Free Lesson Plans for Teachers September 11 Five Years Later

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Free Lesson Plans for Teachers
Alpha Stage

There are moments in life you simply do not forget. I was driving
from my new apartment in Farmington, Michigan to clean out my old
apartment in East Lansing, when my mother told me that a plane had
hit the World Trade Center. Wait she said, "Oh my God. Another one
just crashed." Fortunately for me, I didn't know anybody or even
know anybody who knew anybody who was killed. Many people were
not as fortunate. Many lives, that did not end, changed forever on
9/11/2001. Newspapers, television, radio, and Internet publications are
remembering the tragedies of five years ago, today. The Washington
Post has an extensive sections devoted to 9/11 and its aftermath.

Today, I decided to look at things a little differently. I wanted to see
how the newspapers in one of America's enemy nations, Iran, was
reporting on 9/11. The Tehran Times runs an article entitled The
Aftermath of 9/11. The article states: " All nations sympathized with
the victims of the unprecedented terrorist acts. However, this sense of
sympathy didn’t last long." It goes on to criticize President Bush and
the United States government for the way that it responded after the
attacks. It's interesting that I could easily imagine an American
commentator writing a similar article.

Discussion Starters

Remember that many students in elementary school won't
really remember 9/11. Simply tell them that a group of people
didn't like some things that the United States was doing and so
decided to kill thousands of people. Ask students if they think
that it's ever appropriate to hurt somebody because you don't
like what they are doing? Encourage them to explain their
answers.

Ask students to write a letter to Osama Bin Laden in which
they express their views on what Al Qaeda did five years ago.
These letters can be posted on the Internet.

In the years since 9/11 there has been much talk as to what an
appropriate memorial to the victims of the atrocities should look
like. Tell students to imagine that they are architects who have
been asked to design a memorial. Invite them to either describe
an appropriate memorial in words (writing) or to sketch an
image. Encourage them to explain why they believe this image
would be appropriate.

In the days after 9/11 there was much talk as to the meaning of
a hero. Ask students to define the word hero. As a class
compile these definitions of hero and post them on a wall. You
might even want to do this as an entire school. You could title
the wall "Heroes of 9/11 Five Years Later." It might be
interesting to ask students to investigate what heroes of 9/11
are doing today. How many fire fighters who survived the day
are still working in the fire department? What about
paramedics? Students can conduct research through the
appropriate agencies' websites. (There is a famous image of
firemen holding up a flag on the site of the World Trade Center
rubble. What became of this flag? What have these firemen
done since 9/11?) Students can prepare multi-media
presentations.

Put President Bush's foreign policy on trial after 9/11? Was the
United States right to attack Afghanistan? Was the U.S. right to
attack Iraq? If students don't think that the U.S. was right to
attack Iraq ask them to explain what an ideal relationship
between the U.S. and Saddam Hussein's Iraq might have been
like, assuming that Hussein did not change his policies.
Encourage class discussion.

Ask students to explain what people should do five years later
on the anniversary of 9/11 to remember 9/11?

Five Years Later
September 11th, 2006

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