Deutsch an Schulen Overview

Twenty-two years ago, a small group of determined advocates for German in the elementary schools developed a plan to support the advocacy of German in grades K-8. With generous funding by the Ständige Arbeitsgruppe Deutsch als Fremdsprache (StADaF) from the German government, and the Goethe-Institut, the Kinder lernen Deutsch (KLD) Steering Committee has made great progress in many directions. The major, long-range components of the initiative include:

1. PROGRAM PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT GRANTS. Over $85,500 has been granted to 79 schools for the purpose of planning and program development. In addition, nine Centers of Excellence have been established through these grants.

2. SUPPORT FOR INSERVICE AND PRESERVICE TEACHER EDUCATION. Over 200 teachers of German have thus far attended the Concordia College month-long summer methodology seminar on teaching German K-8. In addition, we have several Multiplikatoren (professional development) with a Kinder lernen Deutsch specialty.

3. DEVELOPMENT OF MATERIALS FOR TEACHING GERMAN K-8. The AATG Online Store contains the Umwelt and Deutsch-Amerikaner units for teaching middle school students, thematic units for teaching students in grades 3-6 (Wir leben gesund, Entdecken wir die Welt der Tiere, and Wir wollen essen), the Mappen (Fußball, Grundschule, and Martinstag), the KLD Liedersammlung, annotated bibliographies, several children's readers, Bildalphabet, teaching materials for Die kleine Raupe Nimmersatt and Die Bremer Stadtmusikanten, videos, posters, maps, and print materials from the Goethe-Institut.  Existing materials have been identified and evaluated in the publication Materials Evaluation Project for K-8 (revised in 2008).

4. PUBLIC RELATIONS / NETWORKING.  Sessions on KLD are offered at each AATG Annual Meeting, and KLD has been the topic of several AATG chapter meetings as well. The KLD Talking T-shirt (with audiocassette) is available to interest young and old learners in German K-8.

5. COOPERATIVE PROJECTS. We are fortunate to have generous partners who have supported these years of Kinder Lernen Deutsch activities: the Auswärtiges Amt of the German government, the Zentralstelle für Auslandsschulwesen, and the Goethe-Institut.

6. DEUTSCH FORUM USA. http://deutsch-forumusa.com/