It is Friday July 3rd, 2020.
This is a daily, thirty-minute journal in order to keep myself accountable for writing a course over the summer months. In all likelihood, this endeavor will take me past the summer months, but I will get as much of the groundwork lain as I can. As I intend to teach the course for the summer of 2021, I have an extended timeline. The hope is to have all of the modules prepared prior to the beginning of the course, allowing me to focus on engaging with students, fine-tuning aspects of the course, and making sure I have adequate feedback, as opposed to building the course as students are taking it. Thus, none of what is posted here will likely be seen or read by anyone, but since nobody else is going to take the initiative for me, I need to set it up myself.
This is going to be embarrassingly transparent and poorly edited, so in the off chance anyone reads this, I hope you can accept this for what it is: a journal mixed with reflection and planning. In fact, much of my plans are on a series of notebooks and backs of envelopes as ideas come to me. Part of this effort is refining those ideas into concrete plans.
I have yet to complete the acknowledgement and thank-you letter for receipt of a grant in the amount of $1,500 for the summer in order to provide me time to write this course, tentatively entitled, “Black Freedom Fighters and the Movements that Made Them.” A friend encouraged me to think about Black Freedom “Seekers,” as everyone who sought freedom didn’t necessarily see themselves as a “fighter,” per se. Also, they mentioned I should consider what it would be like to consider a wider group of freedom seekers. I believe the first idea makes sense; the second I will have to ponder...
My desire for the moment is to focus on what Black people did as their histories have been ignored or erased. I have a general notion that Black Studies came out of this tradition, as did other traditions: Native American Studies/Chicano Studies, etc. It does bring up the sticky situation of what constitutes Black in society? And which society? What makes a person Black? What happens when they have more than one identity; how are those identities prioritized? So, the question of what is Blackness and why should I be writing a course on specifically Black freedom seekers needs to be answered.
Another question that might come up is my insistence on capitalizing Black while not capitalizing white. I have composed a large footnote in another paper on this subject and will include it here soon.
The syllabus for the course must have additional readings available to students as suggestions. I am thinking about those readings being offered by thematic cluster; other people who sought freedom either in a similar period or along the same ideological front. Syllabus guidelines for University of Oregon are here: https://provost.uoregon.edu/syllabus-guidelines - I will check out TEP’s starter syllabus for remote courses here: https://blogs.uoregon.edu/keepteaching/2020/03/18/check-this-out-uo-remote-starter-syllabus/
Each decision, such as the decision to capitalize Black, will include an annotated set of explanations. The idea is to make these as transparent as possible, and the course as understandable as possible, so I will revise the use of jargon in my first drafts to allow for this.
I will do my best to work from a proficiency-based model. Accordingly, assignments will be scaffolded, meaning students will be able to see how each part fits together and how they can achieve mastery over each component. Those who need more effort in one area or another will have access to transparent information and support in order to achieve that proficiency. The grading scale will then need to reflect that. Is it possible for me to consider my grading practices in a way that will account for a standard of improvement over a fixed scale? I need to do a search on research-backed grading practices. In all likelihood, I will find a number of contradictory studies and will need to make decisions on “best” practices. (paused to search – it looks like I’ll be busy and need to get some coaching on this).