Middle School Lessons from September 11

As our nation reflects on the tragic events of Sept. 11, 2001, local middle school teachers are finding creative ways to teach students—who were infants and toddlers at the time—about the day that changed so much for so many.

Patch asked social studies teachers how they approached the topic with their classes. Here are some of their lessons:

In our class we did word art, students had to look through "primary sources": transcripts from that day; quotes from survivors; song lyrics etc. and students had to create a visual using  the words.

—Tina Stavrou, 8th Grade American History

I have them interviewing family, friends, and teachers, aunts, uncles. We are going to make a word splash on poster paper.

—Gerilyn Laney, 7th Grade Civics

I am doing compare/contrast 911 and Pearl Harbor using a Venn Diagram.

—David Holmes, 7th Grade Civics

Last week, my students viewed a video on 9/11 and then read an article from another source and compared the two sources for both visual (movie) and verbal (movie and article) bias. They had a rousing discussion after both to determine what may have been biased and why and what wasn't. Also how they could verify if the source was biased or not (i.e. research).

—Michelle Roman, 8th Grade American History

We will be talking about the day of Service and what that means to all of us. We have a video that was made by one of our former teachers, George Bastable.  He passed away a couple of years ago. ... I also talk about the lyrics to "Where were you when the world stopped turning" by Alan Jackson. We are also viewing a discovery education video on the history behind the 9/11 attack.

—Kelly Floyd, Social Studies