This Website is designed as a resource for teachers of German at the Grade- and High-School levels and for teachers of undergraduates who are interested in articulation between the lower and upper divisions in college curricula.

     It offers a vision of how curricular sequences can be developed within the framework offered by the Standards project to guide the study of foreign language (K-12) in the United States.  This presentation thus joins theory and practice, so that teachers can begin to use the Standards to describe and design curricula for their own situations.

Structure of Website

     The Website is divided into two Parts: Part 1, in three Units, and Part 2, in five Units.  Each Unit has its own Introduction and Index, explaining its purpose; the two main Parts also have general introductions to the clusters of units.  Within each Unit, you will find expositions of sub-topics listed in the Unit Index, practical examples that will help to correlate theory with classroom practice.  Most examples are constructed as exercises that offer you the chance to brainstorm about how classroom exercises and the Standards interface in various dimensions.

     The INDEX in the frame on the left is the primary navigation node for the Website: return there to find hot links to all Units. The MAIN INDEX link will give you an overview of the structure of the entire site, with all sections . On the first screen of each Unit, the Index for each Unit, reflecting its structure, is copied (all live linked). Use these partial indices to navigate within a Unit. To aid with navigation within a unit, live buttons are included at the bottom of many sections, allowing you to go to the previous and next screens. You will know you have reached the end of a unit when there are no further buttons at the bottom of the screen. Use the INDEX on the frame on the left of your screen to go to the next Unit Index.

     Part 1 approaches reading through the theoretical idea of readability.  It argues that implementation of the Standards into a curriculum requires an expanded definition of what reading is, and demonstrates how various kinds of familiar classroom activities can further the kind of learning prescribed by each of the sets of Standards.

     Part 2 exemplifies how reading can be built into a typical curriculum for Grades 4, 8, and 12; the exercises designated for Grade 12 are also age-appropriate for college beginner and novice language students.  Again, the Standards anchor a five-stage implementation of reading into the curriculum, from pre-reading through production and on to different kinds of reading on the WorldWideWeb.

     If you are more interested in a curricular sequence, start with Part 2; if you are more interested in learning new ways of thinking about reading before you start with curricular design, start with Part 1. To illustrate curricular implications, Units have examples keyed (where approopriate) to Grade 4, Grade 8, and Grade 12. Note, however, that the examples are not always in this order; this was done to put the most telling example first, to make the overall point of the Unit as clear as possible.

     Used as examples are a set of German-language texts from newpapers, magazines, and literature; these texts were all written for the German-language audience, and so represent a culturally-diverse set of readings.  These texts are listed under the MAIN INDEX and under the TEXT INDEX in the frame, and they are included both as text files (for greater readability) and as scanned images that replicate their original printed formats (for cultural purposes).  They are not glossed, since they are meant to be used as unprepared, authentic texts.

Technical Specifications of Main Text

     This Unit is designed to be accessed by Netscape 3.01 or above, and Internet Explorer 3.0 or above.  The bulk of the Units are text files, the largest of which is 66KB; the largest graphics file (among the graphics used to present the texts) is 198KB in size.  As every effort has been made to keep this Website as low-bandwidth as possible, the average size of a text file is 10KB, and the average size graphics file is just under 80 KB.  A 28.8 (or faster) modem is suggested for this site; however, a 14.4 modem will load the largest graphics file within 2 minutes.

Technical specifications for the Course Log-In are indicated there; this section includes the directions for submitting and receiving information from the Brainstorming sessions in every Unit.