Goals: Writing Across the Curriculum

• To examine the diversity of lifestyles, people, places and opinions in the Arab world.
• To practice writing skills: describing, comparing, using evidence, analyzing audience

• Look at what the question asks you to do.
• Take two minutes to look at the photographs and make one-word notes to yourself about how to answer the question. (See the examples in #1)
• Spend five minutes writing 2-5 complete sentences which answer the question.

Sample prompts:

Cairo skyline and mosque:

1. Describe three things you notice about Cairo in this photograph.

For example, for question #1 and #2 on the image of Cairo you might write: "crowded apartments"; "big and flat"; "mosque"; "a little smoggy"; "modern", "buses and cars"

2. Using evidence from the photograph, suggest one way that living in Cairo might be similar to living in Oakland. Suggest one way it might be different.

For example: "In this photograph Cairo is a large city with densely packed apartment houses. The most prominent building in the neighborhood is a mosque. There are cars and buses in the streets."
 
 

Anti-terrorism sign outside Syrian factory (This photograph was taken outside a Syrian tire factory by an American traveler.)

1. Using evidence from the photograph, suggest two things you call speculate about the banner's authors?

2. Using evidence from the photograph, what are two things you can say about the banner's intended audience?
 
 

Palestinian children (This photograph was taken by an American college student visiting the Middle East.)

1. Using evidence from the photograph, what are two things you can say about childhood in Palestine?

2. Describe two reasons why you think the photographer took this picture.
 
 
 
 

Michele Delattre, ORIAS
 
 

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