I wanted students to investigate how the actions of the U.S. government’s policies towards Indigenous people in the 1800s continue to have repercussions on their well-being and livelihoods today. I projected a statement on the board: “The U.S. government should pay Indigenous people monetary reparations for the policies they instituted in the 19th century.” In preparation for the discussion, I’d given students sentence starters (“I strongly agree, agree, disagree, strongly disagree because…”) and time to look through the documents and write down their thoughts. After I read the statement and asked the students to begin the discussion, no one spoke. I waited about a minute, but still no one took the initiative to start the discussion. The room was silent. Some students looked at the readings, some at each other, and some stared blankly. I could not determine why the discussion was not starting. Were they thinking and just needing more time? Were they confused? Were they bored? I did not know.
At this point, I assumed they were confused about the statement. I decided to rephrase it as a question: “Is the U.S. government responsible for helping Indigenous people today, considering all of the policies they made in the past?” After waiting for another 30 seconds, students still remained silent.
I thought that maybe, students just weren’t ready for discussion. I asked, “Do we need time to look at the reading?” Again, no one responded. I gave them 10 more seconds to think and rephrased the statement once more: “So we are saying that the U.S. government today isn’t responsible for what happened in the past? I waited.
On the one hand, I felt anxious and wanted to provide some clues about why learning about the effects of U.S. policies toward Native Americans still matters today so that students could start the discussion. On the other hand, I insisted on not giving them any hints about what they could or should say, as I felt that the question would lose its meaning if the teacher provided the answers or clues (Since I was the one who had taught them about this topic, I clearly knew the reasons why learning about this lesson matters today). I wasn’t sure what to do.
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Rainie
8th Grade
US History
Second Year Teaching
- What is the teacher's dilemma? Consider the teacher's goals, possible actions, beliefs about the situation and the students, and their own self-perceptions.
- Complete or modify the following sentence in a way that captures the teacher's central tension in the situation: "While on the one hand, the teacher believed/wanted/felt/did __________, on the other hand, they believed/wanted/felt/did __________."
- Thinking about your own classroom, when a discussion question about a difficult historical topic is met with silence, how do you spark students’ comments while maintaining their ownership over the discourse?