Marking a Moment: Teaching About 9/11

Date: September 8, 2011

Summary: September 11, 2011, marks the 10th anniversary of the devastating attack on the World Trade Center. How is this subject being surfaced, taught, and talked about in classrooms? What critical literacy practices support students in finding a voice as they navigate the complexities of challenging topics, such as 9/11? This episode features an array of perspectives from NWP teachers and colleagues such as Holly Epstein Ojalvo, editor of the New York Times Learning Network, and Jennifer Lemberg of the Holocaust Educators Network.

Excerpt from Show

First-hand accounts, survivor testimony, first-person narrative, those are the central formative experiences of Holocaust education and we recognized that they needed to be at the center of our approach to 9/11. And then again, this connection to identity. We're challenged with the fact that we are in our first week of school in Michigan, so we're building community in our classes. And as we build community, as I try to do that in my classroom, I have to get to know my kids' identity is central to that, so identity became just a really important focal point.

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Duration: 1 hour

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Related Resources Discussed on the Show

• The Memorial Library
• Big Paper: Building a Silent Conversation
• Tough Talk, Tough Texts by Cindy O'Donnell-Allen
• Cindy O'Donnell-Allen's Blog
• The New York Times: The Learning Network
• Teaching and Learning About 9/11 With The New York Times
• Teaching 9/11: Ideas and Projects From Teachers
• The Spectator: The Stuyvesant High School Newspaper, A Special 9/11 Edition
• 9/11/2001: History, Tragedy, Legacy, A Three Part Lesson Plan