Class of 2021 9/11 Projects

Class of 2021 9/11 Projects
Posted on 09/14/2016
This is the image for the news article titled Class of 2021 9/11 Projects

 

Today’s 8th graders are the first class of students who were not yet born when terrorists attacked the United States on September 11, 2001, resulting in the largest loss of life by a foreign attack on American soil. This week teachers at the Indian Lake Middle School are putting emphasis on this line of demarcation for the class of 2021.


After studying former President George W. Bush’s speech and watching news coverage from 15 years ago, each 8th grader was assigned the task of interviewing an adult and writing an essay about what that person felt that day. 


8th grade paraprofessional Hillary Wickline worked with all the 8th grade teachers to coordinate the project. She explains, “The students are aware that the attacks have shaped today’s world. But to anyone who was alive that day, it’s our Pearl Harbor or Vietnam War— the defining moment of our time.”



In conducting the interviews, students found out what an impact the attacks had on those closest to them. Most students turned to their own mothers for their personal accounts of an ordinary morning turned terrifying new reality.   


8th grader Grace Malarkey says, “I was surprised at how scared my mom told me she was at the time. She was at our old house in Columbus with my two older brothers. She had to help my aunt pick up our cousins at school. She (my aunt) worked at a hospital and wasn’t allowed to leave because no one knew where the next attack might be.”

 

Alyssa Bush watched documentaries on the plane hitting the Pentagon, the collapse of the World Trade Center towers and the Flight 93 crash in Pennsylvania on her own before approaching her mom with questions. She says, “I could understand why she would be so emotional talking about it. It was major.”


Andrew Evans notes, “I was surprised that my mom kept all the newspapers from that day.”  Mother and son looked through the papers together, but he says it was hard for her to discuss.


Kyleigh Huffer reports her mom was nervous to recall that morning, but she left her daughter with a new understanding of “the bigger picture.” Huffer explains, “Our talk made me feel like there’s more important things happening in the world than just what goes on in my life.” 


Malarkey says the project has ultimately helped her gain perspective about terror attacks that students now see happening regularly around the world. “It was just the beginning and it’s still going. We don’t know the world without terrorism.” 


For the next few weeks, each essay is posted for everyone to read on a massive 9/11 display that Wickline created at the middle school.

 

The interviewing and writing project is aligned with state 8th grade Language Arts curriculum requirements.