On the first anniversary of September 11th, I worked with a bunch of kids at my college and we placed more than 3,000 flags on the campus lawn, one for each victim of 9/11. It was just a little thing, but it felt good to do something to honor the victims and heroes who died that day.
One of the greatest privileges I have as a teacher is getting the chance to honor those heroes again every year, to honor them by keeping the memory of their sacrifice alive in the minds of children, many of whom have no idea what Patriot's Day is all about. In fact, the vast majority of the kids I've taught over the years haven't ever even heard of September 11th and have no idea what it is or why it's important. But if they didn't before, they do now.
I start off by reading The Man Who Walked Between the Towers.
This is a great book about a guy who (illegally) walked on a tightrope between the towers when they were first built in the 1970s. The book ends with "Now the towers are gone" and a picture of the empty skyline. This always begs the question, "What happened to the towers?" This year, many of my students already had some idea because homework last night was to ask their parents about September 11th. So I let them share what they knew. Then I had them watch a short Scholastic video that I really like because it shows the towers being hit without being overly graphic for young kids. After that, I just talk them through the events using a nonfiction book full of pictures as we go along and making sure to point out the 343 firefighters who died, the Pentagon being hit, and Flight 93 in Pennsylvania. I let them listen to a phone call from a mom to her son on Flight 93 at the 9/11 timeline. This is the only clip I use from there, but for older kids it would be a great resource to look through more. The phone call is heartbreaking enough. This year I also had the satisfaction of letting them listen to a clip of the president inform the country that Osama bin Laden had been killed.
We spent the rest of the morning drawing and writing about what we'd learned so far. I got so caught up in the moment that my whole class was late to switch for intervention time. Here's some of their work:
I always find this project so interesting partially it's one of the few writing projects we do with no revision or editing and very little assistance from me. I put words they want spelled up on the board and then let them at it.
Later on in the day, we focused more on the heroes of September 11th. I got this idea from the 9/11 memorial, which as far as I can tell, has the very best plans out there. If you just Google 9/11 plans, most of what you find is about tolerance or cultures, both of which are important, but it's nice to actually learn about what happened on 9/11 at some point too, and the memorial's website has some wonderful ideas; someday, my class is going to spend a whole week on 9/11 and we will cover lots more of those plans.
But anyway, we read Fireboat, which made me tear up a little. It's about this old fireboat that these people had bought and refurbished just for fun, but then on 9/11 they actually needed it to hook up the firetrucks to get water from. I also talked with them about the guide dog that led a blind man down the stairs and about the man who stayed with his friend in the wheelchair rather than leave him behind. Then we brainstormed character traits of a hero, and I asked them to fill out a paper telling about a 9/11 hero and his/her character traits. Here's what they came up with:
Mark is the name of the son of the woman whose phone call to Flight 93 we listened to.
At the end of the day, I read 14 Cows for America, about a tribe in Kenya who sent 14 cows as a way to help America heal. We talked a tiny bit about how little acts of kindness add up and make a difference in the world, and I made homework tonight to find a way to be a hero at home.
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