Students will plan a European trip for their "family" group in which each family member chooses a German-speaking city to visit and chooses the sites/activities for that city. Then the "family" creates a scrapbook of their European trip and interviews someone from another family about their European adventure.

Two weeks of class

Travel vocabulary, geography of Europe, past tense

Students will be able to plan a trip on the internet, be able to communicate in the past tense, and have a general understanding of the geography of Germany

Is Germany very different from Pennsylvania?

What makes a city or town attractive to visitors?

Is our town attractive to visitors?

If you could choose any German-speaking city to visit, where would you go?

Students already know the vocabulary associated with town places, can communicate in the past tense, and how to pose questions.

Students will learn vocabulary associated with geography and travel in Europe (types of hotels, eating establishments, activities, means of transportation, etc.) They will learn how to navigate the internet and how to access home pages on German-speaking cities.

Presentation Activity - Scrapbook - Students will create a scrapbook which summarizes their "family's" trip to German-speaking Europe. Each group member is responsible for providing five pictures with subtitles of at least three sentences. At least three of the pictures should depict sites that were visited in the city. They will also keep of log of trip costs for hotel, tickets for museums, sites, etc. Transportation costs do not have to be included.

Interpersonal Activity - Interview - Students will interview another class member and ask questions about their European trip. They will in turn answer questions about their own trip.

Students will complete worksheets on the following:

1. German Geography

2. Two worksheets for the song Koeln ist Einfach Korrekt by the Wise Guys

3. A worksheet on an assigned German-speaking city mentioned in the above song containing questions for which the answers are obtained from the city's home page.

4. A worksheet to be completed by each family containing questions from each of the worksheets completed by its members.

Vocabulary

Students will recall vocabulary associated with towns from the prior school year and will brainstorm what makes a town attractive to visitors. What would they take someone to see in our vicinity if German friends came to visit them.

Students will then be told a story about three teenagers from Germany and what they decided to do on their vacations. They will be introduced to the different types of hotels, restaurants and what types of activities one might undertake on a vacation. After telling the stories, students will have to retell the stories in the past tense to practice the vocabulary and practice the past tense which was taught at the end of the prior school year.

Geography

Teacher will introduce the geography of German to students and have them guess answers to questions about its size in relation to overheads shown (comparing its size to two different overheads of the U.S. She will compare the size and climate to that of Pennsylvania).

Students will try to place flags of countries onto a map of Europe (drawn on a shower curtain!) in order to learn the location of Germany within Europe. Teacher will discuss the advantages and disadvantages of Germany's location in the middle of Europe.

Students will also be taught the major rivers in German-speaking countries, and which ones create natural boundaries with other countries. They will also be introduced to the Hanseatic Leagues when discussing the Baltic Sea and harbor cities.

Song - Koeln ist Einfach Korrekt

Students will listen to the song Koeln ist Einfach Korrekt and complete two worksheets associated with it:

The first has students matching the city name to something mentioned about the city.

The second has the students locating the cities on a blank map of Germany.

Internet Activities

Students will go to the library and use computers to access information on the German cities mentioned in the song Koeln ist Einfach Korrekt. Each member of the family will be assigned a number, and they will work with all the other class members of the same number to complete a worksheet on their particular city.

Then students are to return to their family group and each student answers the questions on a quiz that includes questions about each city. If everyone has completed their task, the group should be able to complete the worksheet with no problem.

After researching a particular city, the students will be assigned the task of planning a trip to German-speaking Europe. Each family member may choose a city and choose the activities they wish to do in that city. They are to find accommodations, choose the activities the family will do in that city, note the price of tickets for these attractions, if any. Then they are to create scrapbook pages for a family photo album of their European trip.