September
12 Journal Writing
Linda
Templeton
Overview
After
viewing hours of television coverage of the September 11 attack
on America, I had to
gather myself and enter my classroom the next day. Secretly,
I was hoping for a late-night phone call informing me that the
schools would be closed September 12. That phone call never
came. So life in my classroom had to continue.
Somehow,
the thought of plunging back into twelfth-grade medieval literature,
tenth grade short stories, or ninth-grade grammar seemed quite
irrelevant when fathers, sons, brothers, mothers, daughters,
and sisters were missing from the fabric of America's
home sweet home. With first period fast approaching,
I decided that my students would begin each class with a journal
writing. Their journal topic for September 12: In light
of yesterday's events in America,
write down the thoughts and emotions that you are feeling at
this moment.
Little
did I know how effective this activity would be in generating
a dialogue among my students. While my fellow teachers chose
to get back to the normal routine, I allowed my students
to express their thoughts, feelings, and emotions in a classroom
that has always been an open forum.
Instructional
sequence
As
students arrived in class on September 12, 2001, I wrote their
journal topic on the topic chart: In light of yesterday's
events in America,
write down the thoughts and emotions that you are feeling at
this moment. I continued with my daily routine of taking
roll, signing absentee slips, basically getting the day organized
while my students wrote. Usually students are given about ten
minutes to journal write, but this day was different. As I
walked around the room, I noticed that after ten minutes most
of my students still had pen to paper and did not appear to
be close to stopping. Finally, I proceeded to begin our discussion
(as normally done after journal writing), allowing students
to share their thoughts and feelings. We did not solve any
problems that day, but we did begin the healing process.
Student
artifact
It
happened the day before my birthday,
What's
it called, KAMAKAZIE?
My
dad is in Boston for two weeks,
A
week later—there.
More
deaths in one day than
Pearl Harbor & Oklahoma City Bombing.
Our
military is crippled from
events now, and in the past (cuts, etc.)
Japan
once said, “Don’t wake the sleeping giant.”
What?—“You're
messing with the wrong people.”
No gas?
I've
been to New York and seen the two towers.
First
shocked, then angered
Statue
of Liberty still there
The
radio said AMERICAN flags were all sold out.
No
planes over America
Biggest,
worst event in my life and my parents' lives.
Never
happened before—
Yeah,
they're messing with the wrong people.
--
Jaime
Teacher
reflection
Jaime’s
impromptu poem captures her thoughts and fears, but also captures
her American pride. And it's that American pride that stunned
and fueled the American people as we began to heal. When I
read Jaime’s journal entry and realized that she had written
a poem, I was amazed. I had only been teaching her for one
month when the September 11 tragedy occurred, and all I knew
about her was that she was studious and quiet. Not shy, but
would only speak when spoken to. Her poem from September 12
encompasses that American cockiness that keeps this country
going. As the poem closes, don't miss her final message, “Yeah,
they’re messing with the wrong people.”
From
this activity, I learned that no matter what my lesson plan
is supposed to be, local, state, national, and world events
shape my students, and we, as educators, should never miss the
opportunity to allow our students to think, write, and discuss
those events. As painful as September 11 was and still is,
our students cannot be expected to come into the classroom and
shut out what is happening in the world. Until I read Jaime's
poem, I had no clue that her father was in Boston on that tragic
day. And she was supposed to continue like nothing was happening?
Yeah, right. Journal writing in any discipline is a tool that
all teachers need to use. Whether you grade them or not, it
allows students time to think, write, and discuss.
Curricular
Crossings:
Suggestions
on how you might adapt this lesson for a different classroom
setting
►
Journal prompts to invite student dialogue about a world event
work in any classroom, at any level, in any setting. While
Linda’s prompt was directed at ninth-graders, an elementary
teacher might ask students to write down one or two words or
draw a picture of their feelings in response to such an event.
►
Linda used her prompt to help students articulate their emotional
response to a national disaster. Consider beginning class with
a journal prompt to connect students to local, national, or
international events. They might write about their feelings
about a local store opening, tree planting, or weather event,
e.g. the tornadoes that swept through Oklahoma in the ‘90s.
They might write about a national event that is not a disaster,
but an accomplishment—the launching of a space shuttle. Writing
about an international event connects American students to world
events.
►
History, science, language arts, foreign language, or math classes
could begin with journal writes as responses to significant
events and then invite the students to understand the consequences
within the language of that particular discipline.
--
Linda Stewart
