It's Arab American Heritage Month!

Happy Arab American Heritage Month!

Some reminders and tips: 

• Note that Muslim characters or a Muslim author or illustrator is NOT the same as Arab. Not all Muslims are Arabs (as this map of the Muslim population by country shows). 

• If you feel like going down a maps rabbit hole, here are some more maps: 40 maps that explain the Middle East!

• Arabs are not all Muslim. 

• Arabs are speakers of Arabic which is different from Middle Eastern people. Read more here: Arab, Middle Eastern, and Muslim? What’s the Difference?! - TeachMideast

• Persians are not Arabs. Read more here: MYTH vs. FACT: Persians and Arabs - American Iranian Council. (We’ll have to do a separate post about some of our favorite Persian authors and books!)

• If these designations are confusing for you and your students, start by looking at a map (cover photo) and talking about what you know and brainstorming how you could figure out who is Arab-American and who is not.

• Newsela also has a related article: Who Are Arab-Americans? 

• Try to have a diversity of stories: not only immigrants and not only stories about Islamophobia. Recognize all the joy and beauty too. Students love stories about kids being kids.

• Ask your students: Why do we recognize Arab American Heritage month? What do you think? And see where they go with their replies.

• A lot of the book lists out there for Arab-American Heritage Month include South Asian authors (for example, Reem Faruqi and Rukshana Khan are both of Pakistani origin which makes them South Asian, not Arabs) and Persian authors (we love It Ain't So Awful, Falafel by Firoozeh Dumas, but Firoozeh is Persian). Even if the list is from a trusted source, double check!

Recommended Books and Resources:

We wrote about Learning & Teaching about Ramadan last year (of course, not all Muslims are Arabs and Arabs are not all Muslim so Ramadan stories are not necessarily Arab or Arab American stories!)

Follow #30DaysofArabVoices to hear from 30 different writers. Great way to grow your awareness and find excerpts to share with your students depending on grade level. You can find the main page where all 30 authors will be featured by the end of the month here.

NCTE is also having a virtual Ode to Arab Voices: An Exploration and Celebration - National Council of Teachers of English on April 25th!

BOOKS | Rhonda Roumani - I’m very excited about Tagging Freedom, a middle grade novel about a Syrian graffiti artist, but when I went on her website to find out more about it and a release date (Fall 2023), I learned Rhonda has two other soon to be released books that I also can’t wait to share with kids!

The Sandwich Swap by Rania Al-Abdullah: there is so much to like about this book. It is very relatable and such an important message. Never miss an opportunity to remind students to be kind and respectful, especially about someone’s food. Do not say someone else’s food is gross. It’s rude and disrespectful. You can say, that’s new for me, or I haven’t tried that yet. This explicit modeling is really important for kids (and many adults). 

The Arabic Quilt by Aya Khalil (read her #30DaysofArabVoices contribution here) - she also wrote The Night Before Eid, which belongs in classrooms and kids’ hands! Also a great mentor text or a text to use for character analysis. Aya Khalil also has The Great Banned-Books Bake Sale coming out in August, which I am eagerly awaiting! Basically, just read all her books and share them with kids.

 I haven’t read this one, but really want to! Homeland: My Father Dreams of Palestine by Hannah Moushabeck.

Other Words for Home by Jasmine Warga. I can’t resist novels in verse or middle grade novels and this story of a young girl leaving Syria to move to the USA is both. 

Farah Rocks Series by Susan Muaddi Darraj. This series looks so fun and relatable on many levels. Also love that the main character is Arab-American, but her stories are not necessarily about her identity, just being a kid in the world. 

More great ideas are available here: National Arab American Heritage Month: Classroom Resources and Activities - Waterford.org and from PBS: Arab American Heritage Month: Facts, Activities & Resources | PBS.

Please share any other recommendations you have! We especially love book recommendations.

Happy Women's History Month!

Happy Women’s History Month! We last wrote about how we recognized Women’s History Month in the classroom in 2018 when we were co-teaching in 3rd grade with this post: Womyn's/ Womxn's/ Women's Herstory Month. All of those books are still wonderful and the general tie ins with other subjects, March Book Madness, and celebrating International Women’s Day are all things I would be bringing into my classroom if I was teaching this year.

I also am intrigued by the FairPlay Home (Eq)uity Tool Kit. I haven’t used this myself and still need to investigate more, but love the idea (and the tagline “Close the Chore Gap!”). Instead of stopping at acknowledging women’s invisible labor (or expressing gratitude to all the amazing women in our lives), let’s teach kids to be aware of it and think critically about it. You know kids will find a creative solution to the “chore gap” and be reflective and flexible while they think through solutions. 

Invisible labor is an important concept to teach students. We’ve always been big fans of explicit vocabulary instruction and applying new concepts to our lives and the world around us. Students could explore potential invisible labor at their school, in their homes, or in their community and who is doing this labor and why or how it is invisible, unrecognized, and unpaid. 

March can be a stressful month with the last push before standardized testing, so if you are under pressure to prioritize test prep or other subjects, you can still welcome students each day with a reminder of Women’s History Month. The Newsela article Artist honors remarkable women in history with a drawing every day shares artist Tiffany Wong’s project (you can see more of her paintings here). You could show students one painting a day and share Tiffany’s research about the woman depicted as well as asking students to share what they know or potentially do their own research. This could be a sign in, greeting, or dismissal activity depending on when you can fit it in.

Newsela has a number of text sets (collections of articles) about Women’s History Month. Some other articles we noted are: When women were told they would be paid starvation wages, they protested and "Black Rosies:" Forgotten Black women workers of World War II.

I’ve frequently had students ask me why we have a Women’s History Month and when Men’s History Month is (or why doesn’t it exist?). Usually, I turn that question back to my class and give them time to brainstorm and discuss in small groups and as a whole class. Sometimes, I tell them we will keep learning about Women’s History Month and collecting ideas about why we celebrate this month. Often, students are able to explain to each other that we learn about men in history all the time so they don’t need a special month and that women’s contributions to history are often forgotten or omitted. 

Some books that might help students think through these realities are:

Mary Wears What She Wants by Keith Negley (pictured above). It is truly shocking (and will enrage your students) that Mary got arrested for wearing pants! Students will understand her logic that pants aren’t “men’s clothes, they are my clothes.”

Who Says Women Can't Be Doctors?: The Story of Elizabeth Blackwell will also be shocking to students who most likely know female doctors (or if they don’t, have them meet a few!). 

Marie Curie and the Power of Persistence by Karla Valenti shares about Marie Curie’s superpower! Students will love the superhero tie in (and aren’t many scientist real live superheroes?). You can also share with students that while Marie Curie was the first double Nobel Prize winner, her husband had to advocate for her to get her first Nobel prize because she was a woman.

I Dare! I Can! I Will!: The Day the Icelandic Women Walked Out and Inspired the World by Linda Ólafsdóttir has not been published yet, so I haven’t gotten a chance to read it, but I cannot wait to read it and share it with students!

These books are anthologies sharing about many different women and girls:

Lives of Extraordinary Women: Rulers, Rebels ~ and What the Neighbors Thought by Kathleen Krull is a nice counter argument to the “we aren’t ready for a female president” narrative, as women have been rulers and leaders for centuries.

Shaking Things Up: 14 Young Women Who Changed the World Kids love reading about other kids!

Girls Think of Everything: Stories of Ingenious Inventions by Women The title says it all! Also, who doesn’t love reading stories of inventions?

You can find even more book ideas here: 30 Picture Books About World-Changing Women

Happy March and hope spring finds you soon!

Happy LGBT History Month

October is LGBT History Month! While the month has already started, it’s never too late to join in and introduce (or re-introduce) your students (and yourself) to some LGBT icons. As explained on their site, “Each day in October, a new LGBT Icon is featured with a video, bio, bibliography, downloadable images and other resources.” You can find out more in the 2022 Overview Video. Remember that LGBT History Month is a reminder only - we should be learning about LGBT people every day of the year. 

If students ask why LGBT people have a specific history month, just ask the question right back to them: why do YOU think we celebrate a specific history month for LGBT people? You can have them generate a list of names of LGBT people they’ve learned about at school in the past. I had a student ask why there wasn’t a “straight history month” and another student responded, “That’s EVERY month.” 

Also, don’t assume students know what LGBT stands for - go ahead and teach into it. If you think your students need more vocabulary instruction, the LGBT Resource Center provides some general definitions. Make sure your students have the language to ask questions and make connections!

Don’t worry if you don’t have a lot of class time to spare - just telling students about the month and some of the icons featured is a great start! Introducing each icon could also be part of a sign in or morning routine. The videos for the icon of the day go live each day and are very brief. The site also has biographical information for each icon and links to other resources.

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