"Over the Rainbow": Fantasy Lands, Dream Worlds, and Magic Kingdoms

Teaching Strategies

Creating a Framework for Discussion

When dealing with sensitive issues such as race, it is extremely important to create a safe environment where students feel comfortable taking intellectual and social risks. It is essential, at the onset of the unit, to set classroom norms for discussion beyond mere procedure. The book Courageous Conversations About Race constructs a detailed framework, but a simplified version can be useful for getting started even if the teacher or students have not read the text.

The Courageous Conversations framework begins with four agreements, which are a solid basis for creating norms for discussion in a classroom. The four agreements are:

1. stay engaged
2. speak your truth.
3. experience discomfort.
4. expect and accept non-closure.⁵⁴

The four agreements remind learners to avoid checking out of the conversation (stay engaged), to only speak things that are personal to themselves and avoid speculating or generalizing about others’ experiences (speak your truth), that learning occurs when one is uncomfortable (experience discomfort) and that they should not expect a solution to come from one or even many conversations (expect and accept non-closure). The four agreements are a very small part of the Courageous Conversations framework – I encourage further study of the book, particularly for white teachers who teach in diverse settings.

It is helpful to spend time at the beginning of the unit establishing these norms and discussing what they mean in detail. Throughout the unit (potentially daily), the teacher should review the norms with students. If the conversation strays from them, the teacher or other students should guide the class back to the norms.

Shared inquiry discussion

Shared inquiry discussion is a student-centered discussion format that focuses on open-ended, high-level questions. This format, in its ideal form, should contain little or no input from the teacher (though, at first, the teacher should ask follow up questions and ensure that students are explaining their answers fully).

Students should create a list of norms for productive, respectful discussion. These can include, but are not limited to: Allow others to finish before speaking, use sentence stems that convey respect and build on other students’ responses (I agree with… because, and I disagree with… because), require evidence and further explanation, challenge ideas (for example, playing Devil’s Advocate), and respecting equity of voice (all are given an opportunity or invited to participate and no one voice dominates the discussion).

A final essential component to shared inquiry is the opportunity for students to propel discussion by asking questions of their own. The teacher can facilitate this process by teaching students to write high-level questions (those that allow for multiple responses and interpretation of evidence) and asking each student to write one at the beginning of the discussion. The teacher should also encourage students to ask new questions organically during discussion.

I usually assign students roles to manage discussion – a facilitator who keeps us on track and manages participation, a timer, a participation tracker and a note taker. We typically close with the facilitator choosing a student to summarize the key points of the discussion.