Split Responses

I asked my class to brainstorm useful lessons that we can learn from studying ancient empires. I did not specify positive or negative lessons, so when they shared their thoughts out loud with the rest of the class, their responses were split. Some students remarked that we should avoid repeating the mistakes of the past, and we should view these mistakes as cautionary tales. Other students suggested looking to the past for positive models of governance, interpreting ancient empires as a blueprint for civilization. I posed this contradiction back to them: did they expect to discover more positive or negative examples of governance in ancient empires? I had not originally planned to have this discussion, as I worried the students might be bored from sitting for too long. However, I saw this tension as an opportunity for students to support their views with specific passages from the text. Immediately, tons of hands went up. I was excited about this energy and wanted to capitalize on this moment of engagement to get more students talking, but I wanted to make sure that they were using concrete examples to support their claims.