A foreign language or geography teacher will find most middle school students still enjoy making colorful projects and will throw themselves into an assignment requiring their creativity. Cartoon strips, political cartoons, posters, advertisements, menus, websites, PowerPoint presentations and made-up magazine covers written in a foreign language are fun projects that let the teacher assess students' acquisition of language skills.
Some students enjoy performance art. Students who dance might enjoy choreographing dances to music from other cultures. Others may prefer writing and performing television commercials, scenarios involving several characters, poetry, monologues, short skits, puppet shows, team cheers, current events stories, school announcements and pop songs in other languages.
The foreign language department at a middle school could organize a day devoted entirely to language appreciation and include a covered-dish luncheon with foods from many lands. Assign each classes a country and let students learn and share common phrases in the country's native tongue, dress (to the extent they are able) in the country's traditional garb and learn three facts about the country. Let teachers develop language-related lesson plans within their disciplines and teach from them throughout the day. Parents who speak another language could read the morning announcements in their native tongue.
Foreign language teachers may build sensitivity while strengthening language skills in their students by establishing email, Skype or pen-pal relationships with students from other schools around the world. Teachers usually establish these relationships through their personal connections. Teachers can also invite guest speakers from other countries to share with their students the difficulties of language barriers. It is not unusual for foreign missionaries, educators and others visiting locally to conduct educational assemblies within the public school setting. Teachers may also take students to an ethnic restaurant and require them to order their meal using that language.