Although the SINCE 9/11 Education Programme is organised around separate subject topics, the activities and resources contained in them can be used to plan enriching and engaging cross-curricular activities.
The most straightforward approach is to use two closely related topics and teach about an aspect of 9/11 through a joint approach between different subject departments. For example, what happened on the day of 9/11 is covered in detail through two topics:
The history topic also begins to explore why the attacks were so significant, while the English & drama topic complements this by examining why 9/11 received so much media attention.
Additional ideas for making cross subject links using the topics from this website can be found in the section entitled 9/11 themes.
You could go further and plan activities that involve a whole year group and draw on several subject topics from this website. The activities could be designed to take place across several lessons or across a whole day where the normal school timetable has been temporarily suspended. For example, students could mark the anniversary of 9/11 by putting together a display and presentation around the themes of why it is important to remember 9/11 and what we can learn from it. This activity could be extended to involve the local community in some way – community representatives and parents could be invited to contribute to the students’ research, view their displays, or listen to their presentations. You could use the school’s website to extend this further and, with careful management, provide opportunities for your students to engage with the views and experiences of students from different communities and different countries.
The themes in the section entitled 9/11 themes are a good starting point for all aspects of cross-curricular planning, as they focus directly on some of the key questions and issues that students might raise about 9/11.
