The main page became too large (according to the website hosts).
So, here is the pre GCSE content.
Saturday, February 4th @ 3 pm
For Homework, you should have completed some or all of: S86 schreiben 4, and S87 schreiben 7 with schreiben 5 S89.
Klassenfahrt nach Österreich S90
Sprechen 4
Schreiben 5
S94 Olympiadorf (for vocabulary and phrases)
Sprechen 3
Lesen 4 and 5 (Arbeitsblatt)Â
S82. Die Welt der Zukunft
Sprechen 2
Sprechen 4
Lesen 6
Schreiben 7 for Homework with as much of the Extra section S100-111 as possible by the half-term week, maybe also schreiben S91.
This will help you prepare for the end-of-year assessment from the course.
Saturday, January 28th @3 pm
You should have completed F.6 (and 7 schreiben) p77.
Also schreiben 7 from p79.
S 86. Austausch - Was willst du machen?
Hören 1 (pictures)
Sprechen 3
Lesen 5
Lesen 6
Schreiben 4 und 7 (S86 und & S87) for homework
S88 - Ein Spaziergang in Stuttgart
Hören 2 - as a logic exercise
Hören 4 for Vocabulary recognition
Schreiben 5 (S89) for homework
Klassenfahrt nach Österreich S90
Lesen 2
Saturday, January 21st @10.00
You should have completed the Mini-test S.75 and F.6 and 7 schreiben too.
This section discusses daily routines, consolidating that topic and looking at other people's routines. S76 & 77.
Lesen 2
Sprechen 3
Lesen 5
Complete schreiben 6 for homework p77 and maybe 7 for a revision.
S78 & 79
Lesen 2
Lesen 3
Lesen 4
Complete schreiben 7 for homework.
Saturday, January 14th @10.00
You should have written about your clothing choices in various circumstances.
Today, we will look at what we are doing (i.e. something we have covered before, the use of the same tenses in German for the present and present continuous in English.)
Another point of grammar we've already touched upon is the use of 'ihr' as the plural, informal 'you' to a group of friends.
Contrasting what you are doing at a party with what you did at a party. (Moving from the present to the perfect tense).
Any worksheets not yet completed...
Nicos Weg - Schick!
Saturday, January 7th @10.00
You should have contrasted your normal day with either Christmas Day or New Year's Day.
You should also have prepared the dialogue from page 71, refusing the first two invitations with excuses and accepting the last one with arrangements for the meeting.
Today, we can look in detail at Kleidung - (The book is about what you will to a party)
Die Kleidung Matching
Was trägst du in der Schule?
Vocabulary List
S. 72-73 Echo Express 2 - Was trägst du am Samstag auf der Party?
1,2,3 Lesen
4 HörenÂ
5 Sprechen
6 & 7 Schreiben - Homework
Reading Exercise for homework
Friday, December 30th @10.00
We looked at Echo 2 Express Chapter 5 part one. We looked at the Perfect Tense of a normal daily routine and a disastrous day.
Sylvester
(Dinner for One) - German TV Channels show this every 31st December - It is a tradition, and pretty much any time during that time, it will be on, has just been on, or will soon be on!
We can also look at a contrasting day to your normal days such as Christmas Day or New Year's...
Saturday, December 17th @10.00
Weihnachten
Weihnachtslieder
We can also look at Daily Routine - to get you to produce a daily routine report in German about yourself and then contrast that routine with a special day such as Christmas Day.
Saturday, December 3rd @10.00
Today, we will do something very cultural in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and indeed much of central and Eastern Europe.
Sankt Nikolaus
His sidekicks are wide and varied - here in Inningen (Bavaria), he is accompanied by Knecht Ruprecht.
In Eastern France, it was once Père Fouettard, but he has often now just vanished.
In The Netherlands Zwarte Piet, but he is often controversial now because he could be seen as racist.
However, in Austria:
Nikolaus als Geschenkebringer (This text is rather challenging to translate, far more challenging than you'd get for GCSE, can you translate it? Obviously without just pasting it into Google!)
 „Der Kirchturm von St. Niklaus im Schweizer Kanton Wallis wird im Advent als Nikolausfigur dekoriert. Gemäß Eintrag im Guinness-Buch der Rekorde handelt es sich dabei um die weltweit größte Nikolausfigur.
Der Gedenktag des Heiligen ist mit vielen Bräuchen verbunden. Einige hingen ursprünglich mit der Perikopenordnung der Kirche zusammen. Am 6. Dezember war verbindlich die Perikope vom Gleichnis von den anvertrauten Talenten Mt 25,14–30 EU vorgesehen. Der bekannte Brauch der Befragung der Kinder durch den Nikolaus, ob sie denn auch brav und fromm gewesen seien, geht auf dieses Gleichnis zurück.
Der Einlegebrauch, das Füllen der Schuhe in der Nacht vom 5. auf den 6. Dezember oder Ähnliches, basiert auf der Legende von den drei Jungfrauen, die nachts vom heiligen Nikolaus beschenkt wurden. Ursprünglich war der Nikolaustag auch der Tag der Weihnachtsbescherung.
In einigen Ländern ist er dies auch heute noch. Erst infolge der Ablehnung der Heiligenverehrung durch die Reformation wurde die Bescherung in vielen Ländern auf Weihnachten verlegt, und infolgedessen wurde Nikolaus als Gabenbringer mancherorts vom Christkind abgelöst. Durch dieses wechselseitige Verhältnis hat sich im 19. Jahrhundert das US-amerikanische Brauchtum um den Weihnachtsmann Santa Claus entwickelt, die heute weltweit dominierende, merkantil bestimmte Rezeption des heiligen Nikolaus.
In mittelalterlichen Klosterschulen gab es den Brauch, dass die Kinder sich am Nikolaustag einen „Kinderbischof“ aus ihren Reihen wählen durften. Nach dem Prinzip der „verkehrten Welt“ predigte er den Erwachsenen und durfte ihr Verhalten tadeln. An einigen Orten blieb er bis zum 28. Dezember, dem Tag der unschuldigen Kinder, im „Amt“.
„Schiffchensetzen“ nennt man den seit dem 15. Jahrhundert bekannten Brauch, aus Papier oder anderem Material Nikolausschiffe zu basteln, in die der Heilige seine Gaben legen soll. Hintergrund für diesen Brauch dürfte das Schifferpatronat sein. Auch heute noch befindet sich auf vielen Handelsschiffen ein Bildnis des heiligen Nikolaus. Das Nikolausschiffchen wurde später durch Stiefel, Schuh oder Strumpf abgelöst, zu denen später noch der Gabenteller kam. Im Salzburger Land gab es dafür den Nikolausgarten. Kinder stellen am Vorabend des Nikolaustages Schuhe, Stiefel oder Teller vor die Tür oder hängen Strümpfe vor den Kamin, damit der Heilige sie auf seinem Weg durch die Nacht mit Nüssen, Mandarinen, Schokolade, Lebkuchen usw. füllen kann. Außerdem gibt es morgens oft ein aus Hefeteig gebackenes Gebildbrot.
In vielen Erzählvarianten beschenkt und lobt der heilige Nikolaus die guten Kinder, während er die bösen tadelt und durch Schläge mit einer Birkenrute bestraft. Welche Kinder im letzten Jahr gut und welche böse waren, liest er in seinem „goldenen Buch“. Viele Eltern laden einen ehrenamtlichen oder bezahlten Nikolaus ein, den Kindern zu Hause eine derartige „Predigt“ zu halten, die jedoch stets mit einer Bescherung endet.
In Luxemburg gibt es bis heute üblicherweise Geschenke zum 6. Dezember und weniger zu Weihnachten.“
How did you get on checking the reading and writing sections from the Echo Express 2 course chapter?
What about the German Cases sheet?Â
This video could well help you get to grips with them. She does offer a free course online (then will want you to sign up to her paid content).
Revision and reinforcementÂ
Nicos Weg follows a Spanish speaker who's moved to Germany and how he gets on learning German as he goes.
Topics we've previously covered as he goes around his day-to-day life.
Click here for the Deutsche Welle pages (there are many). Find the ones with the same names as the videos below, and there are ready-made exercises to test out what you have understood.
Alltag und Freizeit
Freizeitstress
Das macht mir Spaß.
Ein Praktikum beim Film
Der Film war toll
Saturday, November 19th @10.00
You may have completed p. 57, ex. 8 and p.59, ex. 5, for homework. Checking on the mini-test too. Also, looked at the Imperfect Exercise based on Martinstag.
EE2 Kapitel 4 Einheit 4 „Iss dich fit!“ S.61U3Â
EE2 Kapitel 5 „Immer im Training“
For homework you may wish to do:
For homework you may wish to do: Sprechen 6 & Schreiben 7 - Revision
Saturday, November 12th @ 10.00
You had many worksheets from Module 3 to complete, including some mini-assignments and a few about the theme of Gesundheit.
You might be able to complete p. 57, ex. 8 and p.59, ex. 5, for homework. Checking on the mini-test too.
Martinstag
A look at the German Imperfect Tense (used mainly when storytelling apart from auxiliary and modals) for a sorry about the festival in Germany on November 11th. This tense is not yet introduced in the course book, but let's stretch that brain! The printed worksheet is here.
Saturday, November 5th @ 10.00
You had some tasks to work on from the last module and the Module Overview to look at.
Some assignments can be set this week for writing and speaking based on the previous theme.
We can complete the Wiederholung section from Module 3.
Echo Express Module 4 deals with the body, being ill and possible cures.
Today we will focus on the various parts of the body a how to say where it hurts using the verb „tun“.
Saturday, October 29th @ 10.00
You had a couple of writing tasks from Echo Express 2 to complete S43 and S45 F7. Modal VerbsÂ
Today, we can look at alibis and see if you can figure out a Cluedo style whodunnit in German...
This will be more practice in changing from the first to the third person in the Perfect Tense.
We can also look at Halloween vocabulary in German.
Possibly a revision of the chapter and a logic puzzle with a view to writing and speaking assignments.
One German woman's view of the Halloween period USA and Germany.
Saturday, October 22nd @ 10.00
You had p39 Q.7 and P41 Q5 and 7, along with the two puzzle sheets on TV and film, to look at over the last week or so.
Today, we will look at talking about a particular pastime in detail, including various intensifiers, adjectives, and the use of the modal verb „müssen“.
We may get to look at reporting back about an after-school trip and the grammatical point in German of Time. Manner, Place. (S44.45)
Saturday, October 15th @ 10.00
You had many revision and reinforcement sheets on the topic of „Einkaufen gehen“ to review, including many questions about the pictures you saw.
Today we will look more at the theme of Nach der Schule... this will include TV programmes and film genres, including people's preferences. S.38 & 39.
In a variation of the task in the book, write a report about your and your family's viewing preferences regarding TV programmes and films.
An awful song about TV programmes!!!
Saturday, October 8th @ 10.00
You had a fair few reading and writing tasks to check over in the week.Â
Today, we will complete Module 2 input. There will be a revision section to ensure it is all in there.
- Types of shops, what was bought and where.
- Wiederholung - „schreiben“ can be completed for homework, as can revising all the vocabulary.
- The Extra Reading could be done for homework (if not completed), although out of season; this shows where the course writers would have assumed the students following the course would be in December on Year 9.
Next time is TV and Film etc...
The below will help with that vocabulary...
Friday, September 30th @ 17.50
Continuing the theme of buying things at the marketplace, we will continue looking at the Café am Markt menu, practising buying from the menu, and moving on the complaining about the quality of the food.
For next time: Write either a critical review of a fictional (or real) café you know, or use the dialogue on P25 of Echo Express 2 to adapt the written criticism of Café am Markt.
If we have time, we can begin looking into more places to make purchases rather than just at the market.
Shops and Shopping - Einkaufen und Geschäfte.
Saturday, September 24th @ 10.00
Today, we will look at the Market Place, weights and buying things at the market. Then possibly move on to buying a snack at the Café on Market Square.
For next time, you might wish to write a critique of the food at the café you ordered, which did not go quite as it should have.
Buying at the market
Although not quite complaining in a Café, this video helps with vocabulary about making complaints.
Saturday, September 17th @ 9.00
Today, we will complete the Wiederholung part of Chapter 1 to check on what you have learned, and we will begin looking into buying food in specific quantities at the market.
DaF Arbeitsblätter über Mengen
Saturday, September 10th @ 10.00
Today we continued to look at the formation of the perfect tense. We completed Chapter 1 of Echo Express 2.
Tuesday, September 1st @ 14:00
Today we will begin to look at the formation of the perfect tense. At least the beginning of past participle formation and the tense formation itself and the word order using the auxiliary verb 'haben' (you may be familiar with other languages and their use of two different auxiliary verbs).
Tuesday, August 23rd @ 14:00
Today we can begin the Echo Express 2 course. It starts by revising the Present Tense (What you normally do during the summer hols) Then introduces the simple phrases in the Imperfect Tense (I was and it was) - Then introduces the Perfect Tense to talk about what happened in the past...
Saturday, July 23rd @ 10.00
Plan for the return to class whenever you feel you want to either in mid to late August (not necessarily on a Saturday) or in September on Saturdays.
We will do the Echo Express Course 2 to cover all that should be known before attempting a GCSE course.
Basic Greetings
Saturday, July 16th @ 10.00
Receive the reading and writing scores for Module 6 and hand in those of the Jahresbilanz.
Die Entstehung der Menschen - Human Evolution
Saturday, July 9th @ 10.00
Plan for Jahresbilanz
Jahresbilanz - Hören, Lesen, Schreiben und Sprechen.
The active and passive skills are all tested. Reading and Listening are mostly passive as you are required to understand and not produce much, (if any) language yourself.
Speaking and Writing are active, requiring you to produce language yourself.
Even at GCSE, there is usually an element of preparation for the Speaking allowed:
This Jahresbilanz is constructed from bits of all 6 modules, so includes all the themes in the book at some point :
School and stationery (including school uniform and other clothing), food and drink, family and pets (including description and personalities), hobbies and free time activities (including making arrangements), the town, transport, and directions...
The higher-level tasks are questions about your town and what you are planning to do there this weekend (what you will see and do plus opinions)
Extra
Deutsche Geschichte - using this text you can learn a lot of phrases and vocabulary to talk about a period in German History (and indeed any similar history).
Based on our chat last week, here is the video for Rosenstolz - Wir sind am Leben...
With the lyrics, so you can read and predict pronucniation.
At this stage, can you figure out what the theme of the song is? - The official video can help you work out what the intended meaning is too.
Saturday, July 2nd @ 10.00
You may well have written the dream holiday bit which could be used to answer the final questions on the speaking assessment.
Kontrolle 6 - Hören, Lesen, Schreiben und Sprechen
You are probably now able to read song lyrics and use them to test your own idea of pronunciation (German is generally far easier than English to correctly pronounce, once you have mastered the idea of the pronunciation of each letter).
So something to increase your exposure to German as a language is to find the music you like, that is sung in German, search for the lyrics (Songtexte) and have them either printed or on a screen, and read them through thinking carefully about the pronunciation of each word, then play the song... Did the singer pronounce everything as you predicted, if not what was different, if you can notice a difference, then you are on the way to improving your pronunciation still further.
There are about 10 songs on average per week in the German Top 100 that are sung in German The music channel linked at the top, will help you find out what's 'hot' in Germany at the moment
Saturday, June 25th @ 10.00
We will complete Unit 5 of Chapter 6 - Then next week the Unit 6 Kontrolle - (The following week there's a whole book Kontrolle to complete). You might like to look at the various Extra Exercises in the book pages 100-111 to help revise the whole course.
In den Sommerferien Video
Nilsen - Sommerferien
Songtext - Nilsen - Sommerferien
Saturday, June 18th @ 10.00
Hallo aus Berlin - Essen und Trinken
Saturday, June 11th @ 10.00
Homework you have already prepared on weather and town...
Directions and other buildings in a town (Parkstadt)
Modes of transport
Your school may well have a Linguascope subscription - (it advertises it on the website) the username and password are school-wide, and the languages are all accessible. There are a lot of useful practice tools available on this website to learn vocabulary.
Hallo aus Berlin - In der Stadt (Covers the town, its places, and directions)
Friday, June 3rd @ 10.00 (June 4th - Andrew is not available)
Hopefully, you are fairly confident with your house, home, room, locality, and ideal room themes.
You should have produced something on your room now and what your ideal room is and perhaps a report on what you had and now have (what your room was like and is like now it is 'ideal').
Based on chapter 6 we will look at Germany, Austria, and Switzerland today.
We may get on to talking about the weather too.
Wie ist das Wetter?
Saturday, May 21st @ 10.00 (May 28th - Markus is not available)
 Echo Express Mein Haus and see what you can recall.
You were going to complete some of the many worksheets I gave to you covering the previous 4 chapters and those for this chapter.
You were going to add to your presentation about where you live (area, town, type of house, what's in your house and in your room)
Echo Express Contents new theme.
In meinem Zimmer - Letzte WocheÂ
Wo liegen/stehen die Sachen im Zimmer?
LSWS Mein Haus/Mein Zimmer/Zu Hause/Vor, unter, usw.
Hausaufgaben
Zeichnet dein ideales Schlafzimmer - Schreib mir etwas darüber. Auch die Arbeitsblätter über das Haus und das Zimmer usw.
A recap from YouTube - Um dir zu helfen.
Leseverständnis Übungen
Hallo aus Berlin (zu Hause) - Made in the 1990s but the language is still German!
A copy of the stapled pack questionnaire I gave you...
Saturday, May 14th @ 10:00
In this session, you have hopefully prepared for presenting your family and hobbies using what was previously covered in the book Echo Express 1 in chapters 3 and 4. (See below for some help from the Hallo aus Berlin team who are teenagers in the 90s (now probably in their 40s!)
During this session...
We looked at the first section of Module 5 which you covered already, and then onto the furniture in the bedroom.
We looked at the beginning of this worksheet:
Hallo aus Berlin covers introductions in their first episode and then some. (Module 1 Echo Express 1)
Hallo aus Berlin covers School in this episode. (Module 2 of Echo Express 1 and then some)
Hallo aus Berlin covers family in this episode (Echo Express 1 chapter 3 and then some)
Hallo aus Berlin covers hobbies in this episode (Echo Express Chapter 4 and then some)
Wortschätze - These posters can help you learn the vocabulary from themes already covered in Modules 1-4 (and some more).
Hobbys
Tiere und Haustiere
Zahlen
Saturday May 7th @ 10:00
We covered modules 1 and 2 of Echo Express 1 in revision from. You have now to prepare a presentation to speak about your family in detail and hobbies.
That will revise Echo Express 1 chapters 3 and 4. (See above too for Hallo aus Berlin videos to help with variety, pronunciation etc)
Saturday February 5th @ 14:30
In the first session we will attempt to learn some very basic German.
You should be able to spell your name and town in German.
You may be able to understand others doing this.
You should be able to count from at least one to ten and possibly up to 30 (or more)
You should be able to meet and greet people and introduce yourself in German.
If you are serious about learning German into the future there are these courses in existence which give you a lot of resources for learning the language with a qualified tutor (such as myself).
The Listening Exercises (very pricey)
Stimmt GCSE Course Book
Stimmt Listening Resources
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