Intermediate German: Contemporary Life (Critical / Creative Engagement)
Playing with language
- Role plays enacting scenes explicit or implicit in text.
- Performances (poetry, reader’s theater, scenes from play).
- Writing “Dear Abby” letters, diaries, narrations or descriptions from perspective of different character or context.
- Creating “living statues” (Standbilder) depicting relationships in text.
Confronting difference
- Journal writing / email discussion on personal reactions to texts.
- Comparing summaries of texts and analyzing differences in emphasis, etc.
- Ethnographic inquiry (interviews, email exchanges, deducing social / cultural values implicit, but not stated directly in texts [e.g. with Jugendliteratur]) ; identify and analyze situational culture clashes.
Making connections
- Group projects involving independent learning (e.g. Internet projects).
- Reflecting on relationships between language forms and communicative intent.
- Translation projects (e.g. of poems or short stories).
- Guest speakers from department or other disciplines.