Trauma Relief Program Curricula


Personal Experience

Personal experience is the foundation of the program. This lesson provides the tools for children to connect and share their experience with one another. The instructor begins the class with an open discussion, looking at how the students are feeling about the topic at hand, as well as what knowledge they have pertaining to the details of the event. The instructor can talk about how we carry experiences in our minds and bodies, even if only subconsciously, and that they can remain hidden in those places until we are ready to look at them and feel the feelings that may accompany them. Next, lined paper is passed out and students lay their heads on their desks with eyes closed while the instructor guides them in a meditation where the children take a journey through their body.

As a ball of light, the children use their mind's eye to explore the parts of their bodies, limbs, organs, etc. They are asked to go to the part of their body where they carry their experience of September 11th experience and discover its colors, shapes, textures, sounds, smells, and take all that information to their hearts. They then connect to the emotions and other sensations that come up. When finished with the meditation, the students open their eyes and begin free writing. After the writing exercise is completed, the instructor begins a listening exercise, focusing on what makes a good listener. This exercise uses partner work to illustrate the importance of eye contact and silence when being an active listener.

The class ends with a grounding exercise. After connecting to their own experiences and those of their peers as well, there is a lot of excitement in the room. This physical exercise helps the children to center strongly within themselves. The students kneel with palms down to the floor. The instructor leads them in feeling connected to the earth. The students slap the floor, stomp the floor, stand and feel the earth beneath them. At last they jump in the air and shout, "I am here!!!" when they land.

Trauma Class Samples

I feel very sad. I also feel like a part of me left. I feel I will never be the same. When I think about what happened and I look out the window, I feel empty, just like the hole where they once stood touching the sky. -Alexandra, 5th Grade

This memory I found in My big toe. It was in the shape of a star. It was blue. It was heavy but I managed to carry it up to my heart. I brought it deep into my heart. As soon as I put it there, it turned yellow. It started turning around. Light shown all through my heart. When I first saw the memory, it made me sad, but when I brought it up to my heart, it made me feel a little better. Now I know where it is and I can always go get it. The star is still turning and the light is still shining! -Toni-Anne, 6th Grade

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Community

In this lesson, students learn different elements that make up a community. They begin to define their classroom as a micro-community and create a symbol to represent themselves as such. The class begins with a warm-up, where the students hold hands creating a chain that eventually connects each child to everyone else. The instructor leading the warm-up demonstrates how the connection can be broken and how the students at one end of the chain can be affected by pulling or pushing at the other end. The instructor also suggests that although a student at one end of the room can't see a student at the other, they are joined as members of a classroom community.

The instructor draws a diagram on the board to illustrate this comparison and then leads a meditation for the students to visualize themselves in their neighborhood. How does it feel to walk down the street? Is it different now than before 9/11? What do you smell/see? What are the headlines on the newsstand? How do you feel as you read them? How do other people seem to be feeling? What do you see in their eyes? What are the differences in your neighborhood? The students begin a free-writing exercise after the meditation is over.

The instructor then leads a discussion on how different people in communities affect each other. They talk about communities in other cultures and times and how people's responsibilities were different (i.e. hunting for food, building fires, making clothes, etc.). What are some important roles in our community today? Are there any responsibilities that are the same? What is different? Compare our community today with how it was before 9/11.

Trauma Class Samples

Before the attack on September 11 I would walk to school with my friend. We passed people we don't know. We would walk and see all kinds of people. One day we passed by the police station and said hello. Then the next day we went to school and passed by people again. But when we got out of school that day, there was a lot of commotion going on. My friend and I were really scared. Now everyday, when I leave to go to school, my mom tells me, "not to talk to anyone I don't know." So does my friend's mom. I see some people looking at people suspiciously. I feel scared, because I don't know what is going to happen next! I think the whole community is scared. I hope nothing else happens. Everyone will remember this day. Also everyone will remember the Twin Towers. - Alana

On September 10th I walk around my neighborhood. I see a fireman and a policeman talking and drinking coffee. I felt kind of happy when I walked by them. "There's just nothing to worry about today," I said Today I walked to school with my eight-year-old sister. I'm holding her hand tight as I could. "I'm afraid something might happen," I thought. I see the same people walking around the neighborhood at the same time and saying "hi" or "have a nice day." That's kind of like support for my community. I see the same firemen and policemen as I walk by. I think to myself, "This is the best place for me because there is security all around." I felt extremely happy that there were people right around the corner who were able to help us when we need them. I think my community needs more security. - Katherine

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Group Awareness

In this lesson, the students gather in groups of four. Each student reads his or her writing from their September 11th experience while the three other students listen. After they are finished sharing in their group, the instructor leads them in a meditation where they choose an image from another classmate's writing that most resonates with them. When they open their eyes, they spend 10 minutes discussing the images that each one chose within their group. They plan a group drawing and spend one hour drawing together in silence.

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Classroom Community

In this lesson the children hear each other's stories and create artwork inspired by the writings in groups of four. The class begins with a discussion, checking in with the students and what is on their minds. For five minutes, the students brainstorm a list of qualities that they can bring to the community. After the writing exercise, the instructor has the students create a circle. They each pick a quality they can bring and create a movement for it. The students makes the movement, the rest repeat it and move on. Next the students are reminded about the machine game and invited to go into the center one by one, and by adding on a movement create a machine.

The students then are divided into groups of four, and each read their writings from last week to the group. After this, there is a ten-minute meditation, where the instructor has the students sense their bodies and how they feel. They remember the stories they just shared with each other, and focus on what emotions and memories are being held within them. Starting at the top of their heads they travel down through their bodies. How does it feel in your head (heavy, light, etc.)? Are there memories/feelings/sounds? Moving to more specificity, the students are asked to connect to one moment in one of the stories they have read that has most affected them. It could be happy or sad, or just one that was clear or vivid. The instructor asks the students to travel to that moment in their body, and when they find it to go over its shape, color, texture, smell, etc. This is the moment they will transform into art.

With the one image each student has selected, the students discuss how they are going to represent all four images on one paper. The instructor reemphasizes that these four images must relate, they must work together, they cannot just be separate images, like in the machine making. After a ten minute discussion about how and what their piece of art will become, the students create the work in silence for 35-40 minutes.

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Global Community

In this lesson, there is a short history on Afghanistan focusing on the Soviet invasion, U.S. involvement, and the proceeding Civil War. Children leave with a clear understanding of the Taliban Regime and the life of an Afghani child, male adult and female adult. The instructor begins with a five minute check-in discussion with the students and then moves on to a warm-up "Point of View" exercise: stepping into someone else's shoes. Students walk around the room as different characters (i.e., walk as if you have a song in your heart, you're an 80 year-old woman, a child walking in a bazaar, etc.) The history portion of the lesson covers the Soviet invasion, followed by U.S. involvement, the war with the Soviets and then the civil war, followed by the Taliban take-over. The instructor begins with a geography lesson looking at a map of Southern Asia, north and west of Pakistan, and east of Iran pointing out its geography, environmental issues, and statistics. The instructor writes a short time-line on the board, but hands out an in-depth timeline, 1973 to present. Facts outlined include actions of war as well as measures taken by the Taliban restricting human rights.

The focus now shifts to Islamic Fundamentalism, beginning by defining the word fundamental as vital, or essential. The instructor begins a discussion that fundamentalism is a need to return to the essentials of religion as embodied by the Koran. The Islamic point of view is explored and how the West is seen in the eyes of fundamentalist Muslims. Instructors emphasize the point that not all Muslims are fundamentalists and that children should be careful not to equate all Islamic people with the beliefs and actions of the Taliban. Following, there is a meditation where the children take on the perspectives of different Afghani people, members of the Taliban,refugees, etc. Finally, the students write a day in the life of one of these people, beginning with when they come out of the meditation.