all summative assessments. 

Assessment in the Junior School

The Junior Assessment Framework (JAF) is used to assess all students in Years 9 & 10.  It is designed to measure and develop students’ thinking skills.  It is based on SOLO taxonomy and has strong links to the NZ Curriculum levels.  See the documents linked here for more information – one explains the JAF in a basic way and the other is the framework itself, which shows how the different levels of thinking are graded.