Instructor: Julie Barak Office: LHH 435

Phone: 248-1072 Office Hours: MWF 9:00-9:50

Home Page: http://www.mesastat.edu/~jbarak e-mail: [email protected]
 
 
 

Course Description:

The course will investigate the power and role of narrative in instigating individual and cultural change in educational settings. Through readings and discussions of literature and literary and sociological theory we will explore ways and means of teaching in order to build respect for diversity and desire for social justice. Our reading and writing will focus on how the issues of multiple identities, gender differences, role modeling, the concept of the "other," and cultural and social expectations can be addressed in classrooms in order to promote awareness and understanding.
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Course Goals:

• To analyze the ways diverse cultural and racial heritages, issues of gender, age, sexual preference, and physical and mental disabilities can be introduced into our classrooms to promote understanding, an embracing of diversity, and social justice
• To explore the impact of societal racism, sexism and discrimination on curricular design and to consider ways to redesign curriculum to address these issues.
• To contemplate the cultural continuities and discontinuities in texts, in our own lives and in the lives of our students.
• To expand our knowledge of multicultural texts in order to add them to our curriculum.

Course Methods:

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Required Texts and Other Expenses:

Alvarez, Julia. How The Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents.

Beatty, Paul. The White Boy Shuffle.

Cao, Lan. Monkey Bridge.

Erdrich, Louise. The Antelope Wife.

Lim. Shirley Geok-Lin. Among the White Moon Faces.

Lorde, Audre: Zami: A New Spelling of My Name.

Rodriquez, Abraham. The Boy Without a Flag.

Stanley, Sandra. Other Sisterhoods: Literary Theory and U.S. Women of Color.

Vinz, Ruth. Becoming (Other)wise.

Copies of your essays and responses.
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Course Requirements:

Class Presentation: (20% of your grade.) Students will be responsible for guiding us through a discussion of one of the novels on the reading list. In your presentation you need to include biographical, critical and contextual information that is relevant to the goals of the course listed above. Think about the literature as a pedagogical tool. How is it useful? What expectations and stereotypes does it challenge? How could you present it in order to foster an acceptance of diversity and to create a drive toward social justice? How does it intersect with the theory we've been reading and discussing and how does that theory lead you into practice? Your presentation will include a short (3-4 page) paper summarizing your approach and your recommendations for teaching the text. You should distribute copies of your paper to the class before you begin your presentation.

Presentation Response: (10% of your grade.) During the following class period pre-selected class members will prepare a written response (1-2 pages) to the presentation from the previous week. Your presentation can comment on, amend, expand or counter any aspect of your classmates' presentation or the following discussion. We will begin the class with a reading and discussion of your response.

Paper: (45 % of your grade.) This paper (15-20 pages, excluding end material, in MLA style) should be modeled on a set of chapters from Ruth Vinz's Becoming (Other)wise. The first section of the paper will be a discussion of your pedagogical approach to a particular multicultural narrative. Following that, you should put together a second section that examines the theoretical underpinnings of your approach. The assessment of the paper is broken up into the following parts:

Workshop paper: (10% of the grade.) A complete draft of your essay presented to all members of the class one week before your presentation. (All of these workshops will be held during the last five weeks of class. We'll draw names from a hat to determine who presents on which day.)

Workshop leader: (5% of the grade.) A selected student will lead the discussion responding to the paper assigned for the period. Since everyone will have a copy of the essay, the discussion questions can be detailed and specific, as well as theoretical and general. The discussion should focus on the strengths and weaknesses of the paper and should offer specific strategies for revision. We'll have about a 1/2 hour for each workshop, so you have time to discuss issues and ideas as well as format and presentation.

Final Draft of the Essay: (30% of the grade.)

Participation and Preparation: (20% of your grade.) Seminars don't work if people don't show up and turn their work in on time. Absences, as well as contributions to discussions, will affect this grade.

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Policies and Procedures:

Late work: NO LATE WORK WILL BE ACCEPTED. ABSENCE IS NOT AN EXCUSE FOR LATE WORK. The class just will not function if people don't show up when they're supposed to with the work that they're supposed to bring. The penalty for missing any presentation, workshop, or due date is a "zero" for that assignment.

Academic integrity: See pages 14-16 of the Student Handbook for college policies.

Special Needs: See page 11 of the Student Handbook for information about Educational Access Services. If you need additional information or help, please contact me.

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Schedule of readings and due dates:
 

Date		Reading Assignment	Writing or Response Due
Week 1	Sept. 10	Introduction and Chapters 1 and 2 of Vinz Film - Fires in the Mirror Essay Handout -- "Toward a Mulitcultural Pedagogy: Literary and Nonliterary Traditions"
Week 2	Sept. 17	White Boy Shuffle Activity Chapters 1, 3, and 4 of Other Sisterhoods	Presentation
Week 3	Sept. 24	Zami: A New Spelling of My Name Film: Sacred Lies; Civil Truths Chapter 10 of Other Sisterhoods Chapters 5 & 6 of Vinz	Response Presentation
Week 4	Oct. 01	The Boy Without a Flag or How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents Activity Chapters 2, 8, and 14 of Other Sisterhoods	Response Presentation
Week 6	Oct. 08	Monkey Bridge Activity or Film Chapter 9 of Other Sisterhoods	Response Presentation
Week 7	Oct. 22	Among the White Moon Faces Film or activity Chapter 5 of Other Sisterhoods	Response Presentation
Week 8	Oct. 29	The Antelope Wife Film or activity Chapters 6 and 11 of Other Sisterhoods	Response Presentation 1st set of Workshop papers due
Week 9	Nov. 5	Project Presentations & Reports	2nd set of Workshop papers due.
Week 10	Nov. 12	Project Presentations & Reports	3rd set of Workshop papers due.
Week 11	Nov. 19	Project Presentations & Reports
Week 12	Nov. 26	Papers Due.

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