3.2 Der Schultag

banner with various images of Switzerland

Lektionsüberblick

In the previous lesson, you learned about the different kinds of schools in Switzerland and other parts of German-speaking Europe and the traditions around the first day of school. Now we will go into the school and learn vocabulary to describe the classroom and your learning utensils. We will also look at the course schedules from different Swiss schools and compare with our K-12 experiences. Finally, we will learn about alternative schools. In the end, you will be able talk about 1) what you have and had in your school bag, 2) words for the classroom, and 3) what subjects you had/Stundenplan.

1) Wortschatz: Im Rücksack

As you can imagine, there are many words one could learn to talk about school. This section will introduce you some of the items you may have had (or still have!) in your backpack to be ready for school. Click through the following presentation, listen to the audio, and read aloud. Then practice your recall.

Want more practice? Match the images to the words.

BECKI – I AM UNSURE WHAT COLOR THE DEUTSCH IRL BOX IS SUPPOSED TO BE. RIGHT NOW IT MATCHES THE KLEINER HINWEIS

Deutsch IRL and other

Kleiner Hinweis

screenshot of dict.cc showing where to find the plural form (right beside the noun in the singular)

In English, most plurals are formed by adding an “-s” or “-es” to the noun (e.g., students, classes, pens), although there are some irregular plural forms in English (e.g., women, children, geese).

Forming the plural of nouns in German is a bit more complicated than in English. There are several rules one could memorize, but that wouldn’t account for the exceptions. We recommend that you learn the plural form of each noun when you are learning the noun itself: das Bücherregal, die Bücherregale.

Some dictionaries (like dict.cc as shown in the screenshot) write out the plural forms. Other dictionaries only indicate the plural form by abbreviations; you need to understand how to form a plural when you see those abbreviations, for example:

die Lampe, -n  (this means: you just add -n to the noun; die Lampen is the plural form)

das Fenster, – (this means: you don’t add an ending to the noun; die Fenster is the plural form)

die Mutter, -¨  (this means: you don’t add an ending to the noun, just the Umlaut on the vowel; die Mütter is the plural form)

Jetzt bist du dran!

Was gibt es in deinem Rucksack? Was gibt es in deinem Mäppchen? Answer the questions in your written journal, using the language modeled in the activities.

Then record your answers in your audio journal.

2) Gegenstände im Klassenzimmer

To start off our lesson on the school day, you will first be introduced to and perhaps review objects that can be found in the classroom.
Now let’s look at adding information to an object through an adjective. It is not important to memorize every detail of these forms, but, as your German improves, repeating these kinds of structures can help you eventually produce them quasi automatically.
Learn more about Ordnung and the Schulmäppchen.

Jetzt bist du dran!

Take a moment to consider the classroom that you go to in order to learn German or if you work from home, consider the room where you study/work. Welche Gegenstände hast du jetzt im Klassenzimmer oder im Homeoffice? Als Kind welche Gegenstände hattest du im Klassenzimmer? Consider these questions and write your responses in your written journal. Consider adding more detail to your objects like in the activity above.

Im Klassenzimmer hatte ich ein silbernes Lineal und eine gelbe Schere.

When you are done, check your spelling and structures again, then record your answers in your audio journal.

Lausanne im Blickpunkt

Internationale Olympische Komitee
Internationale Olympische Komitee

Lausanne ist die „Olympische Hauptstadt“, weil in dieser Stadt das Internationale Olympische Komitee seinen Hauptsitz hat. Deshalb ist Lausanne sehr wichtig für den weltweiten Sport. Außerdem gibt es dort das Olympische Museum, wo man viel über die Geschichte der Spiele lernen kann.

Lausanne is the “Olympic Capital” because the International Olympic Committee has its headquarters there. Therefore, Lausanne is very important for global sports. It also houses the Olympic Museum, where you can learn a lot about the history of the Games.

3) Die Schulfächer

Stundenplan

Now that your backpack is packed, let’s look at your daily school schedule. What did yours look like? Did you have the same Fächer (subjects) every day? Did you have each Fach (subject) the same amount of time? Wie lange war dein Schultag? Did you have many Pausen (recesses/breaks)? To the left, you can see a Stundenplan from 1898 with some subjects you may recognize (Geographie, Religion, Zeichnen, Lesen) and others you may not. Guess the meaning of the other subjects! Can you guess for what kind of pupil this schedule would have been?

Now you will see more modern school schedules from Grundschule and from Gymnasium. How many of the Fächer can you identify immediately? What do you think the others can mean? Pay attention to the length of the school day and the Pausen.

Listen and read along with Lara Marti’s statements about her school days and her school schedule, first in the text and then in the dialogue cards. Flip the card over, if you do not recognize the subject.

Example of Stundenplan when younger
Woman outdoors

Hallo! Ich heiße Lara Marti und ich komme aus Zürich. Hier ist mein Stundenplan von der 3. Klasse.

Als ich acht Jahre alt war, bin ich in die 3. Klasse gekommen. Ich war in der Klasse 3b. Die Parallelklassen waren 3a und 3c. Mein Klassenlehrer war Herr Engelbrecht.

Deutsch IRL und anderes

  • Schulfächer, interactive video about school subjects
  • Schule: Nina und David gehen wieder zur Schule. Die beiden Moderatoren begleiten eine deutsche Schülerin und einen Schüler und fragen nach Lieblingsfächern, nehmen am Unterricht teil und essen in der Mensa. (Nina and David are going to school again. The two hosts accompany two German pupils and ask about their favorite subjects, participate in class, and eat in the cafeteria.)

Jetzt bist du dran!

Welche Fächer hattest du in der Grundschule? In der Mittelschule? In der High School? Wann hattest du sie? Was war dein Lieblingsfach? Wer war dein Klassenlehrer? Hattest du mal Förderunterricht? Answer the questions in your written journal, using the language modeled in this lesson. How many of the questions and how thoroughly you answer them depends on how much you would like to challenge yourself.

When you are done, check your spelling and structures. Then record your answers in your audio journal. As always, feel free to meet up with a classmate and record together.

Jetzt kombinieren!

In this lesson, you learned about 1) what you have and had in your school bag, 2) words for the classroom, and 3) what subjects you had/Stundenplan. Now it’s time to combine your knowledge!

Der Schultag hier und dort: Think about what you’ve learned about elementary and secondary education in Switzerland and other German-speaking countries. What similarities and differences do you see? Using the language modeled in these lessons, write out your thoughts about what you have learned.

banner with various images of Switzerland

Media Attributions