7 | During a pre-semester teaching orientation, we developed a lesson plan using the FLLITE model to explore a music video advertisement. We chose Is mir egal for its fun, energetic, and humorous style. Over the course of three semesters, we implemented this lesson near the end of a beginning-level undergraduate German course. Our FLLITE lesson plan coincides with the introduction of the dative case two weeks before the end of the semester. It also makes connections to cultural content from the film, Kebab Connection (André, Schreitmüller, & Saul, 2004), which the students watch and discuss three weeks beforehand. The film is a comedy about a young German of Turkish descent who creates cinematic advertisements. The film also follows the protagonist’s rocky relationship with his pregnant girlfriend. The cultural differences between their two families drive the film’s plot. Our lesson plan thus connects to the curriculum in four ways: (1) The film, Kebab Connection (André et al., 2004), introduces the students to concepts of multiculturalism discussed during our lesson plan in connection with the content of the music video. (2) Beyond working with the cultural issues in the film, students also gain a new view of urban life in Germany; the prominence of extensive public transportation systems is especially notable. (3) The lesson is also linked to the introduction of the dative case—students encounter repeated examples of the dative of reference in the phrase “is mir egal.” (4) Finally, our lesson plan exposes students to an example of an authentic German advertisement. Using the video as a model alongside the advertisements created by the protagonist of Kebab Connection and others from the German textbook, students create their own advertisements in groups as a final project at the end of the semester. Is mir egal (2015) adds to an already diverse set of example texts for these advertisement projects. |
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