Writing bios Each student writes a personal bio in native language and gives to their E-Pal. Student presents his/her partner’s bio in class. The bios are encouraged to include pictures. There is a word limit on these and the Chinese students need to write bios in Chinese characters as well as pin yin. They are also encouraged to keep the bio simple. Guidelines and sample topics for what to include in bio will be given to students in class. These sample topics include family, favorite foods, hobbies, and life dreams.

As a follow-up assignment students will each write a personal bio in their second language and send to their E-Pal. Each E-Pal edits the other’s bio for spelling, grammar, usage, etc. and sends it back.

A day in the life of…
Each student will give an oral presentation or hand in a written assignment with the title “A Day in The Life of (insert E-Pal’s name).” E-Pals will need to connect in order to accurately complete the assignment.

Culture differences
E-Pals must identify as many differences and similarities in culture as possible. These can be differences or simply things that exist in one culture and not in the other (e.g. manners for eating, respectful ways to address different people, classroom etiquette in high school, rules in your high school, and common extra-curricular activities). We can even give a written list of items and under each item students can fill out what is different and similar and in what ways.

We will encourage sharing very small differences that students notice here. Maybe the student thinks their E-Pal speaks strangely, or says things that seem bizarre or abnormal. We want the teacher to draw these strange feelings out of students and speak about them in class.

Proverbs
In Chinese as well as in English there are many sayings that can teach lessons (e.g. “When in Rome do as the Romans do” or “you are what you eat”). The goal of this assignment is to find as many (or a certain number) of these sayings from your E-pal. Students will need to learn how to say the proverb in their second language as well as the translation.

Free essay
Find something interesting about your E-Pal and write a ___-word essay about this interesting thing. (e.g. a childhood story of struggle and/or triumph, an interesting hobby, or a unique skill). Many of these things should have already been discussed in past conversations.

Assignments can stay simple or can develop into more complex, multi-stage projects. For example, the students could create a new cultural understanding course for their school. The course would aim to provide learners with information and understanding of a different culture. With their E-Pal, students could write a plan including all curriculum, teaching plans and objectives for the course.

At the end of the semester we will hold another virtual classroom with all the Chinese and American students again. During this second group meeting we can do a number of things (e.g. a closing ceremony where students can make speeches giving reflections from the program and new perspectives learned from the different culture. Or a small game where we find out what E-Pal pair knows each other the best by asking questions from assignments handed in).