SYLLABUS: German 1 Prof. Sue Wyman
______Semester 200__ Office: Drescher Hall 314 H
Class hours: TuTh 2:30-4:55 pm Phone: (310) 434-4574
Office hrs: Tu 11:10-12 lab/office E-mail: Wyman_Susan@smc.edu
Th & Fri 11:15-12:30 in DH 314H
My website: http://homepage.smc.edu/wyman_susan/
Books:
1)Terrell, Tracy et al.Kontakte: A Communicative Approach, 5th Ed
2)Kontakte: Arbeitsbuch,5th Ed.
3)Handouts, revised Fall 2002, Prof. Sue Wyman
You must bring the textbook and handout packet to every class. You may not share either of these with another person.
Buy: A stapler for your homework assignments.
PREREQUISITES: This is a beginning German class, for people with LITTLE or NO prior German study.
STUDY TIME: German 1 is very fast paced, even though it is for beginners. For every hour of class you are supposed to study 2 hours outside of class. That means 10 hours of study PER WEEK for a 5 unit college class in the regular semester. If you do not have time to study this much, attend class every day, and spend time in the language lab every week, you should take this course at another time.
COURSE CONTENT: Einführung A through Kapitel 5 (7 chapters)
GRADE: Your grade in this class will be based on the following criteria:
10% Homework
10% Participation and preparation (includes attendance)
5% Language Lab
45% Quizzes
30% Comprehensive final exam
Important Dates
Last date to select Credit/No Credit option: End of 4th week of the semester
Last date to drop yourself: End of 8th week
Last date to drop with instructor's permission: End of 12th week
See SMC homepage or Schedule & Directory for other important dates
CLASS ATTENDANCE: This class requires your participation and attendance is mandatory. If you feel you do not need to attend class in order to pass the chapter tests, you belong in a more advanced German class. You are expected to come to every class for the ENTIRE 2½ hour class session, and be on time. There will be a 15 minute break, so essentially each day you will have 2 class sessions. I will take roll at the beginning of each session. Students arriving after roll has been taken will be marked tardy. If you miss more than 15 minutes of a session you will receive ½ or no attendance credit.
You will be allowed 4 session absences and 4 session tardies during the semester. (That means only 2 days in all!!) After 4 session absences your final course grade will drop 1% for EACH extra session absence. 2 extra tardies equal one absence.
Try not to miss any class at all. Save your absences for sickness or absolute emergencies, and please make doctor appointments at other times. I will give 1% extra credit to anyone with NO absences for the semester. If you exceed the limits for absences and tardies, I reserve the right to drop you from class If you drop yourself from class, please let me know.
How to contact me:
Email (this is best)
Voice mail
Put a note in my mail box in the Modern Language Department (3rd floor)
If you are absent, please do not call me to ask what you missed in class or what the homework is. Call or email a classmate! (Get several phone numbers and keep these current)
Letters of recommendation are generally written only for A students and require 3 weeks advance notice.
Student behavior: Please do not eat in class, and turn cell phones, watch alarms, and pagers off. Please try to use the restroom before class and during break. Please do not walk in and out of class while I am teaching or during partner work.
PARTICIPATION and PREPARATION (10%): Participation is a vital part of your language learning experience. This grade will reflect your attendance in class, how prepared you are during class, and your class participation, both in small groups and in the class as a whole. People who participate in group work, but do not volunteer in the class as a whole &/or cannot answer when called on, will earn the participation grade of "C". Those desiring an "A" in this portion of their grade must be able to answer if I call on them, they must volunteer FREQUENTLY, have excellent class attendance, and be able to understand and answer questions. Note: If you have more than the maximum absences/tardies, or if you are disruptive in class in any way, You will lose points from your participation grade. Also, please try not leave class during the partner work—it is not fair to your partner and this will affect your participation grade as well.
Absences do affect your participation grade.
LANGUAGE LAB (Located in Drescher Hall 219)
5% of your overall grade. A minimum of 15 hours spread over the course of the semester (+1 hours per week) listening to the digitized tapes that go with Kontakte and doing other lab activities is required by the middle of the 15th week. You may only receive lab credit for 1 hour per day. I will be giving a lab grade (a percentage, just like a quiz) 4 times during the semester: Friday of the 4th week (4 hours), Friday of the 8th week (8 hours), Friday of the 12th week (12 hours), Friday of the 15th week (15 hours). Here is an example of how I will grade: If you have 3 hours by the end of the 4th week, your first lab grade will be 75%. There is nothing you can do to erase or improve this specific grade after you receive it, so WORK AHEAD and put some lab hours "in the bank", in case you have trouble getting to the lab during a particular week. You may also get your lab requirement done early in the course. If you wish to listen to tapes at home, bring in blank tapes and have copies of the textbook tapes made. (This will not count as lab time, but it will certainly help you with your German)
Note: You MUST listen to the tapes in order to complete the Hörverständnis sections of your workbook/lab manual (Arbeitsbuch).
How to check your lab hours: Log on to the SMC website (SMC.edu). Under Admissions, click Student Self-Service System (the same place you go to enroll and get your grades). There is also a link on the first page of my website.
HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENTS: (10%) From the textbook, workbook, from my website, and from the Kontakte website (Online Learning Center): www.mhhe.com/kontakte5
Most homework is self-correcting (keys are in the back of the text and workbook), except for a few textbook exercises and some workbook assignments. Homework that I collect is due on my desk at the beginning of class, stapled, clearly labeled, and self-corrected using the key,if appropriate. Homework will be graded +, , -
To receive a +, you must write what is originally in the book as well as your answers, and be extremely careful in your self-correcting with the key. To receive 100% in the homework portion of your grade (10% of your overall grade) you must have mostly grades of +; otherwise the highest homework grade you can get is 90%.
I will give you more detailed instructions as to how to self-correct your homework after the semester has gotten underway.
Other study ideas: Write out the Sprechsituationen for the practice and to help the vocabulary "sink in". You may ask a tutor from LRC to go over these with you or go over them with a classmate again outside of class. Doing these more than once will really help you become better at speaking! Also, write the vocabulary words out to practice them, say them out loud over and over, make flash cards.
In the lab, use the CD Rom that goes with textbook to play vocabulary games.
I will usually test you "only" on vocabulary from the chapters which we have used somehow in class, either in the Sprechsituationen or in a vocabulary display (which I often present to you using an overhead transparency).
QUIZZES: (45%) There will be a quiz approximately every other week. You will receive a percentage score on these. Please keep your returned quizzes and keep track of your own quiz average. Quizzes may be given at any time during class. There are ABSOLUTELY NO MAKE-UPS or quizzes given ahead of time. You may drop your lowest quiz grade. If you miss a quiz, that will be your drop!! No one will be given extra time for quizzes due to tardiness.
Tip: Many quiz items will come directly (word for word!) from your textbook and workbook assignments, as well as from the web exercises, and all quizzes will also have a "Hörverständnis" episode.
FINAL EXAM: (30%) There will be a comprehensive final as scheduled in the COURSE OUTLINE. The final, which will cover the ENTIRE course (through Kapitel 5) will be given in 2 parts. There will be NO MAKE-UPS or early finals.
Grading scale:
100-93.0 A (outstanding) 72.9-70.0 C-/D+
92.9-90.0 A-/B+ 72.9-63.0 D (poor)
92.9-83.0 B (good) 62.9-60.0 D-/F+
82.9-80.0 B-/C+ 62.9-0 F (unacceptable)
82.9-73.0 C (adequate)
If, at the end of the course your grades falls into any of the transition (+/-) zones, you will receive the higher of the two grades based on how well you meet the following criteria:
1. Attendance & Punctuality: You did not exceed the allowable limits.
2. Homework: You kept up with your homework; assignments were carefully done and self-corrected and handed in on time.
3. Laboratory: You logged 15 hours in the lab before finals week, and these hours were spread evenly through the semester; not crammed in at the end of the semester).
4. Preparation and Participation: You consistently came to class prepared, volunteered often and worked enthusiastically when paired or grouped. You never left the class or did homework during small group work.
6. Cooperation: You were always attentive, non-disruptive, and a good classmate. You did not try to dominate the class (you gave other classmates a chance to speak also). Note: Frequently coming late to class or walking out during class is considered disruptive!
MEDICAL CONDITIONS: If you have a medical problem that might occur during class, please notify me and the Campus Health Services (310) 434-4262. The Health Office will ask you to fill out a card indicating the nature of your problem and what should be done in case this problem occurs. You will be asked to give a copy of this card to your professor as well. This information is kept confidential.
ACADEMIC DISHONESTY: Santa Monica College defines academic dishonesty as "the act of or assistance in deceiving, including fraud or deception, in any academic exercise" and will be dealt with according to the "Code of Academic Conduct" as approved on July 11, 1990, by the Academic Senate.
CHEATING in any way on exams and quizzes will not be tolerated. Also, if someone else copies ANY part of YOUR quiz or exam, YOU will be given a grade of ZERO too, EVEN IF YOU CLAIM YOU DID NOT KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT IT!
Please be very careful about how you sit during a quiz or test and keep your paper covered. This may seem extreme, but cheating is NOT FAIR to me or to your serious fellow-students. Even for the smallest cheating incident, I will fill out a form on you and turn it in to the CAMPUS DISCIPLINARIAN, and you will receive an F on that test or assignment.
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Get email addresses and phone numbers of several classmates so you can come to class PREPARED if you are absent. PLEASE Do NOT call me to ask for an assignment.
Also, ask your classmate to tell you exactly which vocabulary we went over and which Sprechsituationen we did, so you can study that vocabulary.
Names & phone numbers/ email:
1. ____________________________________________________________________________
2._____________________________________________________________________________
3._____________________________________________________________________________
4._____________________________________________________________________________
5._____________________________________________________________________________
German 1 Prof. Sue Wyman
Syllabus Part II
Homework:
Assignments are not accepted late! Do not turn in late assignments, even if you were absent. You may miss 4 assignments with no penalty.
I. Oral homework: Some workbook homework--the parts called Hörverständnis-- involve listening to German. You must complete this homework by going to the lab, or by using the Kontakte website. This homework is always self-correcting, and will not be turned in to me. However, on every quiz there will be a section from the Hörverständnis sections of the workbook. In order to prepare for this you must listen to the episodes MANY times (10-20 times each!!) This is an important part of the course, and will teach you to understand German spoken by people of different ages and from different regions of the German-speaking countries.
Besides doing the oral parts of the workbook, you can practice listening to German by using the various videos and CD-Roms in the language lab. All of this oral work will count towards your 15 hours of required lab.
II. Written homework
Some homework will be turned in to me, some will be checked during class, and still other homework will not be checked at all, although you ARE expected to do it and self correct it, using the keys at the back of the text and workbook.
Here are the 4 kinds of written homework assignments:
A) Those I collect and give you credit for, from both textbook and workbook. Some of these are self-correcting (you use the key and correct your own work) and some others are creative and therefore corrected by me. A few are a combination: You correct certain parts and I correct the creative parts. In the key for such exercises you will see Answers may/will vary.
B) Those I check in class (that you self-correct). In this case, I will come by and ask you to show me your self-corrected work (workbook or textbook) while you are doing partner work.
C) Web exercises, either from my website or from the textbook website. You may do these as many times as you wish, and you may submit them to me. Submitting such exercises may help your HOMEWORK grade and will certainly also help you learn the course material.
D) Extra homework credit for optional exercises and/or completed and self-corrected workbook chapters.
Note: I will often take parts of the textbook, workbook, and web exercises to use on tests and on the final exam.
Another note about the workbook: It would be a good idea to do some of the easier Aussprache and Orthographie sections of your workbook, even though they are not required. These will help your pronunciation and ability to spell German words.
HOW TO SELF-CORRECT YOUR HOMEWORK:
After you do a particular exercise, turn to the key at the back of your text or workbook and take a DIFFERENT color pen/pencil to correct your mistakes. Pretend YOU are the teacher (a very "picky" one!!!). Do NOT erase any incorrect answers; write the correction next to your wrong answer. Then, to the left of each exercise, you should mark how many you got wrong. Record the total (for example: -4, or 100%) below your name. Try to catch even tiny errors, such as spelling mistakes, capitalization errors, accents, punctuation, etc.
EXAMPLE: (p. 20 Textbook, Übung 2)
A. Ernst: Hallo wie heißt du?
-1 Jutta: Ich heißt Jutta. Und du?
heiße
Reminders:
1) Homework is 10% of your overall grade.
2) You will need to self-correct all work for which there is a key (keys are always in the back of the books). Homework is graded with +, , -. You must receive mostly + to get 100% in your homework.
3) Remember, late homework is not accepted under any circumstances (even if you are absent!) You may miss 4 assignments during the semester with no penalty.
Half credit or often no credit will be given for incomplete, or, if there is a key, for non-self-corrected homework.
4) Do not work on homework during class time! Homework is due on my desk at the beginning of class. Do not be tardy if you wish for full homework credit.
5) Absence or misinformation from unreliable classmates will not be acceptable excuses for lack of preparation or missed assignments. When you are absent, you are responsible for getting the assignment from a classmate and preparing it for the next class meeting.
6) Write full sentences and include the questions or whatever is originally in the boot. Never only write the answer!
7) Always staple your pages together. Folding over the corner will not be accepted, and you will not receive credit. Invest in a small stapler right at the beginning of the semester.
8) Please do not call me to ask what you missed in class or what the homework is. Call or email a classmate! (Get several phone numbers/email addresses and keep these current).