Lesson Plan: Why We Can’t Have a Civil Conversation About Guns

Lesson Duration:

1-2 class periods

Essential Questions:

• Why do Americans hold different and varied views about guns?
• How do advocacy groups construct their strategies in order to achieve their policy goals?
• Why is it difficult to pass legislation involving guns?

Lesson Objectives:

Students will:

• Examine the text of the Second Amendment.
• Compare and contrast views of guns held by Americans.
• Evaluate perspectives in accordance with the language and meaning of the Second Amendment.
• Participate in civil discourse.

Materials:

• Retro Report video “Why We Can’t Have a Civil Conversation About Guns” (Transcript)
• Student Activity Handout

Procedure:

1. Ask students to share elements of civil conversations and record the list. Students may suggest things like: no yelling, no name calling, no one speaks twice until everyone speaks once.
   1. For additional ideas and resources about conducting civil conversations in your classroom, please consult the following resources:
   2. Civil Dialogue Tool Kit | National Constitution Center
   3. Conducting a Civil Conversation in the Classroom | Constitutional Democracy Center
   4. Fostering Civil Discourse guide |Facing History
2. Have students set the ground rules for the civil conversation that the class is about to have. Make sure to post the rules for civil conversation in the room. You may also want to provide students with an electronic copy or a hard copy of the class-established ground rules. (This portion of the activity could be done the day before the lesson on guns.)
3. Consider revisiting vocabulary throughout the lesson. For example: prohibit, proponent, ban, public policy, lobby, etc.
4. Have students watch the Retro Report film Why We Can’t Have a Civil Conversation About Guns and record their answers and feedback on the student activity handout.
5. Next, have students individually read the text of the Second Amendment and highlight or underline key words and phrases.
6. Place students in small groups (2-4 students) and have them compare the key words and phrases that they found.
   1. An alternative could be a quick “choral reading” literacy strategy featured in Winter 2017 by the Bar Association’s Insights on Law and Society Magazine. Originally part of a 14th Amendment lesson, Tracking the Transformative Fourteenth Amendment (page 8), it can easily be adapted for another Amendment.
7. After the students have shared their common key words and phrases, direct the students to the next portion of the handout. Five prompts have been provided about guns. You may have students examine the prompts individually and write why they agree or disagree with the prompt. Another option: create a Pear Deck, allowing students to nuance their stance on a spectrum. You may also have students engage in a civil conversation about guns using the prompts. Redirect the students to the rules and norms of civil conversations created by your class to prevent students from attacking or relying strictly on emotion during the conversation. Use as many or as few of the prompts as you would like for the civil conversation and use your judgment for when to move to another discussion prompt.
   1. For tips, review the P.S.I. (Prepare, Support and Intervene) model: Successful classroom discussions begin long before anyone speaks | THE Campus
8. Have students examine the policy goals, arguments and talking points provided by at least one gun control advocacy group and one gun rights advocacy group.
   1. After examining competing organizations, students will rank what they believe are each group’s strongest and weakest points, explaining their rationale.

About the Author:

Ryan Werenka teaches Social Studies at Troy High School in Troy, Mich., and was named the 2021 Michigan History Teacher of the Year by the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History. Ryan teaches AP US Government and Politics and AP Comparative Government and Politics.

Standards

Common Core Literacy Standards

• CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.9-10.1: Cite specific textual evidence to support analysis of primary and secondary sources, attending to such features as the date and origin of the information.
• CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.11-12.1: Cite specific textual evidence to support analysis of primary and secondary sources, connecting insights gained from specific details to an understanding of the text as a whole.
• CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.9-10.2: Determine the central ideas or information of a primary or secondary source; provide an accurate summary of how key events or ideas develop over the course of the text.
• CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.11-12.2: Determine the central ideas or information of a primary or secondary source; provide an accurate summary that makes clear the relationships among the key details and ideas.
• CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.9-10.4: Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including vocabulary describing political, social, or economic aspects of history/social science.
• CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.11-12.4: Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including analyzing how an author uses and refines the meaning of a key term over the course of a text (e.g., how Madison defines faction in Federalist No. 10).

College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Framework for Social Studies

• D2.Civ.7.9-12.Apply civic virtues and democratic principles when working with others.
• D2.Civ.9.9-12.Use appropriate deliberative processes in multiple settings.
• D2.Civ.10.9-12.Analyze the impact and the appropriate roles of personal interests and perspectives on the application of civic virtues, democratic principles, constitutional rights, and human rights.
• D2.Civ.13.9-12.Evaluate public policies in terms of intended and unintended outcomes, and related consequences.
• D2.Civ.14.9-12.Analyze historical, contemporary, and emerging means of changing societies, promoting the common good, and protecting rights.