Strategies
I will introduce no more than 15 new words per film chapter using TPRS. I will then “ask” a story in which I provide the basic framework and my students provide the details. This should take no more than 20 minutes of class time. Please see the activities section for one story idea and a list of the vocabulary words I have chosen. We will then watch the relevant chapter of the film once without sound and discuss what they see. We will then watch the chapter again with the German sound and I will ask questions about what is taking place. We will then discuss one formal element of film in that chapter and how that formal element is used to convey cultural elements of the DDR. I will help them extensively with the first ten chapters. For chapters 11-16, I will give them small questionnaires asking them to identify one or two film elements, what those elements are trying to convey, how they relate to what they’ve already seen or what they may be foreshadowing, and the cultural aspect that is being explained. The students will then be given a story, similar to the one asked at the beginning of the chapter, to translate. I may even give them some of the movie text to translate and rewrite in their own words. Every chapter will end with a short five to ten question quiz. The entire unit will be evaluated with a questionnaire pertaining to film and to the culture of the DDR. It will also include some elements that test language mastery.
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