Aims:

1. To develop the concept of how people and events may be memorialized.

2. To understand that people can be remembered and honored in special ways.

3.  To value and appreciate that the way in which memorials are designed is meant to engage us emotionally and cognitively in honoring, capturing and commemorating historical images, acts, people and events.

4. To use imagery and figurative language in writing.

5. To become familiar with the guidelines and mission statement for the World Trade Center memorial as stated by the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation.

Materials:

Vocabulary:

Dictionary.com, Merriam Webster Dictionary Online, or EnchantedLearning.com may be used to define the following:

Motivation:

1. Students read the following cinquain (five line poem) which was taken from World Memorial. At this site, proposals for a memorial wall, park, and a museum which exhibits artifacts, hands-on models, slide shows, and news clips of the September 11, 2001 events can be viewed. A movie retelling the events of September 11 can be seen. Note: Some of the pictures and/events described may be too graphic for students. Previewing this site and selecting material to show students that would be appropriate for their age and maturity level, would be necessary.

2. Students examine the following photographs taken from: A Pictorial Tribute From Around The World and Melanie Axel-Lute's web site. (As an enrichment activity, students might locate the countries from which the photographs were taken, on a world map).

What are some of the objects left at these sites that memorialize the victims and heroes of 9/11? What does each of those objects symbolize?

Students read "What Are Symbols" to find out what some symbols have come to represent. List some other symbols and what they represent.

Development:

Students use Kidpix, Inspiration, or Kidspiration to create a semantic web with memorial symbols seen in the photographs above.

Students brainstorm to add more memorial symbols onto the semantic web.

Students read the Mission Statement of the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation , the designated agency that will determine the criteria for the rebuilding of the World Trade Center site.

Students are introduced to the concepts of metaphor as they go to the Literary Terms web page listed below:

http://tnellen.com/cybereng/lit_terms/metaphor.html

Discuss how metaphors help to create images in our mind and enable us to use written symbols to represent our ideas and feelings. For example, in the poem "Flowers of Freedom" by  Harold Sherrod, Jr., the title is a metaphor. Flowers are representing freedom. As we read the poem, we discover the entire poem is a metaphor for the flag of the United States.

Summary:

Students, in cooperative groups, read one of the memorial poems (portions of these poems may have been omitted to make them more appropriate for students). Each group will report to the rest of the class how each poem memorializes and honors people and the World Trade Center, which memorial symbols are used in each poem, and what each symbol signifies or represents, point out how metaphors have been used in each poem. More poems and other written memorials may be found at The World Trade Center Memorial.

Student, in each cooperative group, write original poems, letters, or compositions to memorialize the victims and heroes of September 11 and orally present these to the class.

Evaluation:

Students will be evaluated on their ability to conceptualize memorial symbols and understand and explain what each symbol represents. Students will also evaluate each cooperative group's presentation of their original poem, letters and/or compositions as well as in their description of how the poems they have read by others use memorial symbols to honor victims and heroes of 9/11. Students will be expected to explain the imagery (use of metaphors) in their written work. They will use the rubric for their evaluation.

Follow Up:

Students learn to use similes in their written work. Students may use this worksheet to distinguish between similes and metaphors.

Students may listen to songs such as "Hands Across America," which may be heard on the home page. Students would analyze the lyrics and listen for memorial symbols within the song. Students would also explain how the lyrics relate to the aftermath of 9/11/01. Additional songs that would correspond with this unit would include: "Proud To Be An American," and "We Are The World". As a culminating activity, students might write their own patriotic songs.