German as a foreign language (DaF)
Our core curriculum is based on the CEF (Common European Framework of Reference for Languages). It is a specific form of the curriculum with the following characteristics: It is limited to the most necessary, does not provide an exact progress plan, and as a rule does not provide a binding list of the following contents. Instead, it provides a final language profile in the form of graded sub-competencies. The end profile represents a standard to be achieved. The core curriculum focuses on the description of competence expectations against the background of the CEF, which one would like to achieve at the end of a certain section.
How do we organize the lessons? Action-oriented teaching
According to a definition by the school teacher Hilbert Meyer, action-oriented teaching is “a holistic and student-active teaching in which the action products agreed between the teacher and the pupils guide the design of the teaching process so that the pupils’ head work and manual work can be brought into a balanced relationship with one another”.
Method
Action-oriented learning is a counter-model to fact-based memorization, in which students are merely consumers of the subject matter. The characteristic of this learning by doing is instead the high level of the personal activity of the learners, who are involved in lesson planning and design right from the start and are called upon to work on the learning content actively and purposefully.
The focus of the teaching is always the production of spiritual products of material action, which symbolize the learning goal. Such an action product can be anything from a panel painting, a physical series of measurements, a letter to the editor, or a website to a concrete, self-constructed machine, for example for the use of rainwater.
Objective
The aim of this type of teaching is to achieve a balance between head work and manual work, thus enabling sustainable, experimental learning with all the senses. In action-oriented teaching, the students must first understand the task in detail and then work out ways to solve it themselves.
Course of instruction
The action-oriented teaching is always divided into certain teaching phases: The explanation of the problem is followed by the definition of the products of action and the formation of working groups. In the processing phase, actions are planned, evaluated, and coordinated and various, individual solution approaches are tested. In the final presentation phase, each working group presents its results and discusses them with the teacher and the other students.
Conclusion
The action-oriented teaching strengthens the self-activity and personal responsibility of the learners. It requires the ability to work in a team, trains communicative competence, and also promotes interdisciplinary and networked learning. Use in forms of work such as chain exercise, project work, back dictation, station learning, joint games outdoors, etc.