TeachersFirst's September 11 Resources
This collection of reviewed resources from TeachersFirst is selected to help students understand the events of September 11, 2001, and to plan lessons or discussions so students can see the events of September 11 in connection with history, current events, and the challenges and balances of national security. Whether you stop to observe September 11 separately from your regular curriculum or include it through curricular connections to writing and social studies topics, these resources can help today's students imagine the events of a day before their memory but ever present in the American consciousness.
(Image credit: This photo used under Creative Commons license. Source http://www.flickr.com/photos/slagheap/132105494/)
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Retro Report Education - Retro Report
Grades
9 to 12tag(s): 20th century (62), advanced placement (26), bill of rights (31), black history (130), civil rights (201), cross cultural understanding (168), cultures (145), difficult conversations (61), drugs and alcohol (28), environment (245), freedom of speech (14), media literacy (107), native americans (95), news (228), politics (115), primary sources (119), psychology (67), sept11 (18), supreme court (27), terrorism (42), world war 1 (78), world war 2 (161)
In the Classroom
High school social studies teachers will want to bookmark and save this site as an excellent resource for lessons and videos to accompany current lessons. Use the lessons to differentiate activities based on student interests. For example, when teaching about the Bill of Rights, offer groups of students different topics to explore from the provided lessons, including the Pentagon Papers, evolution in science class, conspiracy theories, and Waco as a 2nd amendment battleground. Use Padlet, reviewed here, or Wakelet, reviewed here as a curation tool for you and students to gather resources related to their topic. Ask students to share their findings using a presentation tool like the ones found at Canva Edu, reviewed here, which includes options for adding links to resources shared.You must be registered and logged in to add items to your favorites.
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Top 10 American Patriotic Songs | Iconic American Songs - U.S. Entrepreneur TV
Grades
4 to 12tag(s): july 4th (12), memorial day (12), sept11 (18), veterans (29)
In the Classroom
Choose a few of the more recent songs, and discuss why they are considered patriotic as a class. Then, use as background music when students work on projects for Memorial Day, the 4th of July, and Veteran's Day.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Flight 93 National Memorial - National Park Service
Grades
5 to 12In the Classroom
Include this site with your other September 11 resources to share with students. Use Padlet, reviewed here, to curate and share resources in one location. Additionally, Padlet includes a timeline feature. Enhance learning by asking students to construct a timeline of events leading up to and beyond the hijacking and subsequent crash of the airplane as a visual tool for understanding this chain of events concerning other attacks that took place on September 11. Include links to images, videos, newspaper articles, and more on the students' timeline. Extend learning using Google My Maps, reviewed here, to create a virtual map of September 11 events that provides a broader look at the different locations and outcomes of the terrorist attacks.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media - Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media
Grades
6 to 12tag(s): 20th century (62), branches of government (64), civil rights (201), history day (39), primary sources (119), religions (84), sept11 (18)
In the Classroom
Bookmark and save this site as a supplemental resource for any history lessons and teaching units. One portion of the site leads to Teachinghistory.org, reviewed here, which is an amazing resource for finding teaching materials, best practices, and history content. Be sure to visit it often to find many ideas for effective teaching of history concepts. Other links are perfect for sharing with students to use for locating and learning from primary sources. For example, Papers of the War Department (1784-1800) contains a large collection of images and transcriptions that provide context and understanding into files once considered lost in a fire at the War Department. Create a collaborative Padlet, reviewed here, and ask students to share primary documents and add comments discussing their relevance to historic events being studied. Padlet also includes a timeline feature; use this tool to create a visual timeline of events for any time. Extend learning by asking students to create podcasts using Buzzsprout, reviewed here. Options for podcast topics could include telling the story of historical events from the perspective of a man on the street and sharing perspectives on an event from the viewpoint of different participants.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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NewseumED - NewseumED.org
Grades
6 to 12tag(s): civil rights (201), elections (81), evaluating sources (28), freedom of speech (14), media literacy (107), politics (115), primary sources (119), sept11 (18), terrorism (42), terrorist (12)
In the Classroom
If you teach or even discuss civil rights, the First Amendment and its freedoms and ideals, current events, or the presidential elections be sure to look at the lessons provided here. The lessons will also help you show students how to tell facts from opinions in current events. Use ideas from the lesson plans to supplement your current teaching materials. Enhance learning and challenge small groups of students to create an infographic sharing their learning from the notes they took during a lesson. Use Infogram, reviewed here, to construct the infographic. If you plan on using one of the EdCollections ask students to enhance and extend their learning and develop a multimedia presention using Presentious, reviewed here, or an interactive poster with a tool like Genially, reviewed here, for one of the suggested Extension Activities.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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9/11 Memorial & Museum - Learn - National September 11 Memorial and Museum
Grades
K to 12In the Classroom
Check the teacher lesson plans for ideas. The plans range from kindergarten to grade 12. Incorporate some of the interactives as part of your class commemoration of September 11. Have students record their own video or audio interviews. Try Spreaker, reviewed here, with adults who recall the day and add them to a class or school wiki memorial. Add a Speakpipe widget, reviewed here, to your wiki page so visitors can add their own recollections. If you do not have time to spend more than one class period on 9/11, the 9/11 Memorial & Museum will provide rich experiences and material for discussion. Be sure to allow your students time to talk and ask questions about this disturbing day in history.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Center for Civic Education - Center for Civic Education
Grades
5 to 12This site includes advertising.
tag(s): branches of government (64), civil rights (201), constitution (92), democracy (20), elections (81), electoral college (22), lincoln (65), martin luther king (45), presidents (133), sept11 (18), washington (28)
In the Classroom
Use lesson resources to supplement your current curriculum or commemorate events such as MLK Day, Presidents Day, or Constitution Day. Assign podcasts to groups of students to use, then report to the class. Rather than a traditional report, challenge cooperative learning groups to collaborate on a topic found on the site using Netboard, reviewed here to share ideas and information. Share a link to the podcasts via your web page or blog. Have students answer the daily question then respond with a short journal entry or with comments on your webpage.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Remembering 9/11 - CBS News
Grades
7 to 12In the Classroom
Use this site as a cooperative learning activity during a lesson or unit on the events of September 11th or as part of a broader discussion on international relations, terrorism, or the role of government in balancing personal liberties and national security. Create a graphic organizer to guide students through the site (or have them create their own in small groups), highlighting what's most important and the important facts and details. For help creating easy graphic organizers, try using Holt Interactive Graphic Organizer, reviewed here, or bubbl.us, reviewed here.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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While America Slept - The True Story of 9/11 - CBS News
Grades
7 to 12tag(s): sept11 (18)
In the Classroom
Use this site on the interactive whiteboard or projector to show students the context of the day. During a class discussion, display the timeline on a projector or interactive whiteboard for students to see and navigate together. Read the details aloud, or have student volunteers take turns reading the events aloud. Make sure that between each event you provide some sort of explanation, i.e. who the people mentioned are and what the significance was of each action. Include this discussion as you study the role of government in the protection of its citizens and balancing individual liberties with national security. Assign students to create multimedia posters using marq, reviewed here, or an infographic using Visme, reviewed here, showing the conflicting roles of government.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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September 11 Teacher Awards - Tribute World Trade Center Organization
Grades
K to 12In the Classroom
Use these award winning ideas to commemorate September 11 in a lesson to demonstrate unity or build worldwide understanding. Use the concepts as a springboard to a collaborative project. Ideas vary from sending chains of origami cranes as a wish for peace, composing and singing a song for unity with an online tool such as Zeemaps, reviewed here, writing letters to local politicians, creating poems and transforming them into digital videos or multimedia presentations using Adobe Express for Education, reviewed here, or taking responsibility for the environment while creating a sense of community by planting gardens. Choose from many ways to inspire students to recognize the importance of September 11 and to involve them in working together to become a more tolerant society. You might be so amazed with the results that you will want to submit your students' projects to be considered for next year's Tribute Center September 11th Teacher Awards. The annual award ceremony takes place on February 26, to commemorate the 1993 first attack on the World Trade Center.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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September 11 Timeline of Events - Tribute World Trade Center Organization
Grades
4 to 12In the Classroom
Display this pictorial interactive September 11th timeline of the attack on the World Trade Center on your classroom projector or interactive whiteboard. After reading real accounts of what happened, have students work with a partner to create podcasts (news broadcasts, mock interviews with survivors and others involved, or even a student perspective of how that day changed the United States forever). Have students create podcasts using a site such as Acast, reviewed here. Alternatively, have them annotate an image using Image Annotator, reviewed here.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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September 11, 2001 Documentary Project - Library of Congress
Grades
7 to 12In the Classroom
This site would be most useful to students doing research on the 9/11 attacks, but also could provide teachers with supplemental material for a lesson on the events of that date. Although teachers will remember the day vividly, most students were either not born yet, or young enough when it occurred that their memories will be clouded. Another use for this site is as an example of the power and necessity of primary sources in documenting any event. Compare these resources to accounts we have of Pearl Harbor and other major events as you ask students to conduct an interviewing project of their own, perhaps of local history. As an introduction and for students to get a feeling for the drama of the event you may want to use the video posted with live footage of an ABC broadcast as the events of 9/11 were unfolding. You can access the Encyclopdeia Britanica's version of the video on YouTube here.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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September 11: Bearing Witness to History - Smithsonian
Grades
10 to 12In the Classroom
The portion of this site that was the most impactful was the video posted with live footage of an ABC broadcast as the events of 9/11 were unfolding. You can access the Encyclopdeia Britanica's version of the video on YouTube here. Play the video on an interactive whiteboard or projector, for students as a way to introduce the topic. The advantage of this is it brings everyone to the same page, as some kids may not remember the details or may have forgotten the extreme emotion involved in that moment. It is a very powerful video, and really relays the significance and the pure shock on the part of airline personel (actual audio of First Responders, Air Traffic Controllers, Dispatch Personnel, Airline Employees ...) on that day. Use the video to lead into a lecture or conversation about what followed the report using the Bearing Witness to History site. Are you using blended learning in your class? Having students view the video at home and discussing it in class is perfect for blended learning if your district blocks YouTube. Whether viewing in class or at home you may want to use Moocnote, reviewed here, to add comments, links, and questions to the video.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Remember, Rebuild, Renew - Lower Manhattan Development Corp.
Grades
6 to 12tag(s): architecture (68), sept11 (18)
In the Classroom
What do your students think the best memorial would be? Enhance learning and ask students to put thier choices in Dotstorming, reviewed here, where you can brainstorm then VOTE.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Library of Congress 9/11 Acquisitions - Library of Congress
Grades
6 to 12In the Classroom
Use this site as a learning center or station during a unit on September 11th, focusing mainly on the images and posters available. The images could be used for a picture walk or to accompany a lecture.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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September 11, 2001 - New York Times
Grades
9 to 12In the Classroom
Try using it with students as a springboard for writing or other creative expression.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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