Courses:

Two hour-long written tests focus on individual student expression in two main sections: a) construction of sentences using the specific vocabulary and grammatical structures that have been analyzed and practiced in class discussion of a variety of authentic printed and video texts, including literary and documentary texts; b) short essays in the form of description, interpretation, and discussion that draw on class work with texts.

Four vocabulary quizzes echo the format of the daily 5-item vocabulary lists based on the material for class discussion compiled by individual students for the class [Vokabelarbeit (PDF), Sample Student List (PDF)]. For each quiz based on 30-35 items, students choose 5-6 words/phrases from a pre-selected list of 10-12 and provide for each the appropriate syntactical and semantic information and an original sentence that illustrates appropriate use [Sample Vocabulary Test (PDF)].

Five-minute oral presentation of an area of particular personal interest and experience. Students prepare an outline for the presentation (see Referat under assignments) and speak from their notes without reading. Evaluation is on the basis of clarity, structure, idiomatic use of language, delivery, interest-level of content.