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For many people, including youth, providing opportunities to take positive
action to help can be an effective learning and coping strategy. People
across the country are collecting money for the Red Cross and other assistance
agencies, and thanking the rescue crews for their heroism. CRF has provided
a list of additional service-learning projects students could do.
Other educators* have contributed to the list of service-learning project
suggestions.
Twelve
Service-Learning Project Suggestions
- Hold a teach-in. Using the social studies department
and CRF’s online lessons as a resource, hold school or community presentations
and discussions about topics and issues related to terrorism. Topics
could include the history, culture, and geography of the Middle East;
a discussion of Middle Eastern attitudes toward the United States; the
economic, political and social effects of globalization on the “have-nots”
of the area; origins and character of the Taliban and the rise of Osama
bin Laden; how our nation has dealt with previous attacks to its security;
issues of security versus freedom, and more.
- Hold a community town meeting. Have students
brainstorm and research topics as a preparation for moderating discussions
about terrorism-related issues.
- Conduct a poster campaign. Make posters celebrating
heroes including fire fighters, police, airline flight crews, postal
workers, emergency medical personnel, nurses and doctors.
- Write and conduct a survey. Determine how students
or community members feel about America’s response to terrorism and
post the results at school and in the local media.
- Build a quilt. Ask students to browse newspapers
and the Internet for images from the Middle East. Give groups of students
pieces of cloth on which to draw, sew, paint, or write. Completed pieces
are sewn together into a quilt for display.
- Draw a map. Create and display a giant map of
the Middle East including national boundaries, terrain, cities, and
resources. Research and write short descriptions of relevant information
and crucial events and attach them to their geographical positions.
- Design an art space. Create a space for students
to paint, draw, and construct their thoughts and feelings about the
events of September 11 and related subjects. Use the art space as a
presentation forum and follow-up to classroom discussions, research
projects, town meetings, or teach-ins.
- Write a play. Following research and discussion
about the Middle East, have students create a play about life in refugee
camps in Palestine, Afghanistan, Pakistan, or other Middle Eastern countries.
Present the play to the school and community.
- Poems, journals and letters. Provide opportunities
for written expression about terrorism, including journals. Identify
issues and have students write letters of concern to local and national
elected officials, local newspapers, or United Nations officials. Create
a voluntary forum such as a reading or display for students to share
their writings.
- Gather oral histories. Talk to parents, grandparents,
and others from older generations who have experienced previous national
and international crises. Ask them to compare their past experiences
to their impressions of the current crisis. Transcribe and display or
dramatize oral histories.
- Locate and arrange to meet with students, teachers,
or community members from an Islamic school, advocacy group, or community
center to learn about Middle Eastern culture.
- Form a study group. Meet with other interested
students on a regular basis to research and discuss issues surrounding
September 11, terrorism, international relations, Middle Eastern politics
and culture, civil liberties in time of war, and more. Create presentations
or conduct mentoring sessions with younger students.
*See “Project Ideas: Afghanistan for Kids and Teachers,”
from Oxfam America . Oxfam has
been providing humanitarian aid to Afghanistan since 1989.
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