Any German teacher there - looking for advice

Jane98

Hi,

My child is currently in TY and a bit bored at the moment so is hoping to do a bit of work on their German which will help them when they go into 5th year. Any advice on how best to do this, perhaps suggest a LC text book that would be student friendly to work away with on their own?

Thanks..

RealJohn

Department guidelines are that they’re not supposed to be working on leaving cert material in TY. I imagine you could come up with other ways to encourage them though, without resorting to starting the course early.

Not a German teacher, by the way, but I’d be saying the same thing to you if you were asking about one of my subjects, except that there’s probably a lot more easily accessible, fun activities that you could do with German.

Kirby42

Communicating with a native German speaker perhaps? Italki is a good site for finding tutors and teachers for any language.

Jane98

RealJohn wrote: »

Department guidelines are that they’re not supposed to be working on leaving cert material in TY. I imagine you could come up with other ways to encourage them though, without resorting to starting the course early.

Not a German teacher, by the way, but I’d be saying the same thing to you if you were asking about one of my subjects, except that there’s probably a lot more easily accessible, fun activities that you could do with German.

I know that they are not supposed to be covering the material in TY in school, I was actually talking about her wanting to do some extra practice work in her own after school time.

Jane98

Kirby42 wrote: »

Communicating with a native German speaker perhaps? Italki is a good site for finding tutors and teachers for any language.

Not within my budget unfortunately.

dory

Jane98 wrote: »

Not within my budget unfortunately.

Your local library might have some good things to use. The library in Jervis, Dublin has the whole Pimsleur collection. I travel there from Cork sometimes to get language material (It's CDs so you can save them on your laptop). They have a big collection of teach yourself type books for lots of lanaguges. There's something called Mango languages for free with the library as well but not sure how good that is.
There are some German magazines that are aimed at learners, might be good to get a few of those.
Failing that just go in to any bookstore and buy a German Leaving Cert book. They're all grand, none are amazing. Maybe a listening book with a CD she can listen to. Or she could just do the listenings on the examinations.ie website.

I highly recommend italki. Might only be €10-€15 an hour. Some people even cheaper, and free if she's willing to talk to speak English to them for half hour and then half hour of German.

Also, websites/apps like Memrise and Duolingo can be good for this kind of thing. I'm doing Hindi on Duolingo and find it very good.

yogmeister

My wife is German and I m currently learning the language with an app called duolingo. It is free and easy to use. I was trying for a few years to learn but this has definitely been the best for me. Best of luck with it.

RealJohn

Jane98 wrote: »

I know that they are not supposed to be covering the material in TY in school, I was actually talking about her wanting to do some extra practice work in her own after school time.

Yes, I understand that, but you’ve asked that people recommend a leaving cert text book, so unless she intends to drop German after TY, what you mean is that she wants, or you want her, to start the leaving cert course early, which is against department guidelines.
Also, wouldn’t it make more sense to ask her German teacher?

As another poster said, you could get her talking to a native speaker. There’s plenty of scope for doing that for free online, but it would probably require extra parental supervision too.

Jane98

RealJohn wrote: »

Yes, I understand that, but you’ve asked that people recommend a leaving cert text book, so unless she intends to drop German after TY, what you mean is that she wants, or you want her, to start the leaving cert course early, which is against department guidelines.
Also, wouldn’t it make more sense to ask her German teacher?

As another poster said, you could get her talking to a native speaker. There’s plenty of scope for doing that for free online, but it would probably require extra parental supervision too.

Department guidelines do not prohibit teaching LC material in TY, they prohibit teaching LC and only LC material and using similar teaching methods which would be used at LC level. The department have no issue with what students are doing in their own homes, outside the schools. If they did the grinds school wouldn't be allowed run courses specifically aimed at TY students, to help them get a head start.

I wouldn't ask her teacher because she is totally incompetent (and as a teacher myself I am definitely not in the habit of running down teachers but this teacher deserves it) as she doesn't even cover the curriculum. My child will be doing a lot of the work herself in 5th and 6th and I will probably send her to a grind school for help.

Postgrad10

You could probably look in easons yourself and see what's available ( that isn't on your daughters schools leaving cert booklist). You could check out Alevel materials too on book depository. Check the teacher resource sites from the UK too.

Jane98

Postgrad10 wrote: »

You could probably look in easons yourself and see what's available ( that isn't on your daughters schools leaving cert booklist). You could check out Alevel materials too on book depository. Check the teacher resource sites from the UK too.

I tried my local Easons at the start of the week but all the school books are gone to make way for Christmas stock. I was really looking for a book recommendation from actual German teachers. Unfortunately, German is not taught in my school so I have no teacher to ask there.

Postgrad10

Trying our best to help you here. My local easons has a large selection all year around but you could try independent school book suppliers too. Have 2 incredibly helpful suppliers in my region. Being a teacher yourself , you could ring up the various companies and get samples. All you need is your school roll number. I'm sure you have also looked at https://www.schoolbooks.ie

Postgrad10

You have the advice of a few language teachers on this thread , not necessarily German but language teachers nonetheless.

RealJohn

Jane98 wrote: »

... and using similar teaching methods which would be used at LC level.

I would consider studying from a leaving cert book to be a pretty common method at leaving cert.

Jane98 wrote: »

I wouldn't ask her teacher because she is totally incompetent (and as a teacher myself I am definitely not in the habit of running down teachers but this teacher deserves it) as she doesn't even cover the curriculum.

I’ve heard every part of this before. I’ve rarely found all parts of it to be true.

Jane98

RealJohn wrote: »

I would consider studying from a leaving cert book to be a pretty common method at leaving cert.

I’ve heard every part of this before. I’ve rarely found all parts of it to be true.

RealJohn, why dont you read this and you will see what the department means by using different teaching methodologies to teach LC material in TY:

https://www.education.ie/en/Schools-Colleges/Information/Curriculum-and-Syllabus/Transition-Year-/ty_transition_year_school_guidelines.pdf

And regards the incompetent teacher, as a qualified teacher myself I think Im a pretty good position to judge. I was warned about this teacher from the start, that the students get great grades from their class tests up to JC, then sit the JC and get a shock. My child got grinds in 3rd year and got a B in HL, kids that didnt got Cs and lots of Ds. Evidence enough for you? Or are you just of the brigade that poorly performing teachers are a myth?

evolving_doors

ok back on topic...OP Looking for resources etc.
Thanks
Mod