16.Jan' 16 - When in Rome

A class divided cannot stand. That's ok though; we were sitting in any case.

Before we had to separate the grade levels, we went over my week (as per usual) and watched  and discussed a German video.

Then, the 8th graders had the joyous, uproarious, hilarious opportunity to sit and take the AATG exam for most of the day, and I'm certain they had a ball doing so.

As for the 7th graders, who did not have the privilege of engaging in this joyous activity on Saturday, we took this opportunity to go over some material that would have been highly familiar to the 8th graders (and thus boring for them) but was brand new and exciting for the rest of the class.

Unlike last year, where we very gradually went over Germanic tribes and their interactions with Imperial Rome, this year that is only part of a greater historical-cultural unit. In previous weeks, we learned about the Iron Age Germanic tribes. This week, we had an in-depth lesson over comparing their lifestyle to that of Imperial Romans.

This will culminate within the next two weeks in a discussion over why or why not the tribes desired to join the invading Romans, and finally we will cover my favorite part, the Battle of Teutoburg (the mural in the back of the classroom).
From there we will move on to further Germanic history, including (if all goes well) the teutonic kingdoms and the Holy Roman Empire.

I have been asked before "Why are we doing social studies?" To answer, as was drilled into me during undergrad and grad school until I practically started saying it in my sleep, "Language cannot be taught in a vacuum." I feel this cultural orientation is essential as a part of learning German; specifically, the parts we are covering in class are the bits that tend to be glossed over or left out entirely in "real school."

We also began covering modal verbs, beginning with wollen and möchten and their usage differentiation.

After the lesson ended, and the class was re-united, we had a much-deserved break and played some classic games such as "Stazimann" and "Wer hat den Schlüssel?" since 2 hours of testing and learning deserves a reward.


The homework...
Produce for me a minimum 20 sentences describing your personal preference: to live as a Germanic tribesman, or to live as a Roman citizen, and why, using specific examples from class.