Implementation of “Where do they work? Wo arbeiten sie?” (SOI-HR-460)
Introduction
I have chosen the learning scenario by Barbara Legutko (https://teachwitheuropeana.eun.org/files/2021/04/Europeana-DSI-4-Learning-Scenario-Legutko-PL.pdf) to implement into my teaching for two reasons: firstly, this scenario deals with vocabulary building in German as a second language and my learners have German as an elective subject. The language level of my learners is approximately the same as the author’s. Secondly, this scenario offers clear steps and tasks that can serve as a basis for further activities in which learners can use the vocabulary presented.
Activities
The age of my learners is 14 and this is their last year of education in a primary school in Croatia. Soon they will need to enroll in a secondary school and start thinking about the future jobs. By conducting this lesson they will not only learn how to name different occupations in German, but also try to think about what it means to actually have a job and be someone else.
The learning scenario was implemented in two groups of German learners (eighth graders- 22 pupils altogether). The classes were conducted face to face. The time suggested by the author is 45 minutes and I have decided to spend 2 lessons (90 minutes) on the implementation. The first lesson is based almost entirely on the learning scenario and since my learners already can name certain occupations in German, this was a revision lesson for them. They revised the names of the occupations, the places where people work and also used short sentences with the verb to work (arbeiten).
I have explained the way the images for the lesson were acquired and how they can use the Europeana portal.
I have added the Kahoot quiz in which my learners revised the names of occupations, places where people can work and the most common verbs describing activities (https://create.kahoot.it/share/berufe/ad86452e-9d06-47e7-afeb-3c8232d6eaf2). After that we started our discussion on how they spend their time. I asked them about their typical day, activities and duties. We talked about how your life changes once you have a job and learners all agreed that it can be demanding having so many responsibilities.
Group work
After that they were divided into groups of 4 or 5. Each group was given an image with a person. They needed to imagine what a typical day of this person looks like. I gave them guidelines, questions, to think about when writing about them, for example: Wie alt bist du? How old are you? Was bist du von Beruf? What do you do? Wo arbeitest du? Where do you work? Wann stehst du auf? When do you get up? Hast du genug Freizeit? Do you have enough free time? They needed to discuss the answers to these questions in groups and then try to write a short description using German.
We used images provided by the author of the learning scenario and the ones from the following links:
https://www.europeana.eu/item/9200579/qdafcge9
https://www.europeana.eu/item/440/item_P7RCP7WD5GFHSK6YZXPUBLTUPOTHGOFZ
The benefits of the Europeana platform for teaching and learning
By the end of this lesson students were able to use the new vocabulary in the sentences about different people. But apart from being able to write a short text in the German language, they were also able to critically think about what it means to have a job and responsibilities. By putting themselves into someone else’s shoes, they developed empathy and gained a better understanding of the world of adulthood, which they will enter very soon. By working in groups, they developed their collaboration skills.
The collection of images provided by Europeana helped me in implementing this scenario. I like the fact that, as a teacher of foreign languages, I can use these images in a number of ways: They can serve as a starting point when introducing different topics, they can be given to pupils to produce short dialogs, written or oral, and by doing so, develop their language skills. Images can also tickle their imagination and help them express their thoughts in a creative way.
Link to the learning scenario implemented: Where do they work?/ Wo arbeiten sie? (LS-PL-572) – Teaching With Europeana (eun.org)
Do you want to discover more stories of implementation? Click here.
PDM 1.0: the featured image used to illustrate this article has been found on Europeana and has been provided by the Örebro County Museum.