April 2025, Part One

Creating Space, Not Echo Chambers: Resource from Chapter 6: Navigating Politics as a teacher

A visual of Bloom’s Taxonomy.

April 2025, Part One :

At the end of every chapter of this book, there is a resource that can be used for the perspective shared in the chapter. Below is the resource for Chapter 6: Navigating Politics as a Teacher. It’s a lesson plan for teachers to use with students to develop their critical thinking skills.…I would love to hear your thoughts or feedback in the comments!

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Resource 6: Creating Space, Not Echo Chambers: An Adaptive Lesson Plan for Teachers

As Devin portrayed in this chapter, the goal of a teacher is to support students in developing high-order thinking. If we look at Bloom’s Taxonomy, you will notice that the lowest level of thinking is “remembering” while the highest level speaks to “creating”, ‘analyzing,” and “evaluating,”

Below is an adaptive lesson plan for teachers to support their building of critical thinking skills:

Lesson Plan: "What's the Big Idea?" – Exploring Multiple Perspectives

Grade Level: Adaptable (K–12)
Subject: Any (can be tailored to Language Arts, Social Studies, Science, etc.)
Duration: 60–90 minutes

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Learning Objectives:

Students will be able to:

• Understand and evaluate different viewpoints.

• Support opinions with reasoning or evidence.

• Reflect on how new ideas can change their thinking.

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Lesson Plan:

1. Warm-Up: “Think-Pair-Share” (10-15 min)

• Pose an open-ended question.
  Example: "Is it always bad to not follow the rules?" (adjust based on grade/subject)

• Have students think silently, then share with a partner, then with the class.

• Teacher Note: Emphasize no right answers, just strong reasoning.

2. Introduce a Dilemma (10–15 min)

• Present a short scenario, story, quote, or video that introduces a dilemma that does not have a clear right answer.
  Example: For younger students, use a fable or a situation from daily life.
  For older students, use a news story, historical dilemma, or scientific debate.

• Whole Group Questions to Ask:

  • What is happening in this dilemma?

  • What don’t we know?

  • Whose perspective do we have? Who’s perspective is missing?

3. Multiple Perspectives Activity (30-45min)

• Divide students into small groups. Assign each group a different perspective or role based on the dilemma shared:

  • Example: In a debate about water use or climate change, roles could include scientists, environmentalists, business owners, politicians, community members, etc.