Wednesday, December 3, 2014

Du bist die Sonne (Accusative Pronoun Intro)

I recently saw this alternative way of doing Cloze Activities for song lyrics while I was on Pinterest. I finally found a way to incorporate this activity while also introducing Accusative Pronouns to my German 2 students.

There's this cute song by die Drogen called "Du bist die Sonne."  The song's a good one for a lower level Cloze Activity - they sing relatively clearly, the words aren't too complicated, and it's really catchy :)  Here's how to do this activity:

  • Students work in groups.  Each group receives a copy of the song lyrics, cut up into strips.  The strips have a few missing words on them.  As students listen to the song, their goal is to put the lyrics in the correct order and fill in the missing blanks.  If you'd like to have a copy of the worksheet, click here.




  • Students listen to the song twice - once to try and put in order, and the other to get the missing lyrics.  I use the music video for the second viewing.  The music video is very cute and really good for a Cloze Activity... it shows all the lyrics!




  • I gave students time to put the lyrics in order after the second viewing.  To time them, I played the music video one more time - I told them to turn it in before the video ended.  This worked out great as a timer and as another opportunity for students who need another listening.  




  • I plan on using this song to introduce Accusative Pronouns.  When students get their papers back, go over it to make sure they have the missing lyrics filled in correctly.  Briefly review what pronouns are, then ask students to highlight all the pronouns they see in the lyrics.  This leads to a discussion on the difference between the forms du and dich and what the pronoun mich is.

You should try either this activity for Accusative Pronouns or a similar type of Cloze Activity - fewer missing words but the added exercise of putting the song in order has the kids listening in a whole different way!

- Frau Leonard