About this Guide
This guide empowers instructors to intentionally design the first two weeks of a course as fertile ground for inclusion and dialogue. By combining evidence-based activities and digital tools, it shows how early trust-building, clear norms, and structured practice in listening and perspective-taking can transform classrooms into communities where students engage challenging ideas with confidence and respect.
We recommend this guide because it gives instructors a plug-and-play, two-week sequence with concrete prompts, timings, and rubrics that measurably builds trust, belonging, and shared norms before difficult topics arise. It blends evidence-based face-to-face and digital strategies (e.g., collaborative annotation, polling, structured controversy) so courses of any size or modality can practice listening, perspective-taking, and respectful, evidence-driven dialogue from day one.
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About this Guide
If you want students to engage different ideas and perspectives, do not wait for hot topic issues to emerge and hope for the best. Plant the seeds for civil discourse on day 1.
We offer the below guide for approaching the first two weeks of a course with the intention of creating a community in which students can feel both safe and brave.