German summer detectives improve their German language skills at school
14.09.2023
Learning German and having fun at the same time: This worked well during the three German summer vacation weeks at the Wegscheide school hostel in Bad Orber. More than 20 Offenbach primary school children in the third grade improved their language skills during German lessons, theater games and exciting leisure activities. The municipal language development project in Offenbach is now continuing. Many of the boys and girls remain "on the trail of language" after school as "German Summer Detectives".
The model project Deutschsommer, which was taken over by the Frankfurt Polytechnische Gesellschaft Foundation and has been continuously developed, has been running in Offenbach for 14 years.
Head of Education Paul-Gerhard WeißWe have already helped several hundred primary school children to compensate for their language deficits and thus improve their chances of starting school.
"In this way, the German Summer also makes an important contribution to integration," says Head of Education Paul-Gerhard Weiß.
Under the project management of Jörg Muthorst, the German Summer was already expanded into a six-month support program in 2016 with the establishment of the detective group as a new link between the three-week language vacations in the summer and a one-week Endspurt week in the Christmas vacations. Councillor Weiß: "This enables us to provide continuous, sustainable language support."
"Our aim here," says Jörg Muthorst, "is to consolidate the impetus we give the children in the summer for both their language and personal development and to continue to motivate and strengthen the boys and girls in the time between the two vacation projects."
Practicing German on two afternoons
The language detectives are supervised by two primary school teachers from the German summer teacher team. The children, who are around ten years old and are now in the fourth grade, meet two afternoons a week at the Zion Family Center of the Evangelische Familienbildung Offenbach to continue improving their grammar and spelling, as well as their reading skills and ability to express themselves.
Based on the fourth grade curriculum, the boys and girls deal with word types, sentence structures and cases and also expand their vocabulary. All of this is done without any pressure to perform, through language and movement games, discussions in a circle on current issues from the children's everyday lives or by reading short stories.
The German Summer enjoys a high level of appreciation and acceptance among Offenbach's elementary school due to its predominantly good results, which are documented by language tests. Jörg Muthorst advises third-year teachers to start looking for children in need of support in their classes for next year's language vacations. It makes sense to make parents aware of the unique support offer in the first three weeks of the summer vacations as early as possible so that they can take the German summer into account when planning their vacation. Flyers will soon be sent out to schools for distribution to parents, opening the registration process for the German Summer 2024.