Responding to the Insurrection at the US Capitol

In his 1963 essay “A Talk to Teachers,” James Baldwin wrote: “American history is longer, larger, more various, more beautiful, and more terrible than anything anyone has ever said about it.” In the events surrounding the recent presidential election in the United States, the essential truth of Baldwin’s statement resonates anew. ¹

This week’s news alone, including the historic results of the Georgia senatorial runoff election and the attack on Congress, is provoking a whirlwind of conflicting emotions among Americans, as many are simultaneously buoyed by the expanding representation in our government and disturbed, angered, and frightened by the attack on the halls of Congress and our democratic system of government. In the days following these events, students will need opportunities to feel and express their emotions as well as support in separating facts from misinformation and sharing the news responsibly.

This mini-lesson is designed to help guide an initial classroom reflection on the insurrection at the US Capitol that occurred on January 6, 2021. 

• 1James Baldwin, “A Talk to Teachers” (October 16, 1963), in The Price of the Ticket: Collected Nonfiction, 1948-1985 (Macmillan, 1985), 325.

Before teaching this mini-lesson, please review the following information to help guide your preparation process.

Activity 1 Contract with Your Class

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?

Activity 2 Share What We Know

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 Educator Guide.)

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

Activity 3 Create Space for Student Reflection

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.”

Activity 4 Explore Strategies for Following the News

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?

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