2nd-year German II: Pure Michigan Project

Einfach auf Deutsch Werbekampagne !!

GRM 202 SECOND-YEAR GERMAN II

PORTFOLIO OVERVIEW !Objectives

This semester, students will work in small groups to create a tourism advertising campaign for one of the cities covered in the last six chapters of Stationen.

The premise? GRM 202 has been contacted by a German agency interested in translating the PureMichigan campaign for a German-speaking audience: Einfach auf Deutsch. They’ve asked GRM 202 to contribute to a website  and create a commercial. This is a chance to use German 1

creatively — so have fun!

The Einfach auf Deutsch Werbekampagne is a project-based approach to teaching second-year German. Throughout the semester, students work together on a series of activities to practice grammatical concepts, find and evaluate information, and communicate ideas in German.

The course work culminates in a final artifact: an ad campaign for a German-speaking city, organized and annotated by students, and then presented in class.

!Goals

The Einfach auf Deutsch project contributes to the overall learning goals and objectives for GRM 202, which enable students to:

• use the language creatively to talk about familiar topics related to their daily life and to express personal meaning;

• communicate facts and ideas in writing, using basic vocabulary and structures to express meaning in forms such as simple messages, letters, or notes;

• understand simple, straightforward speech on familiar everyday topics and participate in face-to-face conversations;

� I’ve set up a website at http://einfachaufdeutsch.weebly.com. Weebly is a free and relatively 1

straightforward platform that allows students to remotely share and edit their page(s). For more information and tutorials, visit the Weebly Help Center: http://help.weebly.com/hc/en-us.

• understand the main ideas on familiar topics from a variety of texts.

More generally, project-based learning provides students with opportunities to participate in real-life communication in German, as well as to demonstrate progress in learning and using German through sharing ideas accurately and effectively.

!!PROJECT COMPONENTS !The Einfach auf Deutsch project helps to organize the work of the semester, so that students build mastery as they work through the project, practicing grammar and vocabulary along the way.

Working in groups (3-5 students), students focus on one city covered in the second half of Stationen: Köln, Dresden, Salzburg, Wien, or Zürich.

!Components

• Weekly Tagebucheinträge and Kommentare — on various topics, not all explicitly tied to Einfach auf Deutsch — give students the opportunity to practice communicating with their peers in German;

• Regular workshops, where students have time in class to work together on specific aspects of the project;

• A website (created using Weebly), featuring text and multimedia elements (images, links, videos, etc.) to advertise the city;

• A short (ca. 2 minute) commercial for the city, based on Pure Michigan, scripted and filmed by students;

• A final in-class presentation of the ad campaign (including commercial and website) with spontaneous narration.

PROJECT DETAILS The project components are completed sequentially throughout the semester, beginning with working groups, research about the city and its tourist attractions, then working on the commercial script, and creating content for the website. !Working groups

The first step in the project is to break students into working groups. These groups are stable throughout the semester, and form a kind of project “home base” in the course.

It’s advisable to assign groups, instead of allowing students to choose their own working groups. In this way, the groups can be equitably arranged to include a variety of language proficiencies, skills, experience, as well as personalities and learning styles.

Once working groups are established, each group choses a city and begins to research the local attractions. Once the groups have done some initial fact-finding about what there is to do and see there, they can begin to narrow down their options and get started on their campaign.

See the section below on Project Workshops for more information. !Tagebucheinträge

Each week, students will be asked to reflect on a question or topic discussed in class, including the project, or to write more generally about their everyday life at MSU. Tagebucheinträge should be at least 150 words long, and focus on using the structures and vocabulary we’ve practiced in class as correctly as possible.

The Tagebuch will be available through the D2L Discussions function. The prompt for each Eintrag will be posted in the topic description in the D2L Discussions.

Although the Tagebuch asks students to write on a variety of topics, some prompts might be tied to the work students have done for the project or in their working groups. For example:

• Tagebucheintrag #5: Was war Ihre Lieblingssehenswürdigkeit, die Sie am Freitag für Ihr Projekt geforscht haben? Beschreiben Sie kurz die Geschichte dieser Attraktion und warum Sie sie am interessantesten finden!

• Tagebucheintrag #10: Für Ihre Werbekampagne Einfach auf Deutsch haben Sie einige Sehenswürdigkeiten in einer Stadt recherchiert. Diskutieren Sie mit Ihrer Gruppe, so dass jede Person über eine verschiedene Sehenswürdigkeit schreibt. Stellen Sie ein Bild von der Sehenswürdigkeit online und schreiben Sie den Werbetext dazu. Vergessen Sie nicht: Sie machen eine Werbekampagne! !

Website

Each group will create a website for their city as a part of the Einfach auf Deutsch campaign. That means, the website is an advertising tool — it should be catchy, entertaining, and show off the city in its best light. Students can decide what information to feature and how to organize the site; however, they should include a variety of information, including text, images, links, and video.

The websites will be made with Weebly (http://www.weebly.com), a free platform. It supports multiple editors for a site, and easily integrates images, videos, and text. Multiple themes enable students to personalize their site.

The central website for the project is available at http://einfachaufdeutsch.weebly.com. Course instructors will be added as site administrators, so they will have full access to the site and will be able to edit their section page.

The individual city websites created by students will be linked from their respective section page. In this way, the course Weebly site is a clearing house for the project websites.

For more information on getting started with Weebly, check out their Help Center: http://help.weebly.com/hc/en-us. !SETTING UP WEEBLY PAGES Each group will create one Weebly site for their Einfach auf Deutsch campaign. To do this, one student will create a free account at http://www.weebly.com. Since the site address (for free accounts) displays as http://YOURSITETITLE.weebly.com, students should ideally come up with a title for their site that is recognizable and includes their section number (to avoid possible duplication across sections).

Once each group has created a Weebly site, the site administrator (i.e., the person who created the Weebly account) can add site editors by email and assign roles (e.g., administrator, author):

For full access to the site, all users should be designated as “administrator” users.

!!!!

BUILDING & DESIGNING WEEBLY SITES From the Setting menu, groups may also choose to protect their site with a password.

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Once working groups set up their pages, students can choose a site design and begin to add and organize content.

!Resources

The Weebly Help Center has a number of resources, including video tutorials. Find out more here: http://help.weebly.com/hc/en-us.

!

Werbespot

In addition to a website, each group will create a commercial for their city. The commercial should be about 2 minutes long, and feature everyone in the group in some way. If a group, or members of a group, would prefer not to appear on camera, that’s fine. There are a number of online resources for creating videos that students might want to experiment with:

• Jing is a way to share images and short videos. (http://www.techsmith.com/jing.html)

• Camtasia allows users to record on-screen material or add and edit video. (http://www.techsmith.com/camtasia.html)

• Animoto makes video slideshows using pictures, videos, and captions. (http://animoto.com)

The commercial will be uploaded to the city website and played for the class during the final presentation.

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PROJECT WORKSHOPS !Regular project workshops give students the opportunity to work with their groups on specific aspects of the project. These might include hands-on exercises, like setting up Weebly accounts, or researching Pure Michigan, or focusing on language practice, such as peer editing, brainstorming, or writing and research.

Importantly, the workshops are guided by the instructor, so that students work together to complete one task central to the overall project.

For example …

Workshop 1

Form working groups. These groups will be permanent for the semester. Once in your group: Introduce yourself! Find out a bit about the other members of your group. Now, discuss which city you would like to focus on for the project. Auf Deutsch, natürlich! !Workshop 2

Your group has been contacted by a German agency interested in translating the PureMichigan campaign to a German-speaking audience: Einfach auf Deutsch. They’ve asked you to contribute to a website and create a commercial for your city. This is a chance to use German creatively, so have fun!

Brainstormen!

Recherchieren Sie die Top-10 Attraktionen oder Sehenswürdigkeiten in Ihrer Stadt bzw. in der Nähe von Ihrer Stadt. Schreiben Sie einen Satz für jede Sehenswürdigkeit! !Workshop 3

Werbung machen!

Dann denken Sie darüber nach: welche Sehenswürdigkeiten könnten für eine Werbekampagne am interessantesten sein? Warum könnten diese Sehenswürdigkeiten besonders effektiv sein? Schreiben Sie eine Liste!

Nächste Wochen haben Sie Zeit, um weiter zu recherchieren.

!

Workshop 4

Your group has been contacted by a German agency interested in translating the PureMichigan campaign to a German-speaking audience: Einfach auf Deutsch. They’ve asked you to contribute to a website and create a commercial for your city. This is a chance to use German creatively, so have fun!

We’ll work on setting up a website — using Weebly — for each group next week. Today, we’ll get started thinking about your commercial.

Pure Michigan

Schauen Sie sich einige Werbespots (commercials, advertisements) von Pure Michigan an! Es gibt viele Beispiele auf YouTube zu finden: http://www.youtube.com/user/puremichigan.

Was haben die Werbespots gemeinsam (in common)? Machen Sie eine Liste!

Werbung machen!

Nachdem Sie einige Werbespots angeschaut haben, denken Sie darüber nach: was könnte für Ihre Werbekampagne interessant sein? Zusammen mit Ihrer Gruppe fangen Sie an, den Text für den Werbespot zu schreiben!

Sie werden uns Ihre Werbekampagne am Ende des Semesters vorstellen. Ihr Werbespot sollte ungefähr 2 Minuten sein.

!Workshop 5

This week you’ll get started with Weebly. Before you set up your website, take a look at the official website for your city. How does it look? What kinds of things does it feature?

Once you’ve done some research, each group will set up a website for their city at weebly.com. Choose a site title and theme, and get started thinking about what kind of content you’d like to use to advertise your city.

One person in each group will set up the site and then add other members of the group as administrators. Please also send your instructor a link to your site.

!Further workshops

Additional workshops should include time for adding website content, scripting and planning the commercial, and organizing the presentation.

PROJECT RUBRIC !The Einfach auf Deutsch project is a cumulative semester-long activity, which allows you to research a city in the German-speaking world. The project includes a number of components: website, commercial, final presentation, and a self-reflection.

1. Website (30%) Each group will create a website for their city as a part of the Einfach auf Deutsch campaign. Remember, the website is an advertising tool: it should be catchy, entertaining, and show off the city in its best light. You can decide what information to feature and how to organize the site; however, it should include a variety of information, including text, images, links, and video.

2. Werbespot (30%) In addition to a website, each group will create a commercial for their city. The commercial should be about 2 minutes long, and feature everyone in the group in some way. If a group, or members of a group, would prefer not to appear on camera, that’s fine. The commercial will be uploaded to the city website and played for the class during the final presentation.

3. Presentation (30%) In class, each group will present their Einfach auf Deutsch campaign. The presentations will be short, only about 10-15 minutes, and each group member should be prepared to talk for at least 2-3 minutes. Groups will also present their Werbespot.

Make sure the information you present in clear and relevant, and keep in mind that you should define auf Deutsch any important vocabulary words that we will need to know for your presentation. Remember you can use additional videos or music clips in your presentation!

You may bring a few notes, but you may not read a completed text.

4. Self-reflection (10%) The final component of the Einfach auf Deutsch project is a short reflection on the work you did and what you learned. A worksheet will be handed out in class.

!

superior 4.0

good 3.5

developing 3.0

undeveloped 2.0

weak 1.0

Presentation

style

presentation is engaging; clear purpose

presentation is engaging at points; less well articulated

presentation is somewhat engaging; may be vague

presentation is somewhat unfocused; lacks a clear purpose

presentation is ill-defined and unfocused

organization

effectively organized to communicate ideas

generally clear; may occasionally interfere with communication

somewhat haphazard; may interfere with communication

unclear, often because purpose is unfocused

lack of structure interferes with understanding

communication

comprehensible; speech continuous with few pauses; excellent pronunciation; rich use of vocabulary; control of basic structures

requires minimal interpretation; some hesitation but manages to complete thoughts; good pronunciation and vocabulary; emerging control of basic structures

often requires interpretation; speech choppy, some incomplete thoughts; pronunciation occasionally interferes; emerging use of basic structures

usually requires interpretation; speech halting, incomplete thoughts; pronunciation interferes; inaccurate vocabulary; inadequate use of basic structures

barely comprehensible; frequent incomplete thoughts; pronunciation and vocabulary often interfere; lacking control of basic structures

mechanicsexcellent use of technology to communicate

good use of technology of communicate

technology interferes in communication

technology is disruptive to the communication

technology is distracting or ineffective

Website + Werbespot

creativity

shows a high degree of creativity in planning and organizing tour

shows good creativity; may be less inventively planned and organized

shows some creativity; accurate, but lacking depth or organization

shows little creativity; inaccurate or ineffectually organized

lacks creativity; does not produce a functional tour

execution

polished final artifact; excellent execution; original and distinctive

very good final artifact; some minor issues with execution; less original and distinctive, but well crafted

good final artifact; issues interfere with execution; project is limited in scope and depth

less polished final artifact; numerous disruptive issues in execution; project is poorly crafted

major issues in execution; incomplete or missing artifact