This article introduces an innovative approach to teaching texts at every level of the foreign language curriculum through the use of an interactive reading journal. The article describes how the journal can address the interpretive communication standard at the secondary level, as well as the challenges of integrating lower‐level “skills” courses with upper‐level “content” courses at the post‐secondary level. The journal format itself is discussed in detail, along with examples of how it can be implemented with specific texts at the intermediate and advanced levels. The conclusion offers student reactions and suggestions for putting the interactive reading journal into practice.

The focus in many language curricula is shifting from “four skills” to “literacy.” In a literacy‐oriented curriculum, texts stand at the center of every course at every level. Teachers introduce content through texts early in the language learning process, assist even advanced students with the challenges of reading and writing in German, and help learners make connections at every level between texts, language, and culture. This article describes approaches and offers materials for teaching a classic German children's novel, Erich Kästner's Emil und die Detektive (1929), in the second year of a literacy‐oriented curriculum.

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This article offers approaches to the topic of the First World War at the intermediate and advanced levels of the German curriculum through thematically diverse WWI‐era cultural texts. By situating the texts within a multiliteracies framework, the authors demonstrate how this historical and literary content can provide authentic material for foreign language teaching. A model for “reading diagonally” across textual genres and forms, along with suggested texts for intermediate and upper‐level German courses, is presented as a means of building students' literacy skills. The war themes addressed in the texts include the mobilization of children, gender and war, art and propaganda, the discourses of nationalism and patriotism, and war and memory. The article concludes with suggestions for student assessment aligned with literacy learning objectives. The appendix includes an annotated list of useful websites on WWI for German instructors as well as classroom materials for Else Ury's Nesthäkchen im Weltkrieg () and a graphic novel version of Erich Maria Remarque's Im Westen Nichts Neues ().