Resources for Teaching African Kingdoms

Here are some interesting resources for teaching about Ghana, Mali, and Songhai.

They come from @TrevorGetz4 & Toby Green and @MatthewJBusch tweeted the link.

The resources include video clips about griots, digital primary sources with comprehension questions, an ebook about the kingdoms of Songhay, Kongo, Benin, Oyo, and Dahomeythe, and a short biography of Sundiata.

Sites of Encounter in the Medieval World. This is an amazing site that includes lessons with primary sources, maps, charts, graphs on these major trading states: Mali, Calicut, Majorca, Sicily, and Quanzhou. 

The lesson on Calicut, for example,  explores the importance of trade in spices for both food and medicine and even includes medieval recipes.

A lesson about the monsoon winds in India includes a chart of monsoon sailing dates between 1480 and 1500. Students analyze the chart and figure out the best times for sailors to travel from Hormuz to Calicut or how long would you have to wait before you could sail to Malacca?

The website also includes a terrific interactive map in which you can see the spread of religion,  trade routes, states, the spread of the Black Plague, and the voyages of Ibn Batutta. Take a look at the trade map below.

The griots of West Africa- Much more than storytellers  This site comes from the Goethe Institute and offers a short review of the importance of griots in the past and today.

Sundiata- The Heritage of the Griot  This a two minute-clip which reviews the story of  Maghan Kon Fatta

The Empire of Mali Series: The Griot, video clip from Teacher Tube This six-minute clip was filmed at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival

A Guide to the Kingdoms of Songhay, Kongo, Benin, Oyo, and Dahomey c.1400 – c.1800. This is a 50-page e-book, parts of which might be good for students.

Lost Kingdoms of Africa, Youtube playlist This playlist comes for the BBC series

Teaching Africa: Awesome Resources

Boston University's Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University has some great resources for high school world history teachers. (thanks to Anglea Lee for tweeting the link)

The Center's Case Studies in Colonialism lecture series are especially interesting and include two fascinating short lectures.

In one, Boston University Professor of History Diana Wylie, compares the responses of Algeria and Morroco to French colonialism. Professor Wylie uses images to demonstrate the different responses in which one was much more violent than the other.

In another lecture, Boston University Associate Professor of Anthropology and Director of the African Language Program Fallou Ngom,  explains how Senegal's unique history influenced its colonial experience.

The World History Project: Awesome Free Resources

The OER Project (Open Educational Resources) is a new online website with resources for world history teachers organized by topics.

Click on a specific topic and another menu opens showing you the activities and readings for the topic.

Many of the readings, and even some of the videos, are terrific and written by AP World teachers and professors.  In Era 6, for example, Professor Trevor Getz (San Francisco State University) looks at colonialism through a Ghanaian lense in an eleven-minute clip. The video explores the idea that colonial control was often contested. Students can also read an essay by Professor Getz about industrial imperialism. It includes a reading worksheet and discussion questions.

In era 5  which includes the Columbian Exchange, students can read an essay by AP world teacher, Sharon Cohen,  about the sugar and plantation complex. The topic also includes a sourcing activity with sources form the Spanish conquest of the Aztec and Incas.

The website is part of the Big History Project but more specifically geared to high school world history teachers.  Many of the activities, readings, and videos are terrific and absolutely worth including in lessons.

Covid 19 Teaching Resources

The World History Digital Education website has excellent resources for learning about COVID 19.

The site includes three modules:  one that compares COVID 19 to the Spanish flu of 1918, another that examines the geographic distribution of the pandemic through primary sources and population pyramids, and finally a module on the global economic impact of COVID 19 through maps and charts.

The material works well for distance learning.  Charts and graphs make up much of the material in the modules.  These are easy to copy and upload to any LMS platform so students can analyze them either in groups or together. The geographic distribution module, for example, introduces students to linear and log graphs and asks them to analyze them.

Another great resource is the New York Times.  They published a terrific "log" graph that compares the COVID 19 pandemic to other pandemics and asks students to draw conclusions.

In another New York Times lesson, students read an op-ed essay called "Dangerous Numbers? Teaching About Data and Statistics Using the Coronavirus Outbreak."  Students examine data to understand some of the limitations of published data about the CoronoVirus.

Finally, NPR published a short graphic novel about Corona Virus that younger students might enjoy.

Two Fascinating Interwar Clips: Kristallnacht and Guernica

Here is an excellent 12-minute review of Kristallnacht from CooperBrothersFilms.

This Ted Talk helps us to better understand Picasso's mural, Guernica.

Hikma History -- YouTube Chanel about Islamic World History

Wow!  I just discovered a really cool YouTube channel that focuses on Islamic world history. 

Hikma History develops the videos and you can find the YouTube channel here. Most of the videos are short from 5 minutes to 13 minutes.

Some other titles include the Battle of Manzikerk, and Alhambra - Symbol of a Lost Golden Age.

Here is a terrific 11-minute clip about Ataturk's revolution.  And below that is a 5-minute clip about the Almoravid Invasion of Iberia.

40 Maps that Explian WWI Activity

Here's an interesting assignment we came up with to introduce WW1.

Using the 40 Maps that Explain WWI from Vox, we asked students to choose seven maps and create a google presentation, then upload it to either Voicethread or Snagit 2019 and video-record a voiceover which answers and explains that section.

Here's the link to the instructions.