Summary
We have designed an interdisciplinary unit for eighth-grade students that will take approximately three weeks to complete. Over the course of this unit, students will examine the impact of Spanish imperialism on three Latin American nations (Mexico, Guatemala, and Chile) through studies of the history and cultures of those nations. This unit will combine elements of several different academic subjects (including Social Studies, English, Art, and Foreign Language) as students learn about not just the factual history of these countries, but also important aspects of the human experience within each nation. Alongside lessons on the legacy of Spanish colonialism in Latin America, students will interact with literature, artwork, and firsthand accounts of people from each country, allowing students to analyze the impact of history on culture and broaden their global awareness. It is our hope that this unit will also expand students’ consciousness by teaching them about the injustices that resulted from colonization as well as multiple perspectives of those involved.
As a summative assessment for this unit, students will choose one of the three Latin American nations they studied and design a creative project (either independently or collaboratively) that will showcase their learning about a significant aspect of that country’s history or culture. Students will have a list of options to choose from, all of which require them to use their creative talents to synthesize their learning and communicate it effectively through their chosen medium. These options include (but are not limited to) writing a fictional travel journal that incorporates the religion, politics, or culture of the region, designing a newspaper page set during the time of an important historical event, and writing and filming an imaginary interview with a significant cultural figure.

The general goal of the Reel American History project is to foster critical thinking about a matter of enduring cultural attention, especially where young people are concerned: the formation of our national identity.

Reel American History is designed to be a "Collaborative Shared Resource". It aims at being a large, ongoing, cumulative, collaborative project that involves many students and many faculty over a long period of time. We strive to engage students in authentic learning – making students partners, even leaders, in researching American culture. Not only do we want to host the "novice in the archive", but we want to be an archive built by novices. We value pedagogy that is active, hands-on, inquiry-driven, student-centered, dialogic, constructivist, and based on discovery.

Therefore, we invite high school, college, and university teachers to share ownership in the project by not only teaching from the archive but, especially and even more importantly, by adding student work to it.

Specifically, we encourage teachers to consider our suggestions for using our site in these five ways:

as a textbook for your classroom work
as a first-stop resource for research projects by your students on films in the archive
as a publisher of good work by your students
as a stimulant for the creation of other kinds of projects relating to film representation of American history
as a broker for projects that join students from different schools

Acceso is a complete, interactive curriculum for intermediate-level learners of Spanish. The materials on the site are provided freely to the public and are intended as a replacement for commercial textbooks, which are generally ill-suited to the learning outcomes now considered crucial to successful language study. These materials are supplemented by an online workbook built on the MySpanishLab platform of Pearson Education, Inc., as well as detailed lesson plans, rubrics for the evaluation of student work, and reliable instruments for measuring student progress and learning outcomes. Winner of 2012 Computer Assisted Language Consortium (CALICO) Focus Award

Reviews
CALICO Journal 29.2 (Jan 2012): 398-405.
Hispania 95.2 (June 2012): 365-366

As in French I and II, in this course, you will learn the basics of French, including reading, writing, listening, and speaking. At the end of the quarter you will know how to introduce yourself and volunteer basic information, and how to ask questions of others. You will also have some knowledge of French and Francophone cultures and protocols. This class is divided into four modules, which follow the chapters in the textbook. In each module you will be asked to read, write, speak, and listen in French. You will have daily homework assignments to complete. The class also includes a quarter-long cultural immersion project, in which you will be asked to conduct research on specific aspects of a non-European Francophone country and report your findings to the rest of the class.

An introductory textbook of the modern standard Uyghur language with exercises and extensive grammatical analysis. With the accompanying audio, the textbook is designed for self-study or a one-year classroom course.

Tlatilco figurines (from the National Museum of Anthropology, but also including the Female Figure at the Princeton University Art Museum), ceramic, Tlatilco, Mesoamerica (present-day Mexico), c. 1200–600 B.C.E. Speakers: Dr. Lauren Kilroy-Ewbank and Dr. Steven Zucker. Tlatilco is a Nahuatl word, given to this “culture” later. It means “place of hidden things.” We don’t know what the people here called themselves. Around 2000 B.C.E., maize, squash and other crops were domesticated, which allowed people to settle in villages. The settlement of Tlatilco was located close to a lake, and fishing and the hunting of birds became important food sources. Archaeologists have found more than 340 burials at Tlatilco, with many more destroyed in the first half of the 20th century.

In this story, Jangmi moves from her home in Korea to a new home in the United States. At first she is sad about leaving behind her friends and Korean customs and traditions, but once she arrives in America she begins to adjust. She becomes hopeful that someday America could feel like home, too.

This realistic fiction story is about a young boy, Max, who is growing up on a large fruit farm in Chili and how he wants to find a friend in a faraway place

Arabalicious is a website full of resources for teachers of Arabic, run by Taoufiq Cherkaoui. The website includes PowerPoints available for download on concepts such as telling time, fruits and vegetables, culture, and basic greetings, to name a few. Worksheets to go along with the PowerPoints are also available for free download. The website further includes pictures that are available with the author's permission and some postings on available jobs for Arabic instructors as per 2012.

Aswaat Arabiyya is an archive of 245 videos in Arabic, listed by difficulty level and accompanied by glossaries and four worksheets each that focus on every aspect of listening comprehension. Selections come largely from Arabic media, with some cultural presentations by native speakers. Videos cover the entire Arabic-speaking world and include MSA and different dialects. Materials are designed to be used both as in-class activities and homework assignments. Videos can be slowed down.

This blog aims to teach people the Lebanese dialect. It uses both video components and themed vocabulary lists such as weather and words for schools and universities. Vocabulary lists are written in both Arabic and transliterated English. Cultural components about Lebanon and occasional news items are included.

World-acclaimed young poet Li Young Lee fuses memory, family, culture, and history in his work. Meditating on the vulnerability of humanity, Lee produces passionate and profound lyrical poetry. (28 minutes)

Français interactif is a unique, award-winning 1st-year French curriculum used by learners all over the world. Students explore French language and culture by following the lives of real students who have participated in the UT Summer Program in Lyon, France. The online curriculum includes over 320 videos, vocabulary and phonetics audio, online grammar reference with self-correcting exercises and audio dialogues, verb conjugation and practice tools, internet activities, and a textbook of classroom exercises. Franais interactif was awarded the 2009 CALICO Esperanto Access to Language Education Award and the National Endowment for the Humanities EDSITEment Best of Humanities on the Web award (2005)

Witness the unstoppable joy of dancing bomba, Puerto Rico’s Afro-Puerto Rican dance of resistance. Meet sisters Mar and María Cruz who are dedicated to the dance and its legacy of survival, and trace some of the communities where bomba is at its most vibrant, from the Santurce area of San Juan, to Loíza, the bastion of Afro-Puerto Rican culture across the Rio Grande.

This OER Lesson plan/unit was created by Ashton Krueger as part of the 2023 World Language OER Summer work and training. Educators worked with NDE staff to create OER Learning Plans and materials. The attached Lesson Plan is designed for 9 - 12 World Language Arts teachers for Novice Mid-Learners of German. Students will work together with partners to share their travel interests, write sentences, evaluate their writing, and present their ideas and new learnings. Students will interpret flags, exchange information, negotiate meaning, edit errors, and discuss some cultural activities associated with each country.This Lesson Plan addresses the following NDE World Language Standard(s): NE WL Standards: 1.1, 1.2, 2.1.It is expected that this activity will take students 30 minutes to complete.

Nigerian born Chinua Achebe is one of the world's most well-known and influential contemporary writers. His first novel, Things Fall Apart (1958), is an early narrative about the European colonization of Africa told from the point of view of the colonized people.

This activity has students practice their listening and comprehension skills. They will identify stereotypes from the target language and culture, and also practice describing themselves and someone they know (nationality, name, characteristics).

Still photography, a practice and form of expression that has worked its way into every facet of social life and every culture in the world, is considered here from the perspectives of history and social science. We will discuss the uses and functions of pictures; how they are to be understood and interpreted; whether they have clear-cut content and meanings; how they shape and are shaped by politics, economics, and social life.

Students will research and discuss different Hispanic fashion designers, their backgrounds, designs and impact on the fashion industry. Photo CC-BY-NC-ND: https://www.flickr.com/photos/georgewbushcenter/14656358446 

African American Studies 101 is a multidisciplinary course that embodies the empirical study of history, politics, culture, religion and other areas within the social sciences. The essential focus is on the life experiences of peoples of African descent in the United States and globally. The course integrates the works of scholars of ancient African civilization, New World enslavement of African Americans, economics, literature, arts, race, women studies, government and sport studies. Furthermore, through the interdisciplinary lifeline of African American Studies, this course will give special attention to black athleticism.