Getting students to talk respectfully about issues like gun rights, race relations, and a polarizing鈥痯residential campaign can be a tall order, even under the best of circumstances. This school year, with millions of students forced to attend classes online only, is not the best of circumstances.鈥
69传媒 are almost certain to have a tougher time communicating and feeling comfortable sharing contradictory views when they can鈥檛 read each other鈥檚 body language and may not have met the teacher鈥攐r each other鈥攐utside of a Zoom square. Add to that the not-always polite mode of discourse online, mixed with the historically high levels of political polarization, and you could end up with a situation that one teacher described as her 鈥渨orst nightmare,鈥 where someone breaks down crying in class.鈥
鈥淚t takes longer to form a classroom community in virtual classes,鈥 said Diana Hess, the dean of the University of Wisconsin鈥揗adison鈥檚 school of education who has studied the role of politics in the classroom.鈥 But she said, 鈥淚t鈥檚 even more important. All the natural [aspects] of community, all those things that can happen so easily in a face-to-face classroom can鈥檛 happen as easily virtually.鈥
Respectful discussion will be especially important in the run-up to a contentious presidential election, which could wind up contested, due to an unprecedented volume of mail-in votes. President Donald Trump has said, without evidence, that this may lead to massive voter fraud.
What鈥檚 more, Trump has attacked what he terms 鈥渓eft-wing indoctrination鈥 in history classes. In particular, he鈥檚 lambasted curriculum linked to the New York Times鈥 1619 project, which sought to put a spotlight on the role slavery had in the nation鈥檚 founding.
Giving 69传媒 a Voice
One helpful strategy for collegial debate and discussion in a virtual classroom: Allowing students to help set the classroom norms.鈥
Teachers may want to start the year by asking students what they think a respectful online discussion would 鈥渓ook like, feel like, sound like,鈥 said Mary Ellen Daneels, a civics instructional specialist at the Robert R. McCormick Foundation in Chicago, which works with schools across Illinois to improve civics education. (The foundation helped underwrite an Education Week event on civics education earlier this year.) Then, teachers should allow students to set the rules of the road for those kinds of conversations. 鈥淭hat gives students voice and ownership in a very productive way,鈥 she said.鈥
U.S. public education is rooted in the belief by early American leaders that the most important knowledge to impart to young people is what it means to be a citizen.
If America is experiencing a civic crisis, as many say it is, schools may well be failing at that job.
This article is part of an ongoing effort by Education Week to understand the role of education in preparing the next generation of citizens.
See other stories in the Citizen Z series here.
Do you have a great idea for teaching students about civics? Share it with us.
Daneels also suggests that teachers let parents鈥搘ho may be in the room during a heated Zoom session鈥搆now what they are trying to accomplish. Explain why the discussion is done in a nonpartisan format and why it is important.
鈥淚nform parents about what you鈥檙e going to be doing with this online learning and make them part of the process,鈥 Daneels said.鈥
Many teachers who had to jump quickly into all-remote instruction last spring said they were able to rely on the relationships they had already built with students through the fall and winter.鈥
But that opportunity to build relationships in person does not exist for many teachers this year because their schools have started with full-time remote learning. Candace Fikis, a social studies teacher at West Chicago Community High School, plans to start off the year placing extra emphasis on creating a collaborative, respectful environment.鈥
鈥淭he hardest part of that is going to be building that climate online, so students feel safe,鈥 she said. 鈥淚鈥檓 going to need to spend more time at the beginning of the year getting to know kids, teaching them how they can debate, discuss, argue, challenge鈥 in a respectful way. 鈥淲hen you鈥檙e in person, the kids just kind of know how to be polite, but with online and social media, you kind of have a little barrier.鈥
Similarly, Chris Johnson, who teaches at Rowva High School in Illinois, said he has 鈥渟lowed down a bit鈥 this year. He鈥檚 spending more time than usual trying to build a classroom community, in part by explaining to his students his own motivations for keeping discussion respectful and evidence-based.鈥
He showed them a clip from the TV show 鈥淭he Newsroom鈥 that argues America is no longer the greatest country in the world, in part, because of political polarization.
鈥淭o be honest, as adults we haven鈥檛 exactly rocked it in terms of [civil discourse],鈥 he said. 鈥淚 want to teach them to be better than we are.鈥濃
Easing Into Discussions
Both Fikis and Johnson plan to start the year modeling discussions of less controversial topics, so that students get the hang of communicating respectfully, before moving on to issues like gun control that tend to spark passionate debate. Fikis鈥檚 students will consider whether schools should be open while COVID-19 is still a health threat. And Johnson is going with an even less controversial issue: Which is better鈥損ancakes or waffles?鈥
Another challenge: It鈥檚 going to be hard for Fikis to use what a colleague of hers calls the 鈥渟pidey sense鈥 to figure out how students feel about the discussion. 鈥淵ou can see how the mood changes and if kids feel comfortable or not in a classroom.鈥 That is missing, she said, when you鈥檙e looking at 30 boxes on a Zoom screen.
To get a better feel for the classroom climate, Fikis may have students fill out a quick survey at the end of each week, asking them to rate how they felt the discussions went on a scale from one to 10. And she plans to hold office hours so that kids have a space to get help or talk about something they may be reluctant to share in a larger group.鈥
She also plans to use a technique she employs in class: Having students comment on each other鈥檚 views in Google classroom. Just like in person, she鈥檒l show kids examples of 鈥済ood,鈥 鈥渂ad,鈥 and 鈥渦gly鈥 online comments.鈥
鈥淭hey always laugh at the 鈥榰gly鈥欌 she said. But then they admit they鈥檝e seen plenty of similar sentiments in virtual discussions.鈥
Of course, there鈥檚 also a flip side. Some students actually find it easier to express themselves in a virtual setting.
鈥淲e鈥檙e hearing from some students that they felt more comfortable participating online than they did face to face,鈥 Hess said. 鈥淵ou鈥檙e literally not sitting right next to people. That literal distance causes some people who are intimidated in face-to-face classes to feel safer.鈥
Zoom Adaptations
Some of the techniques that work to get students to discuss hot button issues in a respectful way can also be used in Zoom classrooms, with a few twists, Daneels said.鈥
For instance, she recommends a strategy called 鈥渟tructured academic controversy,鈥 in which students work in teams of four and consider a hotly debated question. For example, students might tackle the question of whether the electoral college should still be used to determine who is elected president. Two students are required to take one position, and the other two are assigned the other position鈥搉o matter what their personal beliefs are. Each team tries to convince the other, and then they switch perspectives, and try again. Finally, the group works to come to a consensus, informed by their own take on the topic. The format can still work online, Daneels said, since Zoom and other platforms allow for 鈥渂reakout rooms鈥 where students can do group work.鈥
Another exercise鈥撯減hilosophical chairs鈥濃揷an be tweaked for an online-only environment. 69传媒 are given a topic to debate that has a relatively clear yes or no answer, such as 鈥渟hould we raise the federal minimum wage to $20 an hour?鈥 69传媒 read a common text and come up with their opinion 鈥 yes, no, or undecided. Then the class holds a discussion, where kids argue their own position.鈥
If this activity is taking place in person, students are encouraged to move around the room as their position changes based on their classmates鈥 arguments. On Zoom, kids could change their username to 鈥淵es,鈥 鈥淣o,鈥 or 鈥淯ndecided鈥濃搊r they could hold up a green, yellow, or red object to reflect their thinking as the discussion progresses. The class could use the Zoom chatbox to respond to arguments in real time.鈥
69传媒 can also respond to a prompt in Padlet or on a Google jam board or another online forum for discussion and write back to one another silently. That鈥檚 especially good for a prompt that might be 鈥渕ore emotionally charged,鈥 Daneels said.鈥
Having students talk about an issue in small groups can be great for discussion, but it isn鈥檛 easy to pull off when all the students are remote, said Matt Wdowiarz, who teaches 5th grade at Winfield Central School in Illinois, near Chicago.鈥
鈥淭he challenge is going to be finding ways to break out the groups fast enough,鈥 Wdowiarz said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 going to be a matter of being a little bit more patient with the flow of time. There鈥檚 so much going on right now with just how do we do things efficiently with the tech we have. That鈥檚 been the dominant struggle.鈥
That鈥檚 why Daneels encourages teachers to just start with one activity and master it, and allow students to master it, before moving on.鈥
鈥淚f you鈥檙e getting stressed out using this new technology, your students are probably getting stressed out using this new technology,鈥 Daneels said.鈥
What鈥檚 more, teachers shouldn鈥檛 be afraid to tell their students that creating a classroom community and teaching content online doesn鈥檛 come naturally to them.鈥
鈥淚t鈥檚 really good for us to say as teachers we need to figure this out together because this is new for all of us,鈥 Johnson said. 鈥淜ids may offer suggestions of new techniques or tools to use, but it鈥檚 also good modeling. Being a little bit vulnerable and saying 鈥業 don鈥檛 know how to do this, and 鈥榯his is hard for me, too鈥 is a good way to connect with students. If we鈥檙e teaching civics, we gotta practice what we preach.鈥
