In German I Part 1, the student is given a comprehensive introduction to the basic and fundamental skills necessary for expressing common ideas in the German language. The course will begin by introducing the student to the basics of introductory conversation and will build in theme and scope to address topics including daily activities, travel, needs, desires, and preferences in increasingly complex and typical situations. This provides a realistic context for the skills acquired by the student. The course also provides a considerably thorough study of grammatical skills, ranging from the most basic sentences to engaging and creative structures dealing with more interesting situations. There is a significant amount of vocabulary introduced across all four units, which provide a rich lexicon for communicating a large number of ideas. Throughout the course, a great deal of attention is paid to all of the skills necessary for a full and practical mastery of the language, such as reading, writing, listening, and speaking. Along the way, the student will acquire a familiarity with many of the cultural factors that helped to shape and are shaped by the German language. By the end of the first part of the course, the student will become a comfortable communicator in the basic aspects of the German language and will be prepared to continue further study in more intermediate and advanced themes in the second part of the course.

These courses include auditory comprehension assessments that require students to listen to audio files and to record themselves speaking. For these courses, it is essential that students have either a headset equipped with a microphone or access to an internal microphone within their computers.

Course Objectives

Unit 1: Essential Content and Skills

Identify Brandenburg and its capital, Potsdam.
Identify greetings and names and use them in conversations.
Formulate questions and recognize patterns in the German gender system.
Identify numbers for people’s ages, and recognize phrases describing where people are from.
Utilize forms of sein with proper subject/verb agreement.
Practice pronunciation of German umlauts, and understand native speakers introducing themselves and describing how they get to school.
Master the reading strategy of using visual clues.

Unit 2: Essential Content and Skills

Identify vocabulary words and phrases used to describe interests and leisure activities.
Utilize the present tense of verbs.
Determine the importance of verb position and sequence words in German sentences about various activities.
Utilize time expressions, and categorize phrases used for opinions, agreement, and disagreement.
Create conversations about interests and hobbies.
Master the reading strategy of scanning text for specific information.

Unit 3: Essential Content and Skills

Identify vocabulary words for food and beverages, and use forms of mӧchte to express wishes in restaurants and other settings.
Utilize adjectives and their opposites to describe pieces of furniture.
Distinguish between the definite and indefinite German articles.
Utilize subject pronouns and their possessive forms.
Describe family members, and classify people by their descriptions.
Listen to and understand native people talk about where they live.
Master the reading strategy of using root words to determine meanings of unfamiliar words.

Unit 4: Essential Content and Skills

Identify school subjects and practice telling time.
Discuss the 24-hour system of telling time.
Utilize sequencing words to list the order of events, and utilize the verb haben.
Listen to and understand native students talk about their favorite subjects in school.
Express likes, dislikes, favorites, and opinions.
Recognize different patterns of plural forms, and practice pronouncing and understanding German diphthongs.
Master the reading strategy of understanding compound words and determining the meaning of the entire word.

Course Materials

Holt Komm mit! (textbook)

*Available as an iText course

**NCAA approved

Course Catalog

Browse (Course availability is subject to change.)

Elementary School

Middle School

High School

Electives