Ideas for using art in German language instruction

1. ART IN THE GERMAN
CLASSROOM
MARCEL P. ROTTER,
UNIVERSITY OF MARY WASHINGTON
ACTFL, 2016

2. WHY ART?
ACTFL Standards

3. COMMUNICATION
COMMUNICATE EFFECTIVELY IN MORE THAN ONE
LANGUAGE IN ORDER TO FUNCTION IN A VARIETY
SITUATIONS AND FOR MULTIPLE PURPOSES
• Interpersonal Communication
• Interpretive Communication
• Presentational Communication:
CULTURES
INTERACT WITH CULTURAL COMPETENCE AND
UNDERSTANDING
• Relating Cultural Practices to Perspectives:
• Relating Cultural Products to Perspectives:
CONNECTIONS
CONNECT WITH OTHER DISCIPLINES AND ACQUIRE
INFORMATION AND DIVERSE PERSPECTIVES IN
TO USE THE LANGUAGE TO FUNCTION IN
AND CAREER-RELATED SITUATIONS
• Making Connections: Learners build, reinforce, and
expand their knowledge of other disciplines while
using the language to develop critical thinking and
solve problems creatively.
COMPARISONS
DEVELOP INSIGHT INTO THE NATURE OF LANGUAGE
AND CULTURE IN ORDER TO INTERACT WITH
CULTURAL COMPETENCE
• Cultural Comparisons: Learners use the language to
investigate, explain, and reflect on the concept of
culture through comparisons of the cultures studied
and their own.
COMMUNITIES
COMMUNICATE AND INTERACT WITH CULTURAL
COMPETENCE IN ORDER TO PARTICIPATE IN
MULTILINGUAL COMMUNITIES AT HOME AND
AROUND THE WORLD
• School and Global Communities: Learners use the
language both within and beyond the classroom to
interact and collaborate in their community and the
globalized world.

4. WHAT ART FOR WHAT LANGUAGE LEVEL?
• Beginners
• Mimetic, narrative, realistic artifacts
• Focus on geometric forms, colors, spatial and interpersonal relationships, narrative,
• Intermediate
• Impressionistic, expressionistic, symbolic artifacts
• Focus on symbols, relationship of viewer to artifact, opinion, artist’s biographical aspects,
societal context
• Advanced
• Abstract and performance art
• Focus on technique, concept, void
Also consider maturity level

5. FROM THE FAMILIAR TO THE UNFAMILIAR
1. Mimetic, narrative, realistic artifacts, familiar situations
2. Impressionistic, expressionistic, symbolic artifacts
3. Abstract and performance art
F. G. Waldmüller: Nach der Schule
Source: DW – Kunst im DaF Unterricht #9

6. SPATIAL RELATIONSHIPS
Also:
• Colors
• Personal
relationships
• narrative
Source: DW – Kunst im
DaF Unterricht #9

7. PARTNER EXERCISE
• Distribute images (postcards, prints) to
students, each pair receives one. One
partner describes the images, the other
• draws what s/he understands and
imagines
or
• identifies which image it was from all
used images on the table/floor
• Variation in a gallery → → → → → →
→ Source: Ab ins Museum, p.50

8. LET’S TRY IT OUT!

9. FROM THE FAMILIAR TO THE UNFAMILIAR
1. Mimetic, narrative, realistic artifacts, familiar situations
2. Impressionistic, expressionistic, symbolic artifacts
3. Abstract and performance art

10. SYMBOLS AND METAPHORS
Source: DW Unterrichstreihe Nr. 7

11. INTERACTION
“Arbeitet mit einem Partner: Der Mann
bietet euch einen Platz auf dem Stuhl
an. Wie und warum tut er das? Achtet
auf die Gestik. Achtet auf sein Gesicht.
Was sagt er zu euch, damit ihr euch
setzt? Verfasst einen kurzen Dialog zu
den Bildern zwischen dem Mann und
einem Passanten. Präsentiert ihn
gemeinsam vor der Klasse!”
Source: DW Unterrichstreihe Nr. 7

12. FROM THE FAMILIAR TO THE UNFAMILIAR
1. Mimetic, narrative, realistic artifacts, familiar situations
2. Impressionistic, expressionistic, symbolic artifacts
3. Abstract and performance art

13. FRANK STELLA
ARBEIT MACHT FREI, 1958
Discussion topics:
• Memory and Forgetting
• Why do artists who deal with traumatic
events decide to forgo details or
realistic depiction
• How do Holocaust memorials
worldwide differ? Which represent the
un-representable?
• How do memories of war differ in
Germany and the U.S.? Source: Haus der Kunst, Arbeitsblatt “Postwar Kunst zwischen Pazifik und Atlantik, S.
11.

14. HOW TO GET YOUR STUDENTS TO COMMUNICATE
ABOUT ART?
• Offer different styles and media (Realism, Baroque, Impressionism, Expressionism,
abstract art; painting, photography, sculpture)
• Let students choose what kind of art they would like to talk about (provide image
bank, free search in Internet, museum visit)
• Let students produce different Textsorten
• Presentational:
• Interpersonal
• interpretive

15. ÖSTERREICH. MALERISCH
• Presents a series of pictures
• Is organized by theme rather than chronologically (Mädchen
und Frauen; Im Gespräch; Szenen; Abstraktes)
• Lets students either assign titles from a “word bank” or find
their own titles
• → gives students a greater overview

16. EXAMPLE: SZENEN
1. Bilder betiteln
2. Titel zuordnen
3. Bilder beschreiben
4. Welche Sinne spricht das Bild
an?

17. WE ARE GOING TO A GALLERY!
• The best place to talk about art, is in a gallery
• For many students, it’s the first time they visited a gallery or art museum
• Handout

18. EXAMPLE OF TEXTSORTEN
Source: DW Unterrichtsreihe #3
Fenster

19. INTERPERSONAL MODE: ARTIST AND CRITIC
Source: Ab ins Museum,
p..

20. WHAT IS ART? WAS IST KUNST?
Try to define it!
• What’s the difference to craft, and design?
• What is not art?
• Can you cite examples?

21. RESOURCES - INTERNET
• Deutsche Welle: Unterrichtsreihe Kunst im DaF-Unterricht http://www.dw.com/de/kunst-im-daf-
unterricht-eine-unterrichtsreihe/a-19277234
• Österreichisches Kultusministerium
http://www.kulturundsprache.at/site/kulturundsprache/unterrichtsmaterialien/landeskunde/lande
skundematerialien/article/3064.html
• Haus der Kunst, München – Arbeitsblätter http://www.hausderkunst.de/lernen/andere-
lerninhalte/lerninhalte-arbeitsblaetter/
• 14 KOSTENLOSE DAF Bildende Kunst Arbeitsblätter - ISL Collective
https://de.islcollective.com/resources/search_result?Vocabulary_Focus=Bildende+Kunst
https://de.islcollective.com/resources/search_result?Tags=Kunst&searchworksheet=GO&type=Pri
ntables
• WebMuseum (Die Bilder sind nach kunstgeschichtlichen Perioden geordnet.):
http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/
• Kunst im DaF Unterricht https://pamvotisdeutsch.wordpress.com/2011/09/20/kunst-im-daf-
unterricht/

22. RESOURCES - BOOK
Vetter, Susanne; Wachter, Steffen. Ab ins
Museum! Die Art+Weise einen
Museumsbesuche zu planen. Leipzig:
Passage- Verlag, 2013
ISBN-10: 3954150123
ISBN-13: 978-3954150120