Teaching “Studieren in Deutschland” (DW)

Here are additional materials and activities I have created for teaching Deutsche Welle’s Top-Thema module entitled “Studieren in Deutschland“. The original Deutsche Welle materials can be accessed from the theme webpage. Alternatively, the text and exercises (pdf) and audio (mp3) can be downloaded for offline use.

In the post Teaching with Deutsche Welle’s Top-Thema and Video Thema, I outline how I use these Deutsche Welle modules in an intermediate- to advanced-level courses with varied goals. Visit that page to see how my students begin to work with the materials Deutsche Welle provides. Here I am presenting and explaining the extension activities that I use after we have exhausted all of the excellent materials Deutsche Welle provides to accompany the text. Downloads of all exercises described here are linked at the bottom of the page.

Vocabulary work

Students work in pairs to explain or define in German each underlined word or phrase from the text. This is primarily a speaking activity, not a writing activity. Students learn from each other as they collaborate to explain each term. One of the best ways to learn something is by teaching it to others. Students can bolster their own skills as they strive to clarify what they know and understand for others.

Discussion

Students converse in small groups and relate the content of their article to their own experiences.

Points of view

Every student has something to say about the hardships of being a student. The points-of-view activity is a set of statements that are drawn from the content of the article. Students will have strong feelings about many of the statements and they are free to agree or disagree with them — but only in German! They get practice expressing agreement and disagreement, defending or refuting viewpoints, and connecting ideas together. To this end, students also get this list of Redemittel that they can refer to during their conversations.

Points of view: Extension activity

The points of view activity generated so much lively discussion, I created another set of statements that deviated from the “Studieren in Deutschland” theme. Topics are current and some are intentionally contentious. For example: Männer haben es im Leben schwerer als Frauen. They are topics students are likely to have opinions about. They have the Redemittel to refer to during this activity as well.

All of the activities for “Studieren in Deutschland” are available as a single download in pdf-format: Studieren in Deutschland-weitere Übungen

The Redemittel and the second Points of view extension activity are separate downloads:

Redemittel

Extension activity – Was meinen Sie?

And the original Deutsche Welle Top-Thema page in HTML, with audio and comprehension exercises, is here:”Studieren in Deutschland“.