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A South African Storm
Students read a letter titled "A South African Storm" on her experiences of discrimination in the country. Individually or as a class, they answer questions about the author's purpose in writing the piece was and how she made herself...
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The Blind Men and The Elephant
Students read a traditional story from India and discover how two people can see the event in different ways. Using their own experiences, they examine how each of their classmates is affected by them in how to read a situation. They...
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Enough to Make Your Head Spin
Students appreciate the value of nonverbal communication, focusing on the shaking or nodding of one's head, and the meanings attached to each activity in Bulgaria and in the United States. They explain how body language aids...
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Everyone Has a Culture -- Everyone is Different
Students are shown various statements and respond to each as a class. They discuss the differences between different groups of people and why they behave differently as well. After completing a worksheet, they discover aspects of their...
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Day-to-Day Life in a Small African Village
Students experience just a bit of what it's like living in a village in Tanzania-from language to geography to health and hygiene issues. They compare aspects of school and home life in the United States with those in Tanzania and...
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Giving Students a Little Latitude
Students use a world outline map to locate places using coordinates of latitude and longitude. They answer questions about places based on their knowledge of the map and on their research and make up more questions of this sort for each...
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Good News/Bad News/Who Cares?
Students practice evaluating facts, bringing to bear their own experience, preferences, and international contexts. They recognize that there are many ways of interpreting a single piece of information and form the habit of reflecting...
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Half Man, Half Limping Rabbit
Students examine the possible advantages of mortality over immortality. They explain how or why change can be a powerful and positive force and that sometimes the beauty of a country, or of a culture, is not always obvious to the people...
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How Accurate Is It?
Students examine how generalizations can easily be invalid. They qualify generalizations to make them accurate and challenge generalizations made about people, insist on knowing the evidence that supports these, and modify their own...
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Identifying Structured Patterns in Folk Tales
Students are introduced to the structure of folk tales. After working through an example, they identify as many folk tales as possible that follow the same pattern. In groups, they compare a folk tale and a fairy tale to identify the...
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Life in a Hurricane Zone
Students study the nature of hurricanes and examine in detail the effect of Hurricane Georges upon the Dominican Republic. They explain the way in which physical systems (e.g., a hurricane) can affect human systems (e.g., the life of a...
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Press Conference on Hurricane Georges
Students reinforce oral communication skills and organize a "press conference" on Hurricane Georges. They demonstrate their comprehension of the following enduring understanding: Where we live influences how we live. No matter where we...
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The True Cost of Coffee
Students examine the economic, health, and environmental risks of a one-crop economy in the developing world. They explain how or why it can be challenging for people of one culture to understand the lifestyle of a different society.
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To Your Health
Students focus on how storks and other cultural icons, in both Bulgarian and American customs, are believed to encourage and bring good health. They list three natural phenomena in their region prominently associated with the coming of...
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Understanding Demographics
Students use demographic information to gain an understanding of the Dominican Republic. They compare demographic data from the United States and the Dominican Republic and describe the difference between learning about a country from...
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Where I Come From
Young scholars examine family traditions as a microcosm of larger cultures. They examine their own family traditions to identify how beliefs, values, and customs vary from culture to culture and how those traditions influence their...
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Narrative vs. Expository Texts
Young scholars use examples of narrative and expository text to analyze and compare the two styles. Students read articles on life in Lesotho and Madagascar and use graphic organizers and discussion to compare them. Young scholars write...
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"Declaration (of a Kgomotso Girl)"
Young scholars explore the poem, "Declaration." Students discuss how elements of poetry such as tone work to convey meaning. Young scholars compare and contrast their lives and the lives of the poem's characters from South Africa.
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International Curiosity and National Pride
Students investigate the national, local, and ethnic traits of the Bulgarian culture. They discuss patriotic American songs, analyze a map, play a '20 Questions' game about Bulgaria, read a letter, and identify American culture...
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The Blind Men and the Elephant
Students listen to the folktale, 'The Blind Men and the Elephant,' and examine the significance of perspective. They listen to and discuss the story, answer discussion questions, and apply the moral of the folktale to real-life situations.
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Chatter
Students discover that cultural norms heavily influence how we communicate. They experience the challenge of using and interpreting unfamiliar communication patterns.
They identify strategies for successful cross-cultural communication.
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On Being Seen as Different
Learners discover that while other cultures may seem strange or odd in some ways, their own culture can seem similarly strange or odd to those in other cultures. They give examples of how people see the world, themselves, and others in...
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Two Very Different Concepts of Time
Students delve further into the differences between a time-bound culture and a culture in which time seems almost unimportant. They answer the questions: How do people of different cultures view time differently? What can we learn from...
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Fighting Soil Erosion
Students complete hands-on activities and watch a video to learn about soil erosion. In this erosion instructional activity, students use hands-on studies to investigate soil erosion. Students then visit the given websites to identify...