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May 11, 2005
Resources for Blind Students in the Composition Classroom
The following exchange appeared on the Writing Program Administrators' listserv (WPA-L) on May 11, 2005:
I will have a blind student in my College Writing class next fall. Our special services will record the essays from the assigned reader, but I was wondering if there were any grammar and style exercises, or formatting guides (in other words a writing handbook) available for the blind. Also would love to have some advice from anyone who has had a similar teaching experience.
Have you met the blind student yet? Do you know whether s/he is 100% unsighted, or "legally blind"? There can be differences. For example, some students who are severely vision-impaired can still make out work sheets for in-class exercises if you make a special printed copy with very large typeface.
Will the student have a guide dog? It's important to reinforce the "no petting" rule, especially if the student is petite/female (for some reason, people pet women's guide dogs even after the owner says "please don't pet my dog, she's working").
Are you teaching in a computer lab? All of the techno-dynamics will come into play, but it might be groovy and eye-opening for *all* students in the class.
Are you an animated hand-talker? (i.e., do you use a lot of visual gestures and facial expressions to get things across during lecture/discussion?) If so, you'll want to find warm and including ways to "narrate" what you're gesturing about, so the unsighted student can be a part of things, and so these meanings come across clearly on his/her tape recorder.
Also, you need to lecture clearly, and remind other students to speak up and be clear, since your unsighted student will be recording the class period. Which reminds me...will your student have a note-taker? Some colleges provide this service, some don't. In my classes at one college, students could make a few dollars from the student assistance center by taking notes for their disabled classmates who were registered with the center.
Will you be showing videos/films? Will your special services center help the student work with visual media used in class?
OK, these are just some topics for you to consider.
Posted by mryonker at 01:22 PM | Comments (0)
May 05, 2005
Spring Symposium Schedule
The Writing Program's Spring 2005 Symposium
Thursday May 5 and Friday May 6
500 HL
Work.Culture.Classroom
D i f f e r e n c e
Sponsored by the Vice Chancellor's Fund for Diversity, the Writing Program, the CCR PhD Program, and the Graduate School
Thursday, May 5, 500 HL
John Norris, founder and executive director of Group Dynamics and Strategy Training, will facilitate workshops on cultural diversity and conflict in the classroom.
10-noon John Norris
noon-1 PM Lunch
1-3 PM John Norris
3 PM Wine and cheese reception
Friday, May 5, 500 HL
Minnie Bruce Pratt, poet, writer, LGBT scholar, and anti-oppression activist will speak about writing, the teaching of writing, and social justice.
10-11 AM Minnie Bruce Pratt (reading)
11-noon Working groups
noon-1 PM Lunch
Jose Palafox, PhD student in Comparative Ethnic Studies at UC Berkeley, and teacher at Mills College, will talk about border and immigrant rights as research, pedagogy, and activism.
1-2 PM Jose Palafox (readings)
2-3 PM Working groups
3:00 PM Wine and cheese reception
4:00 PM (optional) Screening and discussion of New World Borders, film by Jose Palafox
Readings for the Friday speakers will be available in mid-April here on the diversity website--please check back.
If you are interested in participating in the Spring Symposium, contact Faith Plvan (fsplvan@syr.edu) in the Writing Program.
Posted by mryonker at 11:20 AM | Comments (0)
Readings Posted for Spring Symposium
The Writing Program's Spring 2005 Symposium
Thursday May 5 and Friday May 6
500 HL
Work.Culture.Classroom
D i f f e r e n c e
Readings:
Minnie Bruce Pratt
IDENTITY: SKIN BLOOD HEART [pdf]
Jose Palafox
Required:A Song of El Norte [pdf]
Suggested:
Opening Up Borderland Studies [pdf]
The U.S.-Mexico Borderlands in Comparative Perspectives [pdf] Arizona Ranchers Hunt Mexicans [pdf]
Miliitarizing The Border [pdf]
Screaming Our Thoughts [pdf]
Posted by gr at 11:01 AM | Comments (0)
Minnie Bruce Pratt to Speak at Spring Symposium
Minnie Bruce Pratt is a poet, a teacher, and an LGBT and anti-oppression activist. She may be best known for Yours in Struggle: Three Feminist Perspectives on Anti-Semitism and Racism (co-authored with Elly Bulkin and Barbara Smith). Her most recent book, The Dirt She Ate, received the 2003 Lambda Literary Award for Poetry. Along with her partner, transgender activist Leslie Feinberg, Pratt has been a courageous and outspoken activist for human rights and has worked across borders of class, gender, nation, sexuality, and race to collaborate with others in movements for social justice. She has written five books of poetry: The Sound of One Fork, We Say We Love Each Other, Crime Against Nature, Walking Up Depot Street, and most recently The Dirt She Ate: Selected and New Poems.
Minnie Bruce Pratt has taught at the University of Maryland-College Park and recently served as the Jane Watson Irwin Chair in Women’s Studies at Hamilton College. Her areas of concentration there were Women's Studies, Lesbian/Gay/Bisexual/ Transgender Studies, and Creative Writing. She lives with her partner, transgender activist and writer Leslie Feinberg, in Jersey City, New Jersey. More information is available at www.mbpratt.org.
Posted by mryonker at 10:57 AM | Comments (0)
Jose Palafox to speak at Spring Symposium
José Palafox is a visiting lecturer in the Department of Ethnic Studies at Mills College (2004-05). Palafox is a PhD candidate in the Department of Ethnic Studies at UC Berkeley where he is completing his dissertation, “Challenging Fronteras: The Historical Origins and Transformations of U.S.-Mexico Border Social Movements in Arizona and California.” He is associate producer of the critically acclaimed documentary “New World Border” (2001, 28 minutes, revised edition, 2005, DVD). Palafox was born in Tijuana, B.C., Mexico and raised in San Diego, CA. He has published extensively on the militarization of the U.S.-Mexico border (e.g., Z Magazine, Covert Action Quarterly, ColorLines Magazine, and Clamour) and has long been involved with immigrant and border rights. As a musician and activist, Palafox has been part of the punk-hardcore underground scene since the early 1990’s.
Posted by mryonker at 08:28 AM | Comments (0)
John Norris to Speak at Spring Symposium
John A. Norris is the founder and Executive Director of Group Dynamics and Strategy Training Associates, Inc. (GST), an international, multi-disciplined training and consulting firm. He is the Director of the Urban Leadership Academy and Safe Schools Initiative for the Hamilton County Department of Education in Chattanooga, Tennesse. Norris is a process consultant with extensive experience and expertise in leadership development. Also, he served as consultant for cultural diversity and conflict for the International Fund of Ireland, Wider Horizon Program and is the former Director of the Institute for Cultural Diversity and Quality Process Improvement at Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida. He was Chief of Professional Development for the Department of Defense Equal Opportunity Management Institute and acted as the on-call cultural diversity consultant for the Family Liaison Office of the US Department of State. Norris is retired from the United States Air Force where he served most of his career as an expert advisor on cultural and ethnic dynamics, conflict management/resolution, leadership, and intergroup relations. He is credited with bringing to solution some of the US military’s most explosive intergroup and cultural conflicts. He has the distinction of being selected as one of the United States Air Force’s Most Outstanding Airmen.
Posted by mryonker at 08:04 AM | Comments (0)