The article we read by Tami C. Al-Hazza was helpful in not only helping me to better understand the Arab culture and people, but was also beneficial to my future as a teacher. I found it interesting to read that only a small, 20% of the entire world’s Muslim population is actually Arab. Additionally, I had not previously known that the Arab world includes numerous other populations such as Christians, Masonites, and Egyptian Copts. Often times Arab’s are labeled inaccurately within the American society and Al-Hazza does an excellent job of supplying accurate information.
In terms of children’s literature I found this article extremely informative, providing many examples. Al-Hazza presents books for all genres and types; fiction, novels, picture books, information, poetry and folktale. This is an article that I will refer to when I have a classroom of my own. I feel confident that the books mentioned throughout serve as great representations of the Arab culture and will provide positive and credible information and pictures for my future students.
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2 comments:
HI Chelsea,
I too really got a lot out of the AL-Hazza article. IF I had to pick one culture that I knew the least about it would be the Arab culture and I think that is true for the majority of us especially in the US. I think that culture was ignored or considered to have no connection with the US for so long until Sept. 11. After 9-11, unfortunatly there was so much uncertianty that everyone in the Arab culture was blamed. One thing we have talked about a lot in class is that not everyone in a culture is destined to be the same. I think these articles and Habibi will are crutial in helping bring the true Arab culture out, dismiss the misconceptions, and make, through our generations of students we will someday teach, Americans less leary of their culture.
I was shocked in many of the findings also. I feel like the Arab culture is sometimes pushed under the rug. Just as Alicia mentioned, I feel like this culture was only thought of after September 11th and only in a negative light. Articles such as AL-Hazza and books like Habibi provide much needed insight into this culture
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