Group items tagged

German culture

German culture and online participation activities

Interesting article. More proof about the need for competency in more than one language and culture.

Culturally Authentic Pictorial Lexicon: This site is a searchable site of images by language and some countries.

Culturally Authentic Pictorial Lexicon

This is a link to Douglas' book on a new culture of learning. I only read the first chapter and thought that it was a good follow up to one of the video's discussion points, formal vs.informal learning. I do not know how it is that the entire book is available to read online, but it is.

German resources from Nancy Thuleen, Professor at the University of Wisconsin. Great resources include culture, links etc. Explore German 100 and 200 levels

An interesting blog by a teacher of languages and technology.  Three entries, "improving pronunciation using Speech-to-Text Apps", "Using Thinglink to prepare for the AP cultural comparison", and "using google drawing in language classes" have direct correlations to what we do and can use in our classrooms.  Google draw (found in Chrome's Google Drive) would be particularly helpful to practice writing Arabic or Chinese.  

HistoryPin is a free Web 2.0 tool that allows users to "pin" photos, audio, or video to a particular world map location, much like the Google Earth program. The main idea is that, with enough participation, users will be able to get a sense of the history a location - both the visual and narrative aspects of it - as photos or videos from various time periods are pinned to that location. I can envision my students using it in partnership with another class of L1 students to share the concept of how people and places can change. For instance, both groups might focus on how a major city in their own country has changed, in order to demonstrate that to the other class via HistoryPin. Students would collect and upload photos or videos that show how the respective cities grew, how building or even fashion styles changed. They would use the HistoryPin audio option to describe the changes, my L2 students in Spanish, the L1 students in English. Once the L2 learners had "pinned" their photos on the map, L1 students could review and e-mail corrections so that L2 students could return to HistoryPin and edit their contribution. My students would do the same in return in English for the L1 students (assuming they are learning English, possibly). In this way, through collaboration, all students can gain a new perspective on how people and places look and change in another culture, while honing "technical" language skills.

UNESCO promotes linguistic diversity and multilingualism

PLN 605 Spanish

Today's Front Pages is a dynamic feature of the Newseum website, providing pdf versions and links to prominent newspapers around the US and around the world. To access today's news in another country and in another language, view the collection via the "Map"view which allows you to choose the region of the world you want to explore. As an activity for world language students, have them research a current event that appears on the front pages of several international papers, in English and in the target language. Use this activity to not only learn about current news and culture, but to explore how a singular event is reported differently by different newspapers.

A spreadsheet listing 1,195 (and growing!) songs in Spanish. Includes artist, title, grammar and vocabulary covered, culture, country of origin, and any other pertinent links to, for example, YouTube videos. Suggestions for songs not found here are welcome by site creator Sra. Birch.

I actually worked with this teacher during my interships in my undergraduate studies. She is very big into using music and videos in the classroom.

Nick, that is really cool! Yes, apparently she DOES get into teaching with music, with such a huge compilation of songs!

Uclass is an online portal for classroom connections around the globe. Similar to ePals, this site allows teachers to create a virtual classroom and then request to connect with other classrooms for pen-pal exchanges or project collaboration. This site promotes cultural awareness and opportunities to easily connect with other classes around the world to arrange projects and virtual exchanges. Once teachers create a site (register) they can add students to the class to create student accounts. From there, one can search for other classes seeking pen-pals. Teachers can post messages for all users to view, suggesting topics of interest to language study or project proposals. Students can send direct messages to other students in other classes and within their own class, provided that the teacher has permitted this function within the class. Easy tool for getting started with global project collaboration and communication exchanges in the target language.

This site/blog has lots of ideas for differentiation.  

This blog is run by two Louisville KY teachers of Spanish and is full of great ideas: "tech, hands-on, culture, activities by the 3 modes" to name a few. Open for teachers to post as well.

Food Lunchbox Project is a collaborative page used by schools and teachers to exchange photos of and comments about typical school lunches. Useful for units on food, health, culture.

German TV program and online childrens cartoon series with activities