What activity did you select to use for your global assignment

For this assignment I chose to have my students work with a classroom in Greece. Students will be writing weekly correspondence to their ePals in order to gain understanding of another culture, as well as work on letter writing skills. 

Describe the activity

This activity will span a month's time. Students will be paired up with a student in Greece and will be instructed on correct letter writing. Throughout their letters they will be instructed to share about their own culture as well as ask questions to elicit responses about their partner. To assess their learning students will take a pre-assessment about Greece and its culture, then a post assessment to assess what they have learned. They will also be asked to apply the importance of learning about other cultures throughout the world.

Describe how the lesson is considered global awareness

The students in my area have a pretty diverse make-up of Latino, Asian, and African American heritage. However, many are not direct descendants from these cultures and do not have information of traditions. I was interested in the prospect of having students research and learn about a European culture, while working on their writing skills. The classroom stated that English is their second language, which increases the importance of students using correct grammar. In the post assessment students will need to tell how this increased their knowledge of other cultures and how this lesson can be applied elsewhere. It is my hope that students understand the need to know other cultures, and furthermore respect them.

Describe how you will incorporate the activity into your classroom

This year I will not have a chance to incorporate this activity into my classroom. We cover writing mechanics and letter writing at the beginning of the year. However, I look forward to incorporating this next year, even if I am not in the same grade because I think the multiple facets to this lesson are invaluable and will engage my students and create more globally aware citizens. 

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Replies to This Discussion

Of course I think its very effective for students to learn from their teachers, but I also think that students can learn a lot from other students. In fact, I think sometimes they can learn better from other students since they are more likely to open up to them and are not afraid to ask questions and give their opinions. Occasionally, I notice that some of my students are timid in front of me and are afraid to ask me questions. At least with their fellow students, they are not shy. My students (and it sounds like yours as well) come from very different backgrounds, so I also think that they can learn a lot about different cultures from each other. This is especially true if our students have the opportunity to interact and collaborate with international students. I think the use of ePals is a wonderful way of connecting students and giving them the opportunity to learn from one another.

Greece is such a cool country to write to! I didn't use ePals for my lesson but reading about everyone using it sounds so interesting. I like that you pointed out Greek has so many backgrounds that the students will need to understand who they are conversing with. This project taking a month makes it a great opportunity for the students to really understand and focus on cultures that sometimes is swept by too quickly.

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