Children studying at table

 

Literature and the arts offer powerful entry points for teaching about the Middle East in ways that resonate with young students. CCAS provides workshops and resources to help teachers incorporate children’s and young adult literature, music, and poetry from the region into their classrooms. Below you will find teaching units developed around award-winning books, videos from educator workshops, and materials that explore topics such as displacement through children’s literature.

Children & Youth Literature for the Classroom

Lesson plans to accompany award-winning children’s books

Since 2015, the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies has sponsored a joint spring workshop on children and youth literature with the African Studies Center and the School of Education at Howard University. Together we celebrate award-winning books from the Middle East Outreach Council (MEOC) book awards and the Children’s Africana Book Awards (CABA). We feature authors, illustrators, and experts, provide free books to pre-service and in-service teachers, librarians, and media specialists, and feature related cuisine and culture. These workshops are made possible by Title VI grants from the US Department of Education, which fund National Resource Centers on Africa and on North Africa and the Middle East at Howard and Georgetown Universities.
Click the links below for lesson plans that can be used with each of the listed books. 

Incorporating Arab American Voices & Diverse Perspectives in the Classroom

Lesson plans to accompany select children’s and youth literature

Developed by Dr. Monica Eraqi, these children’s and youth literature lesson plans align with Common Core and C3 Standards. They were introduced at a hybrid professional-development workshop led by the Arab American National Museum (Dearborn, MI) in partnership with CCAS and the Alwaleed Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding at Georgetown University. Educators heard from Arab American teachers and authors on incorporating Arab American voices and perspectives into classroom curricula. The lesson plans were supported by a Title VI U.S. Department of Education grant funding Georgetown’s National Resource Center on the Middle East and North Africa.

Teachers’ Book Club: Introducing the Rights of the Child Through Story

Lower and middle grade lesson plans

The 2025 Teacher’s Book Club featured Every Child a Song by Nicola Davis and illustrator Marc Martin—a picture book that lends itself to a wide range of classrooms because it includes the full text of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. The book club session offered historical context on the Convention and included breakout discussions where teachers exchanged ideas for using the book from pre-kindergarten through high school. The program also introduced two grade-appropriate lesson plans developed by Chloe Daikh:

  • Every Child a Song: Lower Grades Lesson Plan and Printouts
    Teaches students about children’s rights through the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. Includes printable coloring pages inspired by Marc Martin’s artwork, encouraging students to imagine their own “song.” Suitable for Kindergarten–Grade 4.
  • Every Child a Song: Middle Grades Lesson Plan and Handouts
    Introduces students to children’s rights in international law and asks them to analyze excerpts from the Convention as primary source material. Students also explore how and where children’s rights are violated around the world. Suitable for Grades 5–8.

Teaching Place & Displacement through Children’s Literature

Video and teaching resources

This workshop provided strategies for teaching about international migration and internal displacement through the lens of people’s experience and featured discussions from two award-winning children’s book authors. Omar Mohamed discussed his graphic novel When Stars are Scattered, which provides a child’s perspective on life in a Kenyan refugee camp. George Butler discussed his book Drawn Across Borders: True Stories of Human Migration, which features pen-and-ink and watercolor portraits from war zones, refugee camps in the Middle East, Europe, Africa, and Asia. Dr. Rochelle Davis, of CCAS and the Institute for the Study of International Migration, discussed strategies for teaching about migration in the world today.
Click here for a link to the video and here for strategies for incorporating these books into the classroom. A lesson plan for When Stars Are Scattered can be found here.

The Illustrator’s Notebook

Activities to accompany a children’s book

This guide, produced by CCAS, provides 30 activities for 5th-8th grade students to accompany The Illustrator’s Notebook by Mohieddin Ellabbad. It encourages young readers to learn about the Arab world and Islam through art and writing. Click here for the activities unit.

Words of Love, Sounds of Passion: Contemporary Music and Poetry in African Muslim Societies

Workshop Video and Presentation

This workshop for teachers explored contemporary culture in modern Muslim societies and its many influences. Featured speakers were Dr. Oludamini Ogunnaike, University of Virginia, and Pier Penic, Art Education Specialist for the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art. Click here for the video and here for Dr. Ogunnaike’s Prezi presentation.