Related Texts for Smithsonian Site: A Different Approach

Module C is about the REPRESENTATION of events, personalities and situations. The Smithsonian website, September 11: Bearing Witness to History, represents an event: the attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon on September 11, 2001. A different approach to selecting related material for this text is to choose an historical event–or situation, or [...]

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Suggested Related Material for Smithsonian September 11: Bearing Witness to History

As much as I enjoyed teaching both Birthday Letters and The Justice Game for Conflicting Perspectives, I have to confess that I found the Smithsonian site more interesting than either. A website is a rich and varied text to explore, the Smithsonian site doubly so as it resists providing the same reading path more than [...]

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Suggested Related Text for Advanced Module C: History and Memory

Christopher Reid’ poetry collection A Scattering won both the Costa prize for poetry in 2009. It chronicles Reid’s experiences as he grieves for his wife. Reid is the master of the invisible poetic style; the techniques, while present, are not obvious, allowing the reader a clear view into the meaning. Here are some extracts from [...]

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Look, Click, Reflect

Module C: The Smithsonian September 11 Website The subtitle, “Bearing Witness to History” is interesting. It suggests, to me, that History is like a trial, where the facts need to be presented in evidence. It also suggests that History is something to be argued over and fought for; perhaps that historians are adversarial.This site certainly [...]

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