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language teaching for social justice

ASSIGNMENTS

In this course, each theme has several options for student contribution areas, including lesson plans, material evaluation and adaptation, a reflective journal entry, contribution to our resources and news area.

Quick links: ASSIGNMENT OPTIONS | TECHNICAL INSTRUCTIONS | CATEGORY GUIDE

Assignment Options
for each theme

LESSON PLANS

To submit this assignment, save this lesson plan template as a Google doc, enable ‘changes’, and post the link into your post with a brief note. Once you are done with revisions, save your project as a PDF. Go back to your post, remove the Google doc and post your PDF by clicking on ‘add media.’ Here is the handout for details about this project.

MATERIAL EVALUATION AND ADAPTATION

To submit this assignment, save the document as a Google doc, enable ‘changes’, and post the link into your post with a brief commentary. Once you are done with revisions, save your project as a PDF. Go back to your post, remove the Google doc and post your PDF by clicking on ‘add media.’ Here’s the handout presenting the details for this project.

REFLECTIVE POSTS

Over the course of the semester, you will be writing several reflective posts.

Task 1

Your first post is about “Understanding your privilege:”

Tell us how you managed to get where you are in life today: your academic degree, teaching position etc.
What kind of support did you receive? (financial, pastoral, collegial, friendship, family, social networks, etc)
How equally do you think these support systems are distributed in the society you grew up?
How do you think these support systems shape your story of fighting injustices in the society or in educational contexts?

Please post this assignment as: Race reflection

Once you submit your post, you need to read at least two of your friends’ reflection and make a constructive follow-up comment.

The deadline for your own reflective post is 17^th of September, Thursday. You will then have until 20th, Sunday midnight to post your comments to each other’s contributions.

Task 2

LGBTQ issues and gay-friendly pedagogies

For this task, please choose one of the two options below. Please indicate in your Reflection # 2 which option you worked on. The deadline for your own reflective post is 1st of October, Thursday. You will then have until the 4th, Sunday midnight to post your comments to each other’s contributions.

Option 1: Reflect on a context

For this task, you will focus on a country/city/school/institution of your select. It might be good to focus on your ideal/current teaching context, a country/city/town you have lived in before or you would like to live/work in, your home country if other than States, your hometown (US or abroad), or the country of the language you teach. The main purpose of this task is to be able to reflect on LGBTQ+ issues and how to be an ally for LGBTQ+ within a particular context of your select.

Here are some guiding questions:

In this context, what do people do or say if they want to be seen as queer or straight? Why/when do they want to be seen as queer? Why/when do they not want to?
After people move away from this country, to what extent do they change how they think about gender identities? Why?
How safe do you think your country/context/practicum school is for LGBTQ+ students?
What do you think can be done to be more inclusive to LGBTQ+ students in this particular context?

Option 2: Conduct an interview

You have several options for this task:

Interview a professor/teacher/student/friend at MIIS [or a different educational setting] and report their thoughts on LGBTQ+ issues and LGBTQ+ inclusive pedagogy.
Interview a member of the LGBTQ+ community at MIIS [or a different educational setting] and report their thoughts on LGBTQ+ issues and LGBTQ+ inclusive pedagogy.
Comment on these questions and other issues according to how you feel about them.

You can address the guiding questions presented above in your interview as well. If you decide to conduct interviews, please make sure that you follow the following steps to minimize ethical concerns:

Before the interviews, please tell your participant(s) about the reasons behind this interview and receive their formal or informal consent
Make sure you are informing them about if and how you are recording the interview (audio, video, note-taking) and how you will store the data
Do not reveal any identifying information about the individual you have interviewed in your reflection # 3. Please make sure you use pseudonyms instead of real names.

Task 3

Short book

This is a list of short books, all relating to issues of social justice. You will choose one of these books to read over the semester in order to deepen and broaden your thinking on these topics. Once you are done reading your books, you will write a reflection by elaborating on:

Brief summary of the book
The pedagogical use of the book: If you can consider using it for language teaching purposes, and if so how. If you think you can’t, then articulate your reasons for why.
Discussion points in the book for your students to reflect on
How the book embodies/reflect the core concepts and issues we discussed in the class

Task 4

To be posted.

CURRENT EVENTS

Please share any news reports you find in relation to any of the issues we discuss in the class.

MULTIMEDIA TEACHING RESOURCES

Please share any digital media resource you find in relation to any of the issues we discuss in the class. It could be a webinar, podcast, TED talk, or a video (documentaries are especially welcome!).

Technical Instructions: How to Author and Publish Posts

The following steps are intended to guide members of this learning community by explaining how to write and publish your assignments as authors on this site. If you are not yet an author and wish to contribute, click here to send a message with your request. If you maintain your own separate website which you have arranged with the professor to syndicate into this space, these instructions do not necessarily apply.

Step 1: Go to the Dashboard

Go to http://teachforsocialjustice.middcreate.net/wp-admin/
For username, type your email address.
For password, type the password provided to you by your professor.
Note that if you are already logged in, you will go right to the Dashboard.

Go to Dashboard

Step 2: Add/edit profile picture

Click “Profile” in left menu
Click “Click to Edit” beside “Profile Image”
Upload a square image of yourself or an avatar if you prefer. You can also keep the one your instructor has uploaded.
Click “Update Profile” on bottom of screen.

Try Avatar Maker Try Avachara

Step 3: Type assignment

Click “Posts” in left menu
Click “Add New”
Type the title of your post.
Type the content of your post. Choose Heading 3 for font size.
For posts that include a weblink (e.g., news), try adding a hyperlink.
For posts that include a pdf attachment (lesson plans and materials adaptation), click on add media (right below add title) and upload your pdf. From “attachment display settings”, select “attachment page” and then click on “insert into post” to finish uploading your file.
Whenever you include a weblink or an attachment, select “open in new tab” in settings so that the page opens in a new tab.

Step 4: Add featured image

In the bottom right corner, click “Set featured image”
Upload an image to your post. The image can be your own, or a Creative Commons licensed image. To find a new image, try Unsplash or search for a Creative Commons licensed image.

CC Image Search Search Unsplash

Step 5: Select category

On the right side of the screen, find the list of categories. Each category denotes a specific assignment and theme.
Check the box next to the one category which contains the assignment you are completing with your post.

* Tip: scroll down on this page to see a complete list of categories and corresponding themes and assignments that will help you with this step.

Step 6: Choose privacy option

In the top right area of the screen, beside “Visibility” select “Edit”
For a public post, select “Public”
For a private post, select “Password Protected” and type the course password presented on your syllabus.
Click “OK”

Step 7: Publish

Read your post and make any necessary edits.
Click “Publish” in the top right corner.
When your post has been published, it will appear on the site.

Category Guide
Selecting the right category for each assignment

Whether you maintain your own separate website or author posts on this learning space, it is important that you choose the correct category when publishing posts in order for your assignments to appear in the right place on this site. The following chart lists each category and its corresponding theme and assignment for your reference. Please refer to this chart to help you select the right category for your posts, and contact your professor with questions.

Chart

Category	Theme	Assignment
Environment Lesson	Environmental Education and Sustainability	Lesson Plans
Environment Materials	Environmental Education and Sustainability	Material Evaluation and Adaptation
Environment News	Environmental Education and Sustainability	Current Events
Environment Reflection	Environmental Education and Sustainability	Reflective Posts
Environment Resource	Environmental Education and Sustainability	Multimedia Teaching Resources
Gender Lesson	Gender Equality	Lesson Plans
Gender Materials	Gender Equality	Material Evaluation and Adaptation
Gender News	Gender Equality	Current Events
Gender Reflection	Gender Equality	Reflective Posts
Gender Resource	Gender Equality	Multimedia Teaching Resources
LGBTQ Lesson	LGBTQ+ Inclusive Pedagogy	Lesson Plans
LGBTQ Materials	LGBTQ+ Inclusive Pedagogy	Material Evaluation and Adaptation
LGBTQ News	LGBTQ+ Inclusive Pedagogy	Current Events
LGBTQ Reflection	LGBTQ+ Inclusive Pedagogy	Reflective Posts
LGBTQ Resource	LGBTQ+ Inclusive Pedagogy	Multimedia Teaching Resources
Miscellaneous News	LGBTQ+ Inclusive Pedagogy	Current Events
Miscellaneous Resource	Social justice	Multimedia Teaching Resources
Race Lesson	Race & Ethnicity	Lesson Plans
Race Material	Race & Ethnicity	Materials Evaluation and Adaptation
Race News	Race & Ethnicity	Current Events
Race Reflection	Race & Ethnicity	Reflective Posts
Race Resource	Race & Ethnicity	Multimedia Teaching Resources
Immigration Lesson	Immigration & Peacebuilding	Lesson Plans
Immigration Materials	Immigration & Peacebuilding	Materials Evaluation and Adaptation
Immigration News	Immigration & Peacebuilding	Current Events
Immigration Reflection	Immigration & Peacebuilding	Reflective Posts
Immigration Resource	Immigration & Peacebuilding	Multimedia Teaching Resources
Social Class Lesson	Social Class	Lesson Plans
Social Class Materials	Social Class	Materials Evaluation and Adaptation
Social Class News	Social Class	Current Events
Social Class Reflection	Social Class	Reflective Posts
Social Class Resource	Social Class	Multimedia Teaching Resources