Thursday, May 10, 2018

Learning German - Teaching Juniors (seminar report)


Last weekend I had the chance to attend Klett's seminar day, which was very informative.
What I liked the most was that although the event was organised by a publisher, which means that the target was how to sell books, people there at Klett Greece have done wonderful work presenting new trends in methodology and practical ways to teach all levels.


The session I attended was about teaching Juniors, held by the author of the book for Juniors, Ms Ulrike Kambitsis-Hetzel.
I have to say that I was pretty impressed with the energy of this teacher-author. She was very knowledgeable and had a variety of ideas for our lessons. Teaching Juniors requires a lot of stamina and ingenuity, in my opinion.
Judging from the fact that German materials in general had not reached the level of the relevant English ones, I was pleasantly surprised with this book.


Coming to the presentation, we first discussed the rituals teachers use in the classroom. Having things that you always do in class, gives the very young students security. These can be a specific greeting, various gestures, a quiet moment, a circle activity, etc.


Children learn through emotions, need variety, lots of repetitions, because although they learn easily, they forget really fast. And it would be better to learn in chunks and not an analysis of nouns, verbs and grammar that they still don't understand even in their mother tongue.
We were then shown some examples from the book, with suggestions how to use the materials and extra tips for games and more practice.


I would really like to thank KLETT Greece and Ms Hetsel for the enlightening session.
I wish I had more time to attend more sessions. Hopefully next time!


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