DISCUSSION LEADER SESSIONS
Each week, a student or a pair of students will be responsible for leading the class’s discussion that day. This assignment will help you improve your skills in leading successful discussions and will allow you to make the class your own. As discussion leader, you are committing yourself to
- reading all summaries, questions, and comments for that day on Moodle and to taking notes.
- thinking carefully about how you plan to get the ball rolling in class.
- thinking about commonalities among the articles. Which issues pop up most frequently and thus interest the class most?
- thinking of ways to involve all students in the discussion. If the discussion dies down, feel free to ask a particular student to comment on a specific issue they read about.
- thinking about ways to move from the specifics of the news articles to a discussion of broader issues related to the topic.
SUMMARY SECTIONS
- Find and read at least one article in German that relates to the week’s designated topic. The article should have at least 500 words. If the article is shorter, find a second article and/or more. As you look for an article on the topic, read the news more generally, and make notes on matters you might like to bring up in class. Read your text(s) multiple times and take notes on your observations. Do additional background reading as appropriate.
- Post a summary in German for one article every week online on Moodle before the end of Sunday. Post the link to the article as well. Also post one or two questions about your article under your summary.
- Bring your article, summary, and questions to class. Be prepared with notes to talk about what you learned about the topic and how you evaluate the article.
- Try to increase the level of reading difficulty each week if you can.
- With this assignment, you practice your reading and writing skills. In particular, you improve your skills in writing a compelling summary in German that is mostly free of irregularities and is easy to understand and follow. You also improve your skills to read texts critically and ask questions about them.
REACTIONS TO SUMMARY SECTIONS OF PEER(S)
- Read two of your peer’s posted summaries and questions. Answer the question(s) as best as you can (in German). Then, comment on the article (also in German) by making a connection to your own reading, to your life, or to something else that feels relevant to you. Do this before the end of Monday. If you see that one student’s article has not been commented on, please comment on that first.
- With this assignment, you practice writing, critical reading, and curiosity about new material. You also improve your skills in relating new material to what you know. This will deepen your and the other student’s experiences and knowledge as well as reflect on the texts.