Elif and Eduard face each other on the school playground in Bornheim with raised fists. “Boxing,” a boy shouts from the audience. “No, we’re looking for an adjective,” replies the pantomime supervisor. “Brave?Asks a girl shyly. Right answer, applause.
The 15 children who guess words at the Kirchnerschule in Bornheim are participants in the three-week long “Deutschsommer”, a language promotion project during the summer holidays. With a program of lessons, theater and leisure activities, third-graders in particular should improve their German and thus increase the chances for their educational path. The most recent PISA study in 2018 once again showed that other countries than Germany succeed better in teaching language skills to children of migrants and low-income families.
In Hesse, 570 primary school students in 14 cities are taking part in the “Deutschsommer”, which has been organized by the Stiftung Polytechnische Gesellschaft since 2007 and is supported by the Hessian Ministry of Culture. There are 146 children in Frankfurt, spread over nine schools throughout the city. Their families come from 40 different countries, but more than half of the children were born in Germany. “I didn’t really feel like it,” says ten-year-old Mai Nhi at the Kirchner School. “But the first day I realized it was cool. It’s more fun than school.”The” German summer ” should not feel like lessons for the children. True, every day at 8.15 a double lesson of German is on the schedule. But it is loosened up by games like pantomime. “We try not to make the program school-like,” says theater educator Ann-Kathrin Auditor. “The children should also feel like being there.”Together with a German teacher and a social pedagogue, she looks after the students from Monday to Friday. Her main work begins after German lessons, when a double hour of theater is on the schedule. The children should actively experience language and thus learn better.
Each child may participate
To combine German lessons and theater, the children read a book together. In the Bornheim group it is “Ronja Räubertocher” by Astrid Lindgren. “Although this is linguistically demanding, it also contains many great words for learning,” says Oliver Beddies from the Polytechnic Society Foundation. The children play scenes from the book and deal with topics such as friendship. According to Beddies, most participants prefer to remember this part of the program in retrospect.
Nine-year-old Ahmed also thinks: “The play is the most fun. But also the free time!”It starts after lunch. Then they play, but there are also workshops, trips to the weekly market and museums. The main thing is that the students speak-and experience something together. “I have already made many friends here,” says Ahmed.
