Do a Crossword Puzzle
Current Events, English, Geography, Social Studies
Give students Africa on the Mediterranean to complete. Most of the words in this crossword puzzle are associated with North Africa. The key to the crossword is found in resource guide “North Africa.”
Map It
Geography, Journalism, Visual Arts
Teachers might put the names of the five countries that are considered North Africa in alphabetical order on the board or where students can see them. Some questions to ask while reading the map and before turning to one of the articles reprinted in the resource guide are:
• Who can pronounce the names of these countries?
• Where are these countries located?
• What do you know about these countries? If your students study ancient civilizations, they will recognize Egypt.
Map It | North Africa. Students should know where the region of North Africa is located in relation to Europe and to the rest of Africa. Give students Map It | North Africa to locate the countries. Perhaps they can devise some ways to remember where they are in relation to each other.
Map It | Africa. This map provides the larger picture of Africa, its many countries and their relation to each other. Questions might include:
• Do any of your students have family living in Africa? Have they visited Africa?
• Teachers might bring in the song and dance of Africa. Do they know any contemporary performers from Africa?
How were the struggles and protests of apartheid reflected in music?
Have any students studied dance?
Map It | Regions of Africa. Our focus in this month’s curriculum guide is North Africa. Students may gain perspective by giving them the Map It | Regions of Africa handout.
• Into how many regions is Africa divided?
• Are students familiar with the geography, flora and fauna, the people and history of countries in a particular region?
• Students might be asked to do a newspaper search using the e-Replica edition of The Washington Post or another news source to find current stories about countries in Africa. In what regions are these countries? Categorize the news; for example, is the news health-, economic-, or climate-related? Does it relate to social and human rights issues? Are the concerns of each country in the news?
What’s In a Name?
English, Geography, Social Studies, World History
Students are asked to think about the names of the states, countries and their capital cities. What history, culture, individuals or concepts are found in these names? Give students Word Study: A Country’s Name. The names of the five countries that form North Africa are reviewed.
This may be used with the map of North Africa. If there is time, students are encouraged to select another country to do an etymological search.
Profile a Country
Economics, Geography, World History
Get acquainted with the five countries considered to be North Africa.
Give students Country Profile. This activity could be paired with the maps in this month’s resource guides and with these activities: Be the Ambassador to the United Nations and the IN-DEPTH STUDY: One Country in Focus.
Students in World History or Economics classes might be asked to prepare another type of map as part of their country profile. This could be a choropleth map, economic/resources map, physical map or population distribution map. See Putting Yourself on the Map for examples.
“Latin America’s New Leftists” is an excellent example of providing information about countries in a brief and readable manner. See the questions that may be used with it (Map Study: Latin America’s New Presidents). Students could work in groups to prepare something similar for each of the five countries of North Africa.
What Is a Photo Essay?
Art, English, Journalism, Visual Arts
Before giving students “A Morocco empty of tourists,” teachers might ask students to locate Morocco on one of the maps in the curriculum guide.
• From its geographic location, what might they guess about its occupations? Nature’s influences on way of life?
• What do they know about Morocco? Do students know it from any movie?
Give students the photo essay to read.
• The headline indicates that tourists have come to Morocco? Where might these tourists come from?
• What story do the photographs tell — before reading the captions?
• Read the captions. The photographs now have a context. What kinds of information do captions provide?
• Read the short narrative. Discuss what new information is provided in each paragraph.
• Summarize the theme of the photo essay.
Additional photo essays in the series are found at “Arab stories of a plague year: Seven photographers weave their own histories of home during the coronavirus pandemic.”
Create a Photo Essay
Art, English, Journalism, Photography, Photojournalism, Visual Arts
For background on creating a photo essay from a photographer’s point of view, give students “Write a Photo Essay” found in Visual Impact. Teachers may also want to review “Picture the Story” and “The Photo Essay” in the same Post curriculum guide.
After completing the reading and questions for closer reading in Photo Essay | My Place, encourage students to create their own photo essay. Students may be paired to do this activity, especially if there students without smart phones or cameras. Another option would be for students to create a Sketch Essay, combining a drawing with an essay.
