Poor 10-minute sample assignment #2

Assignment Name:

Food

Shared Instructions:

You can talk about meals in your countries and make comparisons. For example: what do you eat for breakfast, lunch and dinner? How many meals a day do you usually do? Do you consume healthy food or more fast foods? How are the fruits in your country, which are the most popular?

Private Instructions:

Please let the students ask questions as well and have a good time learning about their cultures.

What makes this an unsuccessful assignment:

While this is a great topic and length for a beginner student, this is an assignment for an Italian class. All the instructions are in English and many of TalkAbroad’s conversation partners do not speak English. The Assignment Name, Shared Instructions, and Private Instructions all need to be in the target language. (See Keys to creating a successful assignment #1.) To improve the private instructions a professor could inform the conversation partner of the students’ level of learning and some key vocabulary they have been working on in class regarding food. (See Keys to creating a successful assignment #5.)