Walk in My Shoes

Through this learning activity, students:

* Examine how history, culture, and geography influence a person’s perception of a particular place
* Construct a historical knowledge base of conflicts in the Middle East by immersing themselves in the role of individuals who live there
* Research and analyze how historical, geographic, and cultural factors influence the views of various groups of people found in the Middle East
* Apply what they have learned concerning the Middle East and technology, and create a multimedia presentation for the class

Lesson Plan

Seven Daughters and Seven Sons: The Middle East Through Literature

Seven Daughters and Seven Sons is the retelling of a traditional Arabic tale in which a young woman disguises herself as a man and opens up a shop in a distant city in order to help her impoverished family. Her disguise causes her many complications but she eventually succeeds in redeeming the family fortunes and finding her true love. Students will learn aspects of Middle East culture and geography through reading the book.

Lesson Plan

Frontline World: The Arab Media Revolution

http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/stories/newswar/war_arabmedia.html

Turkish Explorations

See what two amazing teachers have been working on by incorporating the history and culture of Turkey with a videoconferencing grant! They have developed a great blogsite that describes their grant and their interest in teaching students about Turkey. It is a valuable teaching tool for educators filled with links, interdisciplinary lessons plans, resources, video clips, and more!

http://www.turkishexplorations.blogspot.com/

Mideast Image

Every once in a while you come across a website so amazing that you need to share it with everyone you know, and Mideast Image is one such site. Sponsored by Creative Syria, this website hosts an archive of an Exclusive Private Collection of original photos, post cards, historical documents, and art objects from the
Levant, Mesopotamia, and Egypt. These images were taken as early as 1850. Explore the cities of the Middle East through these wonderful photos!

http://www.mideastimage.com/index.aspx

The Ottomans

Meet and explore the Ottomans in this interactive website! This site details the history, academic works, campaigns and armies, art and culture, and family that created the Ottoman Empire. There is also a web
forum that Ottoman aficionados can become a part of.

http://www.theottomans.org/english/index.asp

The Bazaar

The word bazaar comes to us from the Persian word bazar or the older Pahlavi word bahachar
which means “the place of prices.” As contact with Europe increased, the word was assimilated
into Italian as bazzara and later transferred to English in its current form, bazaar.

Learn more…

An Introduction to BAZAARS OF THE MIDDLE EAST

Meerschaum Pipes

Silks And Seeds And Silver Swords

Frontline World: Negotiate Peace for India and Pakistan

Target Grade Levels:
Grades 7-12

Themes:
Conflict, Peace

Students role-play peace talks between India and Pakistan and examine related political, social and economic issues.

http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/educators/history_pakistan.html