The Sunrise Story

Fifteen years ago on September 11th, I was standing in front of a classroom of fifth grade students, teaching. Today I’m still teaching, but now the students are middle schoolers and this date is now a history lesson to them. How do I teach eleven and twelve year old students about what happened on that day when they weren’t even born yet? Books. One of my mantras is, Everyone has a story. When we read stories, we become part of their story, part of history. I want them to know the stories of that day. We are using Nora Raleigh Baskin ’s book, Nine, Ten: A September 11th Story. It provides a perfect avenue to share that day with them. The story is told from four different points of view. This provides an opportunity for all of my students to connect with one of them. As I’m reading it to my students, they are able to relate to a character and really feel what they are feeling. Knowing more than one story is vital. That's another reason I love this book. The readers le...

Where were you on September 11th? What's your story? This year marks the fifteenth anniversary of the day that changed our world forever and the students I spend my days with, weren't even alive.  While reading & booktalking  Somewhere Among , a novel in verse by Annie Donwerth-Chikamatsu that was set in 2001, my sixth graders began asking me questions about my 9/11 story. Where were you? What did you think? Were you scared? This conversation is not an easy one to have, but it's necessary. Reading stories always makes these difficult conversations easier to have. Nine, Ten: A September 11 Story  by Nora Raleigh Baskin  is a perfect book to help those conversations.  In Nine, Ten: A September 11 Story, we meet four kids from around the country 48 hours before the attacks. We get to know them. We learn who they are. Baskin masterfully brings the reader back to "before" with ease. Each of these kids is dealing with life, as they know it, before it all ...