Check out this clip of my interview on CTV Canada from September 11th.

I'll let them tease it:
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This year for the first time, there are young people entering high school who were too young to remember the 9/11 terror attacks. New York teacher Sean Robertson explains what it’s like teaching history he remembers, but his students don’t.

Leave a comment below: I'd love to hear how you tell the story of 9/11 in your classroom. ​

I wanted to share this process with my students, who were all but a few months old when the attacks happened, in a way that would resonate with them. I found this opportunity in the incredible and very difficult work done by the 9/11 Memorial Museum's curator, Alice Greenwald. A veteran of Holocaust museums in various cities (including in Washington D.C.), Greenwald had the unenviable task of sifting through the thousands of artifacts and curating a museum that would speak to varied audiences and truthfully and honestly tell the story of 9/11.

This Digital History project asks students to play the role of curator in evaluating twelve 9/11 artifacts for possible inclusion in the 9/11 Memorial and Museum's collection. It begins with the students learning about the memorial contest and evaluating how the winning submission from Michael Arad met the stated contest criteria. This helps the students clearly identify the required criteria and to assess the success of the submission, setting them up to make their own proposals for artifact selection in using understood considerations and criteria. 

Next, the students do a close read of an abridged 2012 New York Times article in which the author clearly points to nearly a dozen considerations that museum staff had to weigh in selecting and creating exhibits. These included: telling the true story of 9/11, being careful not to re-traumatize visitors who experienced the attacks, speaking to a wide audience (in terms of age, association, and language), as well as protecting the privacy of the victims. In recording these considerations, the students will develop a checklist with which to evaluate the set of twelve artifacts.

Lastly, the students complete analysis worksheets for twelve real artifacts (some in the museum collection, others not) to evaluate the historical and emotional value and appropriateness of each item. The students then propose three artifacts that they would include in the collection and three that they would not include. I then projected these images on the class Smartboard and asked students to "vote with their feet": those supporting inclusion of the artifact move to stand by the image and those opposed move to the back of the room. We then engaged in a discussion and debate over the validity and value of including or omitting each artifact.

The lesson was a profound success and I encourage you to use it in your class and share your feedback with me. For those schools in the city, a trip to the 9/11 Memorial plaza is a highly recommended culminating activity, where students can see the memorial space first hand and evaluate its success for themselves. 

Be sure to see my blog post on teaching Usama bin Laden's 1998 fatwa and an upcoming post on using RadioLab's "60 Words" podcast to teach the background and impact of the 2001 Authorization to Use Force.

Teaching 9/11 can be emotionally difficult - certainly more so for us teachers than for our young students - but the lessons of resiliency, healing, and the rebirth of the World Trade Center site provide for a unique opportunity to share a concrete and specific life lesson in the grief process and the indomitable human spirit.

The lesson plan, student handout, NYT article, and artifacts can be found at the given links or under the Digital History tab at the top of the page.

Best,
Sean
sean@JuniorHistorians.com

As part of the curriculum that I have developed under the banner of Junior Historians, for Harlem Academy, we investigate modern history. The kind of recent, modern history that I have lived through and experienced vividly as an adult, but that my students were not even alive to remember or understand. It's at this point in every school year that we arrive at the terrorist attacks of 9/11 and the tragedy could be as ancient and distant as the Boston Massacre for all my students understand.

But it is so vital for my Junior Historians to understand the complexities of global terrorism in a world that is so shaped by its existence and threats to democratic society. My middle and high school education barely touched upon the Vietnam War, and was heavily loaded on WWII story lines. Growing up in a Cold War world, the historical context of the second great war was prescient and important. But as time marches on, the world post-WWII is less and less relevant to the kids born after September 11th, 2001. They were born into the post-Cold War, "New World Order" where technology has made the world more flat, more connected, and by proxy, a more expansive and diverse network that can be reached by extremist groups' propaganda.

The turbulent sixties were borne of protesting and clashes between Hawks and Doves, but with President Nixon in the White House, things felt different. Nixon's avowed impatience and anger towards "anti-American" Vietnam War protesters reinforced (to this author) the burgeoning generational divide growing in our nation. The coming-of-age "Baby Boomers" were clashing with the power structure that was still firmly in the hands of their parents, the "Greatest Generation." The struggle between the young and the old, and those in power and those who seek to gain influence, is in some ways the very story of our nation. 

I wonder how the incident at Kent State forty years ago today can help us understand the increasing unrest we see in our cities today (most recently in Baltimore). Will a generational divide always be at the heart of our nation's political story? Will those who seek power have to bargain, cajole, and/or resort to force to wrest it from those who control our politics today? As George Orwell once wrote: "Who controls the past, controls the future. Who controls the present now, controls the past."

Below are two primary source letters sent to Kent State in reaction to the shooting. The generational divide is front and center in the messages conveyed by each respective author. 

How would you use these sources in your classroom?

How can these documents (and the Kent St. shooting) help spark dialogue about current events?

Why isn't Jackson State cited or referred to as often as the events at Kent State?

What follows is the lesson plan and sources from that experience. My hope is that this lesson is adaptable enough that students and teachers will find it to be a useful lesson and activity in investigating the circumstances and consequences of action surrounding the tense, two-week standoff known as the Cuban Missile Crisis.

You can use the Digital History tab at the top of the page to navigate the activity or follow below:

You can jump to the lesson plan here.
The primary source documents can be found here.
The student handouts can be found here.

This resource is not just for teachers, but also for students who want to enrich their understandings of the Cold War and expand and practice the essential skills of close reading, summarizing text, and arguing with evidence. We invite you to take the module for a test run and complete the assigned work. 

Students
Share your work and experiences with the project. We'd love to post exemplary examples of multimedia projects you develop to help guide future users.

Educators
Share your thoughts, feedback, and experiences using the module. Did you try it in your classroom? How can we improve?

Looking Forward
This is only the first phase in this digital history project. We will be developing two more modules in the immediate future that examine the role of presidential campaigns and executive action in Civil Rights and the Age of Global Terror. Got an idea for a topic to explore in this framework? Please share it with us!

We have internally discussed doing a FedEx day during professional development days at Harlem Academy but so far have not conducted one. It got me to thinking, what would this look like in my eighth grade classroom? Today we’ll find out! My students will have two class periods – FedEx two day shipping, if you will – to research and produce a product that demonstrates their deep understanding of an event or idea from American History of their choosing. With minimal guidelines and scaffolding, this is an opportunity for students to not only research something they are passionate about but also to think creatively about how they can present their work to the class.

Some of the topics my Junior Historians have chosen to research include: the correlation between the birth of hip-hop in the Bronx and the Harlem Renaissance, the life and work of Congressman John Lewis, the influence the American Revolution had on L’Overture and the Haitian Revolution, the story of Central American immigrants to the United States, H.G. Wells's War of the Worlds, and much more.

After the jump, you can see the directions given to the students. Be sure to check back in April to see my observations about the results and the experience.

The ultimate challenge in teaching American History is that the revolutionary ideals at the heart of our founding documents were hypocritical and flawed. The Constitution’s inspirational rhetoric stands at direct odds to what my African American students see as their forefathers’ own lived experiences. That “all men are created equal” really meant all white landowning, males is a bitter pill to swallow. The flaws and inconsistencies of the Constitution are not just roadblocks to student understanding, but opportunities to live out our creed and shape the nation in their own mold.


The Constitution sets forth a noble goal: “We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union…” This bold proclamation firmly entrenches two beliefs: First, that the government is created by the people of this nation, and second, that our democracy is fluid as we aim to perfect our nation. These two guiding principals illustrate the importance of studying the Constitution and guide how I teach history. The Constitution serves as the backbone for my students’ exploration of American History.


Beginning in the seventh grade, my class explores colonial life and the rallying cry of “no taxation without representation”, through the formation of our nation. Indeed, the first year of my two-year course centers on civics and how the Constitution was interpreted and implemented through the end of the 19th Century. From investigating the Constitution, my students understand the framework of how our American democracy works. But they also, through explorations of the slave trade and the Civil War, understand the shortcomings of the application of these ideals and rights to the broader citizenry.


My eighth grade students spend an entire term investigating the Civil Rights Movement. In tackling these modern issues, students begin to realize how we have progressed towards the ideal of “a more perfect union.” In fact, we recently debated whether or not the 14th amendment should be revered as the most important component of the Constitution. Stemming from our historical investigations, a few astute students brought up how the current gay rights issue coming before the Supreme Court is not unlike the struggle of the Civil Rights Movement. They posited that since the 14th Amendment was previously used to extend rights to African Americans and women, why not apply it more broadly to homosexual or transgender individuals. Their insightful interpretation of the Constitution speaks directly to the culture I foster in my class and the importance of teaching the Constitution in middle school.


President Franklin D. Roosevelt said, “Democracy cannot succeed unless those who express their choice are prepared to choose wisely. The real safeguard of democracy, therefore, is education.” This incredibly poignant maxim is at the root of my students’ exploration of American History. Through all its flaws and hypocrisies the United States Constitution still stands as a beacon for freedom in this nation.


Understanding the past and instilling a sense of civic pride and responsibility is how you achieve a better democracy, and indeed a better nation. It will be up to my students to take up the mantle for freedom and use their historical and Constitutional knowledge to shape this nation in their own image, to make this nation one in which they are proud to live, and one in which we continue our march towards a more perfect union.

The Case Study begins:

"How can U.S. history teachers help students develop core skills in reading, writing, and critical thinking? Sean Robertson, Harlem Academy’s lead middle school history teacher and an eight-year veteran of the school, has taken an innovative approach to this question."

To read the rest, click here to go to the article on Harlem Academy's website.