During the video plot demonstration at the Children’s Online University, German words from the lecture periodically appear on the screen. “Catching words” by clicking on them is necessary to gain access to the online tasks. This option is intended for self-study on the platform of the German Children’s Online University. There is no need to access the online tasks in extracurricular classes at school. Therefore, there is no need to “catch” the words either. Instead, students need to focus on the content. In one of the first lessons, a teacher only needs to explain to children how to use the Children’s Online University at home on their own: where to find it, how to register, how to create an account (as a rule, children are doing a great job on their own), which languages are available for videos, how to choose a language, how to turn on subtitles, how to “catch” words, why to catch them, where to find online tasks for lectures, what can you do to get badges and “build a career in science.”
After watching each video plot, you will have access to four interactive tasks. Two options are available. The Russian version of the video is accompanied by four tasks in Russian on the content. In these tasks, there are 10 German A1 level words on the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages. Performing the tasks in Russian can be recommended for elementary school students, and to students starting to learn German as a second foreign language. After watching the German video, you will have access to four tasks in German. The linguistic complexity level of these tasks is A2. They can be recommended to students in grades 5-7 that are learning German as a first foreign language.
Interactive tasks on the Kinderuni website are designed to be completed independently (voluntarily) at home. It will suffice if the teacher just informs the children about the fact that they do exist, and shows them in the first or second class. The tasks themselves are not included in the work program of the course, or in the class scenarios. The “German with Children’s Online University” extracurricular activity course does not duplicate the Kinderuni course, but complements and expands upon it. Completion of interactive tasks on the website is left to the students’ discretion. If they are interested in the course, they will do the exercises online; if not, then the teacher should not force them to do so. Only videos from the Goethe-Institut website should be used for the “German with Children’s Online University” course. The online tasks on the Kinderuni website are not relevant for our course of extracurricular activities.
However, there may be certain situations that arise in the class: for example, one of the students, having registered, has already watched the video plot independently and can “break” the stage of forecasting and hypothesis, telling everyone the content of the movie. However, that is actually a good sign. If children have registered and watched the video in advance, it means that the teacher has managed to interest them with the materials of the Children’s university, but it is unlikely that will represent 100% of the group. You can find out at the beginning of the class which students have already watched the video, and ask them not to “deprive the pleasure of making discoveries” to those who have not yet watched it, and not to participate in the prediction process if they know the correct answer from the video beforehand. Or ask them to vote the way they thought they would before they watched the video?
