Step 1: Introducing the Assessments

In the first four lessons of the course, students explore questions about identity, stereotyping, and group membership. There is a menu of activities that you can choose from for this first step in the process that introduces students to the course essential question and final assessment prompt. The prompt is designed to serve as both a thematic frame for the course and a final writing assignment and/or CTP project.

Throughout the course, students will examine the atrocities committed by the Ottoman government during the Armenian Genocide, the rise of Nazi Party in Germany following World War I, and the pursuit of racial purity in Nazi Germany that resulted in the murder of 6 million Jewish individuals and millions of other civilians during the Holocaust. Students will also look closely at the choices made by individuals, groups, and nations that led to these events. For the culminating course assessment, students have the option of constructing a written argument or developing a Choosing to Participate (CTP) project that is supported with examples from these historical cases in response to the following question:

How can learning about the choices people made during past episodes of injustice, mass violence, or genocide help guide our choices today? 

Part of learning to be civically engaged is thinking through how change happens. The Choosing to Participate project is designed to help students reflect on and engage in their growing sense of voice and agency that they will develop, practice, and apply throughout their Facing History journey. Reflecting on the connections between the past and present, and the lessons learned from the choices and actions taken by upstanders throughout history, helps students create a plan for how they might create changes that will bring about a more just, equitable, and inclusive society today. This project is not about taking action per se; it is about the important reflection that happens before action, where students recognize or create what they might need in order to make a difference.

The following activities provide suggestions to help students start to understand the meaning of the prompt and stake out a preliminary position in response to it. For classes choosing the CTP project approach, explain that this prompt will also form the basis of their own “CTP Toolbox.” Students will use the evidence gathered throughout the course to support their final written arguments and/or build a unique set of tools and resources for themselves and others to be able to make a difference in their communities and larger society. At key points later in this course (after Lessons 7, 9, 14, 19, 22, and 25), you will be cued to give students the opportunity to reflect on the assessment prompt and consider how evidence from the history they are studying influences their thinking about it. At these times, students will also have the opportunity to revisit, and potentially modify, the initial position they articulate in this lesson.

• Before class, set up the room for a Four Corners activity. Create four signs that read “Strongly Agree,” “Agree,” “Disagree,” and “Strongly Disagree,” and hang them in different corners of the room.
• Pass out the anticipation guide activity in the handout Why Study History? and ask students to read the statements and decide if they strongly agree, agree, disagree, or strongly disagree with each one. They should circle their responses and then write a brief explanation for each choice.
• Use the Four Corners strategy to debrief the anticipation guide. Read each statement aloud and ask students to stand near one of the signs in the classroom to indicate their response. After students find their positions, ask them to explain their thinking to others in their corner.
• Next, ask students in each corner to share their ideas with the rest of the class. As one corner disagrees with another, encourage students to respond directly to each other’s statements and have a mini-debate about the prompt. If students’ ideas change due to the conversation or discussion, tell them that they are free to switch corners.

• Consider having students create a designated section in their journals for their assessment reflections, notes, and ideas. Then tell them that they will be reflecting on the Four Corners discussion (if you included it in this lesson) and starting to think about a new and related question, which they will explore throughout the course.
• Pass out the assessment prompt and ask students to respond to it in their journals. Encourage students to consider the quotations on the Handout: Why Study History? and their group discussion if these help them think about the question.
  • How can learning about the choices people made in the past be used as a tool to guide our responses to injustice, mass violence, and genocide in our communities and in the world today?

Next, ask students to debrief the journal prompt in a Think, Pair, Share discussion. Ask students to try to support their thinking with an example from the history they have studied or their own lives. Finally, ask students to share a few opinions or ideas with the larger group.

• Using the Dissecting the Prompt strategy, have students take apart and analyze the course assessment prompt (see above), identifying the historical topics they need to learn more about in the rest of the course to be able to fully answer the question. This will establish several inquiry questions for the class that are related to students’ broader thinking about the purpose of studying history in this lesson.
• Let students know that they should keep all their responses and notes about these ideas in their journals so they can use them later to generate ideas for their essays and/or CTP projects.

• Introduce the Toolbox Metaphor: Tell students that they will be working on a CTP  project to participate in improving and strengthening their community based on what they learned throughout the course about how the lessons of the past can be used as tools to guide our responses to injustice. Begin by brainstorming the purpose of an actual toolbox and the items that are typically found inside. After students consider how toolboxes are used to build and fix physical structures, ask them to imagine a figurative toolbox that includes tools that can be used to build and fix our communities—school, local, national, and global. 
• Reflect: You may want to start out with a reflection to activate prior knowledge and get students to consider the tools they believe are needed to enact change. For example, you might ask students to write a reflection in their journals in response to these questions: 
  • What “tools”—values, habits of mind, knowledge—do you feel you need in order to participate in the communities around you or address the issues that concern you?
  • In what ways do you feel prepared to participate in the communities around you? In what ways do you feel unprepared to participate? 
  • Consider using the Wraparound strategy for students to share their responses.
• Explain to students that different tools are needed to address different goals. Depending on what they learn throughout the course, and how the evidence they collect throughout supports the assessment prompt, they may choose to align their toolboxes to a certain goal. For example: 
  • Toolbox for Change
  • Toolbox for Justice
  • Toolbox for Democracy
  • Toolbox for Citizenship
  • Toolbox for Participation
  • Toolbox for Social Responsibility
  • Toolbox for Upstanders
• Depending on your class goals and the time available, students can build their final toolboxes in whatever format and medium works best for you—virtual or three-dimensional. You can also determine together with your students what kind of final presentation is most appropriate for their projects. 
• Let students know that they should keep all their responses and notes about these ideas in their journals, as they will revisit this initial brainstorm again at the end of the course before beginning to design and build their final toolboxes.

• Have students respond to the following questions on an Exit Card:
  • How did today’s class affect your thinking about why we should study history? What makes you say that?
  • How did it affect the way you think about the connection between the choices people made in history and the choices you make in your own life?
• Collect the exit cards as students leave the classroom. Consider sharing some interesting ideas or patterns at the start of the next lesson. Unless you have permission from the student, we recommend that you keep these anonymous.