How and why do Muslims observe and celebrate Ramadan? Posted on March 26th, 2014 by Valerie Walker

I’ve thought a lot about our class discussion on Monday about how widespread stereotypes about Muslims are in the U.S. One way to break down these stereotypes is with accurate information. Since the “holidays curriculum” is used so often in schools, why not use it as an opportunity to educate our students about Ramadan (and, by implication, Islam)?

Today we’ll be using a strategy called “QuIPs” (Questions into Paragraphs) to start some research on Ramadan for a class book. Our goals will be to educate ourselves about the topic and think about how QuIPs can act as a scaffold for young researchers/writers.

For this topic, I would provide students with a list of approved websites to use, rather than have them do open searches. (I wouldn’t want want students stumbling across misinformation and/or using websites that are intended for religious instruction.) Here are the sites we’ll use today. They are all recommended in Faith Winchester’s Muslim Holiday

Islamic and Arabic Arts and Architecture:  http://islamicart.com

IslamiCity:  http://www.islamic.com/default.htm

Feel free to look for other age-appropriate websites and share them!