about the L.A.T.T.I.C.E. model of international engagement on a person to person level

Back in 1995 elementary music teacher Sally McClintock got together with a handful of others, including contacts and referrals to resource people nearby in the College of Education at Michigan State University. They came up with the design for a monthly get-together of local school district educators and administrators on the one hand with grad students in Education who came from other countries on the other hand. Each side learned from the other and in the course of month to month meetings made friendships and professional interchanges. Not long after the September 11 (2001) terrorist attacks in USA the plans for a documentary to introduce the LATTICE idea took shape which resulted in a DVD of supporting materials, along with two movies; one to give a taste of the typical 4 hour session (12:30 to 4:30), and another to go behind the scenes of leading and designing the sessions. Both movies were soon afterwards put online. The active ingredient is the personalized presence of people who can speak of events, practices and properties of their own land, language and culture; both shedding insight among the internationals about USA life, and the reverse, making overseas society make sense to the US participants. The commitment to a whole school-year of gatherings might seem too big, but the same person-to-person priciple sustained over a long period should be scalable to some extend and could be adapted to high schools that host several international students, for instance, too.

1. What is LATTICE, http://tinyurl.com/whatislattice

2. The Making of LATTICE, http://tinyurl.com/makelattice

 

L =linking

A =all

T =types of

T =teaches in

I =international

C =cross-cultural

E  =education