|
“MnWE News” Late
Summer Issue
July-Aug. 2020
2021
Conference
Fri.-Sat., March
26-27
Fully Online
In this issue:
1.
CURRENT
TEACHING
PREDICTIONS
2.
HOW CAN YOU
BEST TEACH
ANTI-RACISM?
3.
NEW ANTI-RACIST
BOOKS
(Thirty-five
Free Online)
4.
YELLOW MEDICINE
REVIEW
AND STRIVE
PUBLISHING
5. FREE
E-NEWSLETTERS
(in each issue)
6. ABOUT MNWE
(in each issue)
If you are new
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currently by
Zoom.
---
1. CURRENT FALL PREDICTIONS
This
fall, current
predictions
assume that many
colleges and
universities
will offer
online and
in-person mixes.
Nationally, some
universities are
reporting that
more students
from their own
state will
attend than in
the past,
presumably so
they can be
closer to home.
In
Minnesota,
enrollment is
slower than
usual. Some
private colleges
and public and
private
universities
report going
deeper into
their
new-student wait
lists, bringing
their
enrollments up
to last fall’s
level.
Minnesota’s
community
colleges may
suffer as a
result. Most of
them already
experienced
enrollment drops
the past several
years.
However,
all such
predictions
await what
happens as the
“first wave”
continues and a
second wave may
develop in fall.
The University
of Minnesota,
for example, is
hedging its bet
by offering
options for
taking courses
either online or
in person; after
Thanksgiving,
all U of MN
students will
stay home to
finish online.
Many four-plus
year schools may
offer in-person
courses because
their foreign
students may
lose their visas
if they only
attend online.
MinnState
(Minnesota’s
public two-year
colleges and
state
universities) is
working
especially to
help
disadvantaged
students in the
fall. Such
students–or
their
families–may
have lost jobs,
access to
technology, and
quiet study
space. Surveys
also show they
and
first-generation
students have a
greater
preference for
in-person
learning and
help. MinnState
is offering its
faculty multiple
free training
webinars to
improve their
online teaching,
including
humanizing it to
be more inviting
and interactive.
---
Online-Teaching
Resources from
earlier “MnWE
News”:
www.mnweconference.com/resources.html.
---
The
short answer, no
matter your
color, is
“carefully.”
Here are ten
ways.
In the
July 2 weekly
newsletter
“Teaching” from
the Chronicle
of Higher
Education,
editor Beth
McMurtrie offers
strategies from
a number of
experienced
faculty in
“Interrogating
Your Discipline
and Other Ways
Into Anti-Racist
Teaching.” She
and others are
now using the
word
“anti-racist”
because it
embodies more
than just not
being a racist.
Her strategies
encourage you to
1.
“Build...an
infrastructure
on campus” to
prepare for
teaching
anti-racism,
share
information and
methods, and
offer support.
Preparing is
important;
otherwise you
may do more harm
than good to
yourself and/or
students.
2.
Rather than
changing
subjects, try
integrating
lessons into
what you already
do, “teaching
students to
interrogate
their
disciplines
critically,...[e]xploring
how [racism] is
embedded in the
curriculum.”
3. Don’t
expect faculty
of color to
necessarily lead
or help, unless
they choose to,
as many are
dealing with the
ongoing grief,
anger, and
confusion of
their own
families and
communities. In
addition,
“[s]tudents are
more likely to
challenge their
authority, or
see [their]
discussions of
race...as an
attempt at
political
indoctrination.”
But do ask.
4. “[B]e
sensitive to
people’s
backgrounds”–whatever
students’ color
and culture.
University of
Oklahoma
professor Jenel
Cavazos says in
McMurtrie’s
report,
“Research...shows
that pushing
[students] too
far too fast
will actually
cause them to
double down on
their beliefs,
so I’m looking
to ‘plant a
seed.’”
MnWE
people with whom
I’ve talked also
recommend that
you
5. Give
students options
in what they
must read or
write, with some
materials not
dealing directly
with racism.
Then students
may explore
issues
positively at a
speed, and with
a focus, of
interest to
them. Especially
your first few
times of
teaching
anti-racism,
using options
can help you
measure the
capacities of
your students
for such issues.
6. Look
for–and
emphasize–positive
responses over
negative.
Empower every
individual to
respect deep
feelings but
also to learn
how to search,
as should people
in any academic
community, for
deeper and
broader
understanding.
7. Don’t
expect anyone to
“represent” his
or her own
culture. Doing
so is impossible
and makes most
people
uncomfortable.
All cultures are
varied, rich,
and complex. In
addition, as
student explore
solutions, ask
them to consider
what they
can do, not what
others must
do: the first is
practical, the
second just
polemical.
8. Don’t
let class
discussions
devolve into
knee-jerk
arguments.
Rather, ask
students to
structure clear,
positive reports
in steps,
individually or
in small groups.
Here are two
examples: (a)
logical summary
of a reading,
(b) how other
general readers,
pro and con,
might react to
it, and (c) your
own or your
group’s thoughts
and feelings; or
the time-tested
(a) what works
in a reading,
(b) what
doesn’t, and (c)
what would you
change.
Questions for a
presenter from
the class may,
if relevant,
come after.
9. Is
someone upset?
Ask if he or she
would like to
talk afterward
in a safe
setting. Ask her
questions.
Listen. Repeat
her thoughts so
she knows you
have heard her.
Don’t debate.
Listening may be
enough. But if
she’s
interested,
suggest how she
might add her
thought to the
class academic
community.
Follow up with
her privately.
Consider a list
of assignment
options to
motivate a
resistant or
angry student to
learn the skills
the course
teaches.
10.
Consider an
indirect
approach such as
readings on
differing
cultural,
societal, or
historical
experiences. The
more students
see the humanity
and intelligence
in the poor and
in other
cultures, the
more you then
can ask students
how to improve
their own and
society’s
understanding of
such people.
---
McMurtrie’s July
2 Chronicle
article:
www.chronicle.com/article/Interrogating-Your-Discipline/249103
---
3. NEW
ANTI-RACIST
BOOKS (Including
thirty-five free
online Aug. 23
or 31)
Minnesota
has a wealth of
anti-racist
books. Newer
national books
also are
available.
Thirty-five
anti-racist
books are
temporarily
available free
online from
Minnesota
groups. One is
A Good Time
for the Truth,
free online (see
below) until
Aug. 23 as the
current “One
Book One
Minnesota” book
club choice. A
2016 anthology
edited by Sun
Yung Shin, it
offers essays
about Minnesota
racial
disparities by
sixteen well
known
Minnesotans of
color, including
four who have
been keynoters
at the annual
MnWE Conference:
Taiyon Coleman,
Heid Erdrich,
Shannon Gibney,
and Kao Kalia
Yang.
Another
book free until
Aug. 31 is
Tell Me Your
Names and I Will
Testify by
Black Minnesotan
Carolyn
Holbrook. The U
of MN Press
published it in
April and is
releasing it
free online
through August.
Holbrook tells
her juvie-prison
to
author-and-teacher
success story,
“the horrific
and the holy,
the wild and the
charmed.”
The U of
MN Press also
has released,
free online
until Aug. 31,
thirty-three
more books on
anti-racism (see
below). Authors
include
well-known
Minnesota
writers and
activists such
as Gibney, Yang,
Josie Johnson,
and others.
Nationally, the
relatively new
and notable
How To Be an
Antiracist
is making waves.
Author Ibram X.
Kendi
(right)
is a previous
National Book
Award winner and
a past columnist
for The
Atlantic.
His very
readable,
anecdote-filled
essays are
appropriate for
both faculty and
students: calm,
positive, firm,
and challenging.
As of July 12,
How
has
been on the
New York Times
top fifteen
nonfiction
booklist for 17
weeks.
On the same list is Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi
Coates (91
wks.), a
“meditation on
race...as well
as a personal
story, framed as
a letter to the
author’s teenage
son.” Michelle
Obama’s
Becoming (81
wks.) has become
both a book and
movie sensation.
Layla F. Saad’s
Me and White
Supremacy (6
wks.) offers
“[w]ays to
understand and
possibly
counteract white
privilege.”
MLA also
is recommending
the “Anti-Racist
Resources”
website at
Humanities
Commons
below.
---
A Good Time for the Truth (free to 8/23):
https://library.biblioboard.com/module/one-book-one-minnesota/
Tell Me Your
Names and
33 other U of MN
Press books
(free to 8/31):
https://manifold.umn.edu/projects/project-collection/racial-justice
Humanities
Commons:
https://antiracistresources.hcommons.org/?utm_campaign=
advocacyalertjune20&utm_medium=email&utm_source=mlaoutreach
---
4. YELLOW
MEDICINE REVIEW
AND STRIVE
PUBLISHING
Two
Minnesota
publishing
ventures
by/about people
of color are
worth viewing.
One primarily is
oriented toward
Native
Americans, the
other, Blacks.
First is
Yellow
Medicine Review.
It is housed at
Southwest
Minnesota State
University
(Marshall).
Yellow Medicine
is one of a very
few
Indian-focused
U.S. literary
journals. The
Spring 2020 “The
Racism Issue” is
guest edited by
Zibiquah, a.k.a.
Ruth Denny, and
by Editor Judy
Wilson.
Assistant
Editor Mary
Ellen Daniloff-Merrill
notes
the theme was
chosen before
George Floyd was
killed. The
essays, poems,
and short
fiction are by
or about
Indians, Blacks,
Latino/as,
whites, Asians,
and people of
mixed descent;
they offer a
wide, literate
range of emotion
and experience.
A journalistic
essay near the
end by guest
editor Denny,
“Save a Walleye,
Spear an
Indian,” is
particularly
detailed and
chilling.
Strive
Publishing was
founded several
years ago in
Minnesota by
Mary Taris. It
began by
publishing books
for children of
color but more
recently has
expanded into
young adult and
adult books, as
well. Taris
says, ““Strive
Publishing is a
calling for
me,...an
opportunity for
others, and...a
mirror for young
readers, but
also a window
for society....”
One of its 2020
books is
Celebrating the
Sistas, ten
“stories of
African American
Women and Women
of Color from
the community
who are making a
difference in
the fields of
education,
politics,
business,
health, and
social
services.”
The book
is written for
both
older
children and
adults and may
be a useful
reader in
introductory
writing and
reading courses.
The project
developed
in part
from
grants by the
Minnesota State
Arts Board and
the Metropolitan
Regional Arts
Council.
---
www.yellowmedicinereview.com/
www.strivepublishing.com/
---
5. LIST OF FREE
TEACHING/LEARNING
E-NEWSLETTERS
(repeated in
each “MnWE
News”)
Feeling out of touch with your colleagues? Connect with them by
subscribing to
these free email
newsletters. You
may start or
stop a
subscription at
any time.
“NEA HigherEd,”
National
Education
Association,
monthly: Digest
of
higher-ed political news
Subscribe
Other
NEA Inside
Higher Ed
e-letters
“The Source:
Updates,”
MLA Style
Center, weekly:
Very
short news items on pedagogy and
readings
Subscribe
(scroll to
bottom).
Sample
e-letter
Other free MLA
Style Center
e-letters
“Teaching,”
Chronicle of
Higher
Education,
weekly: Very
short news items on general teaching
methods
Subscribe
Sample e-letter
Other free
Chronicle
e-letters
“Tomorrow’s
Professor,”
Stanford
University,
twice-weekly:
A reprint each issue of a scholarly
pedagogy article
Subscribe
Sample
e-letter and
online version
“The Campus
View,”
Minnesota
Private Colleges
(17
colleges), monthly: news and updates
for all
Subscribe
Past
issues
---
7. ABOUT
MNWE: Old
Issues, Joining,
Who We Are, Grad
Credit,
Unsubscribing
(repeated
in each
“MnWE News”)
For
Online-Teaching
Resources:
See the May-June
2020 issue of “MnWE
News.”
View Our
Newsletters:
For new and old
issues, click
here: “MnWE
News.”
Forwarding/Joining:
Please forward
this email to
others,
especially if
you are a MnWE
representative
listed below.
Your newer
full-time and
adjunct faculty
members,
graduate
students, and
writing center
tutors may not
receive it.
If you are not
on the listserv
and would like
to join it,
simply send your
request and
email address to
richard at
jewell dot net.
We always enjoy
receiving new
list members.
Who We
Are:
“MnWE” is
“Minnesota
Writing and
English,” an
all-volunteer
organization
started in 2007.
MnWE has a
coordinating
committee, a
listserv, and an
annual,
two-day
spring
conference
attended by
100-200 faculty.
Our coordinating
committee, which
meets about six
times per year,
is composed
entirely of
unpaid
college and
university
volunteers.
All activities
are by and for
college,
university, and
college-in-the-high-schools
English and
writing faculty,
graduate and
undergraduate
students, and
related academic
and literary
scholars,
writers, tutors,
and others in
the Upper
Midwest. Our
purpose is to
bring together
these
communities in
Minnesota
and in nearby
states and
provinces.
Our
website is
MnWE.org;
our geographical
center is
Minneapolis-St.
Paul. About 3000
faculty, tutors,
graduate
students, and
related
administrators
are on our
listserv. They
receive this
newsletter six
times per year.
Our listserv
members come
from state
universities,
public and
private two-year
colleges,
private colleges
and
universities,
high schools,
and the
Universities of
Minnesota,
Wisconsin, North
Dakota, South
Dakota, Iowa,
Illinois, and
other schools
and locations
beyond the Upper
Midwest.
At our
annual
conferences, our
keynoters
speak on
pedagogical
concerns and
are scholars and
writers of
national
excellence from
both local and
national
locations.
Some
of our
presenters come
from states or
countries far
beyond our own
geographical
area. The
majority of our
attendees and
presenters are
from
universities and
private
colleges; a
strong minority
are from
two-year
colleges, high
schools, and
other groups.
Graduate
Credit: Anyone may earn one graduate credit from Southwest Minnesota State
University for
attending one
MnWE Conference
day and writing
a related
research paper
(up to three
times). For
questions about
this course–“Eng
656: MnWE
Practicum”–please
contact
lisa dot lucas
at smsu dot edu
or see
www.smsu.edu/academics/programs/english/?id=11637
.
Unsubscribing:
If you want to
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If you try
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Formatting,
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Credits:
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If you
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questions, we
invite you to
email the
editor or
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Committee
listed below.
You also are
always invited
to attend any of
our six
MnWE Committee
meetings per
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join the
listserv or
visit a meeting,
email richard
at jewell dot
net and ask
for the date and
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next meetings.
In addition, you
are invited to
offer
suggestions—or
volunteer your
leadership—for a
regular,
special,
or double
section at the
annual
conference.
This
newsletter is
written
primarily by
“MnWE
News” editor
Richard Jewell
without
copyright so
that anyone may
quote,
paraphrase, or
forward any or
all parts
freely, unless
otherwise noted.
We ask only that
you give credit
to the “MnWE
Newsletter”
and/or “www.MnWE.org“;
and when you use
material that
has been quoted
or paraphrased
in this
newsletter from
another source,
please be sure
to give proper
credit to that
original
source.
---
---
Richard Jewell,
General
Coordinator
Larry Sklaney,
Conference
Coordinator
Danielle
Hinrichs,
Program
Coordinator
Gordon Pueschner,
Site Floor
Coordinator
Jana Rieck,
Communications
Coordinator
Vanessa Ramos,
NHCC, 2019 Site
Coordinator
Kirsti Cole,
Minn.
State-Mankato,
2020 Site
Coordinator
richard at
jewell dot net
- (612) 870-7024
larry dot
sklaney at
century dot edu
- (651) 747-4006
danielle dot
hinrichs at
metrostate dot
edu - (651)
999-5960
gordon dot
pueschner at
century dot edu
- (651) 686-4468
janaL dot
rieck at yahoo
dot com
kirsti
dot cole at mnsu
dot edu
MnWE.org
Minnesota Writing & English
A Consortium of
Colleges &
Universities
|
Mission:
Transforming
writing and
English
into teaching
and learning experiences using methodologies
that serve students best
Vision:
Bringing
scholarly ideas
and practical
pedagogy
together
to create our
futures
.JPG)
Donald Ross of
the University
of
Minnesota and
Taiyon Coleman
of St. Catherine
University run a
breakout session
about
literature. In a
later year, they
jointly provided
a MnWE keynote.
Geoffrey Sirc of
the University
of Minnesota
runs a small
breakout after
his keynote
presentation.
Many University
of Minnesota
faculty have
given
presentations at
MnWE, as well as
faculty and
graduate
students from
many other
universities,
colleges, and
high schools.
MnWE started in
2007.
The cofounders
were Richard
Jewell, here
giving a welcome
after lunch, and Donald
Ross, second
picture above.
MnWE has drawn
presenters from
Minnesota, the
states and
province around
it, and at least
five other
states and
countries.
During a 2016
breakout,
Beata Puschner
presents on improving
classroom
inclusion of ELL
students. MnWE
attracts a
variety of
people in other
departments and
positions, too,
from ESL and
Reading to
Library Science
and
college-in-the-high-schools
faculty.
|
