Project-PathfinderUnit ProjectStudents will research what life is like for their peers in Israel or Palestine. At the end of the unit they will write a summary paper of their findings as well as a letter to a pen pal in their respective areas.

Common Core standards

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FictionCarter, Anne Laurel. The Shepherd’s Granddaughter. Toronto: Groundwood Books,

2008. Print.This is a story of a Palestinian girl, Amani as she struggles to maintain her family’s flock while Israelis encroach on their land.

Clements, Andrew. Extra Credit. New York: Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2009. Print.This is a story of an American girl who writes to a pair of siblings in Afghanistan as extra credit. A number of problems arise as they learn about their differences.

Laird, Elizabeth. A Little Piece of Ground. Paradise, CA: Paw Prints Press, 2008. Print.This is a story of a Palestinian boy who yearns to find a place to play soccer in his war-torn village.

Nye, Naomi Shihab. Habibi. New York: Simon & Schuster Publication, 1999. Print.This novel is about an American girl, Liyana, who moves to her father’s home country, Palestine. There she struggles to assimilate, relate to her father, and meets a Jewish boy, Omer.

NonfictionBoudalika, Litsa. If You Could Be My Friend. New York: Orchard Books, 1998. Print.

This is a collection of letters written between a Palestinian and an Israeli teenager after being introduced in 1988.

ReferenceBeardwood, Mary. The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Arabia. London: Stacey

International Books, 2008. Print.This is an encyclopedia that covers a variety of topics in the Arabian Peninsula. It has maps, photographs, and covers geography, cultures, and figures of the area.

Web ResourcesCardash, Noa. “A Day in the Life: Israel.” Time for Kids. New York: Time, Inc., 2015.

Web. 29 Oct 2016.This is an article written from the first person by a student in Israel. He includes a detailed description of what his life is like by the hour. I found this source on SweetSearch.

Declan, Tobin. " Israel Facts for Kids ." Easy Science for Kids, Oct 2016. Web. 29 Oct 2016.

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This is a website with basic information about life in Israel including geography and history. It also has a video discussing Israeli life. I found this site through Kidtopia.

Field Trip Zoom. Field Trip Zoom, n.d. Web. 29 Oct 2016.This is an interactive app that allows students to experience historical sites and various countries through a virtual field trip to that country. I found this app on edshelf.

Glinberg, Steve. 123 World HD. Blue Moon Learning, n.d. Web. 29 Oct 2016.This is a paid iPad app that contains information about various countries. It has information about geography, music, and culture. I found this app through edshelf.

“Israel.” Teach Mideast. Middle East Policy Council, n.d. Web. 29 Oct 2016.This is a website that has a number of visual aids and general information about Israel, including geography, culture, and religion. I accessed this information from netTrekker.

Jebreal, Rula. “Minority Life in Israel.” New York: New York Times, 27 Oct 2014. Web. 29 Oct 2016.This is an article written by an Israeli-Palestinian covering her and her family’s struggles living in Israel. I found this article through the Virtual Learning Resources Center.

The Middle East Journal. Washington DC: Middle East Institute, n.d. Web. 29 Oct 2016This is an electronic journal database that provides access to articles covering a multitude of topics in Middle Eastern studies. I found this source on SweetSearch.

New York Times Upfront. New York: Scholastic Publishing, n.d. Web.This is a print and electronic news magazine designed for students who are middle-school to high-school age. It will contain articles that will be able to keep students up-to-date with current Middle East issues. I found this source on SweetSearch.

Peace It Together. Vancouver: Peace It Together, n.d. Web. 29 Oct 2016. This is a website with a variety of recommendations for films and a history of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict whose ultimate goal is to bridge the gap and create peace in the area starting with its youth. I found this site through netTrekker.

Westervelt, Eric. “Life Along Israel’s Barrier.” National Public Radio. Washington, D.C., NPR, 6 April 2009. Web. 29 Oct 2016.

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This is a site with audio and video exploring what life is like along the barrier of Israel and Palestine. I found this site through the Virtual Learning Resources Center.

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Tools for Reviewing Web ResourcesIn eThemes I found that while their reviews were very helpful

it was hard to find a theme that could relate to what I was searching for. The only Middle Eastern theme that the site contained dealt with Middle Eastern art and was not even specific to Israel or Palestine. As they are no longer taking any suggestions or updating their themes the help of this site is relatively limited. If you are looking for something that falls into one of their preexisting themes then this site is extremely beneficial as it contains a lot of great information divided by age group. In netTrekker I was able to find a few sources that were helpful to my project. However, it was hard to find specific information and I had to search a number of different terms and phrases in order to find what I was looking for. There was quite a lot of general information about Palestine and Israel but when I searched for Palestinian or Israeli students, teens, or schools there was no search results. SweetSearch was easier to find a multitude of sources with each of the searches. However, when I searched for Israeli teens most of the sites that were found were news articles that covered nothing but the violence and attacks happening in the area. Sites powered by Google such as SweetSearch, FindingDulcenea, and Kidtopia have an overabundance of new articles that are hard to sift through. edShelf’s search function is fairly weak and not very helpful. Searching for a specific term (I even tried just searching for “Middle East”) brings up very few resources and their link to the search term is sometimes vague and even non-existent, in my opinion. To find useful sources I had to browse through the various subjects listed on the main page and then I was able to find some sources that I found very exciting and informative. I love the thought of the virtual field trip provided by Field Trip Zoom. Students would be able to experience a whole new country while sitting in their classrooms, giving them a direct virtual hands-on experience of something across the globe. SweetSearch was the site that I was able to find a multitude of

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sources. While I did have to sift through quite a few articles that seemed to cover the same topic, that being the violence in the Israeli-Palestinian area, there were a number of resources that dealt directly with the theme of my project. The article written by a student living in Israel provides students with a direct glimpse into the life of a peer in an area they are unfamiliar with. FindingDulcenea is run on the same search engine of SweetSearch but does include internal articles written by their own staff. However, I found that for my topic in specific there wasn’t anything written that could directly help my students. I found myself gravitating more towards SweetSearch but FindingDulcenea would have the same results under its tab of suggested sites. The weakness with these two sites, however, is that there is no real review of the sites, just a description, so educators will have to explore these sites in depth to get a better idea of their value and appropriateness for the project at hand. Besides SweetSearch, I found the Virtual Learning Resource Center to be the most useful search site. A number of their search results came from National Public Radio. This is a source that I have relied on numerous times in the past and found to be informative, well-designed, easy to use, and thorough. I especially loved their link to a number of search tips that made using their site even easier.

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