Guten Tag! This course focuses on the four key areas of German language study: listening, speaking, reading and writing. Each topic consists of a vocabulary theme, grammar concept, reading and listening comprehension activities, speaking and writing activities, and various interactive activities and practices to reinforce newly acquired tools and skills. Students actively engage in their language learning during highly-interactive live class sessions. In the course of studying the language, students will also study the rich cultural history of the German-speaking regions of the world. By the end of this course, students will be able to communicate in German personal information about themselves and a variety of topics including their hobbies, family, school, clothing, food and traveling. In addition to developing proficiency in the language, students will be introduced to various aspects of German culture through weekly cultural highlights and through special projects.
Note: TPS offers German 1 and 2 in two levels: standard and honors, where this “standard” course is one day of live class per week and “honors” is two days of live class per week. How do you choose between them? The workload and level of difficulty are similar, but the honors class has more dedicated opportunity for instruction and speaking, so your proficiency will be higher after the honors course. If you are seriously considering going to German 3 or higher — or if you just love the idea of learning German from a world-class expert teacher — then you will want to take the “honors” course with two days of live class per week. If you are pretty sure you just want two basic years of German to meet your foreign language requirement, then you may prefer this excellent “standard” course with one live class per week. You can change your mind in either direction after each year, and you can still go to German 3 from either track (though you will be better prepared from the “honors” track).
Note: Would you like to add more German cultural activities and conversational practice to German experience? Enroll in the German Language and Culture Club (4046) course along with this course.
Note: This high school credit course allows grade 8 enrollment. However, the rigor, pace, and workload are high school level and no accommodation is made for students who are not ready to work at a HS pace with HS standards of evaluation.