German

The objectives of the Transition Year German programme are:

• To promote the personal, social, educational and vocational development of pupils and to prepare them for their role as autonomous, participative, and responsible members of society in line with the wider aims of the Transition Year Programme.
• To experience alternative areas of German literature and culture beyond the traditional syllabus parameters, such as the art of German cinema.
• To provide a broad and solid foundation for life in general and the Leaving Certificate Course.
• To encourage a critical examination and appreciation of the mechanics of the German language.
• To examine films and media text through the medium of German.
• To further build on and develop communication skills founded in Junior Cycle; speaking, writing, listening and reading.
• To encourage and enable students to become more self-confident in creative writing.
•  To foster an interest in visiting the German speaking countries of Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Liechtenstein.

These objectives are achieved through:

 A communicative approach to language learning;

• Negotiated learning and project work;
• Personal responsibility in learning; meeting deadlines and team work;
• Activity-based learning; discovery learning, such as planning and delivering lessons on topics of their choosing to First Year groups
• Team teaching approaches; such as a probing look at German history and German popular culture;
• Group work: discussion, debate, interview, role play including participating in a German play coordinated with the Deutsche Institute;
• Project work and research, including a consideration of famous German speaking people and historic German inventions;
• Visiting speakers and seminars by the Goethe Institute;
• An opportunity to take part in an Exchange Programme with a school in Augsbug, Germany.

Throughout Junior Cycle we nurture our authentic links with German schools. We have a partnership with St. Stefan’s Gymnasium in Augsburg, Germany and every year students are encouraged to spend time with their exchange partners and their families in Bavaria.

These opportunities allow students to become fully immersed in German culture and to experience the day-to-day life of their German peers by attending school with them and living like a local. This is particularly successful when students are in Transition Year as students return to school, entering senior cycle, with a new language confidence and fluency.