• Know your material. Have more information than you really need, not only in case someone asks an unexpected question, but to broaden your own background, sharpen your perspective on the issue, and to strengthen your confidence in your ability to manage the subject.
  
  
• Take some time and think of questions concerning your subject that most interest you, for example:
  1. What do you most want to know about the Holocaust?
  2. What aspects bewilder and confuse you?
  3. Do you think Jews could have resisted more?
  4. Could we have seen it coming sooner? …

Questions are not meant to be rhetorical, but to help you prepare by probing the subject in as fresh and uninhibited a way as possible, and to provide openings that invite more exploration. You may not even directly allude to these questions in your discussion, but write them down and keep them with you.
We cannot emphasize one point enough: the more directly involved and concerned you are with your subject, the more infectious that concern will be to your group.

• Now ask questions that you think you'd ask if you were a group member. Anticipate every question you can. Again, put the questions on paper. Keep these questions handy, but don't become obsessed with shooting off answers. Use them to broaden the conversation and to provoke thinking.
  
  
• Assess how much you think your group knows about the subject.
  1. How much basic material do you need to impart?
  2. Will the theme be relevant to your participants?
  3. Or must you find a way to make it relevant?
  
  
  
• Keep your own subject specific. Don't bite off too much, or you are likely to get frustrated and lose control of the discussion.
  
  
• Pick a modest and attainable goal. This is especially important if you are directive in your approach.
  1. What do you want learned?
  2. What is the main question you want the group to leave with?
  3. What progress should be made in planning?
  4. What change in the attitude or behavior of the participants would you like to see?
  5. What specific problem is to be solved in this or later sessions?

And yet, with all this planning, remain flexible. If your plan is going nowhere, and the kids are eager and take things in their own direction, let them go. Don't end a constructive discussion just because it doesn't follow the plan you had prepared.