Middle school students are required to write reports that were more typical of high school students just a few years ago. [...] there is more focus on the reading of ethnic and global literature, as students are asked to work collaboratively toward development of oral language and presentation skills. Other topics

have included the studies of the home countries of new immigrants in a school, international concerns such as garbage or food contamination, discussions with authors or students in another country using Skype, or writing and performing poetry slams across countries using Jing and YouTube.

Working on an International Literacy Project can seem like a lofty topic for the opening of the school year-especially for a beginning teacher. But putting such a goal into your planning can be a positive challenge.

As the school year begins, many of you are probably witnessing the introduction of new state and/or national Common Core Standards for English/Language Arts. In the new standards, there is growing emphasis on students' development of research and reasoning skills; that goal is threaded throughout the curriculum and introduced as early as preschool. To that end, the standards call for students' development of deep critical thinking around a wide variety of Web resources. Middle school students are required to write reports that were more typical of high school students just a few years ago. And there is more focus on the reading of ethnic and global literature, as students are asked to work collaboratively toward development of oral language and presentation skills. When you really stop to think about it, many of these new standards lend themselves well to international literacy projects. Such projects help students learn new strategies and skills (Plaut, 2008) and prevent them from becoming clock watchers (Quate & McDermott, 2009).

Where (and Why) to Begin?

I have seen many beginning teachers excited to develop innovative international literacy projects with their students. (See the sidebar for some great starting points.) One middle school special education teacher I know was assigned to work with students for both a literacy support class and a grade-level math class. He developed a unit around Greg Mortenson's Pennies for Peace project. He had students read background pieces from the Pennies for Peace website. He read passages to students from the adult version of Three Cups of Tea and had them read some excerpts from the children's versions of Mortenson's books. Students designed posters to share with other classes as a way to get them interested in the project. To support their learning in math, my friend had his students create their own math problems and do estimating. They kept track of how much money they collected and determined what it might purchase. In spite of their learning difficulties, these special education students were really interested in this project and worked hard to master new skills. They were learning that they could make a difference... (This article only an abstract, to get the full text please contact admin web, use the contact form).