German help

[AlexanderHamilton]

Ds has had two German lessons. He doesn't have a textbook & excercise books are left in school.

Last week his homework was to write the conjugations of the verb schwimmen. He looked this up on the internet.

This week he has to write five sentences in German e.g. I like to play football. He doesn't know where to start. In class they've been doing verb endings.

At his previous school it was drummed into him never to use google translate. They had a Spanish textbook with vocab lists. He has an asd so it will take a lot to get him to break that rule.

There are others in the class who havnt done German before.

He needs to ask the teacher. If he doesn't know how to say I like to play football then the homework isn't much use. I agree to no Google translate, because writing I like playing football in English and then putting it though translate won't teach him anything.

If they are doing verb endings, what verbs does he know? Does he know the construction 'I like xxx'? These would seem to be the building blocks of what they are being asked to do.

I do speak german btw but he shouldn't be getting the answers off the internet, he should be able to do it with what he's learned. If he can't do that then he needs to go back to the teacher and explain that he doesn't know how. Does he have a dictionary at least? If no dictionary then I'd say it's okay to use Google for the odd word as you would with a dictionary, but us unhelpful to translate whole sentences.

Leo is an online german to English dictionary which is not Google, soight be better anyway.

No, he doesn't have a dictionary but I think dh has one somewhere from when he studied classical German Leider in music.

Ds can't remember what verbs he was learning. He thinks one of them was 'to play' but can't remember what the verb is in German. He says they were given lists to translate in their excercise books but no one knew them so the teacher wrote them on the board. I can't understand why they havnt been allowed to bring their excercise books home to refer to. It's so they don't get forgotten to be brought back apparently.

I think the class are a bit afraid of the teacher as she gave a detention for not having a reading book for thevemd of lesson (except that class hasn't been told they needed one so she said ok if no-one gets a verbal warning all lesson - no detention, if anyone in the class misbehaves them detention. )

Send a note in with him saying that he wasn't able to do the homework because he couldn't remember the verbs or sentence structure and he didn't have his book to refer to. If he's ending up stressing about homework or because he's worried about getting into trouble for something he couldn't possibly have been expected to do/telepathically know, I'd contact the school directly, especially considering his ASD, I expect it could be quite distressing and anxiety provoking for him.

She sounds a bit strange. I wonder if she is new to teaching? I teach English to German kids, actually, and if I had set this as a homework, then it would either be a worksheet with prompts for the ones who are feeling unsure, and freedom for the ones who want to get more creative, or I'd be 100% sure that they knew the form "I like XXX" and how to form verbs in order to fit them in as well as several vocabulary options to fill the gaps. (And then I wouldn't set this as a homework because they'd already know it, so it would be pointless!)

After just two lessons, this is a huge amount to expect students to retain - normally they start with things like how to introduce yourself, say hello and goodbye and classroom vocabulary so that the teacher can give instructions (e.g. "Get out your pens" or "Look at page 4") in the target language to get them using it as quickly as possible. "I like playing football" is probably a more useful sentence but you can't run before you can walk.

Why did they need a reading book for the end of the lesson anyway? I assume she meant reading in English if they are beginners at German? What is the point of reading in English during an MFL class?

He doesn't need to go near Google translate. There are loads of reputable tools online.
Here is one of the best:
de.pons.com/übersetzung/englisch-deutsch/German-English

Same goes for looking up verb conjugations:
conjd.cactus2000.de/index.en.php

Ich = I
spiele = play, first person singular of verb "spielen" (to play)
gerne = with pleasure
Fussball = football

Ich
esse = first person singular of verb "essen" = to eat
gerne = with pleasure
Schokolade = chocolate

^ indeed

Sorry OP. Wish I had seen this earlier.
Verbs in present tense with I pronoun end in e
Ich schwimme - I swim
Ich gehe - I go
Ich koche -I cook
Ich spiele - I play
Ich tanze - I dance
Ich singe - I sing

Then add gern for the liking bit then add where/what if needed

Ich schwimme gern I like swimming
Ich gehe gern ins Kino I like going to the cinema
Ich koche gern I like cooking
Ich spiele gern Computerspiele I like playing computer games
Ich tanze gern
Ich singe gern

Watching TV (fernsehen) is separable
Ich sehe gern fern I like watching TV

Oh and cycling is also separable (radfahren)

Ich fahre gern rad.

www.languagesonline.org.uk/German/Deutsch_Anfanger/Hobbys/device/Index.htm

Hope that link works. If your child likes computers Languages Online by the wonderful Andrew Balaam is free and fabulous.

Just looking at it has reminded me:
Ich lese gern Bücher I like reading books
Ich gehe gern spazieren I like going for a walk

The first couple of exercises are multiple choice match ups your son can practise with at home.

I also forgot the best bit of languages online:
There are vocabulary games.
If you go to the homepage

www.languagesonline.org.uk/Hotpotatoes/Index.htm

On the left hand side is the margin menu: click on games
You will then get a list of French vocab topics
Scroll down for the German ones
Go to Hobbys or Hobbys and Aktivitäten
You will need flash installed
I am on a kindle so cannot play yet but from memory you have
A match up game/jigsaw- where you match the German and its meaning
A memory game/pairs - where you turn over the cards with Ger/Eng on
A speed spell /web game - where you have to spell in German as fast as you can (but all nouns need Capitals and so it might cause distress and not sure if it insists on you having der/die/das with)
Your son if he enjoys such games will like the pairs and memory though. It is a really fun way of learning vocab. Kudos to all the teaching staff who created the site.

Thank you everyone. Sorry I didn't reply earlier. I had to do some real life stuff.

Ds did Spanish & Latin at his previous school & he had hoped to do Spanish for gcse. I'm not sure that he will be able to do a language now but he wants to try. It's a school in an area with the middle school system so he's in year 9.

I'm a bit dubious about the whole no textbook/excercise book thing but I don't want to be judgmental.

Oh hello.
Starting German in year 9 to GCSE is doable and it is a really logical language. If you like rules, you'll like German
Totally understand about textbooks not going home but find it odd borderline farcical that they didn't have exercise books or vocab books with them.
Even if it was a regurgitation homework (5 sentences from the 10 they had practised) you cannot expect them to come up with it from memory unless they had a previous learning homework to learn the word list/phrases off by heart

Does his school put homework online on the school website students' section? Most schools do. I'd have expected the verb list at least.

I think it's mixed ability (he's set for maths & science & will be set for English in a few weeks following tests but I think everything else is in form groups) and yes, I believe she said it's so the books don't get lost.

No, homework isn't online. I asked about that at our visit to discuss his SEN as his previous school had all homework online.

He went to a private school before (but got asked to leave due to them "not being able to meet his needs" so we are both being very careful to understand the limitations with regards to resources his new school has.

Dh (he's a teacher himself) is going to email & ask if there is a textbook or study guide she can recommend as he's struggling with no resources.

If it's mixed ability then the homework without vocab list is even more inappropriate. Hang fire in case it's a one-off, see what she sets for the next one. If she's new she might have overestimated their ability.

GCSE bitesize German is still free and still fairly self explanatory. Never too early to start using that. Link below on hobbies section.

www.bbc.co.uk/education/guides/zg7vrdm/revision

www.bbcactivelanguages.com/TeachersHome/ResourcesGerman/tabid/100/Default.aspx < not used this one but may be helpful

You could just buy your own copy of the textbook they're using. If she bails on recommendations then ask at the staffroom on here (online learning tools like lingorilla/linguarama I am not au fait with as only use free sites not subscription ones).
Leo.de is best dictionary. Babbelfish = gobbledygook usually
Pons might have some decent training materials. My daughter used German for dummies (she's not easily offended)

I asked ds. DefinAtely mixed ability. I showed him your hot potatoes link & some of it started to come back to him.

He could do the whole thing in Spanish no problem!!

Aw bless him. It must be hard starting over with an affinity for Spanish. Hope he does well. If he did Latin, he should cope with German (cases etc) Viel Gluck!

He hated Latin I'm afraid & was pretty awful at it.

Well he's done it. Not how he's supposed to have I'm sure. He repeated the sentence I play hockey, he plays hockey they play hockey etc 😲