Social Studies Curriculum Links

September 11th Resources

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General Resources   Lesson Plans  Terrorism (General)  Dealing With The Tragedy With Students   Middle Eastern Religions and Islamic Resources

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MCPS Created Teacher Resources

Basic Background about Arab Culture, Islam, and the Middle East - in Adobe Acrobat format, a simple two page overview.

General Resources

September 11, 2001 : Attack on America a very complete collection of documents from Avalon Project at the Yale Law School. Can search for individual documents or browse by days from September 11th forward.

The September 11 Digital Archive's goal is to "collect, preserve, and present the history of the September 11, 2001 attack in New York, Virginia, and Pennsylvania and the public responses to them" by allowing people to tell their stories, and then make those stories available to a wide audience.

September 11 Resources provided by the University of Arizona, an extensive, well-organized collection of links on everything from the Afghanistan War to War Crimes.

Resources from Academic Info, an excellent list of "Quality Educational Resources."

Terrorist Attack on the United States

September 11 - The Military Response

Afghanistan Studies

The Taliban / Osama bin Laden

America at War Overview, database, and multi-media presentation on terrorist attack and the US response by The Washington Post

America's Crisis: Asian Perspectives An Asian perspective on the terrorist attacks from AsiaSource, a resource of the Asian Society.

A Nation Challenged from The New York Times (free registration required)
A large collection of images, articles, interactive maps, and other resources on the initial attacks and American response.

Days after September 11, 2001 from the University of Chicago Press, a series of essays, "Reflections by our authors in the aftermath."

"Responsibility for the Terrorist Atrocities in the United States, 11 September 2001"
A sixteen-page document reviewing the evidence that points to Usama Bin Laden as the agent of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States. Posted by 10 Downing Street the official site of the British Prime Minister.

September 11: What Our Children Need To Know in Adobe Acrobat PDF format is an interesting set of 23 essays. The essays are a page or two in length and mostly represent the education think tank views of its sponsor, The Fordham Foundation.

Lesson Plans

America Responds: Classroom Resources PBS has put together a small number of easy to follow lesson plans for each level. Links to resources are outsanding.

Curriculum Materials - September 11 Part of Brown University's outstanding Choices for the 21st Century Education Project The full unit must be ordered in hard copy for a small fee, but many of the lesson ideas are on the web site. This is an outstanding high school level product that requires students to debate and evaluate options in response to 9/11.

Facing the Future: How should we move forward after September 11? is sponsored by the Study Circles Resource Center, but heavily excerpts the Choices Curriculum materials mentioned in the previous link - in fact this group has nicely formatted the "options" students could choose in a PDF format.

Facing History and Ourselves: Response to the Events of September 11, 2001 is an outstanding collection of student readings and lesson ideas. All fall under the careful review of the Facing History organization.

Teaching 9-11-01 is a website dedicated to linking to online lesson plans for September 11. Run by the Clarke center out of Dickinson College. Many lessons organized by K-5, 6-8, 9-12.

911 As History.Org has 16 lessons from K through 12

Documents on Terrorism from the Avalon Project at the Yale Law School.

International Terrorist Groups from Special Operations.Com

Laws related to Terrorism from FindLaw

Recent Terrorism Events: Background and Context from CQ Press

Terrorism Project from the Center for Defense Information

The Terrorism Research Center

US State Department - Travel Warnings & Consular Information Sheets

Dealing With The Tragedy With Students

About's Teen Advice Guide talks directly to teens about the Attack and how to cope with their feelings

For Secondary School Educators: How to Talk To Your Students About This Attack

Helping Children Understand Crisis and Trauma (focuses largely on incidents like school shootings)

How To Discuss Tragedy With Children

Talking to Children about Violence

Talking with Kids About the News

Tips for Talking About Disasters from The Center for Mental Health Services

Middle Eastern Religions and Islamic Resources

About Islam A free 50 page teacher packet (in Adobe Acrobat format) from The Council on Islamic Education. The Council also has teacher information on proper observances of Ramadan, etc.

American Arab Discrimination Committee has many good resources and links to answers on most anything related to Arab culture.

Exploring Ancient World Cultures: Islam Excellent section on Islam from "Exploring Ancient World Cultures." This site, provided by University of Evansville, is an introductory, on-line, college-level textbook of ancient world cultures.

Introduction to Islam Provided by the Middle East Institute, this online version of M. Cherif Bassiouni's book offers an interesting and useful introduction to the history and culture of Islam for non-Muslim readers.

Islam: Empire of Faith Website to accompany the PBS TV series. Good resources for K-12 educators

Islamic Resources from Georgetown University's Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding

Islamic Studies from Dr. Alan Godlas, professor of Religion at the University of Georgia. An excellent collection of web resources with selected articles on the recent events.

Islamic Studies, Islam, Arabic, and Religion Dr. Alan Godlas, professor of religion at the University of Georgia, gives scholarly resources on Islam and related subjects.

The Jewish Virtual Library - a resource for information about Judaism and Israel.

Middle East Information Center - articles and comments from an anti-Israeli point of view.

Middle East Network Information Center from The University of Texas at Austin

Muslim Life in America from the State Department offers a basic introduction to various aspects of Muslim-American life.

Teaching about Religion - A web site with teacher materials and thoughtful approaches to teaching about religion in public schools.