Seizing Teachable Moments to Develop Integrative Middle Level Curriculum

Abstract

None of us was quite sure what was happening on the infamous morning of September 11, 2001. Throughout the day, as news spread through the school grapevine about the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, my students were asking questions and drawing conclusions about the tragic story that was unfolding before us. When they came to school on September 12, they brought even more questions, and so did I. Who were the people responsible for these acts of terror? Why would they do such a thing? How should we, as individuals and as a nation, respond to these attacks? Despite the flood of information that immediately inundated the media, few things were certain. One thing, however, was crystal clear to me—I had to change my world geography curriculum. September 11, 2001, was a critical teachable moment that provided me and my team with an avenue to middle level curriculum that was relevant, challenging, integrative, and exploratory (see Virtue, 2002). As Erb (2005) suggested in his November Middle School Journal column, Hurricane Katrina has opened a similar window of opportunity for middle

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