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Arab literature comes alive for area teachers
Zeina Azzam Seikaly
Published in 2006
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Summary:
The Saturday seminar for high school teachers, “Using Literature to Teach About the Arab World,” was held on May 6, 2006 and allowed teachers to get some first-hand experience with Arab literature.
The Saturday seminar for high school teachers, “Using Literature to Teach About the Arab World,” was held on May 6, 2006 and allowed teachers to get some first-hand experience with Arab literature.
Dr. Amal Amireh (Associate Professor, Department of English, George Mason University) provided an introductory overview, titled “Writing at the Crossroads: Arabic Literature Between Tradition and Globalization.”
She discussed the poetry and oral culture of the Arabs, the Qur’an and its influence on language and Arab literature, the genres of drama and fictional narrative, the salient themes in the literature, and important Arab authors. She also cautioned the teachers about the problems of teaching ethnic literature, reminding them that these are works of art that are not necessarily the voice of “native informants” from the region.
The teachers then attended sessions about different novels, plays, and short stories by Arab authors. Literature guides and lesson plans that were handed out were the result of a collaborative effort between the Center and six literature teachers, each of whom chose a title for which to develop a guide and present it at the seminar. The presenters were Harry Cook (Eastern Technical High School) who discussed the short story collection by Ghassan Kanafani, Palestine’s Children; Amani Elkassabany (Wootton High School) on Laila Halaby’s West of the Jordan; Deborah Gilligan (Bishop Ireton High School) on Ghada Karmi’s In Search of Fatima; Lynn Kearney (Bishop Ireton High School) on Samar Attar’s Lina: A Portrait of a Damascene Girl; Claire Pettengill (Maret School) on Abdelrahman Munif’s Endings; and Nancy Traubitz (Montgomery County Public Schools and University of Maryland) on Tewfik al-Hakim’s play, “The Donkey Market.”
These teachers chose works that they felt were good literature, that could stand well in a high school classroom, and that offered a compelling glimpse into the life of people in the region. Four of the six teacher-presenters are also developing guides for another title and once all the work is completed, the lesson plans will be evaluated by an external reviewer, edited and supplemented with background information, then uploaded to the Center’s web site for use widely. Seminar attendees received copies of all the books and plays covered during the day.
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