How can we develop our students’ capacity to hold productive conversations about difficult topics?
Across the country, students are taking the lead in defining and acting on issues that fundamentally impact their lives. How do we, as educators, help prepare them to engage in the difficult conversations that are an essential part of social discourse and civic engagement?
We have the responsibility to ensure that these conversations are productive and, while potentially uncomfortable, take place in a safe space. Open-ended discussions and even structured debates can easily devolve into hostile exchanges of entrenched positions. Building on foundational conversational skills, the strategies in this set are designed to help students empathetically examine issues from multiple angles, look for commonality, and clarify areas of conflict as steps toward examining and refining their own positions.
Conversations in the Classroom
How can teachers develop meaningful and constructive dialogue in the classroom?
The ability to engage in productive academic conversations is a skill that must be taught and scaffolded. Until they learn these skills, simply asking students to discuss a prompt in pairs or groups will yield frustrating results. There are many excellent strategies to help students do this, a few of which are offered here.
RESOURCES - Academic Conversations
Deliberative Discourse on Controversial Topics
How do we help prepare students to engage in the difficult and controversial conversations that are a part of action civics and social discourse?
Now more than ever, we need a way to engage our students in controversial conversations about difficult topics. This protocol provides a structured approach that encourages students to examine issues from multiple angles, look for commonality, and clarify areas of conflict among stakeholders.
Unlike debates, in which students listen in order to refute, this approach encourages students to listen in order to understand and build empathy. It allow students to examine different viewpoints in order to refine, articulate and defend their own emerging informed positions.
This protocol is deeper if it follows the ‘Problem Analysis’ and/or ‘Stakeholder Analysis” strategies.
RESOURCES - Deliberative Discourse
HOW IT WORKS
CLASSROOM RESOURCES
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CURRICULUM PLANNING
EXAMPLES
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LEARNING & EMPOWERMENT
INQUIRY EXAMPLES
- Contemporary Analysis / Action - Should schools have a zero-tolerance policy for hate speech?
- Historical Investigation - Has school desegration generaly served the best interest of students of color?
CONNECTIONS AND EXTENSIONS
- Structured Academic Conversations - Builds academic discourse skills that are useful in deliberative discourses.
- My Worldview - UCBHSSP activity to explore how we arrive at our worldview. From Making History
- Stakeholder Identification - Helps students determine which stakeholders to consider for a deliberative discourse.
- Stakeholder Transformation - Students apply their deeper appreciation for the perspective of different stakeholders to brainstorm how different stakeholders might be able to shift their stance.
- Building Awareness & Advocacy - Develop messaging to specific audiences based on a deeper understanding of the concerns and perspectives of different stakeholders.
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES FOR DELIBERATION:
- Conversation Sentence Starters - Tiered - Basic, Academic, Historical Thinking
- NIFI - National Issue Forum - A collection of resources for deliberative Discourse
- Pro/Con- a leading source for pro, con, and related research on controversial issues
- Teaching Controversial Issues: A Framework for Reflective Practices, Judy Pace
- YES Magazine - analyzes societal problems in terms of root causes and opportunities for change.
- Facing History and Ourselves - Provides lessons and resources on contemporary issues
- Critical Thinking Cheatsheet - A set of questions to deeply interrogate an event or position
ARTICLES:
- Yes, Race and Politics Belong in the Classroom: Ten Tips for Teachers - Richard Milner
- Shifting Out of Neutral - Jonathan Gold, Teaching Tolerance
- Dangerous Discussions: Voice and Power in My Classroom, Ursula Wolfe-Rocca
- Classroom Deliberation in the Era of Political Polarization. D Hess, P McAvoy Curriculum Inquiry 43:1 (2013)
Socratic Seminar
How do we encourage students to take ownership over the inquiry and learning process?
Socratic Seminar is a popular format to promote student-led inquiry and exploration of a topic of interest. Following jigsawed research on a topic, students engage in inquiry and dialogue, offering their evidence-based thoughts and reflections.
RESOURCES - Socratic Seminar
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Socratic Seminar Model, Student Organizers and Rubric (UCBHSSP)
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Socratic Seminar - Edutopia Article (external link)
World Cafe
How can large group conversations engage all participants in a ‘small group’ setting?
One challenge in whole-class discussions is providing opportunities for all voices to be heard. The tendencies for some voices to dominate while others hold back, exacerbated by the constraints of time, make deep, whole-group conversations difficult.
The World Cafe focuses discussion on three related prompts, mixing the students in small grouping across multiple rounds. In the end, everyone has discussed each of the prompts and had an opportunity to talk with every other participant.
RESOURCES - World Cafe
- Overview & resources from the World Cafe foundation (external link)
- World Cafe Instructions Slides (G.Doc)
- Table Signs - Template (G.Doc)
- Notes Template: Google Docs (one set per table)