Responding to the Insurrection at the US Capitol

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Self-reflection is important preparation for facilitating conversations about troubling current events. As educators, we have to make time to process our own feelings and become aware of the way our own identities and experiences shape the perspectives we hold. Read the “Start with Yourself” section on page 2 of our Fostering Civil Discourse guide. Then reflect on the following questions:

• What emotions does news of the insurrection at the Capitol raise for you? What questions are you grappling with?
• What perspectives will you bring to your reflection on these events with your students?
• What emotions might your students bring to your discussion? How can you respond to these emotions?
• As the news develops, how will you continue to learn alongside your students?

Before you discuss these events with your class, it may be helpful to talk to other teachers in your school about how they plan to respond. This can ensure that students have space to reflect, while also helping to avoid repeating the same conversations with students throughout the day.

Let your students know that their learning environment is a safe and brave space. Begin with a brief Contracting activity if you have not already forged that space in your classroom. If you have already established a class contract, invite your students to add to or modify the contract to support this conversation using the following questions to prompt students’ thinking:

• Which norms in our class contract are most important for guiding a meaningful conversation about the news of the extremist mob that attacked the US Capitol and why?
• Are there any new norms we need to add?

Breaking news changes quickly, and students may not know the most recent information, or they may have seen or read misinformation about the insurrection on January 6, 2021. Consider sharing a few bullet points or a resource from a trusted news outlet to establish baseline knowledge of the events and dispel misinformation. (Note: You can find a list of reliable news outlets in our Current Events Teacher Checklist.)

It may also be helpful to share a definition of the term insurrection with your students, such as “an act of revolting against an established government,” and explain that the events on January 6, 2021 involved people attempting to disrupt our democratically-elected government. ¹

• 1This definition is adapted from Merriam-Webster, “Insurrection”.

The classroom is a place where students should learn with intellectual rigor, emotional engagement, and ethical reflection, and come to understand that their own views and choices matter. We represent those core educational values in Facing History’s “pedagogical triangle.”

This integration of head, heart, and ethics is always important to learning, and it’s particularly crucial when students are considering contentious and troubling news. Tell students that you want them to use their head, heart, and conscience in today’s discussion. Invite them to open their journals, or a notebook, to reflect on questions related to the three points of the triangle. Tell students that these reflections will be private unless they choose to share them.

Questions you might use to prompt reflection include:

1. Head: What information do we currently know about the insurrection that happened on January 6, 2021? What additional facts or information would you like to have?
2. Heart: How do you feel about the insurrection and what is happening in the aftermath? Are there particular moments or images that stand out to you?
3. Conscience: What do you believe was at stake in the events on January 6, 2021? What questions about right and wrong, fairness or injustice, did insurrection raise for you? How should individuals or politicians act in order to protect our democratic institutions?

Invite students to share any reflections they wish to, but also give students the option to keep their reflections private. Possible ways to share include:

1. Ask your students to write short reflections or questions using the Graffiti Board teaching strategy. Address as many of your students’ responses as you have time for and then save the graffiti board to help guide future discussions.
2. Ask students to share a word or phrase from their journal entries using the Wraparound teaching strategy.

After you have given students time to reflect and process their initial responses to the event, you may decide to guide your students through strategies for engaging with news coverage of the event in a responsible way.

News coverage on breaking events is often incomplete and may include information that is later discounted. In addition, misinformation about the election contributed to the insurrection that occurred on January 6, 2021. Students should understand that established news sources are less likely to spread misinformation, since they have processes for vetting stories before publishing.

Begin by asking your students the following questions:

1. What questions should you consider before sharing news on social media or with friends?
2. Do you have any strategies to make sure that the news you follow is reliable?

Share the News Literacy Project’s resource How to know what to trust and have students look over the steps it recommends following to determine whether a source is reliable. Ask your students:

• Do you employ any of these strategies already? If so, which ones?
• Do any of these strategies surprise you? Why or why not?

Invite students to write down their goals for how they will follow the news. Prompt them to respond to the following questions:

• What can you do to ensure that the news and information you use to form your opinions is accurate?
• How will you decide what news to share with your friends or family or post on social media?
• What effect could misinformation have on our democracy?