Katrina - One Year Later (A Think)

It's hardly a current even, it happened a year ago. But it's still in many people's minds. Indeed, many lives have been changed forever. Many people who fled the Gulf Coast Region during Katrina still have not returned. Click here for coverage a year later from a website called NOLA. MSNBC's website has a site called "Rising from Ruin: Two Towns Rebuild after Katrina." The website has a diaries tab which includes blog posts from residents of the Two Towns. Despite the horrible natural catastrophe that killed many people and dislocated many others, politicians have not failed to make Katrina a political issue. The Washington Post is running an article entitled, The President and His Critics Mark Anniversary Along Gulf Coast. The article begins:

A year after Hurricane Katrina devastated Mississippi and Louisiana, President Bush and Democratic leaders are converging on the Gulf Coast this week to commemorate the losses while continuing the political argument over the federal response to the country's largest natural disaster.

Lesson Ideas:
1. Ask students to pretend that they had lived in New Orleans during Katrina. Explain that there were winds strong enough to pull large trees out of the ground and rushing water. People used boats to move through New Orleans streets. One women said that her home filled up with water like it was a fish tank. Ask students to write a journal entry as if they were in the middle of Katrina. They might post these on blogs. Provide students with an opportunity to share their entries with other students.
2. Ask students to conduct research on New Orleans, beginning with the links mentioned above. They should pretend that they are members of a city council in the Gulf Coast Region and identify four pressing issues that need to be resolved. Allow students to work in groups of three or four.
3. Invite students to consider why Hurricane Katrina has become (perhaps, became shortly afterwards) a huge political issue. Encourage them to support their opinions. Ask them if they think that it is appropriate that a catastrophe, like Katrina, has become such a huge issue.
4. Explain the dynamics of a hurricane to students. Tell them to pretend that they are teachers in a class teaching about hurricanes. Ask them to prepare a lesson that will allow students to get up and move around, as they learn what a hurricane is. Give them an opportunity to teach their lesson to the class.