504 Compliance Quiz

Are your education team members up to date on compliance issues?  Here is an example of a quick and simple content quiz regarding 504 regulations.  We use this in staff development settings as a challenge to complacency.

Acculturation and Cognition: Issues in Identification and Intervention

Activity set for the workshop: Acculturation and Cognition: Issues in Identification and Intervention.

American Quiz

Do you have personnel who think it’s too easy for folks from other countries to become citizens?  We use this quiz to build awareness and sensitivity among educators working with diverse students.  The questions are some of those routinely posed to applicants for American citizenship. Don’t worry; if you fail this pop quiz we won’t ask you to leave the country. But you might want to study up.

Author, Author

We use this activity for team building and as an example of something that can be done by a research ‘jig-saw’. It illustrates how culture and language get embedded in our assessment tools.  It is challenging enough for higher education personnel as well as elementary & secondary personnel.  The activity can also be used as an example of a multiple choice assessment structure.

Checklist for the Literati

Here is a list of expressions which don't literally mean what they say.  You've probably run across all of them as you've turned the pages of literature. 

Cherry Quiz

Here is another quiz on American history.  We use this as an icebreaker and as a way to build awareness that being born a citizen does not mean you know everything about your own history.  This can also become a classroom activity for third grade and higher students.

Consequence Wheel

This activity is one of our 200+ recommended classroom strategies that build sequence and critical thinking skills, facilitate the acquisition of cognitive academic language and are fun and challenging for all students. 
We also use this in staff development settings to illustrate how policy changes can have unintended consequences for diverse learners and their families.

Cross-Cultural Communication Inventory

This is a learning instrument which will help you gain a better understanding about important cross-cultural communication principles.

English Vs. English

Do you know English?  No, we don't mean American English - do you know English English - the kind the British use?  This activity will test your knowledge!

Equation

This puzzle illustrates outside-of-the-box thinking skills. It is not how much you know, but how you can alter your perceptions to solve this puzzle. We use this as an icebreaker and as part of our workshops on the difference between learned and innate abilities.  This activity can be used in classrooms with young students after they have been introduced to Roman numerals.

Gestures Activity

This activity demonstrates gestures that are used around the world.  Every gesture contained in the activity are all communicative gestures in common use within various language systems.  Go through the gestures and tell what they mean in the United States and then what do they mean in other countries?  The answers to the activity are at the end - just click the link!

IDEA Quiz

We have updated our IDEA quiz and answers with current legal citations.  We use this quiz in our staff development to challenge complacency with compliance issues.  The answers to the quiz are at then end - just click the link!

Jargon

If you want to see the unholy effect of clothing a simple thought with bombastic verbosity, slant your gaze at the following exercise. We use this in as a staff development exercise to encourage all education personnel to use clear functional language. The activity also illustrates how prevalent jargon is in our culture.  You can adapt this for classroom use with ESL students who are learning American idioms and common proverbs.

Language puzzle

We use this activity for team building and as an example of a ‘cloze’ test.  It is also a fun illustration of some of the quirks within the English Language.

Stereotypes

What do I know about culture, communication and  language?  This quiz is designed to assess the stereotypes about culture, communication and language.

Word Maze

This one of a series of classroom language activities that can be used in K-6 grade levels.  After students learn the basic idea, you can have them make their own word mazes to challenge one another.   In this maze you are to identify as many domesticated animals as you can by spelling out the names of the animals with contiguous letters.