GER10140

Learning Outcomes:

On completion of this module students should be able to:
- Read, comprehend and enjoy short German-language texts, summarising and analysing their main themes, characters, stylistic and rhetorical features in English
- Differentiate the main features of short literary genres (poems and short stories)
- Develop a catalogue of questions to aid their comprehension and analysis of short literary texts
- Demonstrate awareness of the role that historical context plays for literary texts
- Understand more readily short mini-lectures in German
- Write a close analysis in English of a short literary text, in an appropriate register and style
- Collaborate with another student on an assignment (in English) discussing an allocated literary text not previously studied
- Write creative responses in German to literary texts

Indicative Module Content:

The module is divided into 4 different thematic blocks:

- Language and communication
- Relationships and conflict
- Growing up, ageing, issues of identity and gender
- Heimat: belonging, inclusion and exclusion

The focus is on short literary texts (prose and poetry) from different historical periods, but mainly the 20th and 21st centuries, written by a range of authors from the German-speaking countries. Strategies to develop and practise close reading and analysis will be employed, and we will look at the different stylistic and rhetorical features in the texts. We will also be doing some short pieces of creative writing as responses to the texts.
All of the texts and supporting material including guiding reading questions will be made available on Brightspace.

Student Effort Hours:

Approaches to Teaching and Learning:

In order to benefit from the learning experience, students need to attend both classes, participate actively in this module, and work consistently and independently outside of class time. It is important to use and engage with the material on Brightspace.

The module will be taught by a mixture of small-group tutorials (Thursdays) with discussion, peer and group work, task-based learning taking place in English, while mini-lectures held in German (Fridays) outline concepts, strategies and context, and are punctuated by activities and creative writing.

Students will be given strategies for reading comprehension and tools for analysis, and provided with guiding questions and "survival vocabulary" to help unlock the texts in the original German. Comprehension and analytical skills will grow over the course of the module.

Assessment is by means of reflective journal, a commentary on a particular passage and a small group / pair presentation discussing a new text not already covered. These will take place on the Friday of the last week.

Generative AI may be used for certain purposes only under the guidance of your module coordinator and within academic integrity guidelines. This corresponds to amber on the traffic light system that has been adopted by UCD Arts & Humanities: https://www.ucd.ie/artshumanities/study/aifutures/trafficlightsystem/
More information will be supplied on Brightspace for each assignment.

Requirements, Exclusions and Recommendations

Not applicable to this module.

Module Requisites and Incompatibles

Incompatibles:
GER10030 - Intro to German Literature


 

Assessment Strategy

 

Please see Student Jargon Buster for more information about remediation types and timing. 

Feedback Strategy/Strategies

• Feedback individually to students, on an activity or draft prior to summative assessment
• Feedback individually to students, post-assessment
• Group/class feedback, post-assessment
• Peer review activities

How will my Feedback be Delivered?

Individual feedback will be provided for the essay. Students who wish to get some feedback or pointers for improvement prior to essay submission, must submit a draft or outline by a specified time. Advice may also be sought on the group project beforehand and especially during the designated workshop class set aside for this. Written feedback on the group project will be made available after the publication of results. All students must attend the final class where the projects are briefly presented.

All primary works (short stories and poems) will be made available in Brightspace and titles of relevant secondary material will also be communicated there.

Timetabling information is displayed only for guidance purposes, relates to the current Academic Year only and is subject to change.