Participants will engage in an engaging, interactive discussion with colleagues about the 9/11 attacks, assessing their personal memories of living through the 9/11 attacks and sharing prior knowledge of what they know about the tragic events of 9/11. They will evaluate the historical context, main effects, and aftermath of the 9/11 Attacks and also the beginnings of the War on Terror using a multimodal, interactive approach.
Teachers will be learning narrative techniques and be provided with powerful teaching tools for teaching 9/11 in the classroom for today’s youth. These tools will include: powerful photos, inspiring movie clips, a personal interview with a survivor of the event, powerful video clips and news stories from the day of the attacks, and personal testimonies from those who remember 9/11 itself. We will learn to use primary sources to explain the 9/11 attacks and their enduring legacy, especially as we approach their 25th anniversary. Class includes access to a full 9/11 lesson plan, slideshow, video clips, quotes from eyewitnesses, and a full 9/11 resource guide.
We will also navigate how to teach this strategy responsibly in the classroom in a way that honors the fallen and forges meaningful connections to our students’ owned lived experiences in our world today. Teachers will share best practices and hypothesize ways to teach tragedy while also finding rays of hope. We will learn powerful survivor stories that help students appreciate the heroism of ordinary Americans that day. This session will help you reflect on the significance of 9/11 in your own life and then to help your students learn about and grow from this pivotal event in our nation’s history.
This session is open to everyone, though we especially invite secondary teachers, particularly ELA and Social Studies teachers, to attend this session. All those interested in honoring the victims of 9/11 attacks in a special way as we approach the 25th anniversary are welcome, however, to attend this session.
