ALD Making Connections

Making Connections Black History and German by Dr. Leroy Hopkins

Making Connections for Teaching Social Justice in the German classroom: Interviews with Turkish and Kurdish women as minorities who are doubly marginalized

Making Connections Through Use of Film - Bibliography of Film
By Mary Bronfenbrenner

Film Resources for the ALD Website

(Please thoroughly review the ALD Guide Objectives and Making Connections)

Locally. Before teaching new materials, whatever the medium, it is vital that the teacher take the first step in "connections" by becoming informed about the histories of the underrepresented group(s), both in the U.S. and in the German speaking cultures. It is also vital that the teacher previews the film(s). Please refer to the URL addresses for information and reviews about the materials. Without this background, it is difficult to accurately address the Standards of Comparisons (Standard 4.2: Students demonstrate understanding of the concept of culture through comparisons of the cultures studied and their own).

Film Objectives:

• Many of the films deal with historical events and their effect on a culture or cultures. Students will learn to recognize and discuss the central focus of a film and how it relates to the past, present and future. Students will also recognize and comprehend cultural differences. For instance, discussions could evolve into a more global forum as the students become better acquainted with the cultures. An example of this would be permitted types of clothing, music and literature, and available food products in the former GDR, and how these could define people. The objective would be to help students search for and find the key to the door through the wall—how to get beyond the stereotypes and become an aware member of the world community.

Connections - Connect with Other Disciplines and Acquire Information

Standard 3.1: Students reinforce and further their knowledge of other disciplines through the foreign language.

Standard 3.2: Students acquire information and recognize the distinctive viewpoints that are only available through the foreign language and its cultures.

• Euro-German-language films will serve as a prism for interpreting important historical and current political and social events, along with other primary documents (movie and political posters, songs, music, propaganda, speeches, etc.) from the period to put the movie into context. This information will enrich students' academic work in other subjects like literature, art, history, foreign languages, political science and economics.

Comparisons - Develop Insight into the Nature of Language and Culture

Standard 4.1: Students demonstrate understanding of the nature of language through comparisons of the language studied and their own.

Standard 4.2: Students demonstrate understanding of the concept of culture through comparisons of the cultures studied and their own.

• The visual art of film will encourage students to investigate the concept of a physical and cultural construction site. The map of Europe has changed radically in the past 100 years. We hope as educators to challenge students to question how an opening or closing of a "wall", a border, a "curtain" can alter relationships, perceptions, languages, religions and cultures.

Communities - Participate in Multilingual Communities at Home and around the World

Standard 5.1: Students use the language both within and beyond the school setting.

Standard 5.2: Students show evidence of becoming life-long learners by using the language for personal enjoyment and enrichment and standards for foreign language learning.

Using films as a teaching resource will encourage students to appreciate German and international films both as a source of entertainment and information to help them understand the world they live in. The more students are able to value different or "foreign" perspectives the more likely they are to participate in culturally diverse activities in their communities.

URL ADDRESSES for Films

1. http://german-films.de (rissenbeek@german-films.de)
2. http://facets.org (facetsfirst@facets.org)
3. http://www.netflix.com
4. http://worldfilm.about.com/od/germany/
5. http://www.spiegel.de/thema

Making Connections - Bibliography of Sources
By Leroy Hopkins, Ph.D

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Beitter, Ursula, Ed. Literatur und Identitaet: Deutsch-deutsche Befindlichkeiten und die multikulturelle Gesellschaft. New York: P. Lang, 2000.

Benseler, David P., Craig W. Nickisch, and Cora Lee Nollendorfs. Teaching German in Twentieth-Century America. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2001.

Bialystok, Ellen. Communication Strategies : A Psychological Analysis of Second-Language Use. Applied Language Studies. Oxford, UK ; Cambridge, Mass., USA: B. Blackwell, 1990.

Böhncke, Heiner und Harald Wittich, Eds. Buntesdeutschland. Ansichten zu einer multikulturellen Gesellschaft. Reinbeck: Rowohlt, 1991.

Bräuer, Gerd. Pedagogy of Language Learning in Higher Education : An Introduction. Advances in Foreign and Second Language Pedagogy ; V. 2. Westport, Conn.: Ablex, 2001

Clark, Irene L., ed. Writing About Diversity: An Argument Reader and Guide. Philadelphia: Harcourt Brace College Publishers, 1994.

Davis, James D. “Reflections on the History and Future of Foreign Language Education at Historically Black Colleges and Universities.” Reflecting on the Past to Shape the Future. Eds. Diane W. Birkbichler, Robert M. Terry and James J. Davis. Lincolnwood: National Textbook Co., 2000.

Davis, James J. and Paul L. Markham. “Student Attitudes toward Foreign Language Study at Historically and Predominantly Black Institutions.” Foreign Language Annals 24.3 (1991): 227-36. Delpit, Lisa. Other People's Children: Cultural Conflict in the Classroom. The New Press: New York, 1995.

Engelmann, Bernt. Du Deutsch? Geschichte der Ausländer in Deutschland. Göttingen: Steidel Verlag, 1991.

Flood, John L., John L. Flood, and University of London. Institute of Germanic Studies. Modern Swiss Literature : Unity and Diversity : Papers from a Symposium. 1985.

Friedrichsmeyer, Sara, Lennox, Sara, Zantop, Susanne, eds. The Imperialist Imagination. German colonialism and its Legacy. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press 1998.

Funke, Maurice R., and Robert Di Donato. Neue Grenzen : A German Cultural Reader. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1993.

Gienow-Hecht, Jessica C. E., and Frank Schumacher. Culture and International History. Explorations in Culture and International History Series. New York: Berghahn Books, 2003.

Guillaume, Jr., Alfred. "Whose Language is it Anyway?: Minority Participation Within Our Reach." Bulletin of the Association of Departments of Foreign Languages: Chairing the Foreign Language and Literature Department. Special Issue. 25.3 (1994): 65-68.

Guillaumin, C. "RASSE, Das Wort und die Vorstellung. " In: U. Bielefeld Ed. Das Eigene und das Fremde Hamburg: Jamus, 1991, p. 159-173.

Henderson, Ingeborg. "Multikulturalismus als Unterrichtsgegenstand." Die Unterrichtspraxis/Teaching German. 27.2 (1994): 29-33.

Hohendahl, Peter Uwe. German Studies in the United States : A Historical Handbook. New York: Modern Language Association of America, 2003.

Hopkins, Leroy T., Jr. “Expanding the Canon: Afro-German Studies.” Die Unterrichtspraxis 25.2 (1992): 121-26.

Howard, Gary R. We Can't Teach What We Don't Know : White Teachers, Multiracial Schools. 2nd ed. New York: Teachers College Press, 2006.

Huber, Bettina J. “Incorporating Minorities into Foreign Language Programs: The Challenge of the Nineties.” ADFL Bulletin 21.2 (1990): 12-19.

Jackson, Philip W., and American Educational Research Association. Handbook of Research on Curriculum : A Project of the American Educational Research Association. New York: Maxwell Macmillan International, 1992.

Jefferson, Louise M. "Adapting Black Francophone Literature to the Secondary School Classroom," in Creating Opportunities for Excellence Through Language: Selected Papers from the 1996 Central States Conference. Eds. Emily Spinelli, Linda Harlow, and Jacqueline Moase-Burke. Lincolnwood, IL: National Textbook Company, 1996.

Ladson-Billings, Gloria. Beyond the Big House : African American Educators on Teacher Education. New York: Teacher College Press, 2005.

---. Critical Race Theory Perspectives on the Social Studies : The Profession, Policies, and Curriculum. Research in Social Education. Greenwich, Conn.: Information Age Pub., 2003.

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Ladson-Billings, Gloria, and William F. Tate. Education Research in the Public Interest : Social Justice, Action, and Policy. New York: Teachers College Press, 2006.

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Lorenz, Dagmar C. G., and Renate S. Posthofen. Transforming the Center, Eroding the Margins : Essays on Ethnic and Cultural Boundaries in German-Speaking Countries. Columbia, S.C.: Camden House, 1998.

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Malik, Jamal. Muslims in Europe : From the Margin to the Centre. Münster. Piscataway, NJ: Lit; Distributed in North America by Transaction Publishers, 2004.

McBride, David, Leroy Hopkins, and Carol Blackshire-Belay. Crosscurrents : African Americans, Africa, and Germany in the Modern World. Columbia, SC: Camden House, 1998.

McCarthy, Cameron and Warren Crichlow, eds. Race. Identity, and Representation in Education. New York: Routledge, 2005. 2nd ed.

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Moore, Zeena. “African American Students’ Opinions About Foreign Language Study: An Explanatory Study of Low Enrollments at the College Level.” Foreign Language Annals 38.2 (1999): 191-199.

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Making Connections with the World Community: Working at the Local Level and Beyond, Tying Students of Color to the German Classroom and Making Connections through the Advocacy of World Languages and German -By Anita Ratwik

ALD Resource Guide Introduction
By Janice D. M. Mitchell, Ed. D.

"Our future is inextricably linked to the complex challenges of the global community. For our children to be prepared to take their place in that world and rise to those challenges, they must first understand it" - Rod Paige, U.S. Secretary of Education

The Alle Lernen Deutsch Committee, a subcommittee of the national AATG, focuses its summer seminars on the strategies and recommendations for increasing underrepresented groups of students in German language and German studies classrooms, K-16 inclusively. The Committee annually gathers new materials, updates old ones and creates new venues by which to share the work they do across the nation to teachers and professors of German at all levels, and offer their own expertise in the area of German diversity issues to any field educator who might seek them out. One of those current resources is the ALD website,or, through the Teacher's Resource area of the AATG website (July, 2005), launched at ACTFL, November, 2005 in Baltimore.

This year at the July session, the seminar group decided to produce a printed resource guide that could easily be accessed by all German teachers who wish to make the connections through community ties following the guidelines of the American Council on the Teaching of Languages and Cultures (ACTFL), Standards for Foreign Language Learning in the 21st Century's Five C's: Communication, Culture, Community, Comparisons and Connections. (1996)

Why Make Connections? The ACTFL national standard for Foreign Language Teaching speaks to us of the Five C's. When we reflect upon how communities of practice share ideas and attend to world views, we come to understand better, how we as individuals, and as U.S. citizens of all ages, can become better world citizens and move about the globe with confidence and competence, but using a more inclusive lens. The time is now for us to consider how to go about introducing our students to the issues of international diversity that have an effect upon business and trade, national security, everyday crossing of borders in world travel and educational diversity. The Committee maintains there is a critical need for all of our students to learn how to compete fairly and equitably by successfully completing study of additional world languages and English. To that end, the study of a culture is paramount to making the language work toward a true sharing of ideas and acceptable social standards of behavior.

On April 30, 2005, the College Board addressed equity in the study of world languages: For the study of world languages, The Equity Policy Statement translates into long-sequences of study---it is imperative that state policy makers consider the addition of formal sequential instruction of world languages as essential, beginning in the middle school and even sooner, to allow equitable access to everyone.

Some statistics also show that students learning a world language score higher on standardized tests, including math, science and language arts tests; this as an indication that cognitive and academic learning are enhanced by the study of world languages. Certainly our national defense depends upon better qualified users of world languages, the same way it did with the advent of Sputnik and the burgeoning space program in the middle fifties. This is a call to arms for world language educators once again. (See http://apcentral.collegeboard.com/article/0,150-157-0-2200,00.html)

In the 13:06 minute video by the Asian Society (2003) "Putting the World into World-Class Education", Morley Shafer shared some harrowing statistics with us:

• 25% of U.S. students were unable to identify the ocean that separates the U.S. from Asia.
• U.S. students are next to last in their knowledge of the world.
• Most U.S. students can't find Israel or Afghanistan on a map.
• Most U.S. students do not know that India is the world's largest democracy.

The message here is that we need to define cultural competency to include 'international literacy'. All our futures will depend upon it: but, this then creates a big shift for this educational responsibility onto the shoulders of foreign language and international studies professionals.

In a final answer to the question, "Why make connections?" we ask, "Why not?" The ALD group has made such connections across educational levels within the profession. In so doing, it has grown and collected and developed materials that speak to a variety of students and teachers in an effort to provide students--often underrepresented in our German language classrooms-- the ability to "see" themselves everywhere in the world, using a diverse or similar way of thinking, working and behaving. Young people around the world must find ways to connect with each other so that international learning can be a two-way communicative process, in an effort to eliminate an 'us' vs. 'them' global mentality.

Such community-based connections as the Guide may suggest via

• the nearby community college or university,
• the nearest heritage clubs,
• a guest speaker from a representative group with expertise in aspects of the topics of American and/or German diversity and multiculturalism,
• using your city or town as text and resource, are but a few ways to make meaningful connections in each home town, large city or urban suburb, whether homogeneous or diverse. Such communities of practice may bring a new level of awareness to colleagues in other allied disciplines as well i.e., you, the German teacher, thus become a catalyst or conduit for further input on related topics about German speakers and German-speaking countries across disciplines in your school or district, and ultimately building a new respect for our own world language of German-speaking countries and their cultures.

In essence, although we are embarking upon an educational territory which is very contemporary as much as it is historical, that of German multiculturalism, and the native German and German-speaking people that live daily with their diversity and mixed heritage, we believe, that as modern language educators, we all are up for the challenge of learning more and teaching more about German language and culture in a more inclusive way.

The ALD committee hopes you will accept our invitation to use this Resource Guide "Making and Understanding Connections: Locally, Nationally, and Globall," as a vehicle to sharing world equity with your students through German language education:

"Die beste Möglichkeit, Träume zu verwirklichen ,ist aufzuwachen... Erfülle deine Träume, damit du Platz für neue hast." (Unknown)