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Discuss:
- the potential benefits of Facing History and Ourselves;
- how studying the Holocaust could help students understand prejudice;
- students' ideas about whether or not what happened in Germany could happen here;
- how the teacher in the video facilitated students' discussion; and
- the students' demeanor during their teacher's reading of the
letter and their comments afterwards.
Try It Out
Facing History and Ourselves does not translate easily into brief workshop activities.
However, these activites relate to the program's themes.
1. Looking at Groups
Prepare a large, simple drawing of a 12-petaled daisy on an 8 1/2-x-11 inch sheet of paper.
Make a dot on the petal that would be at one o'clock on a clock face. Above the daisy write
"Groups." Photocopy and distribute a copy to each participant.
Direct participants to write the name of groups of which they are a member on each petal.
They should start on the dotted one, working quickly in a clockwise direction. (Do not give
examples; these might be leading.) Allow four to five minutes. Then ask them to form groups
of four and discuss their lists for five to eight minutes. Groups can then report to the
larger group. How were the lists similar? Different? What were the first groups people thought
of? Were there differences by gender or by ethnicity?
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2. In Common
Ask participants to join with partners. Give the pairs three minutes to list things they have
in common. Then ask that each pair join with another and find the items on both lists that all
four share in common. Then have each foursome join another foursome, and so on, until the entire
group has developed a list of things that everyone has in common. How hard or easy was this? Were
there any surprises? How did people react when one person in a group was different, and therefore
kept an item off the list?
Take It Further
Ask participants to get into groups of four or five and list the strategies their schools use to
combat racism and discrimination. Allow about five minutes. Then ask them to brainstorm ideas
for new approaches, listing them on chart paper. Allow five to ten minutes for this. Then ask
groups to post their lists and report to the entire group. Afterwards, either continue to work
as a group or regroup in a way that makes sense for your participants (e.g., by grade level or
discipline). Discuss the bias-reduction ideas and determine if there are any that someone would
like to try. If possible, develop an action plan for implementing the new strategies.
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