Teaching Resources and Lesson Plans

Teaching Resources

• Africa: Exploring Global Issues In a Regional Context – provides ten things students should learn about Africa and brief synopses of eight issues playing out around the continent as well as resources for further research.
• Africa Access – large compendium of Africa focused resources for teachers, including the Children’s Africana Book Award.
• African Studies Resources for K-12 Educators – Compiled by Marion Frank-Wilson, IU Librarian for African Studies
• Childhood in Africa: An Interdisciplinary Journal – a peer-reviewed, open access journal publication by the Institute for the African Child at Ohio University
  
  React and Respond: The Phenomenon of Kony 2012 - written on behalf of the Outreach Council of the African Studies Association
• Talking about "Tribe:" Moving from Stereotypes to Analysis – short article on the problems of using the world “tribe” when discussing Africa

PowerPoint Presentations

• Africa and Christianity: A Historical Overview, John Hanson, IU History
• African Foods and Global Products: Exploring Oil Palm Products - Kate Bishop, IU Anthropology and Geography
• Africa, Islam, and Globalization – Beth Buggenhagen, IU Anthropology
• Antislavery Movements in the Islamic Republic of Mauritania - Katherine Wiley, IU Anthropology
• Boko Haram and Islamic Fundamentalism in Nigeria, Osita Afoaku, IU SPEA
• Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart
  • Things Fall Apart: for the classroom
  • Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart: Part of a Holistic Curriculum – Eve Eisenberg,
    IUB
  • The Epistemology of the Novel: Achebe as Africa in American High Schools– Eve Eisenberg, IUB
• Cloth and Commerce: Africa’s Links to the Rest of the World (Indiana History Standard 7.1) - Katherine Wiley, IU Anthropology
• History and Activism: Kony 2012 as a Teaching Moment, Michelle Moyd, IU History
• History of Islam in Mali – Beidy Sow, IU African Studies
• Political Dynamics in the Horn of Africa – Josef Woldense, IU Political Science
• The Politics of Oil Conflict in Nigeria – Omulade Adunbi, University of Michigan Afroamerican and African Studies

Lesson Plans

Please click the titles below to download lesson plans.

• Adinkra Printed Textiles from Ghana (9th - 12th grades) - created by Deborah Strother, Brown County Senior High School, during the 2009 Summer Institute
• Adinkra Textiles Powerpoint
• Annotated Bibliography Lesson Plan (7th - 12th grades) Karen Davis, Center Grove High School
• Annotated Bibliography - Africa, specifically Senegal
• Human Rights Violations (Grades K - 12th) - John Fuller, Arsenal Technical High School
• Kanga Patterns (6th - 8th grades) - Maggie Olivo, University Elementary
• Local African News Stories (9th - 12th grades) - Lindsey Hood, Central Middle School; Jacinda Lettau, Southside High School; Dan Warkentien, Lebanon High School; and Micky Emily, Corydon High Central High School
• Francophone Africa: Lessons from Cameroon
  
  These Lessons From Cameroon are brought to you by the African Studies Program at Indiana University. They are the product of a Fulbright-Hays Group Project Abroad (GPA). During the summer of 1996, eleven middle school and high school French language teachers spent five weeks in Cameroon, studying about Francophone Africa, and about Cameroon in particular. As a result of the trip, the teachers developed curriculum units on a variety of topics.
  
  The lessons are meant to be adapted to suit your class or teaching needs and are only select extracts from the original curriculum units. The hard copy versions of the original curriculum units are available from the Indiana University African Studies Program Outreach Library.
  
  Click on a title below to go to a lesson plan.
  • Exploring Foods and Dining Patterns of Cameroon by Thomas Bastin
  • African-American Traditions: Cameroonian and African-Amerian Folktales by Kyra Beaver
  • Examples of Cameroonian Clothing by France Knable
  • Incorporating Cameroonian Cultures Into French Classes by Katrina Seibert

Teaching Resources Compiled by Other Universities

• Understanding Sudan: A Teaching and Learning Resource - University of California, Berkeley
  A series of teaching modules, that include PowerPoint presentations, assignments, exams and further resources, on topics ranging from politics, economics, ecology, and language.
• Michigan State University
  Includes links to teaching modules on South Africa’s transition from apartheid, West African textiles, and more than 60 lesson plans in its Exploring Africa! series.
• University of Kansas
  Features links to African related teaching resources developed by the New York Times, Discovery Channel, and a special series on teaching Africa in the Great Plains region of the US.
• University of Wisconsin - Madison
  Lesson plans and resources organized by grade-level, thematic subject, and country, as well as news sources, TED talks, and film directories.