"The excitement in the room was palpable . . . .There are kids who have never once raised their hand to volunteer to speak. Today, virtually every hand was in the air . . ."

Facing History helps teachers master important skills in classroom pedagogy, including how to conduct a discussion in which students truly talk and listen to one another and how to establish a classroom atmosphere of trust. In the following story, Suzanne Saposnik, an 8th grade teacher at Bell School in Chicago, relays her experience with the Facing History teaching strategy Big Paper-Building a Silent Community [1]. This strategy recognizes that students have different ways of expressing their ideas, and allows them to express their "voices" and communicate with peers through writing.

The themes of group membership and universe of obligation that Suzanne explores with her students extend throughout Facing History's resources.

The concept of "universe of obligation" is defined by Helen Fein as the circle of individuals or groups "toward whom obligations are owed; to whom rules apply, and whose injuries call for {amends}." Students learn that the way a group defines itself affects the choices it makes, including the choice to exclude those who do not fit a group's concept of itself. They see that membership can be a tool for constructive and destructive purposes, that it can both empower and endanger one's sense of identity.

To learn more about the concept of "universe of obligation", please read the introduction to Chapter 2, We and They of Holocaust and Human Behavior [2] and explore the lesson, Defining Community: Universe of Obligation [3].

Suzanne Saposnik writes:

I had been feeling guilty. There is a new upper-grade Social Studies teacher at my school. He's taking the Facing History online introductory course, and I was asked - as a "veteran" Facing History teacher - to help him out as needed. At our last couple of meetings, Dunreith KellyLowenstein, our Facing History program associate, talked about the Teaching Strategies [4] section. Each time, she turned to me for confirmation and asked, "Isn't it great?" And that's where the guilt set in. I use the website all the time - for study guides, readings, lesson and unit outlines, and the lending library. But I had never looked at the section on Teaching Strategies.

The time had come. So, one quiet evening at home, I "browsed" through the Strategies section. One strategy in particular caught my eye: Big Paper-Building a Silent Community. The strategy recommended having the students work in partners, with each pair being given a sheet of big paper with a quote or reading or artwork taped or written in the middle. In total silence, the two students would discuss the topic, in writing, on the big paper. After giving the pairs sufficient time for their silent discussion, the students could then walk around the room and - again in total silence - read and write comments on the big paper conversations of their classmates. Finally, the pairs would return to their own papers, and verbally discuss their initial written conversation, the responses of others, and the original quote or topic.

I was immediately intrigued. I teach an eighth grade, self-contained class of identified gifted students. I teach them Language Arts, Social Studies, and Math. The Language Arts and Social Studies are completely integrated, and Facing History is the glue that holds it all together. Everything I do is through Facing History eyes.

I have always felt that my greatest teaching strength is my ability to facilitate group discussions, and I took great pride in my belief that I could get any class to talk about anything at any time. Then I met this class.

My eighth graders this year are a wonderful bunch of creative, thoughtful, independent-minded 13 and 14 year-olds who, except on one or two rare occasions, have absolutely refused to engage in class discussions. I had turned my bag of tricks inside out, to no avail. So I thought, let's try something new.

We had been reading Speaker for the Dead. It's the second book (of four) in the science fiction Ender series, by Orson Scott Card.

Speaker for the Dead opens with the sentence, "Since we are not yet fully comfortable with the idea that people from the next village are as human as ourselves . . . ." The philosophical ideas in the book explore Facing History themes such as "We and They" and "Universe of Obligation" and eloquently support the Facing History concepts I am trying to impart to my class. And I believe, because the book is science fiction, these concepts are more accessible to my students. It's so much easier for them to analyze the motivations and actions of alien species than to look at human history or at themselves. Yet through these books, the kids can make that progression - from "understanding" aliens to examining history to considering their own words and actions. Ender's Game and Speaker for the Dead have become staples in my classroom, and each year, of all the books we read, these two are the hands-down favorites.

This year had been no different. But even though my students had been clear that they love these books, they hadn't been willing to discuss them. What did I have to lose by trying a different strategy?

The day after I read about the big paper strategy, I began class by describing the process. Of course, one student challenged me, asking why we had to do something different. I gave the answer that I always swore I would never give - "Because I would like to." That settled; they started. The quote in the middle of the page was from Speaker. It read:

This is how humans are: We question all our beliefs, except for the ones that we really believe, and those we never think to question.

I had told the kids that they could begin by responding to the quote in relation to the book, but then they could branch off into whatever they chose, as long as they were considering the idea. The room became totally silent, and they wrote. After fifteen minutes, I asked the students to walk around the room and, in silence, write their responses on the big papers of their classmates. There were fifteen more minutes of total, engaged silence. Then they returned to their original places and discussed their sheets with their partners.

Examples of "Big Paper" conversations from Ms. Saposnik's class

The excitement in the room was palpable. For the last five minutes of class, I asked them to talk about the process, and the room erupted. Virtually every hand was in the air. I taught Social Studies to these same kids when they were in seventh grade, so I have known them for over a year. There are kids who, in that entire time, never once raised their hands to volunteer to speak. Today, their hands were up. And their response was unanimous - they loved this activity.

Sophie has been a student at our school since first grade, and in all that time, few teachers have experienced her volunteering to speak. Sophie's hand was raised. In essence, she said that she has so many ideas that she wants to discuss, but she has difficulty finding the words to speak. She has no difficulty with writing, and this strategy gave her the opportunity to "talk" to others. She was very grateful. If nothing else had happened, from my perspective, Sophie's comment alone would have made this a wildly successful venture.

But Sophie was not alone. Michael is a young man caught between his desire to learn and the class culture of being "too cool for school." Michael raised his hand and mumbled that they all needed more time to continue their written conversations. All of his classmates agreed, so that afternoon, I gave them more time - another full hour! At the end of that time, we discussed the process again, and they said they would like to use this strategy at least once a week.

That evening, I brought the big papers home so that I could carefully read my students' conversations. I was stunned and moved and humbled. Besides being a class generally unwilling to engage in discussions, they have also been lackadaisical writers. But these big papers brimmed over with intense, philosophical thought, sophisticated language, humor and compassion. Each child "spoke" and they all "listened."

And what's happened since that first day?

Well, there were parent conferences. And several of the parents commented that their children had told them about the big papers. I was astonished to hear that. Eighth graders rarely go home and tell their parents about anything that happens in school. I was particularly touched by one father's remarks. He said his son had reported that one of the best parts of the activity was that he had had a conversation with someone he rarely spoke to. For the first time in all the years they had been classmates, Simon "got to know" Kenethia.

Suzanne Saposnik teaches 8th grade at Bell School, an in-depth K-8 Facing History school in Chicago. She is also a member of the Facing History Chicago Teacher Advisory Board.