Course material

1. Here you will build a politically-charged lesson plan, complete...
Here you will build a politically-charged lesson plan, complete with a short
lecture/discussion, related readings (or course materials), questions for the class, and an
assignment. (For those of you who one day plan to be teachers, this assignment might prove
interesting.)
Question: Have you ever heard of "critical pedagogy"? It is an educational philosophy in
which teachers/educators directly confront questions of social or political consequence in
their classrooms (e.g., race, gender, class privilege, etc.). Moreover, they encourage students
to think critically about themselves, their lives, and the world around them.
Thinking "critically" typically means getting outside one's "comfort zone," and directly
confronting various forms of injustice or inequality in the world—including whatever
apathy or confusion one might have about those things. It means uprooting the clichés or
"received wisdom" typically applied to such matters in media, in government, in our
families and communities, and even in our own minds. To think critically is to explore the
root causes of various forms of oppression and suffering, alongside one's own personal
connection to those things.
In the end, any classroom can be a site of potential liberation—not just for the student, but
for the teacher herself (i.e., a place for self-reflection and social change).
This is where you (i.e., the teacher) can play a role, one that challenges your students—or
the students you may one day have—to engage in acts of critical self-reflection.
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In this assignment, you will write a short "lesson plan" on a specific site of protest or
rebellion discussed in one of the course readings.
Your lesson plan should include the following:
A clear idea or topic—again, inspired by one (or more) of the books in this class
A liberal use of quotes, ideas, arguments, images, stories, etc. from your chosen book(s) to
write your lesson
A short classroom "talk" (i.e., discussion, debate, presentation) designed to "fire up" your
students and get them thinking about important issues and concerns related to your topic
A few provocative questions for your students to consider
An interesting assignment for your students to undertake, one that encourages either
critical self-reflection or political action
Some additional research of your own—two or three sources should suffice to help bring
deeper clarity and a stronger voice to your lesson plan

2. A Few Final Thoughts on Writing Your "Lesson Plan"
Ask yourself, how would you teach this material in class? Imagine that you have (say)
twenty students, and need to keep those students invested for the duration of the class.
What would you include in your lesson? Images/slides? Other forms of media (e.g., video,
sound, music)? Remember, your goal here is to teach a class—not just write an essay.
Moreover, you are not being asked to "teach" a given book from the Course Reading List, but
to actually use that book to build a balanced and thoughtful "lesson plan" (i.e., not overly
shrill or angry) of your own.
Your lesson plan is designed to get students thinking critically. That is, you want them to
explore their own personal orientation to some of the difficult social and political questions
we face today.
In general, your lesson plan should in no way shy away from making strong arguments.
Your goal, broadly speaking, is to draw attention to various forms of injustice and
oppression, to promote change, and even to advocate for causes.
So view this assignment as your opportunity to teach a class with a political or social agenda
of your own. Of course, we all have such agendas, even in classrooms, but often feel the need
to keep such matters hidden.
Those engaged in acts of critical pedagogy, however, make no such concessions. They view
classrooms, as suggested above, as sites of liberation, places where students can explore
their lives in critical ways.
Suggestion: Sherman Alexie's Tonto and The Lone Ranger... might be an excellent book to
help you build your lesson plan. Alexie's work takes on many provocative issues, such as
societal representations of Native Americans, schooling/education in Native American
communities, familial and communal strife, loss of traditional culture, alcoholism, etc. There
is much from which to choose.
But all the books in this class offer interesting sites of protest and rebellion to build a hard-
hitting, politically-motivated lesson plan of your own.