For students: We hope this guide will help sharpen your reading skills and deepen your understanding of this issue’s articles.

For teachers: We encourage reproduction and adaptation of these ideas, freely and without furthe permission from Saudi Aramco World, by teachers at any level, whether working in a classrorom or through home study.

— THE EDITORS

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Class Activities

This edition of AramcoWorld has some particularly fascinating photographs of artwork, so a larger-than-usual portion of this Classroom Guide focuses on visual analysis. Beyond that, students will explore conflict and cooperation in two articles—one about Ottoman assistance to the Irish during “The Great Hunger”; the other about the 12th century travels of Ibn Jubayr. In a 15-minute activity, students examine the way a writer poses, and then goes about answering, a question for readers.

Conflict and Cooperation

At a time when there is a great deal of conflict in the world, it can be inspiring to see how people in the past found ways to live with conflict. How were they able to cooperate with people who might have been perceived as opponents? Two articles in this edition address this question, and they offer insight into how conflict and cooperation sometimes coexist. (Each article is addressed separately in the activities that follow. That way, it will be easy to focus on one of them if that’s all you have time to do. Should you have time for both, forge ahead—but the activities for each article can stand alone.)

1. An Irish Tale of Hunger and the Sultan

To make the most of your time with your classmates, read the article at home and come to class prepared to work with its content. 

The first part of the article describes the situation in Ireland from 1845 to 1847. Review that segment of the article, thinking about the instances of conflict it describes. Remember, conflict doesn’t necessarily mean actual fighting. Answer these questions to help you see the conflict: Who owned the farms in Ireland? Who worked on the farms? Irish farms were producing a great deal of food during “The Great Hunger.” Why weren’t the poor among the Irish people eating it? Who was getting the food? Who was making money from the food? Write a sentence that summarizes the situation in Ireland, pointing out the clash of interests of the different groups. 

That’s the conflict part of the story. Now turn your attention to the cooperation part—and the next part of the article. List words that the article uses to describe Sultan Aldülmedjid i. Discuss with a partner how these personality traits might contribute to his willingness to assist the Irish people. Looking at the list of words, think of anyone you know, or any prominent person, past or present, who you think had or has those traits. Has that person behaved like Aldülmedjid in terms of generosity and cooperation? If not, why do you think the traits did not show in the same way in him or her as they did in the Sultan? 

Other factors can be at play when two parties cooperate. Perhaps cooperation is more than just the expression of being a compassionate person. Perhaps such a person has something to gain by cooperating with someone else. The article uses the word diplomacy to describe the content of letters between members of the Irish gentry and the Sultan. What did the Irish have to gain through their relationship with the Sultan? What did the Sultan have to gain by helping them? As a class, discuss these questions: Would you like to believe that the Sultan helped the Irish solely because it was the humane thing to do? Do you think differently about him knowing that one of the reasons he aided the Irish was because it was in the best interests of his own country to do so? If so, why? If not, why not? Finally, make a visual image that shows the complex relationships among the groups described in the article. Make sure your visual includes both conflict and cooperation.

 2. The Travel Writer Ibn Jubayr

“The Travel Writer Ibn Jubayr” also tells a story of conflict and cooperation. Read the article, highlighting sections about conflict in one color, and sections about cooperation in a different color. When you review the parts that you’ve highlighted, what do you notice about conflict and cooperation? What groups are involved in the conflict the article describes? Why were they in conflict? How do the conflict and cooperation coexist? Make a visual image that shows the complex relationship between the two groups and include both conflict and cooperation. If you also made a visual image representing conflict and cooperation among the groups discussed in “An Irish Tale of Hunger and the Sultan,” look at both visuals side by side. What generalizations, if any, can you make about conflict and cooperation based on these two articles?

Visual Analysis

Usually when you look at a painting, it’s on a canvas; often it’s in a frame, hanging on a wall. The street artists who participated in the Djerbahood Project, however, painted their art on buildings. Of course, a painter could make the exact same painting on the wall as he or she could make on canvas; but somehow artists don’t seem to do that. The fact that artists are painting on a wall affects not just how they paint, but also what they paint. You can see some striking examples of this in the photos of street art that accompany the article “Djerba’s Museum of the Street.” 

How does painting on a building affect a work of art?

To begin this visual analysis, pair up with another student and consider the image on the bottom right of page 15. (You can read about the image on the same page.) You will notice that part of it is painted in a doorway. How do you think this placement affects the painting? To answer the question, imagine the exact same painting on a canvas—no doorway. Describe what such a painting would look like. Compare how you feel when you see the painting in the doorway and how you feel seeing it without a doorway. Would the effects be the same? With your partner, role play an interview in which one of you takes the role of the painter and the other conducts the interview. See if you can imagine what the painter was thinking about when designing the painting to be part of a doorway. 

Turn your attention to a painting that’s on a flat wall, like the painting on page 16. Again, imagine the painting on a canvas. How does it being on the wall make it different than it would be on canvas—if at all? To answer the question, look at the grate at the top of the wall, and the tree to the left of the painting. Do you think the grate and the tree are part of the painting? Do you think they’re like a frame around a canvas painting? How do you think the presence of the grate and the tree affected the artist’s work? 

How does a photographer photograph paintings?

Now let’s add another layer to your visual analysis. Artists painted on walls in Tunisia, and you’ve examined some of their work. But actually, you’ve examined a photographer’s representation of their work. You’ll notice that most of the photos that accompany the article include features that are not part of the paintings themselves. The photo of the doorway painting has a man walking into the frame from the right. The photo of the blue moped on page 16 includes a real bicycle and a cart. Look at the top-left photo on page 14: Describe the painting that’s in the photograph. Then describe the three children in front of the painting. Why do you think the photographer included the children in the photo? Why not just take a picture of the painting by itself? You can ask the same question of the other two photographs you’ve analyzed.  

Explore this question by trying it yourself. Use a camera if you have one. (A smartphone camera will work.) Choose a painting that you like. If you live near an art museum, get a copy of one there (such as a poster-size version of it). If not, but you have access to the Internet, choose a painting from a museum’s online collection and print it. Or choose a painting that’s reproduced in a book and photocopy it or scan and print it. Then put your copy of the painting in a context, such as on a wall, and take a picture of it there. Finally, take a third photo that includes the painting on the wall, and something else. You can use the photos from “Djerba’s Museum of the Streets” to give you ideas. Look at the three images side by side—the painting, a photo of the painting on a wall, and a photo of the painting on a wall with something else in the frame. How do they differ? Which do you like best? Why? Post your photos in the classroom. Look at your classmates’ work along with your own. As a class, discuss the different types of photograph. 

IF YOU ONLY HAVE 15 MINUTES... After the first paragraph of “An Irish Tale of Hunger and the Sultan,” author Tom Verde raises a tantalizing question: How much of the story he has just told is true, and how much is “blarney”? Read the article. How has Verde answered the question? Go back through what you’ve read, and see how he has uncovered the answer. Make a diagram that shows the route(s) he took to make his case. What sources did he consult? Whose perspectives did he trust? Whose did he question? How did he determine which elements of the initial story were true? How did he determine that other elements were most likely not true? After you’ve made your diagram, rewrite the first paragraph of the article so that it tells the story that the author has determined is actually true.

 

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Curriculum Alignments

Ireland’s Tale of Hunger and the Sultan

Geography

Standard 9. Understands the nature, distribution and migration of human populations on Earth's surface 

Standard 10. Understands the nature and complexity of Earth's cultural mosaics 

Standard 15. Understands how physical systems affect human systems   

Standard 17. Understands how geography is used to interpret the past

World History

Standard 37. Understand major global trends from 1750 to 1914

Djerba’s Museum of the Streets

Geography

Standard 10. Understands the nature and complexity of Earth's cultural mosaics 

Visual Arts

Standard 4. Understands the visual arts in relation to history and cultures

Arts and Communication

Standard 4. Understands ways in which the human experience is transmitted and reflected in the arts and communication

The Travel Writer: Ibn Jubayr

World History

Standard 13. Understands the causes and consequences of the development of Islamic civilization between the 7th and 10th centuries

Standard 25. Understands major global trends from 1000 to 1500 CE

Geography

Standard 9. Understands the nature, distribution and migration of human populations on Earth's surface 

Standard 10. Understands the nature and complexity of Earth's cultural mosaics 

The Blues of Arabia

Music

Standard 7. Understands the relationship between music and history and culture

Geography

Standard 10. Understands the nature and complexity of Earth's cultural mosaics 

Technology

Standard 3. Understands the relationships among science, technology, society, and the individual

 

Luxor’s First Local Lens

Visual Arts

Standard 4. Understands the visual arts in relation to history and cultures

Geography

Standard 10. Understands the nature and complexity of Earth's cultural mosaics 

Technology

Standard 3. Understands the relationships among science, technology, society, and the individual

 

 

Julie Weiss ([email protected]) is an education consultant based in Eliot, Maine. She holds a Ph.D. in American studies. Her company, Unlimited Horizons, develops social studies, media literacy, and English as a Second Language curricula, and produces textbook materials.