Required Texts

Recommended Texts

Course Requirements and Grading Scheme

Course Website:

http://www.lsa.umich.edu/german/hmr/101/

Grammar vs. Speaking? No: Grammar Through Speaking!

Class time will be the only time when most of you will be able to practice actually speaking German. There are only about 200 hours of class time in the entire language requirement sequence, so we want to use as much as possible of those 200 hours to let you speak. We use a lot of partner and group activities (which we hope you will find to be an enjoyable, low-stress way of speaking German without worrying about mistakes!), since otherwise you would only get to say one or two sentences per class, and thus less than 400 German sentences during the entire language requirement sequence!

Grammar can be studied and practiced outside of class, so in order to maximize class time for practicing speaking, we ask you to read about the grammar covered in class before we actually cover it in class. This does not mean that you are on your own for learning grammar! We design class activities so that you can focus on speaking and exchanging interesting information while at the same time "painlessly" (we hope ) practicing the grammar you read about at home. Don't worry if the grammar confuses you when you study it on your own: you will find that the practice in class will usually clear things up; if the class seems to need it, your instructor will provide explicit explanations. Please ask questions: your fellow students will be grateful to you!

Students sometimes assume that learning a language means sitting in class struggling doggedly with grammar charts and drills, but researchers in classroom language teaching all agree that "drills are out" [the title of a recent journal article!] and that maximizing the time for communicative practice in class is the most effective way to teach students all aspects of a language in a lasting way. The best thing you can do to learn to speak good German is to relax, come to class prepared, have fun speaking in class, and ask questions when you know you're confused!

Hartmut Rastalsky (3214 MLB; 647-0404). 

Final Exam, Oral Exams

• Please take note of the date of the final exam, and schedule travel plans, diseases etc. around it.
• Oral Exams will consist of two informal conversations in your instructor's office, for which you are strongly encouraged to practice, e.g. by going to conversation hours. You may sign up to take the oral exams individually (in which case it will consist of a 5-8 minute conversation) or in pairs (10-15 minute conversation) or groups of three (15-20 minute conversation). You may retake each of the two oral exams ONCE if you are not satisfied with how you did!

Final Role Play

At the end of the semester, you will write and perform a final role play.  It is important for you to demonstrate your ability to speak freely (as opposed to reading from notes) when you perform the role play. Here are the details of this assignment:

• 10 minutes or so in length
• done in groups of 3 or 4
• must be comprehensible to the class
• can be about anything picking up on some of the themes or people that have come up in class (in Vorsprung, in the other texts and videos assigned for class, in discussions in your section). 
• Your final essay (Aufsatz 4) will be written by your group, and will consist of the first 250 words of the script of your role play.
  • Your grade for the essay will be an "E" if you do not contribute to your group's essay, or a "C-" if you do contribute, but not in a timely manner.
  • Your grade for the role play will be an "E" if you do not participate in your group's rehearsals, or a "C-" if you do participate, but not reliably.
  • The above grades will be given based on the consensus of your group.
  • If you anticipate a problem, please notify your group and your instructor promptly!
• Grades for Aufsatz 4 will be awarded as usual; grades for the role play will work as follows:
• Content/originality: 1/2
• Comprehensibility (including pronunciation): 1/4
• Structural accuracy and complexity: 1/4
• EXTREMELY IMPORTANT: Guidelines for content of role-plays: Please click on the link (or flip to that page if you're reading this in the coursepack) and read and follow these guidelines carefully.  Ask your instructor if you're in doubt as to whether something you're planning to do is appropriate.  Otherwise s/he may have to ask you to rethink your role play or to come up with an entirely new role play at the last minute.
• Important note re: comprehensibility: a crucial component of this part of the grade is that the role play should be performed, not read.  A couple of index cards with key cues are OK, but you should try as much as you can to perform the role plays from memory. If you have to read your script, it will be hard for the class to understand it, and your grade will suffer.
• In order to further promote comprehensibility of the role plays, please email your instructor a (short!) list of words you had to look up for your role play a few days before you perform it, so s/he can put these on a transparency and go through them (or let you go through them) for the class prior to your performance.

Homework

Homework is graded on a scale of "check"/"check +"/"check -". "Check" means the homework has been done well or well enough. "Check +" means it has been done exceptionally well. "Check -" means it has been done poorly and/or incompletely. Late homework automatically receives a "check -". Homework will not be accepted if it is more than two class days late (unless you have a very good excuse). Homework that is not done at all receives a "0". At the end of the semester, we add up your homework grades, with a "check" counting as 0, a "check +" counting as +1, a "check -" as -1, and a "0" counting as -2. If the sum of your grades added up in this way is 0 or more (i.e. on average you have done all your assignments punctually and well), your homework grade is an "A."

Attendance and Participation Policy and Grading

• To receive an "A" for attendance and participation, you must attend, be on time [=pünktlich], and participate well.
• Excellent participation is not error-free, but it is frequent, enthusiastic, and demonstrates that you are paying attention and have prepared carefully at home in order to be able to contribute constructively in class.
• Don't worry about making mistakes! Research has shown that all language learners proceed through stages of language acquisition (just at different speeds), each characterized by certain patterns of mistakes, so in this sense you have to make mistakes in order to learn.

• ***Speaking and listening in class are an essential part of this course ==> If you have more than TEN absence hours [defined below] at the end of the semester, your FINAL COURSE GRADE will be an AUTOMATIC E***
  • If you have 8 - 10 absence hours, your ATTENDANCE AND PARTICIPATION GRADE (15% of your final course grade) decreases by two full grades (e.g. a "B" becomes a "D")
  • If you have 4.5 - 7.5 absence hours, your ATTENDANCE AND PARTICIPATION GRADE (15% of your final course grade) decreases by one full grade (e.g. a "B" becomes a "C")
  • Ask your instructor about ways to make up "absence hours." You can make up a maximum of four absence hours.
  • We count the hours of class you miss individually; thus if you miss one whole day of class, that's two missed hours.
  • Please explain all absences, in advance if possible. Excused absences count as half an "absence hour," i.e. for example 8 excused absences + 2 unexcused absences = 6 "absence hours."
  • Absences for the following reasons will generally be excused: medical, psychological or family issues, family events such as weddings, baptisms or graduations, job interviews, trips for musical performances, debates or athletic events in which you are participating, etc.
  • Absences for the following reasons will generally be unexcused (but please still tell your instructor what's going on, so s/he won't think you've stopped caring!): oversleeping, hangovers, studying or completing work for another class, fraternity or sorority events, trips to attend concerts or athletic events, family trips, etc.

SAM & SAM Audio--Please Read These Instructions Carefully!!

• The audio program accompanying Vorsprung is available through the Vorsprung website, and also, as a backup, through CTools.
  • When you click on the above link, you will find a link to "In-text Audio Files." This is NOT the link you want!!
  • Instead, find the pulldown menu labeled "Navigate by Kapitel" and select the chapter you need.
  • In the menu that now appears below the pull-down menu, click on "Improve Your Grade"
  • On the page that now appears, select "SAM Audio Files."
  • Now you will see a listing of the Audio files that you will need to complete the listening activities for this chapter in the 2nd half of the Student Activities Manual.
• Ideally, you should transfer the audio to something portable, like an mp3 player, and listen to it as much as you can stand, in the shower, on the treadmill, on the way to class, in bed: this will not only help your pronunciation and listening comprehension, but also provides you with "comprehensible input" that your mind transforms into increasingly accurate models of the German language. It may be easier to download the audio in this way if you access it via the CTools site.
• We strongly recommend that you also use the "vocab audio," which contains the vocabulary for each chapter and a few usage examples and comments.  This is available via CTools.
• Please correct your answers in a different color before you hand in your Arbeitsbuch homework. Answers are in the coursepack.
  • Note that sometimes more than one answer may be possible, so what you've written may be correct even if it differs from the answers given in the coursepack.  There may also be a few mistakes in the answers!

Advice and Resources

• There is endless potential for having fun in foreign language classes. Make up interesting sentences. Be playful. Get to know fun facts about your fellow students!
• ASK QUESTIONS!! For every question you ask, there are likely to be several people in the class who will be grateful you asked it.
• Take a look at the "Reading Strategies" page on the course website. Above all: (1) Skim texts once before you read them thoroughly. This will save you a lot of time: it is the first thing you will hear in any speedreading course. (2) Fight the urge to look up every unfamiliar word. Use your knowledge and common sense to help you fill in the gaps. Remember how efficiently you do this in English e.g. when you are having a conversation in a noisy place! If you know what the word probably means, don't look it up unless what you read or hear later proves that your guess must have been wrong.
• Look at essays as a way to try out words and constructions you have learned [this is also likely to improve your grade!]. Avoid translating from English!
• Find a study partner in your section or in another section of the course. You'll have more fun, you can share pizza (or Bratwurst), two heads are better than one, and you never learn a thing as well as when you try to explain it to someone else. There is abundant research data to show that students who work in study groups are more successful language learners.
• Set aside a time every day to think in German about what you are doing ("Ich stehe auf. Ich putze mir die Zähne. Ich renne nackt durch die Straßen..."). This can be fun, requires no time, and is great practice for the oral exams. Look up words for things you care about.
• Send cookies, weird t-shirts, rare Bruce Springsteen recordings etc. to the course coordinator.He deserves it.
• Watch Deutsche Welle TV at the Language Resource Center or on UMTV.
• Try some of the other "Self-Study Advice" on the Course Website.