External Resources
These digital resources can be applied to teaching K-14 classes about the Middle East. All of the links lead to external sources and therefore, the Outreach Office is not responsible for their content. The Outreach Office would like to thank Barbara Williams of Buena High School in Sierra Vista, Arizona for supplying some of the links listed below.
If you have a link that you believe would be helpful to other teachers, please email Assistant Director, Outreach Abby Limmer at alimmer@arizona.edu.
- Discovering the Atlas Mountains (geography of Morocco)
- Hassan II Mosque (Casablanca, Morocco)
- Ancient Mesopotamia
- A Land Called Paradise (a great introduction to the variety of Muslims living in the U.S. and the world)
- 1001 Inventions and the Library of Secrets (about medieval Muslim contributions)
- How Facebook Changed the World: The Arab Spring (in 4 parts - about 15 minutes each)
- A fun Palestinian music video (everyday life and fun, no politics)
- Refugee Realities: Voices from the Middle East
- Book by high school teacher Tara Seger designed for teachers and high school students full of interviews with refugees from all over the Middle East. Includes guiding questions for teachers and students.
- Media Construction of the Middle East: A Digital Media Literacy Curriculum
- A site which provides useful lessons with visuals and the use of primary sources which high school/college students analyze to understand the role of the media in interpreting Middle East issues.
- Sultan Qaboos Cultural Center Indian Ocean History
- A site which provides an interactive tour through the history of the Indian Ocean trade routes. The many lessons which go with it cover world history, economics, geography, and literature standards.
- Choices
- The Brown University Watson Institute for International Studies is developing project-based teaching units for high school classes, many of which are free for teachers to use. Check out their recent lessons on Afghanistan and on the 2011 Arab Spring revolts that you'll find in the middle of the webpage.
- Arizona Geographic Alliance Lesson Plans
- This website has a HUGE number of lesson plans, including geohistory, geoliteracy, geoSTEM, and other versatile lessons. All are listed by grade level and are easily implemented in a classroom.
- Rethinking the Region: New Approaches to 9-12 U.S. Curriculum about the Middle East and North Africa
- A full downloadable curriculum.
- Our Shared Past in the Mediterranean
- A World History curriculum about the region around the Mediterranean Sea.
- Teaching the Middle East
- Curricular materials by Edsitement.
- Teaching about Palestinian and Israeli Identity through the Arts
- A website created by a high school teacher as part of a Fulbright project, there are short videos, interviews, and texts about everything from Palestinian skateboarders to Israeli comic book creators.
- Children and Youth in History
- A site that has teaching resources about various regions of the world. This site includes lesson plans and primary source documents.
- University of Texas Austin's 15-Minute History Podcasts
- 15-minute podcasts on different historical topics, many of them Middle East-related.
- The African and Middle East Reading Room
- A division of the Library of Congress with images and literature from Africa and the Middle East.
- Middle East Geography
- A site that provides geography online games in order to learn the countries, capitals and bodies of water of the Middle East.
- Bank Notes.com
- A site that provides information about and pictures of currency from around the world.
- The University of Chicago Middle East Library Archive
- A site that provides an archive of photos from the Middle East.
- Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection
- A site from the University of Texas at Austin which contains maps of the Middle East from various time periods.
- Education World
- An education website that provides professional development articles for teachers, lesson plans, and lists of resources that give accurate information about Islam. Just type the subject into the search box.
- Center for Israel Education
- This site is for the Center for Israel Education, a group dedicated to depicting Israel accurately. The site provides useful background information, lesson plans and other curriculum building information.
- National Geographic - Classroom Resources
- A vast site encompassing all geographic areas of the globe, including the Middle East and North Africa. National Geographic supports geography education through high-quality lesson plans, current maps and map outlines, a teacher store and much more.
- World History Connected
- A teachers' resource of up-to-date scholarship and classroom ready materials and research. Superb quality and variety.
- EdSitement - National Endowment for the Humanities
- This has a huge variety of lessons and resources on all sorts of history, culture and language. Strongest Middle Eastern resources are those on the ancient world.
- Best of History Websites
- Links to over 1000 sites that have lesson plans, activities, games, quizzes and solid information. A product of the Center for Teaching History with Technology.
- Mideast Images - Lessons from the Past for the Future
- An online archive of images from the Middle East concerning topics of religion, people, design and architecture, and historic events. Also includes a showcase of ancient cities of the Middle East.
- Women in World History Curriculum
- Biographies, lesson plans, and other Web resources on women in world history including Shagrat al-Durr, a Sultan of Eqypt and Melisende, a Queen of Jerusalem.
- Middle East Outreach Council (MEOC)
- Established in 1981, the Middle East Outreach Council (MEOC) is a national nonprofit organization working to increase public knowledge about the peoples places, and cultures of the Middle East, including the Arab world, Israel, Iran, Turkey, and Afghanistan. MEOC’s target audience is non-specialists at the K-12 and college levels, although its services are also relevant to broader community needs.
- Middle East Studies Association (MESA)
- This site provides materials, links, and professional opportunities
- Friends of Morocco: Learning Moroccan Arabic
- A site which provides resources for learning Moroccan Arabic.
- Project Hijab
- Published by Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty, this is a set of interviews with women from the Muslim world about why they do or do not choose to wear hijab.
- WebChron - The Web Chronology Project
- A spectacular array of hyperlinked chronologies for the whole world. Particularly includes a chronology of Islam and of other religions, of the Middle East and Southwest Asia, of technology, art, music, literature and speculative thought.
- The World History Association
- Full of links, resources, activities, and current scholarship.
- H-Net - Humanities and Social Sciences Online
- This is a phenomenal and ever growing list of newsletters, postings, discussion boards, multi-media materials, and much more. Targeted to particular areas of interest and scholarship.
- The Virtual Library
- This Swiss site has links to many regional studies and history locations. It is especially good for different viewpoints and links to journals, publications, etc.
- Maps of War
- A visual history of war, religion and government. Of particular interest are the maps chronicling the Iraq War.
- Teaching Tolerance - Tolerance.org
- Founded in 1991 by the Southern Poverty Law Center, Teaching Tolerance is dedicated to reducing prejudice, improving intergroup relations and supporting equitable school experiences for our nation's children. Great resources on teaching about Arab-American experiences in the classroom.