Deconstructing Stereotypes
Overview: Use this lesson to help students realize the impact that stereotypes and unconscious bias have on our everyday behaviors. In this short simulation exercise, students will get to experience…
Educators
Global Educator Newsletter: September 2023
From the AFS-USA President & CEO, Tara Boyce-Hofmann This month’s edition of the AFS Global Educator shines a spotlight on the theme of “Scholarships & Awards” – a topic close…
Global Educator Newsletter: April 2024
From the AFS-USA President & CEO, Tara Boyce-Hofmann As we welcome the arrival of spring, we also take this opportunity to reflect on and celebrate the remarkable achievements and dedication…
Global Educator Newsletter: January 2024
From the AFS-USA President & CEO, Tara Boyce-Hofmann As we kick off the new year, AFS-USA continues to dedicate time and resources toward promoting and delivering the many opportunities, experiences,…
Days of the Week
Overview: Use this lesson to help students understand the difficulty of “unlearning” concepts and behaviors learned within their own cultural context. It also engages students’ critical thinking skills by challenging…
Developing Your Potential
Overview: Use this lesson to help your students explore the key attitudes and behaviors associated with success in your content area. This short reflective activity can be completed individually, in…
From Cartoons to Classics
Overview: Movies and television are rich sources of intercultural content when you know what to look for. This activity will help guide you to select a clip, show or film…
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 collaboration are all part of engaging in a debate in-person…
Listen and Draw
Overview: No artistic abilities are required for this quick activity regardless of whether it is a stand-alone activity or unit starter. Context and communication styles will definitely be part of…
Paper Tear
Overview: Take 3-minutes and generate a fabulous discussion about the power of perspective, active listening, and interpersonal communication. This can easily be done virtually and connects to any content area.…
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 values are aligned with their actions and future goals. Identifying…
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 your class explore the concept of values and can provoke…
Mapping My Community
Overview: What makes a community? Is it the people, the landmarks, the events or something else? This activity is a great lead-in for most content areas and provokes a great…
The D.I.V.E. Method
Overview: This lesson provides students with a model for processing new and different experiences in their daily lives. Students will learn to differentiate between observations and judgments, as they practice slowing…
Who Are The NACIREMA?
Overview: Using a model by Horace Mann, this lesson will challenge students to consider the strong ties between language and culture and how much of their culture is embedded in…
Rituals and Traditions
Overview: School routines, rituals and traditions have a large role in the formation of community and students’ comfort levels while learning. This lesson plan helps teachers provoke discussion and reflection…
Interview and Investigate
Overview: Verifying the source of information and understanding how different sources provide varying perspectives on the same topic can be eye-opening for students. This activity is a fun, highly engaging…
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 content. Use this simple activity with a reading from any…
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 organizations at ACTFL’s 2019 Annual Convention and World Languages Expo…
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 the December 2019 issue of Principal Leadership, a magazine published…
Walk Apart, Walk Together
This activity is appropriate for a wide variety of ages, ranging from elementary school to adult. Since it requires no special materials, it can be conducted in almost any setting.…
Learning Styles
Overview: Use this lesson plan to gauge student learning preferences in the classroom, and help students become more aware of the strengths and challenges of each style. Activity (Methodology): Self-Inventory…
Active Listening
Active Listening Lesson Plan Overview: Effective communication requires an understanding that not everyone prefers to communicate in the same way. It also requires a person to be an active observer/listener.…
Non-Verbal Communication
Overview: This lesson plan is designed for students to consider the many ways in which people communicate non-verbally, identify their own preferences, and begin to think about the importance of…
Identity Flower
Overview: In this lesson students will be prompted to think deeply about the various elements of their individual identity. Using the identity flower model as a guide, students will explore…
The Hidden Ways in Which Culture Differs
Overview: This lesson introduces students to the concept of culture. Using the iceberg model as a guide, students will be challenged to look inward and reflect on how their own…
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 effects on the victims. Students will get the opportunity to…
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 planet, encouraging citizens to take global action. The purpose…
The Potato Activity
Goal: To help youth eliminate stereotypes and to recognize the uniqueness of each individual Time: 20-30 minutes Materials: A brown paper bag, one potato for each student in the class,…
I Am…
Overview: Use this lesson plan to gauge students’ individual tendencies and prompt rich discussion on how cultural tendencies in societies are reflected in the ways that people describe themselves. Activity…
Conflict Styles
Overview: Use this lesson plan to gauge students’ preferred conflict styles (based on the Thomas-Kilman Model) and open a discussion around how this knowledge might be used to help navigate…
Where do you Stand
Overview: People’s values, norms and assumptions can often influence and explain their behaviors. This activity offers the opportunity to self-reflect on one’s own values and how these are reflected in…
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 through the development of the United Nations’ Millennium Goals (MDG).…
I have a dream
Overview: Dr. Martin Luther King is known to many as one of the most influential leaders of the Civil Rights Movement. His passion and enthusiasm for social justice and equality…
Stereotypes and Generalizations
Overview: Use this lesson plan to help students distinguish the difference between stereotypes and generalizations, explore stereotypes that they may hold about others, and practice how converting stereotypes into generalizations…
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, as a way to foster mutual understanding, empathy and respect…
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 fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality,…
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 celebration of Eid al-Fitr marking the official end of Ramadan.…
Examining Humanitarianism
Overview: The United Nations declared August 19 as World Humanitarian Day, as a way to commemorate the 2003 bombing of the U.N in Baghdad, Iraq, as well as a way to…
Examining Current Social Movements
Overview: Beth Simone Noveck, former United States Deputy Chief Technology Officer, once stated, “In the 21st Century, you have to use technology as one of the tools in the toolkit…
Education for All #BringBackOurGirls
Overview: Several countries have banded together in order to promote gender equality in education with the goal of eradicating gender disparity in the classroom. Even still, there are several social,…
Exploring Cultural Values
Goal: Exploring what students consider to be typical U.S. cultural values while comparing them to their perceptions. Objectives: Students will be able to: Become aware of what are considered typical…
Cultural Influence on Judgments
Overview: Use this lesson to help students become more aware of their own culture and recognize its influence on their thoughts, behaviors, and how they view the world. Activity (Methodology):…
Connect the Dots
Overview: In this lesson students will explore the notion of how people often subconsciously limit their perspective. By engaging in a short puzzle task students will be challenged to think…
Chain of Diversity
Goal: Participants will discover and recognize the many ways in which they are similar and are different from others in the group, as well as the ways in which each…
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 bounty of hosting international students. An introductory exploration of culture…
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 a long tradition that brings together family and friends from…