Week 3: Community
EDUC 201 Discussion Section AD4
Agenda
- Seating
- Attendance
- Poetry: Community
- Group Formation
- Discussion in Groups
- Placement questions/concerns/issues
- Next week's assignments
1. Seating (2 min)
- Please sit on a different side of room from where you were last week.
- Different perspective
- Hello new neighbor
2. Attendance + Policies (3 min)
- Did I miss anyone at lecture?
- Attendance at both lecture and discussion is 10% of your grade (in the syllabus).
- If you don't find me before or after lecture, you are assumed absent.
- Attendance is now Moodle (0/10, all/nothing) going back to first week.
- I was lenient on day 1 and just entered nothing if I didn't check you in at lecture.
- An email telling me you were at lecture is NOT SUFFICIENT, PERIOD.
Forum
- Will change a tiny bit (max is now 500 words, don't have to respond but would be nice)
- I had wrong setup so couldn't comment privately, so you got grade but no feedback
- If you didn't get a 10, it's because you didn't say anything specific about the readings OR you used the wrong articles (or both); one post was very short as well.
Your Forum #1 Word Cloud on Community
3. Poetry Project: "Community" (15 min-ish)
For this exercise, the one requirement I have is that you do your best to avoid generic words, such as "family" or "cold." Try to be a little more creative and specific.
- Gather in your mind the strongest image of community you have for yourself: a community to which you belong, and a time when you were a part of that community. Assign ONE word to represent that community, and remember to be specific. (Do not write "family.") Write down that word.
- In this image, what time of year is it? What time of day? Choose ONE word and write it.
- What does it feel like? What's the temperature? Are you comfortable? Are there smells or sounds? What about colors or shapes? Choose 2-4 separate words to describe these sensory items.
- Think of a 3-word phrase that sums up the whole scene, and write it.
Next,
- Partner with 2 people who are NOT on the short list of possible partners you made last week
- Share what you wrote
- Get the markers and write your POEMS on the windows (I know!!!)
- Turn the room into a community by illustrating or embellishing your poetry!
- Gallery walk (it's a school thing, remember that term)
4. Group Formation (12 min)
Semi-secret!
- Consider: your short list, the forum threads from last weekend, our classroom dialogue and poetry experiences, etc.
- Think about two others in class who could boost you in covering the readings and videos each week.
- Ponder who you would enjoy getting together with on a fairly regular basis to work with on projects.
- Reflect also on those around you who are different from yourself. Who will help you to grow, to expand your horizons...who can you learn something new from as we build our community?
- Make a final list of 6 names. You will only be partnered with 3-4 other people.
- I will call each of you up to add your name to one of 7 groups. Find a spot that has as many of the people you chose as you can find. This will of course be easier for those who I choose at the end, sooooo...
- I will allow the first 7 people to come up and secretly jump groups
5. Discussion: Deconstructing Boggs in Groups! (60 min-ish)
- What does Boggs mean when she says, "over the past 70 years the various identity struggles have to some degree remediated the great wrongs that have been done to workers, people of color, Indigenous Peoples, women, gays and lesbians, and the disabled, while helping to humanize our society overall"? (Boggs, 33). Add two vocabulary words to the glossary as you discuss. Consider how what you discussed might be applied in your future community placement.
- Why did Einstein feel we need to redefine what it is to be human? (Boggs, 38) Is he right? What steps can we take to realize his goal? Add two vocabulary words to the glossary as you discuss. Consider how what you discussed might be applied in your future community placement.
- What is the difference between striving for "empowerment" instead of "power and control"? (Boggs, 41) Can you share some examples that illustrate this difference? Add two vocabulary words to the glossary as you discuss. Consider how what you discussed might be applied in your future community placement.
- Is it indeed "futile to keep calling on elected officials to create a more just, caring, and sustainable world"? (Boggs, 47) Why or why not? What would you do, if you could speak to these elected officials? If you could become an elected official? Add two vocabulary words to the glossary as you discuss. Consider how what you discussed might be applied in your future community placement.
- Discuss the concept that "the world is always being made and never finished" and the rest of that sentence/idea (Boggs, 48). Why is this significant? Make sure to touch on the crises we are facing today as well as past issues. Add two vocabulary words to the glossary as you discuss. Consider how what you discussed might be applied in your future community placement.
- Keeping in mind the idea of the binary trap I've warned you about and asked you to consider, where might this article fall on either side of a binary way of viewing the world? How might someone on the extreme opposite side respond/react? How might you as an educator serve as a mediator between, so that these ideas did not become lost? What might you change, or keep? Add two vocabulary words to the glossary as you discuss. Consider how what you discussed might be applied in your future community placement.
- Who do you think Boggs is addressing (writing too, or perhaps hoping to reach) in this chapter? Did her writing move you or sway your opinion as you were reading? Does she create a Brave Space? If you met her, and you disagreed with her views, how would you feel about contradicting her? Whose best interest does she serve? How do you know? Add two vocabulary words to the glossary as you discuss. Consider how what you discussed might be applied in your future community placement.
6. Placement questions/concerns/issues (5 min)
- If you haven't heard BACK from your early placement by Friday, email Jay. I can't help.
- If you haven't started actually working at your placement, attendance at the fair on 9/19 is mandatory. Go meet your people. Check in with me. I'll be taking attendance.
- Any questions/concerns? Remember what to bring?
7. Next week (5 min)
- Forum question DUE Sunday 9/17 at 11:59pm BASED ON READINGS FOR 9/19: Who is your favorite storyteller? Why? How might you draw on Dr. Edmin's concept of "magic" and Dr. McIntosh's concept of "privilege" to make the most of your community placement experience? (I'll open it this afternoon)
- You may or may not comment on others' posts (but it would be super cool if you do)
- Add at least one relevant vocabulary word/definition to the Glossary as you come across terms you are unfamiliar with.