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September 11th Project Ideas

Archived ideas

• Lessons of September 11
• Encouraging Empathy
  

Lessons of September 11

Make them a part of your curriculum for more than just one day!

Since President Bush has asked that September be known as a month of service, the White House will be producing a CD-rom that will help teachers promote volunteerism during the month of September. In Pennsylvania, teachers and students can honor the memory of those who died last year on September 11th and promote community service via service-learning.

With service-learning, lessons in citizenship, tolerance, civic virtue and character can continue long after the September 11th rememberance activities and the "month of service" are behind us. Service-learning can keep the spirit of service to others alive in the classroom and community throughout the school year.

Here are a few project ideas that might spark some interest in your classroom and community during the month of September, as we all begin to rethink what it means to be an American and a global citizen:

Adopt-a-Fire-Department Project

Elementary
Art, Math, Civics
After September 11th, more and more citizens began to recognize the importance of local fire departments. Consider having your elementary students adopt a local unit of the fire department in your community. Throughout the school year, students and firemen can address important fire safety issues, such as smoke alarms, carbon minoxide detectors, fire escapes/escape routes, fire extinquishers, etc. Teachers can easily tie these projects into the curriculum. For example, students can host a "Penny Drive" in the school to raise money for the purchase of smoke alarms that will be donated to low-income residents of the community. Adding up all those pennies can be turned into a great math lesson. Students could also develop a poster contest in the community to spread the word about fire safety. Lastly, any lesson that ties in with the efforts of the fire department would be a great opportunity to discuss citizenship and the spirit of volunteerism that fire departments exemplify.

Heroes Project

Middle School
Writing
Many people are referring to those who died at the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and Shanksville as "heroes" of our time. During this time of national reflection, encourage your students to reflect upon what it means to be a hero, who their heroes are and perhaps even what it is like for many citizens around the world to be "unsung heroes." As a service-learning project, have the students write essays about their heroes. Have them interview local heroes so that those community members are recognized. Contact a local newspaper and see if they will publish some of your students' essays!

Good Neighbor Project

High School
Family and Consumer Sciences
An important part of the process of developing a better sense of community in post-9/11 America is the act of becoming a better citizen. Encourage high school students to start in their own back yards by being good neighbors and setting positive examples. Have your students determine who their neighbors are in the community. For some, a neighbor might just be the person who lives next door, and for others, a neighbor might be a patient in a local hospice, a community agency or a local shut-in who is without family or friends. Once the students have determined who their neighbor will be for this project, have them plan and develop a service project for each of the upcoming curriculum units this semester. For example, if students will be learning about food and nutrition, they could bake or prepare some healthy snacks for their neighbors, collect and share coupons for nutrious food items or publish brochures that highlight healthy eating habits and provides a guide to local restaurants that offer healthy items. In addition to being a good neighbor during each curriculum unit, students can visit local elementary schools and encourage younger children to practice being good neighbors.

Visit any of these websites for more information and service-learning inspiration:

Pennsylvania Department of Education
Some great September 11th resources have already been compiled for teachers in Pennsylvania!
http://www.pde.state.pa.us/svcs_students/cwp
/view.asp?Q=82239&A=141

Resources for Coping with the Events of September 11th
http://www.lib.msu.edu/corby/ebss/september.htm

Newspapers in Education
http://www.usaweekend.com/partners/nie/nie.html

NEA: Remember September 11th
http://neahin.org/programs/schoolsafety
/september11/materials/lessonhome.htm

Encouraging Empathy in Post-9/11 America

Politicians, pundits and plenty of others are preparing to offer schools all sorts of recommended strategies, perspectives and curricula to address the first anniversary of 9/11. Secondary teachers will find two common strands in well-developed approaches: encourage empathy and utilize open-ended questions.

Empathy is identification with and understanding of another’s situation, feelings and motives. It is an esteemed character trait that has broad application, but it is particularly pertinent in the advent of 9/11, when American tolerance has been challenged by xenophobia and Anglo-centric notions of patriotism. As even-handed editorialists have often pointed out, an ideal America is tolerant, understanding and empathetic.

Living up to our ideals often requires deep thought, strong commitment and careful action. Empathy is sometimes difficult for students to grasp, and often even more troublesome to teach. Some simple exercises, however, can draw out students’ own experiences of group dynamics.

First, ask students to write an essay about any time they felt like a larger group treated them poorly or made them uncomfortable. Ask them to consider how the power that a group can have over one or only a few people made them feel. Emphasize the importance of recalling their feelings when they were singled out. Use a few examples to spark their brainstorming.

Were they ever singled out and forced to do things because they were the youngest? Did they have to do certain things because they were the only boy or only girl involved? Did they ever enter a public place and realize they were a minority? Their essays can be about more serious issues, such as racial discrimination, to the seemingly trivial, such as being singled out for wearing different clothes. The purpose of the exercise is to spark their thinking about difference.

After collecting their first essay, wait a day and then ask them to write again. The second essay must be about a time when they were part of a larger group that made someone else feel uncomfortable or unwelcome. Make it clear that you will not punish the students for their past actions. Let them know that acknowledging their feelings and actions on either side of a negative group dynamic is the first step to dealing with stereotypes and being smarter than the crowd. Students with whom I have done this exercise usually have no difficulty finding an example, although their memories range from poking fun at another’s dress to considerably more troublesome examples of outright racial discrimination.

Discuss their essays with them. Ask them how they feel about their own actions in the context of how they felt when others picked on them. Ask them if anyone is immune from being singled out for abuse. Emphasize that while we have all experienced bias, some of us are much more likely to be singled out than others. Have them imagine feeling constantly singled out and encourage them to think about how they would like to be treated. Finally, ask them to commit to acting as their ideal selves. To test whether students are acting as their ideal selves, have them consider whether they would be comfortable with everyone acting that same way, all the time. Their empathy will grow as they are forced to deal with their contradictory roles in past group experiences.

Throughout discussions on character, understanding, empathy and 9/11, use open-ended questions. They are provocative and force students to think analytically. To challenge students, a truly open-ended question is: How would you design a society if you could not predict what race, class, gender, or sexual orientation you would be born? Other open-ended questions include: What is justice? What causes hate? What makes people do evil things? Be sure to end constructively: What will you do to encourage more tolerance? How will you work to end hate? What can you do to make the world a better place than you found it?

Some excellent additional questions are included in a curriculum packet compiled by The Justice Project and the Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation. The free curriculum, “Beyond Blame: Reacting to the Terrorist Attack,” can be found at http://www.edc.org/spotlight/schools/beyondblame.htm. It is one of many excellent resources and books compiled by Teaching Tolerance, which can be found at www.teachingtolerance.org.

Grant Opportunities provide additional project ideas >>