Helping Students Never Forget
It’s hard to believe that it has been 15 years since the tragic events of 9/11. What is even harder to believe is this year’s students were the first to be born after that date.
I’ve struggled this week with how to convey the emotion and significance of that day to my students. Hopefully, these two resources can help us, as history teachers, tackle the tremendous task.
Helpful Resources
- StoryCorps: StoryCorps is America’s oral history project. They have done an amazing job of collecting the stories of those touched by 9/11. The stories include those who lost loved ones, rescue workers and airline workers. For my lesson plan, I’m going to have my students choose two interviews to listen to, and then write a letter to a future child explaining the importance of the day. You can find the entire collection here.
- Boatlift: An Untold Tale of 9/11 Resilience – A short 11-minute video on how the boats on the Hudson River came together to ferry people out of New York City. The best takeaway: In the midst of tragedy, we prevailed by helping and caring for others. You can watch it on YouTube.
I just used both with my classes. Thank you. Candy Boyer – Lancaster, PA
Awesome! I’m so glad they were beneficial to your class! How did you use them?
Hi Jenna!
Thank you for sharing these interesting and inspiring resources about 9/11. I was back in school this morning and showed my juniors and seniors the YouTube video. I had a short brainstorming phase before watching it, asking the kids what they knew about 9/11. Then I showed them the video, followed up by pair work during which they had to jot down what they had found particularly striking, moving, or surprising. The last step was a discussion in plenum of the opinions expressed by the pairs. It went very well!