9-11+Lesson+Plans

=__**Lesson Plans for 9-11.**__=

//Please share what you did today. 9-11 is a great opportunity to introduce EHL.//


 * Paul Frankmann, Harmon Middle School, Aurora, Ohio 8th Grade Social Studies. Class length- 46 minutes.**

__**Objectives posted for students:**__

Can you-

1. Define Human Dignity in your own words?

2. Summarize the 9-11 story and identify some of the lessons in the story that should be remembered?

3. Identify violations of the Basic Rules of War (IHL) made by the perpetrators of 9-11?

__**Step by Step**__

1.Ask students to write out their response to the prompt: "What is human dignity"? How would you define it? What are some examples?"

2.Have them set this aside as a reference. No time to discuss yet.

3.Provide each student with a set of introductory questions taken from EHL- or, use the Perceptions of War questions from the earlier American Red Cross program Facing Fear. Give students 10 minutes to write responses silently.

4.Have students either share verbally... or post to a whiteboard their responses to the question of When you hear the word "War" what comes to mind? (Pressed for time, I went around the room and had each student share one thing that I typed onto my smartboard to create a visual.

5. Provide students a copy of the EHL Handout- The Basic Rules of Humanitarian Law. Briefly introduce the Geneva Conventions as being the source of these rules, and that they have been ratified by every country on earth, and apply even to terrorist organizations that are not signatories.

6. Explain that the 9-11 acts were an act of war, and that the U.S. has been at war in the "War on Terror" ever since. Even war has limits.

7. Show the Department of State Video "Terrorism: a War without Borders" and ask students to review the Basic Rules as they watch and to mark each rule that they believe was violated during the 9-11 attacks. Discuss these following the 8 minute video. (See the 9-11 page on team EHL for the online version of the video.)

8. Tell students that 9-11 is enough in the past that it is becoming history, and that now people are looking back at the stories of the day for lessons... (My students were one or two years old on the day of the attacks and don't really remember anything personally) Memorials to 9-11 are meant to always remember those lost, but also to convey the lessons of the day that mean the most. Flight 93 is a remarkable story full of lessons.

9. Have students share in the reading of The Flight 93 Story (a 2 page document published on the Flight 93 Memorial website by the National Park Service)

10. Provide a different biography of one of the Flight 93 crew and passengers to each student. (Also published to the Flight 93 Memorial website by the National Park Service... each is about a half sheet in length). Ask them to read the biography alone... and time permitting- to introduce their person to their table group.

11. To connect faces with the stories, show the 2 minute video "The Passengers and Crew of Flight 93" that is on the Flight 93 Memorial website.

12. Explain that the passengers and crew of Flight 93 were caught up in an act of armed conflict when they decided to act in response. Have students return to their notebooks and add their response to the prompt, "What is Human Dignity in times of armed conflict? How would you define it? What are some examples?"

And that's when I ran out of time... We will follow up tomorrow with a further discussion of Human Dignity, and I will share my slides from my visit to the Flight 93 Memorial this summer on my way to the EHL Summer Institute. On the 9-11 page of the TeamEHL wiki. With EHL (and IHL) thus introduced, my students will have the basic rules as a reference that we'll consult through the remainder of the year as we study American History and keep up with current events.