Got this from Brigitte today:
Hi Ben,
I was asked to teach a college level intro German course during the summer session, beginning at the end of May. It will be a very intensive course, jamming two semesters worth of beginner level German into a 6 week course that meets 4 times a week for 3 ½ hours each. The chairman of the German department gave me the syllabus today and told me that I will have quite a bit of flexibility in the way I teach the course “as long as I make sure that they will have all the grammar down pat and that I cover at least the first 10 chapters of the textbook” (Kontakte). Plus, he wants me to get them speaking “right away on day 1” so they will be comfortable having a conversation by the time they finish the course. I so much want to do this the CI way but I feel like somebody put me in a straitjacket. Does anybody among our group have any experience with this? I would really welcome any and all advice. Maybe I should mention that these students will take the follow-up level II course with this gentleman in the fall.
Thank you so much in advance to all who might want to put in their two cents.
And thank you to you, Ben, for giving me a platform to ask my question.
Brigitte
My response: This is no gentleman, this is a nutball. He asks irrational questions. He says he wants them speaking on day 1. That is stupid. He wants chapters covered in a book. Equally stupid. Two strikes.
Don’t do it. I mean, what do you get? A very little bit of money. An impossible task. Someone – this guy – who can then point out your various shortcomings as a teacher when he finds out that the students can’t do any of that because it is not natural and it ain’t gonna happen.
This guy needs to come out here and go a few rounds with my students. With his approach, they would quickly have him wishing he had gone into some other field, like dentistry. This, by they way, is exactly why I quit my evening gig at Araphahoe Community College some years back. The department chair wanted me to use French in Action.
No straitjackets please. Don’t go there. You’ll be glad you didn’t. Hell no.