RTTP Student FAQ

• Search “Reacting to the Past” in your school’s course directory

• Ask your registrar

• Visit your history department

• Barnard Students: Reacting to the Past is offered as a First Year Seminar. Check out the FYS page for more information.

The Reacting Consortium Library is a resource for educators in higher-education only, unfortunately. Thus, access is restricted to professors, teaching assistants, and the like, as most of the material available there is intended for use in teaching college-level courses. 

• You can read about Reacting to the Past pedagogy by downloading the RTTP Student Introduction here.

• You will be playing the role of a historical character, and separating the beliefs of that character from your own. Think about getting in character!

• You will be reading primary historical texts, and writing papers grounded in historical fact.

• You will be actively participating in debate and public speaking.

• Get excited (and creative)! Reacting is a lot of fun, and your excitement is contagious. Costumes, crafts, posters, etc, are all possibilities. 

• Reacting tends to bring students together, so you will most likely make some new friends in your class! (Also, expect to have difficulty remembering their actual names... you may know them by their character names.)

When playing a Reacting to the Past Game, it is important to remember that each role is an actual, historical person. These people should be represented thoughtfully and respectfully, with attention to their ideological stances and political positions coming before attention to surface-level traits. 

Getting into character is about "seeing through the eyes" of the historical figure that you are playing. Therefore, you should research what your character's opinions were at the time of the Game, and read about their life. Act in a way that you believe that they would act - and we're not talking about mannerisms or voices, but about political and ideologically-charged acts.

Know what issues are most important to your character, and when and how your character would step in and defend what they believe in. 

Dressing up in costume is an optional choice that, when executed thoughtfully and accurately, facilitates immersive gameplay and cultural learning. However, when playing a character across gender, race, or culture, it is important to portray that person as an individual, and not as a generalization or stereotype of that culture. Ensure that any aesthetic choices that you make for your character are historically accurate and respectful.

Reacting to the Past classes are a place to learn and grow, so remember that nobody is expecting perfection from the very start. 

Participating more casually in classroom discussions before giving an official speech can be helpful practice in getting comfortable with public speaking.

Additionally, we have some public speaking resources! Here’s a link to a helpful YouTube series: the Lily Lamboy videos.

Barnard Students: Barnard offers a Speaking Fellows Program, accessible here.

When you are assigned a Game, your role sheet and your Game Book are your best friends. So study your role, and read your Game Book assignments!

You will either be assigned a character that is part of a faction, with a shared belief that holds you all together, or assigned a character that is an “indeterminate” and has not aligned themselves with any particular historical faction.

• When playing a Reacting Game, it is necessary to separate a character’s point of view from your own point of view. Keep the phrase “what would _____ do?” or “what would ____ think?” in your mind as you participate in class discussions or read assigned texts instead of drawing from your personal feelings and experiences. 
• Although a view may seem obviously and objectively wrong to you, you are looking at it from your own, specific perspective. Understanding why problematic viewpoints are held is a great way to argue more effectively against them.
• Playing a historical role requires distancing yourself from your personal views. If you believe that this role will be a barrier to your learning, speak to your professor to determine a solution. 

Firstly, congrats! You’re doing amazing. Here are some options:

• If your Game Book lists supplementary readings, READ THEM! Prioritize by reading supplementary readings that are most relevant to your character’s positions/opposing positions first. 
•  If your Game Book does NOT list supplementary readings, there are many other ways to find outside resources. Search on Google for relevant primary source materials from the time period. (You can use key ideas from your role sheet to formulate the search terms).)
• Barnard Students: Each of you is assigned a personal librarian. Don’t be afraid to use this resource, especially for Reacting!

Playing a Reacting Game can look different for everyone! Working with your fellow students is invaluable - communication of ideas, persuasion, and strategy happens through socialization.

• Outside of class, meeting in person or communicating through an app like Messenger or Slack can be super helpful. 

• In class, do your best to participate, using what you have learned and acting off your plan. Know your own strengths, and how you can help your team (or yourself) most effectively. Defend your stance using evidence-based arguments!

• It may be helpful to meet with the other people in your faction to create a plan to use in class.
• You can share the facts from primary texts that you have learned and use those to build a solid foundation for your in-class arguments.
• You may wish to delegate the research and argumentation of different key points to different members of your faction.

• Educate yourself on the positions of all the factions, and become aware of characters that may be partial to your individual beliefs.
• It may be beneficial to meet with members of certain factions before class.
• You may use your connections with other players to further your own character goals, and to decide how you will align in in-class issues.

Reacting to the Past, although a game, requires preparation and skills that are consistently required in college and “real life” situations, including:

• Research: Using primary resources to inform your positions and formulate coherent arguments is a useful skill that will follow you throughout life. 
• Collaboration: To “win” a Reacting to the Past Game, it is necessary to work with others in a team. You will share your research, discuss historical concepts and positions, and create a plan. Employers and professors value the ability to lead, the ability to listen, and the ability to compromise and work well with others. 
• Composure:  Playing a Reacting Game can help you learn to speak objectively about tense and complicated political subjects, regardless of your personal position. During more heated discussions, Reacting players understand that they are acting as characters, and will continue to be friends and classmates afterwards. This compartmentalizing can be a useful skill for navigating difficult real-life situations and help you to think objectively in the future.
   

• Public Speaking: In a Reacting to the Past class, you will be required to deliver several speeches that should effectively argue your character’s position. Expect to gain comfort with public speaking, to learn effective persuasive rhetorical devices, and to learn how to retain audience attention. 

• Debate skills: You will learn how to use historical facts effectively in arguments, and how to refute others’ positions.

• Writing and Research: Expect to write several research papers that will inform the speeches you give in-class. Reacting will teach you how to be a researcher, and how to effectively use the historical facts that you find to build cohesive and convincing written arguments

• Collaboration: Whether you are in a faction or an Indeterminate, Reacting pedagogy requires students to work together, share ideas, and devise plans. You will learn how to work as a team, share knowledge, and to take on leadership roles/step back when each is necessary.

• Critical Reading: When you engage with primary texts in a Reacting Game, you are doing so not only to absorb the content, but also to find weaknesses in arguments and improve upon them. Critical reading improves understanding of texts and allows students to write cohesive arguments that question primary texts. 

• Empathy: Reacting to the Past asks you as a student to "see through the eyes" of another person, whose beliefs are informed by a different set of personal experiences, circumstances, and social norms. Playing a Reacting to the Past character changes the way that we experience viewpoints other than our own by encouraging us to imagine the reasons behind why a person may act, think or speak. When we are thoughtful of another person's situation, it is much easier to engage in respectful, empathetic discourse.

  • See: "What does 'getting into character' mean?" for more information.

The content that you will learn in a Reacting Game depends on which game you are playing. From Athens in 403 B.C.E to Environmental Science and Politics, Reacting Games focus on a pivotal point in history, in which opposing viewpoints debate. In the time and place of the specific game you are playing, you will learn:

• Historical Context
  • You will learn what historic events led up to the pivotal start of your Game.
  • In the debrief, you will learn how the events of your Game actually played out: that is, which side historically "won" and how. 
• Historical Figures
  • Each role that a student plays in a Reacting Game is a historical figure from that time and place. 
  • By reading primary texts, you will inform yourself about your own role and your peers' roles.
  • Interacting with others during in-class debates emulates debates between those historical figures that would have happened at the time. This is a way to solidify your knowledge of the political stances of historical figures.
• Influential Literature
  • Each Game Book contains primary texts from the time and place of the Game, each presenting a key viewpoint. Through conversation and critical reading of these texts, you will become comfortable with the differing political stances of literature during this time period. 
• Social Interaction 
  • Reacting Games require students to consider the social consequences of the issues that they are debating. Through in-class debate, it will become apparent how characters' political beliefs influence their social interactions. Students may also directly vote on topics that would influence social structure, such as enfranchisement of minority groups.
• Cultural Structures, Norms and Traditions
  • Because each student is playing a role, Reacting engages with cultural norms of the time more than a debate class. For example, if you are playing the Constitutional Convention Game, President Washington presides over the class in the same way that he presided over the Convention. Votes are tallied in context of delegate structure, and you may be exposed to even some questionable cultural traditions such as dueling.
  • Religious Viewpoints
    • In some Games, key viewpoints are influenced by religious beliefs or movements. Playing a Reacting Game allows students to emulate what it would be like for people of varying convictions to convene and debate with each other. Depending on the Game, you may be voting on whether to pass legislation specifically related to religion, and critically studying religious texts.
• Ideological Viewpoints
  • By participating in a Game with opposing factions, you will be exposed to the most influential ideological viewpoints of the time period. In the research and writing of speeches, your fellow students will defend their faction's viewpoint using primary evidence, which will allow you as a student to understand where those critical viewpoints originated, and how they were propagated. 

Debating is a skill that involves opposition and engagement with ideas and principles, not people. The in-class debates are not composed of personal attacks or insults, but rather critiques of arguments.

When making a critical point in debate, it is important to:

• Ensure that you are critiquing the person's idea, concept, or logical error, and not the person themselves.
• Back up your point with evidence from key texts: the more specific and concrete, the better. 
• Example:  Let's reframe this poorly-worded position.
  • Don't say:
    • "You're too closed minded to think of metics and slaves as deserving the vote in the Assembly. They do, because they fought in the resistance to the Thirty Tyrants." 
      • What is wrong with this statement?
        • It contains a personal attack on the opponent: "You're too closed minded."
        • Its reasoning is too vague: What did their help in fighting the Thirty Tyrants do? Make your point in logical steps.
  •  Improving the statement could look something like this:
    • "Metics and slaves should be allowed to vote in the Assembly because without their help during the war against the Thirty Tyrants, democracy in Athens would not have been restored. Since metics and slaves are partially responsible for the restoration of our democracy, they should be allowed to participate in it. Denying metics and slaves this right ignores the work that they have done and the lives that they have lost."