5/4 - Class Recap

Students shared their racial autobiographies today in class - I am sure that many of our backgrounds are related to people who immigrated through New York City. Photo taken in 2010.

Hello everyone,

Welcome back to DSJ! We had plenty to do with our continuing work. Here's what happened in class today:

Learning Targets Addressed:
I can communicate effectively, both verbally and in writing.
I can explain the process of change and continuity in a society, place, or region.

Soundtrack: "Colored People" by dc Talk. Selected for today because it was a part of my (Mr. Fritz's) racial autobiography, which was due as an assignment for students today in class. Lyrics here.

AGENDA 5/4/18:
Check In/Review Agreements
What Can I Do Today?
"Yellow" Debrief
Racial Autobiography Work

Homework: Read the blog! Make sure you have everything turned in, especially your Where I'm From poem and Racial Autobiography!
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Check In/Review Agreements: Here are the Courageous Conversations Agreements. We will always review this at the beginning of class, as it sets the foundation for how we want class to approach the issues we are studying. We also asked what students were up to outside of class since the last time we checked in.

What Can I Do Today?: We also asked students if there was anything they wanted to add to the "What Can I Do Today?" poster up at the front of the room, in terms of actions outside of class. We also noted that the list is live on the blog here on the upper right corner, with links!

"Yellow" Debrief: Last class, we read excerpts from "Yellow: Race in America Beyond Black and White" by Frank Wu. Amazon link here. We also started the process of sharing out about what the chapters said, in the form of presenting posters in class. We finished this today and will use this information as we continue to talk about Asian American experience.

Racial Autobiographies: The rest of class was devoted to sharing our racial autobiographies in what we call "affinity groups" where students selected where they felt like they identified most with, in the hopes of having some commonality in the discussion. Here is the assignment for students who want an electronic copy or who missed class:

Google Drive - Racial Autobiography Assignment

We shared the racial autobiographies and developed a list in the affinity groups about top issues that the group felt like they were facing.

The idea here was to continue to talk about the issues students identified in affinity groups, and to do some research on the historical context for how those issues came about. To that end, I passed out this guide to help:

Google Drive - Affinity Group Issue Research Guide

Basically, we wanted students to understand the history behind some of what they are experiencing. I used the term "microaggression" as an example here.

After identifying some historical context, we then wanted students to find a current event relating to the top 3 issues their group identified. Next class, we will have a fishbowl style discussion (sort of like the Socratic Seminar), where the main focus will be listening to the experiences of other groups. The historical research combined with current events will be helpful in guiding this conversation!

Next class, we will have a discussion about these issues (I know many groups did not finish with this), with the hopes of engaging everyone in meaningful dialogue. Have a great weekend, everyone!