Hey Everyone,
This semester is my first semester teaching. My course is about finding your voice. The units are:
Unit 1: The Stories I carry
Personal and Individual (Unit 1): Students reflect on their lived experiences. This unit affirms that their voices matter and that personal stories are legitimate sources of knowledge.
Possible Readings??:
Unit 2: Whose Voice Counts
Social and Collective (Unit 2): students have affirmed their own voices, they are asked to examine the voices around them.
Unit 3: Reclaiming the Narrative
**Academic and Public (Unit 3):**With personal grounding and analytical awareness, students are then equipped to enter larger conversations
Possible readings??:
Learning to Read- Malcom X
Im looking for (Shorter Readings/ excerpts) readings for the first unit. I’m looking into bell hooks, Amy Tan (Mother Tongue), but I want similar readings! If anyone can hep please let me know!
The course is anintro english class with students who are first generation.
Comments
The House on Mango Street-Sandra Cisneros
Always Running: La Vida Loca, Gang Days in L.A.-Luis J. Rodriguez
Children of the River-Linda Crew
Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in the Sky-Sherman Alexie
These are just off the top of my head. If I come up with more, I’ll be back.
-AND-
Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee-Dee Brown
-AND-
Hell is Empty-Craig Johnson
This course sounds amazing! Congrats, OP! As you get later into the course, you may want to have the students complete a social identity inventory (for their use only)—a sample can be found in “Teaching for Diversity and Social Justice.” You explain the categories first or have them relate them back to the course readings, and then they consider what their own identities are and how that relates to their place in society and their story/voice in society. Something that’s extremely important for first generation college students. That’s why it needs to be no stakes and for their use only, with the larger discussion relating back to the course. It ends up being vital to their growth and development as individuals, even if they don’t recognize it until later.
Another alternative is an identity collage that is a snapshot of them at this point in time. You have them prepare in advance by bringing in pictures, symbols, and other things that are meaningful to them.