Reflecting on the Danger of Silence

How do I empower myself to take action on behalf of myself and others?

• What does it mean to have a voice? What is the relationship between agency and voice?
• How can your voice empower you to take action on your own behalf and on behalf of others?

• Recognize the power that comes with telling their own story and engaging with the stories of others. 
• Recognize that their decisions matter, impact others, and shape their communities and the world.

This lesson is designed to fit into one 50-minute class period and includes:

• 1 video
• 1 video transcript, available in English and Spanish

Before teaching this lesson, preview the video and the steps of Project Zero’s Take Note Thinking Routine so you are prepared to explain it to the class.

Students will create blackout poems, also called erasure poems, in this lesson. You can read more about this format and see examples at the Academy of American Poets glossary of poetic terms, in the entry for erasure poetry. There are also many examples online.

Project the following quotation and questions one at a time. Invite students to “turn and talk” before asking if a few volunteers want to share any ideas with the class. 

“In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies but the silence of our friends.” —Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. 

• What do you think Dr. King wants us to consider? 
• Which one do you think is more powerful, the “words of enemies” or the “silence of friends”? What makes you say that? How do you think Ebony would answer this question? 
• What do you think about the relationship between agency and silence? How might one impact the other?

Let students know that they will be watching a video in which award-winning writer, poet, and scholar Clint Smith reflects on the danger of silence. Share the Take Note questions and let students know that after they watch the video, they will respond in writing to ONE of the questions. They should not take notes during the video so they can fully engage with the content. 

• What is the most important point?
• What are you finding challenging, puzzling, or difficult to understand?
• What question would you most like to discuss?
• What is something that you found interesting?

Show the video The Danger of Silence (4:18) and then have students respond to one of the Take Note questions in their journals. Debrief in pairs. As a class, discuss the following questions:

• What are some of the factors that contributed to whether or not Clint Smith felt like he had agency in a given moment?
• What lessons about power, agency, and voice can we take from Smith’s presentation that we might apply to “As You Were” and Ebony’s decision to speak up at the end of the story? 
• What lessons about power, agency, and voice can we take from Smith’s presentation that we might apply to our own lives?

• Pass out the reading The Danger of Silence Transcript and project the following questions: 

  • What does it mean to have a voice? 
  • What is the relationship between agency and voice? 
  • How do I empower myself to take action on behalf of myself and others? 

• Explain to students that they will use a section of the transcript, ideally one or two paragraphs, to create a blackout poem that responds to one or more of the questions. To create their poem, they need to identify key words and short phrases from the section that they want to keep and cross out the rest. If they have never seen blackout poems, project a model of one you created or one that you find online. 

Some students may want to work on this task alone, while others might have more confidence if working with a partner or in a small group for this activity, so you can let them choose.

After students have had time to create their blackout poems, end the class with a gallery walk so they can share their work. Encourage any volunteers to read their poems aloud and briefly explain their choices.