"Deutsche Sommerschule am Atlantik"
Looking for a convenient way to update your instructional skills
and knowledge about the teaching and learning of German? The GOLDEN
program allows to you to learn the latest instructional strategies
and to integrate them directly into your German classroom via online
professional development workshops.
New schedule for 2007 posted!
The Goethe-Institut Washington, the University of
Nebraska/Lincoln, and the AATG have developed an online continuing
education opportunity for teachers of German based on the GOLDEN
project with which many of you are already familiar.
Four-week long online workshops will enable teachers to
concentrate on DaF-subjects at their own pace. The innovative
features of this project include:
- media-driven, interactive professional development
opportunities
- incorporation of the goals and standards for students of
German: communication, cultures, connections, comparisons, and
communities
- development of teachers' technological skills and their
integration of the internet into classroom instruction
- the building of a community/network of German teachers who
reflect on their practice grounded in language learning theories
and research
The workshops planned for 2007 are:
Reading I: 1 March 28 March 2007
Speaking I: 2 April 29 April 2007
Reading II: 1 May 28 May 2007
Writing III: 1 June 28 June 2007
Instructional Planning I: 2 July 29 July 2007
Speaking II: 1 August 28 August 2007
Instructional Planning II: 3 September 30 September 2007
Writing IV: 1 October 28 October 2007
Here are a few short summaries of workshops we will offer this
year:
Speaking I
This interactive workshop will give you the opportunity to consider
your teaching of "Speaking skills" while working in your own
classroom. Being able to analyze the specific functions and formats
of Speaking skills is central in determining language proficiency.
Your students will benefit by be able to respond with increased
confidence and proficiency speaking German in and outside the
classroom.
Speaking II
In this interactive workshop you will reflect on your instructional
package, including curriculum, textbook, and technological
resources. While working in your own environment, you will identify
and discuss various exercises that promote different functions of
speaking. Within the community formed by the workshop participants,
you will also envision different types of activities for use in the
classroom, and reflect on the effectiveness of those activities.
Benefits your students will receive from your participation in this
workshop include being introduced to new methods, strategies and
technologies.
Writing III
While the focus in module 2 was on more technique-oriented
activities for your class as a whole, this module concentrates on
the process of writing and how you can help your students as
individual writers become more creative and accomplished in written
German. You will be encouraged to examine how textbook authors and
teachers guide students in attempting to improve their writing
skills. The focus will be on discovering the true purpose of
writing: "expressing one's own ideas as convincingly as possible"
and giving students "a more sophisticated understanding of content,
style, audience and organization" (Corl/Jurasek/ Jurasek 1994c, II,
III).
Writing IV
This is the Writing Assessment CEU-Module of GOLDEN that
focuses on the what, who and how of writing assessment. You will be
led through an exploration that begins by reflecting on your own
assessment practices and the function of a foreign language educator
from a mere evaluator to focusing on making students better writers.
Assessment will be presented as an on-going process that begins when
students do their prewriting brainstorming, and continues on
throughout the writing endeavor. Activities will include analysis of
the advantages and disadvantages of different forms of assessment,
the nuts and bolts of assessing student writing, and ways to make
the best of students mistakes, grades, and peer assessment.
Each workshop will be directed by an experienced and trained
GOLDEN facilitator. Further, each workshop is independent of the
other(s). Thus, one could take the "Reading II" workshop without
having first taken "Reading I".
At the successful completion of each workshop, each participant
will receive a certificate indicating the earning of 1.0
Professional Development Credit (with 10 contact hours) from the
University of Nebraska-Lincoln. The cost for each workshop is
$125 if paying by check or $130 if
paying by credit card. If you would like to register, you may obtain
the registration form in Word or PDF format at these locations:
http://www.aatg.org/media/GOLDENRegistration.doc/ or
http://www.aatg.org/media/GOLDENRegistration.pdf/. The
registration deadline for each workshop is one week prior to the
start date. Please return to AATG by mail or fax with payment. If
there are not at least three people signed up for a workshop, AATG
and UNL reserve the right to cancel the workshop and fully refund
the participant's registration fee.
We hope you take advantage of this opportunity to join
your German colleagues on line to share best practices and classroom
ideas!
