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Tuesday, September 11, 2012

We Will Never Forget: 9/11 Writing Prompts


We were all “somewhere” when America was attacked eleven years ago. Chances are, even your children will remember some of that week. (Today’s high school seniors were in second grade when the attacks of 9/11 occurred.)
America’s motto following the attacks “9/11: We Will Never Forget.” Where were you when the planes hit New York, Washington, and Pennsylvania, and what is different today (if anything) about the way you felt a decade ago?

Take some time to write about your feelings, memories and what you think needs to happen in the future. Here are a few ideas…

1)      Write about your reaction to and activities the day of the September 11th attack
2)      How have your feelings and understandings about the attacks of 9/11 changed?
3)      There were many heroes during the September 11th tragedy. Write about a hero or a heroic event that made an impression
4)      September 11th is a Day of Remembrance. As we honor those who lost their lives on this day 2001, make a list of everything in your life that you are thankful for.
5)      Did the events of that day change your thoughts about your life? In what ways, if any, did you change?
6)      Sometimes a mistake becomes an opportunity. Explain…
A)    The terrorist mistake of bombing on 9/11 became an opportunity for the United States to demonstrate it is the strongest nation on earth.
B)    9/11 offered America the opportunity to learn from its mistaken efforts to dominate the globe.

Obviously your answers to #6 will offer diametrically opposed positions depending on how you view the United States' role as a world power, and on the extent to which you believe America should fight terrorism.

7)      BuddyProject.org offers suggested activities that your children can do as they research the events of September 11, 2001. Explore the various sites with your children and discuss with them the information that you find. Encourage older children to write about their findings and feelings.

7 comments:

Rob-bear said...

9/11 was a terrible day for America. And nothing will ever take that away.

At the same time, I wonder how the destruction on 9/11 compares to the destruction in the many places that America has bombed.

Duncan D. Horne - the Kuantan blogger said...

I'm pretty sure that if America was the strongest nation on earth, those terrible attacks would never have happened.

I remember I was working in the warehouse when tbe chilling news came on the radio. Everyone stopped to listen, not quite believing what we were hearing.

It hasn't changed my life at all though.

shelly said...

I tweeted and FB'D this.

Hugs and chocolate,

Shelly

http://www.shellysnovicewritings.blogspot.com/

Anonymous said...

Everyone was getting ready to head out the door for the day...the phone rang, cancelling my husband's first appointment. An "accidental" plane crash into the WTC was wreaking havoc...and then we watched the news...God Bless America! We will never forget!

Krisztina Clifton said...

I remember hearing about the first hit over my car radio on the way to college then I saw the second plane on tv in class. We were all so calm, because it didn't feel real. It was too aweful to think we were really seeing something like that in real time.

loverofwords said...

Did not seem real to me at first, just like the Kennedy assassination at first. Then Martin Luther King, and Bobby Kennedy. It seemed as if the world was falling apart. I don't agree that the cause of 9/11 was America's "domination" of the world.

Tony Laplume said...

I was eating breakfast at my college cafeteria when some of the workers started making comments about what they were hearing on the radio. At that point, it seemed more possible that someone was doing an Orson Welles impression. The rest of the day, there were clumps of students crowded around every public TV.