Muslims in America's Midwest: An Educator's Guide to Past and Present -- Curriculum Resources: Home

Includes lesson plans and background information from previous National Endowment for the Humanities seminars.

The Duke-UNC Consortium for Middle East Studies is committed to providing teacher training opportunities and resources for deepening understanding of the Middle East in K-14 classrooms.

From Study.com

Includes resources for teaching about Islam and Muslim societies for middle and high school students. Resources include: maps, film suggestions, recommended readings, digital collections, and links to other sources.

Resources for teaching the basics about Islam includes lesson plans and other items

"Created by a team of educators from the University of Pennsylvania in collaboration with inter/national scholars, practitioners, and community activist leaders, we offer multiple entry points for educators working across an array of subjects to discuss Islamophobia, xenophobia, civil liberties, long-lasting wars, media and representation, and other topics."

"Arabic Literature for the Classroom argues for a more visible presence of Arabic within the humanities and social sciences, stressing the need to make Arabic literature available as a world literature, without damaging its own distinctive characteristics."

"Using specific examples from curriculum units related to the Middle East and South America, English teacher Yekaterina McKenney describes how she uses multiple texts and thoughtful discussions to develop her students' deep understanding of other cultures."

"This paper examines the use of young adult literature of and about the Middle East in the secondary English Language Arts classroom as a means to dispel stereotypes about the region and welcome multicultural themes and topics into literary discussion." This paper includes lesson plans and activities.

"This article details a project that created space and opportunity to engage in dis-course that has the potential to challenge and expand understandings held by students, teachers, faculty and staff, and community members." This lesson includes readings, anticipation guide questions, activities, and a reflection component.

Online Arabic-English dictionary for modern usage. Users can search for roots, words, or English translations in Fusha (MSA) as well as Moroccan, Levantine, and Egyptian dialects. This is a one of a kind resource.

Alongside reading Sandra Cisneros' House on Mango Street chapter "My Name," students explore the names Malcolm X used during his lifetime.

Resources, lesson plans, and curriculum guides to help fill the gap in educating about the experiences and history of Muslims all over the world from the Teaching While Muslim website

From the University of Minnesota, a lesson plan on geography.

A look at the history and influence of Muslim cartography.

A look at how the Islamic world influenced Geography

A look at an essential economic factor in determining the geographic range was spatial inequality that necessitated a politically unifying force like Islam.

Shows the changing configurations of military/strategic regional designations related to the Near East and the Middle East since the term was first coined by naval strategist Alfred T. Mahan in the early 1900s.

From the Pew Research Center

Includes free unit plans on topics like, "Muslim Women through the Centuries" and "Teaching about Islam and Muslims."

This article "offers suggestions on how to facilitate students' learning about Islam, which include strengthening the teaching about Islam, organizing the sequence of topics, and including a short writing assignment as a further opportunity for students to review."

Lesson plan with handouts and activities on The Five Pillars from PBS

The website focuses on their newest video project, American Muslim Teens Talk. It offers lesson plans, discussion guides, and supporting materials.

Art from the Metropolitan Museum of Art on the Five Pillars of Islam

"We review children’s and young adult literature that feature Muslim characters and communities. We seek to give voice to Muslim Literature through the lens of our expertise as professionals and to give our opinions as Muslims of diverse backgrounds living in the United States and Canada. We aim to recognize and honor the books and authors that give authenticity, respect nuance, honor the humanity of, and celebrate the diversity of Muslim communities."

"We are avid readers and love to spend time in school media centers and public libraries. However, we could rarely find books with female Muslim main characters that we could connect with, and grew up longing to see ourselves represented in literature. We decided to start this nonprofit organization to make sure that children like us will be able to read books with characters like themselves and to increase diversity in literature."

"Voices and Visions: Islam and Muslims from a Global Perspective is a project of Indiana University comprised of various initiatives and activities that are all dedicated to promoting understanding and dialogue between Muslims and non-Muslims."

The goal of Muslims of the Midwest is to provide a digital archive that documents some of the varied experiences of Muslims in the American Midwest through testimonies across generational, gender, geographical, socio-economic, and ethnic differences.

Hear stories from American Muslims.

The Black Islam Syllabus, curated by visiting scholar Kayla Renee Wheeler

"To better understand the experiences of Black Muslim students in school, especially those living in urban areas, it is critical to understand how institutionalized racism, anti-Black racism, and increasing Islamophobia shape the experiences of Black Muslim students."

"This collection of research and resources exists to highlight Black Muslim experiences that are too often ignored."

This opinion piece by Kayla Renee Wheeler and Edward E. Curtis IV (our first two visiting scholars for the summer institute) sheds light on the controversial firing of an adjunct professor of art history who showed images of the Prophet Muhammad in her class at Hamline University in Minnesota. Wheeler and Curtis recognize the theological diversity among Muslims regarding depictions of the Prophet. They highlight something the media hasn’t yet addressed: the lifeworlds and concerns of the black students who brought the complaint to the school’s administration. "Most of all, we need to understand why a perceived attack on the body and dignity of the Prophet Muhammad may have felt like an attack on them.”

ACCESS ISLAM is part of a larger initiative, ACCESS WORLD RELIGIONS, which is designed to help students gain awareness and understanding of the diversity of religions and religious experiences, and the reasons for particular expressions of religious beliefs within a society or culture.

"The Arab American Institute Foundation was launched in 1995 by the Arab American Institute as the civic engagement arm of the Arab American community." This site offers polling and demographic data.

Article that shares a contextual analysis of U.S. history textbooks' inclusion of Muslim American experiences and contributions.

"MuslimARC works to CREATE impactful anti-racism programming and education resources, CONNECT a network of multi-racial and multi-faith leaders through digital media, storytelling, and dialogue, and CULTIVATE effective solutions through leadership development and organizing."

"The reflections of female Muslim American youth provides a glimpse into their lived reality as they navigate their hyphenated identities in spaces that systemically other (Sirin & Fine, 2008). The creative piece shared here is a silhouette of a woman featuring statements signifying that very experience."