This Integrated Performance Assessment (IPA) is designed to assess students at an intermediate proficiency level. It includes tasks to assess students in the three modes of communication: interpretive, interpersonal, and presentational. The authentic resources included in this IPA address the themes of travel and geography.Suggested rubrics can be found in ACTFL Implementing Integrated Performance Assessment (2013) by Bonnie Adair-Hauck, Eileen W. Glisan, Francis J. Troyan.  Adapted from Howard County Public SchoolsImage source: "Luggage" by stux on Pixabay.com

International student exchanges are an increasingly popular aspect of the internationalisation of higher education around the globe. Whether as short-term mobility projects or semester long ‘study abroad’ opportunities, the benefits of such international study experiences have been well documented.

Higher education institutions, departments and disciplines, or individual academics are often tasked with preparing students for such international experiences. Such preparation often focuses on the practical and logistical aspects of student travel, overlooking a crucial dimension of student learning.

Intercultural learning: Critical preparation for international student travel aims to take students beyond practical preparation, to equip them with a critical lens through which to view and understand their international experiences. The book leads students toward a deeper understanding of culture and cultural difference through an exploration of challenging concepts such as imperialism, racism, privilege and intercultural practice.

As an adjunct to traditional approaches, the book adds a significant and valuable dimension to the process of preparing students for international study, increasing the potential for meaningful and transformative learning experiences.

visits 65 historic places along 75 miles of Route 15 in Virginia's Piedmont. Stops include homes of Thomas Jefferson and James Monroe; sites of some of the bloodiest battles in the Civil War; and other places that evoke the soldiers, statesmen, farmers, and slaves who fought, toiled, and governed there.

explores Kingston's over 300 years of history using 24 historic places that recall past eras when settlers and Native Americans warily shared its plains, proud Revolutionaries and angry British armies walked its narrow streets and when coal, limestone and even patent medicines flowed along its canals. The Dutch established Kingston 1652 and it became an active participant in the American Revolution and a major river-port during New York's 19th-century canal and steamboat era.

This activity can be used to combine weather and clothing in a speaking activity. Students will use a weather forecast to discuss the clothing they need to pack for a trip and why. Student pairs will receive a weather forecast for 8 days in Germany. They will then have to discuss what clothing they will need for the trip and why. Together they should write down the clothing items in the suitcase template provided.

In this activity, students will practice talking about places and cities that they have visited. Students will also talk about what is currently going on in the world by planning a trip. 

The Malaysia Sustainable Cities Practicum is an intensive field-based course that brings 15 graduate students to Malaysia to learn about and analyze sustainable city development in five cities in Malaysia. The students in the Practicum will help determine the extent to which these efforts have been successful. They will identify specific projects or policy-making efforts that the following year's cohort of International Visiting Scholars can examine more closely. 
Lead Faculty
Professor Larry Susskind
Teaching Assistants
Jessica Gordon
Yasmin Zaerpoor
Administrative Staff
Takeo Kuwabara
Selmah Goldberg

Four full-year digital course, built from the ground up and fully-aligned to the Common Core State Standards, for 7th grade Mathematics. Created using research-based approaches to teaching and learning, the Open Access Common Core Course for Mathematics is designed with student-centered learning in mind, including activities for students to develop valuable 21st century skills and academic mindset.

Putting Math to Work

Type of Unit: Problem Solving

Prior Knowledge

Students should be able to:

Solve problems involving all four operations with rational numbers.
Write ratios and rates.
Write and solve proportions.
Solve problems involving scale.
Write and solve equations to represent problem situations.
Create and interpret maps, graphs, and diagrams.
Use multiple representations (i.e., tables, graphs, and equations) to represent problem situations.
Calculate area and volume.
Solve problems involving linear measurement.

Lesson Flow

Students apply and integrate math concepts they have previously learned to solve mathematical and real-world problems using a variety of strategies. Students have opportunities to explore four real-world situations involving problem solving in a variety of contexts, complete a project of their choice, and work through a series of Gallery problems.

First, students utilize their spatial reasoning and visualization skills to find the least number of cubes needed to construct a structure when given the front and side views. Then, students select a project to complete as they work through this unit to refine their problem-solving skills. Students explore the relationship between flapping frequency, amplitude, and cruising speed to calculate the Strouhal number of a variety of flying and swimming animals. After that, students explore the volume of the Great Lakes, applying strategies for solving volume problems and analyzing diagrams. Next, students graphically represent a virtual journey through the locks of the Welland Canal, estimating the amount of drop through each lock and the distance traveled. Students have a day in class to work on their projects with their group.

Then, students have two days to explore Gallery problems of their choosing. Finally, students present their projects to the class.

Students first create a diagram that represents the distance a ship drops in each of a series of locks. Students create their diagrams based on a video of an actual ship traveling through the locks. Students need to use contextual clues in order to determine the relative drops in each of the locks.Key ConceptsStudents are expected to use the mathematical skills they have acquired in previous lessons or in previous math courses. The lessons in this unit focus on developing and refining problem-solving skills.Students will:Try a variety of strategies to approaching different types of problems.Devise a problem-solving plan and implement their plan systematically.Become aware that problems can be solved in more than one way.See the value of approaching problems in a systematic manner.Communicate their approaches with precision and articulate why their strategies and solutions are reasonable.Make connections between previous learning and real-world problems.Create efficacy and confidence in solving challenging problems in a real-world setting.Goals and Learning ObjectivesRead and interpret maps, graphs, and diagrams.Solve problems that involve linear measurement.Estimate length.Critique a diagram.

This website is a collection of resources concerning learning Arabic as a second language as well as information about Arab culture, Islam, and various Arab countries. There are links to videos from YouTube on the site relating to Arabic study, including songs and lessons, as well as a host of other more unrelated things, such as tornadoes. Links to opportunities to study Arabic, teacher resources, and Arabic newspapers are available.

We will have the students use many travel websites to gather information about New York City. Each website will offer data about pricing, activities, and travel options that the students can choose from. Examples that we gave are Travelocity, Expedia, or the Indianapolis Airport website. Using the different sources could cause a debate about pricing among students. Each website offers different pricing and deals that students can choose.

can help families explore historic places in the U.S. Each itinerary describes historic places and their importance, and provides maps, photos, and tourist information. Find itineraries for learning about Civil War battles in Virginia, the Lewis and Clark Expedition, maritime history, women's history, civil rights movement, Florida shipwrecks, the Southwest, Amana Colonies, Ohio and Erie Canal, Detroit, the California coast, Washington, D.C., and more.

features an area in the southwest corner of Minnesota that reflects a rich history of American Indian quarrying, prosperity brought by the railroad and mining enterprises, and a distinctive natural landscape. This National Register of Historic Places Travel itinerary highlights 30 historic places, including buildings constructed with beautiful local red stone and land still sacred to American Indians.

In this activity students will look through a series of brochures for tour trips to different cities in China. As a group, they will chose which cities they would like to go to which tours, and decide what modes of transportation they will take. They will then create a travel itinerary for their entire group.

In this unit, students learn the very basics of navigation, including the different kinds of navigation and their purposes. The concepts of relative and absolute location, latitude, longitude and cardinal directions are explored, as well as the use and principles of maps and a compass. Students discover the history of navigation and learn the importance of math and how it ties into navigational techniques. Understanding how trilateration can determine one's location leads to a lesson on the global positioning system and how to use a GPS receiver. The unit concludes with an overview of orbits and spacecraft trajectories from Earth to other planets.

In this project, you will explore a real-world problem, and then work through a series of steps to analyze that problem, research ways the problem could be solved, then propose a possible solution to that problem. Often, there is no specific right or wrong solutions, but sometimes one particular solution may be better than others. The key is making sure you fully understand the problem, have researched some possible solutions, and have proposed the solution that you can support with information / evidence.Begin by reading the problem statement in Step 1. Take the time to review all of the information provided in the statement, including exploring the websites, videos and / or and articles that are linked. Then work on steps 2 through 8 to complete this problem-based learning experience.

Astronomer Carl Sagan discusses the possibility of time travel in this audio-enhanced interview from the NOVAWeb site.

explores the city's history and shows how it continues to shape the city's life today. It uses residential, commercial, industrial, and religious locations to create a tour of 37 properties that documents how past and present come together.

Students will work together to match German sights to their descriptions and try to find interesting facts about a couple of the sights that they would like to know more about. 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 20 minutes to complete.