The goal of Teaching the Middle East: A Resource for Educators is to provide teachers of Middle Eastern history and culture with a rich, reliable, and easily accessible resource that draws upon sound humanities scholarship to help build student understanding of Middle Eastern history and culture. Scholars from the University of Chicago developed this teacher resource to provide an overview of Middle Eastern cultures and their contributions to the world.
Read MoreWe have partnered with the Global Language Project (GLP), which has introduced Arabic language classes taught by certified teachers as a regular part of the curriculum in NYC elementary schools. Global Language Project has developed a thematic, standards-aligned kindergarten to 5th grade curricula in Arabic, Mandarin, and Spanish. The curriculum is aligned to content and ACTFL standards, as well as the modes of communication. Our curriculum takes an immersion, play-based approach to engage young learners.
Read More• An Educator’s Guide to Islamic Religious Practices, CAIR https://www.cair.com/images/pdf/educators_guide.pdf
• Learning About Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Aldha, NYC-DOE http://schools.nyc.gov/documents/misc/EID_Cultural_Teacher_guide_web.pdf
• This Is Where I Need To Be: Oral Histories of Muslim Youth in NYC http://www.lulu.com/shop/student-press-initiative/this-is-where-i-need-to-be-oral-histories-of-muslim-youth-in-nyc-hardcover/hardcover/product-2844500.html
• Young Muslim Americans Are Feeling the Strain of Suspicion https://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/15/nyregion/young-muslim-americans-are-feeling-the-strain-of-suspicion.html?_r=0
Read MoreIndividual and in-depth country profiles for each country in the Middle East and North Africa from BBC News.
Read MoreThe series of short films The Secret Life of Muslims uses humor and empathy to subvert stereotypes and reveal the truth about American Muslims: fascinating careers, unexpected talents, and inspiring accomplishments, providing a counter-narrative to the rampant Islamophobia prevalent in the media.
Read MoreMaps can be a powerful tool for understanding the world, particularly the Middle East, a place in many ways shaped by changing political borders and demographics. Here are 40 maps crucial for understanding the Middle East — its history, its present, and some of the most important stories in the region today.
Read MoreIn this Buzzfeed podcast, host Ahmed Ali Akbar invites writers, teachers, comedians, musicians to share stories about being Muslim in America. They talk about about their personal experiences not only for Muslims or on behalf of all Muslims, dealing with a different topic each week.
Read MoreMedia sources have constructed problematic images about the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia (MENASA). Through this symposium, we hope to begin conversations about representations within curriculum and teaching, and cultivate culturally relevant pedagogy when teaching students from these regions.
Read MoreSound Vision aims to produce content that helps build bridges of understanding among Muslims and their neighbors, with emphasis on youth.
Read MoreOne of the skills highlighted in the Common Core State Standards for mathematics involves generating and analyzing patterns and pattern relationships. Islamic art made for a religious purpose or setting does not include images of people, and often focuses on intricate geometric designs. A close look at Islamic art provides an opportunity, not only for the reinforcement of these Common Core skills, but also for a glimpse inside this important culture.
Read MoreThe Metropolitan Museum of Art's collection of Islamic art is one of the most important and comprehensive in the world. It comprises more than twelve thousand works of art created in a vast geographical area, stretching from Spain to India. This guide and the organization of the Museum's galleries emphasize the diversity of regional traditions and their cultural contexts, rather than presenting the art and culture of the Islamic world as a single monolithic entity dominated by religion.
Learn about art and culture of the Islamic world and glean ideas for supporting studies of English language arts, math, science, social studies, world history, and visual arts.
Read MoreArab American Stories is a 13-part series presented by Detroit Public Television that explores the diversity of the Arab-American experience. Each half-hour features three short, character-driven documentaries that profile Arab Americans making an impact in their community, their profession, their family, or the world at large.
The accompanying viewing guides and lesson plans have been created to assist educators in positioning the episodes as part of lessons across multiple disciplines. Students are also challenged throughout the lessons to think about community, culture, identity, and the American experience as seen through the 39 Arab American stories.
Read MoreThe ultimate goal of the Pedagogy Collection is to facilitate and enhance the teaching of art and architecture produced by predominantly Muslim societies by showcasing the rich possibilities of Archnet.Sourced predominantly from the vast Archnet website, which contains both image and textual sources in a single location, the collection includes both prepared lectures as well as the ability for individuals to create their own using the ‘thumbnail bar’ feature. The prepared lectures are available for download as PowerPoint files and can be easily tailored to meet an instructor’s specific needs.
Read MoreAs the nation’s largest non-partisan, non-sectarian, grassroots Arab American civil rights organization, ADC recognizes the importance of education. Education is at the heart of ADC’s mission to protect the civil rights of Arab Americans, promote mutual understanding, and preserve the Arab heritage in America. In order to fulfill our mission, people all over the country need access to materials on Arab culture, history, religion, etc. that present an unbiased and correct representation of Arabs, Arab Americans, and their rich cultural heritage. ADC has prepared and compiled a list of resources and lesson plans on a variety of related subjects. There are specific resources available for students, teachers, parents, as well as general information.
Read MoreA selection of Muslim autobiographies.
Read MoreThe Brooklyn Children’s Theatre (BCT), in association with the Doris Duke Foundation of Islamic Art, has created four original musicals with Muslim Protagonists for children to perform. These musicals allow non-Muslim and Muslim children alike to experience the culture and everyday experiences of their classmates and neighbors, to learn about the local New York City history, and develop confidence in their own voices and identities.
Read MoreHijabi Monologues is an international project focusing on the real-life experiences of both local and international Muslim women. It is about creating a theater space for the experiences of Muslim women; a space to breathe as they are; a space that does not claim to tell every story and speak for every voice.
Read MoreFootsteps in the Dark is an original dance production that showcases the work of American and International dancers of Muslim backgrounds specialized in various contemporary forms of dance connected to Hip-Hop culture. It also thematically explores the sometimes delicate nature in which Hip Hop and Dance intersect with Muslim communities.
Read MoreThe Network Against Islamophobia (NAI), a project of Jewish Voice for Peace, was created to serve as a resource in organizing against Islamophobia and anti-Arab racism and to be a partner to the broader, Muslim-led movement against Islamophobia. NAI provides workshop curricula and modules, and facilitates online resource-sharing of FAQs, public letters, press statements, articles, and other materials.
Read MoreIslamophobia is Racism provides an interdisciplinary reading list for teaching and learning about anti-Muslim racism in the United States. The term Islamophobia frames the forms of discrimination Muslims face in the US solely as a problem of religious discrimination, and suggests that it is solely a problem of individual bias. This syllabus reframes “Islamophobia” as “anti-Muslim racism” to more accurately reflect the intersection of race and religion as a reality of structural inequality and violence rooted in the longer history of US (and European) empire building. While the readings include pieces that address recent events like the 2017 “Muslim ban” executive order, they also show that similar policies extend to both earlier moments and other communities.
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