Developing Your Potential
Overview: What key behaviors are tied to success in the content area you teach? Help your students explore what those…
Educators
Defining Myself
Overview: Do your students know if they belong to a “me” or “we” culture? This lesson teaches students about collectivist…
From Cartoons to Classics
Overview: Movies and television are rich sources of intercultural content when you know what to look for. This activity will…
Critical Listening through Debate
Overview: Enjoy an intercultural twist on a unit idea that’s been used for years. Active listening skills, critical thinking and…
Listen and Draw
Overview: No artistic abilities are required for this quick activity regardless of whether it is a stand-alone activity or unit…
Paper Tear
Overview: Take 3-minutes and generate a fabulous discussion about the power of perspective, active listening, and interpersonal communication. This can…
The What, Why, and When
Overview: Building off the lesson “The What and Why”, students will engage in brief writing activity to determine if their…
The What and the Why
Overview: Do your own personal values and the values of others impact your daily actions and priorities? This activity helps…
Mapping My Community
Overview: What makes a community? Is it the people, the landmarks, the events or something else? This activity is a…
The D.I.V.E. Method
Overview: Give students a method and a reason to process new and different things that they see, hear and experience…
Who Are The NACIREMA?
Overview: Using a model by Horace Mann, this lesson will challenge students to consider the strong ties between language and…
Rituals and Traditions
Overview: School routines, rituals and traditions have a large role in the formation of community and students’ comfort levels while…
Interview and Investigate
Overview: Verifying the source of information and understanding how different sources provide varying perspectives on the same topic can be…
The True, The False & The Truly Amazing
Overview: When students form an emotional connection to something that they are learning, they are more likely to remember the…
What we learned at ACTFL’s 2019 Annual Convention and World Languages Expo
December 20, 2019—Our staff had a blast mingling with world language educators and representatives from study abroad and global learning…
NAASP’s “Principal Leadership” magazine publishes article by AFS-USA President Tara Hofmann
December 3, 2019—AFS-USA President & CEO Tara Hofmann’s article, “Student Exchange as a Path to Global Citizenship” is featured in…
What Do You Know of What You Heard
Goal: Participants will recognize the widespread use of stereotypes. Time: 20–30 minutes. Materials: Large sheets of newsprint, tape, markers, and…
Walk Apart, Walk Together
This activity is appropriate for a wide variety of ages, ranging from elementary school to adult. Since it requires no…
Understanding Your Identity
Overview: There are many factors and attributes that affect the way we identify ourselves. Elements such as our background, culture,…
The Hidden Ways in Which Culture Differs
Goal: Using the iceberg analogy, teach students to look at the hidden dimensions when comparing different cultures. Objectives: Students will…
The Effects of Nuclear Weapons
Overview: The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki changed the course of history and have had a significant long term…
Taking Action for the Environment
Overview: The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) declared June 5 as World Environmental Day in order to create awareness on issues surrounding…
The Potato Activity
Goal: To help youth eliminate stereotypes and to recognize the uniqueness of each individual Time: 20-30 minutes Materials: A brown…
Observations vs Judgments
Overview: This lesson plan will study the concept of culture by further exploring the differences between a cultural generalization (an…
Microfinance: A Poverty-Fighting Tool
Overview: In September 2000 society’s attention was drawn to certain social and economic issues impacting us on a global scale…
I have a dream
Overview: Dr. Martin Luther King is known to many as one of the most influential leaders of the Civil Rights…
Generalization vs Stereotypes
Overview: The goal of this lesson to explore the concept of culture and to provide a clear understanding of culture,…
Fostering Cultural Diplomacy in the Classroom
Overview: The purpose of this activity is to expose students to the important benefits of cultural diplomacy during International Education Week,…
Exploring Refugees and Asylum Seekers
Overview: The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees defines a refugee as person who “owing to a well-founded…
Exploring Islamic Traditions: Ramadan and Eid-al-Fitr
Overview of Islamic Culture & Muslim Traditions Lesson Plan Each year, Muslims from across the globe take part in the…
Examining Humanitarianism
Overview: The United Nations declared August 19 as World Humanitarian Day, as a way to commemorate the 2003 bombing of the…
Examining Current Social Movements
Overview: Beth Simone Noveck, former United States Deputy Chief Technology Officer, once stated, “In the 21st Century, you have to…
Education for All #BringBackOurGirls
Overview: Several countries have banded together in order to promote gender equality in education with the goal of eradicating gender…
Exploring Cultural Values
Goal: Exploring what students consider to be typical U.S. cultural values while comparing them to their perceptions. Objectives: Students will…
Cultural Influence on Judgments
Goal: To help students understand how culture plays an integral role in how we analyze and view the world. To…
Connect the Dots
Goal: Participants will experience the fact that we often subconsciously limit our perspectives and alternatives. Time: 15–30 minutes, depending on…
Chain of Diversity
Goal: Participants will discover and recognize the many ways in which they are similar and are different from others in…
Building Global Competency in the Intercultural Classroom
Overview: The purpose of this activity is to introduce U.S. students to the world beyond their classroom borders through the…
14 Ways to Say Thank You Internationally
Goal: Known as the official start of the holiday season to many, the American secular holiday of Thanksgiving has been…