Purpose

The coming election is poised to be the most divisive in living memory. The purpose of this curriculum is to help students build a strong collective resilience against polarizing forces through deep reflection, intentional listening, and authentic relationships. 

As a result of this mini-curriculum, your class will be better equipped to discuss difficult, divisive, or explosive political topics with dignity, curiosity, and care.

After completing this series of lessons, students will have:

• Come to a deeper understanding of the experiences and values that shape their perspectives on the coming election;

• Practiced the art of intentional and resilient listening across differences of identities, experiences, and values;

• Practiced structures and routines that can be used to design conversations—such as reflecting and writing about a prompt before speaking, listening to ask questions of curiosity and better understanding, timed responses and taking turns sharing in a circle.  

Tips

Familiarize yourself with the Content Arc so that you know where each lesson sits and where it is leading.  

Read the "How to Use" document for ideas of how to adjust and adapt these lessons.

Purpose

To prepare students for a conversation around the election by introducing and inviting them to practice skills around asking questions. This lesson lets students experience how the kinds of questions we ask can impact and shift a conversation. They'll also be able to consider the impacts and purposes of different kinds of questions. All of this will help them be more intentional about the kinds of questions they ask later.

Agenda Overview: 40 minutes

• 3 min: Framing

• 5 min: Connect 

• 2 min: Review

• 8 min: Introduce Questions Styles

• 2 min: Directions

• 5 min: Questions of Persuasion/Understanding 

• 5 min: Debrief

• 2 min: Prepare for Interviews

• 5 min: Interviews

• 3 min: Closing

Materials Needed: Handout, Slides

Note

After this lesson, you should decide which dialogue option to use with your class for the final dialogue.  

Bonus/Extras

This lesson has an optional extension where students can interview an adult in their lives to learn more about their political history, the kinds of things that shaped their views, and what it was like for them to think about politics when they were young.

Purpose

Prepare students for a conversation across different election-related perspectives by inviting them to consider what kind of communication agreements—objective and observable behaviors—they want to use in the conversation. This lesson ends with a list of potential communication agreements to be used for a dialogue.

Materials Needed: Slides, student handout, place to post Communication Agreements List (e.g. whiteboard, flip chart, google slide), Student Dialogue Handout

Materials Collected: Student Dialogue Handout (if it was worked on during class)

Agenda Overview: 40 minutes

• 5 min: Connect

• 2 min: Framing and Define Communication Agreements

• 2 min: Introduce Scenario

• 5 min: Part One & Two of Activity

• 5 min: Introduce Behaviors and Needs

• 8 min: Part Three & Four of Activity

• 10 min: Group Share Out

• 2 min: Closing

Note

In advance, prepare the method you want to use to record student suggestions for communication agreements. This lesson can run long if the group share-out includes a lot of discussion. You can extend this lesson, making it into two lessons, instead of one. This would add to the time that students have, both in small groups and in the larger group discussing the communication agreements you would like to use as a class. If you split this lesson into two, you can use the latter part of the second lesson to have students begin preparing for the dialogue by making notes in their Dialogue Handout.

Print in advance the student dialogue sheets for the dialogue you have chosen to use in Lesson 4. This can be given as homework.  Students will need to bring these sheets with them for the dialogue—or, if you can collect them if students use class time to work on them.

Purpose

To invite students into a structured conversation around the election. Each student will have the opportunity to reflect on a question, speak out of their experience, and listen deeply to others. 

The structured nature of the conversation creates space for all students to both share and listen. It also encourages students to practice questions of understanding with one another. After the dialogue, students are invited to reflect on what aspects of the structure and conversation might be helpful for conversations around the election outside the classroom.

Materials Needed: Slides, Student Dialogue Handout (extras)

Agenda Overview: 40 minutes

• 1 min: Introduce Dialogue Purpose

• 3 min: Silently Reflect and Review

• 2 min: Introduce the Dialogue Structure & Communication Agreements

• 4 min: Connect

• 8 min: Instructions & Go-Around One

• 8 min: Instructions & Go-Around Two

• 9 min: Instructions & Questions Round

• 5 min: Closing

Tips

Have students sit in small groups of 4 from the beginning of class.  Have some extra handouts available for students who forgot theirs (if students worked on them as homework).

Note

You will need to insert the dialogue question prompts and the communication agreements for your class into the slide show.

Variations

The default for this lesson is to have the teacher run their dialogue from the front of the room using the timers on the slides. Another option is to have students run and time the dialogue themselves in their groups. The "Self-Facilitated Dialogue" sheet can be handed out to students if you use this option. It walks students through each step of the dialogue. If you choose the self-facilitated option, be sure to insert the dialogue question prompts into the sheet and review the communication agreements at the beginning of class, before students begin their dialogues.