Note: The following instructions guide students to engage with each source as a full class. Alternatively, you could set up a station for each source and ask students to rotate between the stations, moving every five minutes, or you could assign groups of students different sources using the Jigsaw teaching strategy. Depending on how you organize this activity, you may need two class periods to give students enough time to engage with each source.
The integration of head, heart, and conscience is always important to learning, and it’s particularly crucial when students are considering sensitive issues such as policing and the impact of police violence.
Tell students that they will engage with six different sources on policing and racial injustice, and you want them to use their mind, heart, and conscience as they listen to, view, or read each source.
Ask students to divide a piece of paper into three sections. They should label the sections Head, Heart, and Conscience. Then have them write the following questions at the top of each section:
- Head: What new information did I learn from this source?
- Heart: What emotions does this source raise for me?
- Conscience: What questions about right and wrong, fairness or injustice, does this source raise for me?
Note: You can show your students an example of this table in the Slides for this mini-lesson.
Then, project each source in turn, using the Slides for this Mini-Lesson. Plan to give students a total of five minutes to engage with each source. After students have listened to, viewed, or read each source, ask them to choose one of the reflection questions from their Head, Heart, Conscience table and write a short response. You can also ask students to discuss each source briefly in pairs or small groups.
