University of California, Santa Cruz UCSC Fall 2018 - Oakes 1

University of California, Santa Cruz Oakes College

Oakes Core Course—OAKS 1-11 (Oakes 102, Tu/Th 3:20p.m. – 4:55p.m.)—Fall 2018 Oakes 1: Communicating Diversity for a Just Society ___________________________________________________________________ Instructor: Yeng Yang, PhD Course Assistants: Adriana Rivera Office Hours: Tues 1pm-3pm and by appt. adjriver@ucsc.edu Office Hours Location: Oakes 317 Rachel LittleField Office Phone: (831) 459-1677 (during office hours only) rlittlef@ucsc.edu E-mail: ynyang@ucsc.edu ___________________________________________________________________ “Academic Literacy & Ethos” is the required first-quarter core course for Oakes College frosh.

Oakes 1 offers students a foundation for intellectual exploration and personal development as members of an academic community, by teaching reading and thinking processes essential to success at the university, and “habits of mind” that have been shown to demystify academic materials and processes and promote independent, self-reflective, and collaborative participation in campus culture. The course also focuses on helping students develop an “academic ethos”--critical habits of mind--by introducing foundational concepts for student success such as metacognition, self-efficacy, and interpersonal engagement across differences. Oakes 1 focuses on developing students’ proficiencies in reading through deep engagement with a range of academic genres and rigorous practice in developing strategies for engaging with complex and sometimes contradictory sources and concepts, and with the specific strategic purpose of helping students to develop academic proficiencies (reading, writing, critical thinking) that enables them to engage as full participants in university and civic life. Finally, the course introduces first-year students to higher education from four distinct but related vantage points that are characteristic of membership in a university community: analysis, critical thinking, metacognition, and engagement with others, and self-efficacy (ACMES).

Oakes College Theme: “A quality education is situated in a learning environment in which students and teachers examine their lives together as a pivotal feature of their intellectual experience. We collaborate to expand our understanding and our participation in the world….Immersion in an environment of diverse and competing ideas is important to the development of independent thought. For independent thought to be well-informed, students must develop the capacity to assess others' ideas and perceptions and to appreciate the influence of cultural contexts in shaping what we know.” ~Oakes Core Goals, from the shared Oakes Core syllabus This course examines the intersections between reading as a college student practice, personal and social identities, and social justice. In our readings, discussions, and assignments, we will seek to answer questions about how the materials we read connect with our cultural, religious, sexual, ethnic, class, racial, and gender identities. How have our own ways of identifying—of naming or defining ourselves—shaped our individual experiences? Where do we position our own stories within our shared family histories? How do our own autobiographies and essays, as written accounts of our process of identification, bring our search for ourselves and our relationship with reading and writing into the same conversation?

University of California, Santa Cruz Oakes College

The texts we will read have been carefully chosen to stimulate discussion and prompt you to examine your own ideas and assumptions. These texts include perspectives that we can identify with as well as new viewpoints that will move from the realm of the unfamiliar to the familiar as our perspective stretches and shifts to incorporate new ways of thinking and understanding.

Your ideas and contributions are profoundly important in this discussion-based class. It is imperative that you read and respond to the assigned material before class and come fully prepared to delve into each text. If you come to class unprepared, it is like being absent, because your comments are apt to be careless and offhand, and therefore potentially unproductive for our discussion.

Three ● ● ●

primary tools of inquiry are essential to our work in this course: analytical reading writing to learn class discussion

Your engagement with these tools will help you fulfill the goals of this class: elucidating your own process of identification; sharing your thinking with others engaged in a similar internal process; adding to your understanding of our cultural, religious, sexual, ethnic, class, racial, and gender identities; discovering the connection between reading, writing, and self-identification; recognizing commonalities in our struggle for social justice; and strengthening your knowledge and command of the principles of effective academic essays.

A Note about Metacognition: Oakes 1 emphasizes metacognitive work (i.e., thinking about how you think) as integral to college-level reading, thinking, and course participation. While metacognitive activities are not spelled out each week, they are woven throughout the course in a variety of ways. Students engage in metacognition both informally and formally, both verbally and in writing, and both individually and collaboratively. Metacognitive assignments include open-ended prompts asking students to reflect on their own processes of reading texts--what worked, what did not work, where they encountered difficulty, where they were most engaged, what concrete aspects of texts elicited a strong response, etc. They also include more targeted prompts asking for students to reflect on and examine specific reading concepts like “analysis” and “synthesis”: what were their understandings of these moves before vs. what are they now know, how have they applied these concepts to the work of the class and how might they apply them in other situations. Additionally, College 1’s discussion format and emphasis on collaborative work will give students a space in which to negotiate these ideas together as well as individually. Ultimately, the goal of these assignments is to foster students’ awareness of themselves as learners, critical readers, and as participants in various kinds of academic discourse.

Because critical reading practices, the rhetorics of university discourse, and the modes of analysis prioritized in the academy are intertwined with the college themes, many of the “readings about readings” are also college-thematic readings, and some of the college-thematic texts are also engaged in examining reading practices and writers’ rhetorical as well as social positions.

University of California, Santa Cruz Oakes College

Learning Outcomes for Oakes 1 Course learning outcome 1. Use a range of strategies to understand and analyze texts within one or more intellectual domains.

2. Demonstrate the ability to recognize and comment on the relationship between the genre of a text and the intellectual context in which it was written.

3. Reflect critically upon the relationships among sources of information—for instance, among the course materials, their own experiences and funds of knowledge, and the experience of other members of the course 4. Recognize and analyze differences and contradictions in the course materials and in their own and classmates’ thinking, speech, and writing.

5. Foster cooperative and critical discussion among classmates.

6. Take risks in reading, writing, and discussion in the sense of overcoming fear of embarrassment or rejection or failure in completing assignments successfully—for example, by extending the reach of an assignment or discussion to new materials and questions, or by advocating for an unusual or heterodox points of view.

7. Respond productively to conflict generated by fundamental questions, controversial topics, and heterodox ideas.

8. Draw explicitly from knowledge gained in this class and apply it in novel situations.

Texts 1. The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander 2. Oakes Core Course Reader (available only at the Copy Center) The UCSC Copy Center is located in the basement of J Baskin Engineering, room 25, right by the loading dock. The office is open Monday through Friday, from 8 am to 4:30 pm. They take cash (exact change), check, or you can charge your student account (they do not take credit cards).

If you pay with cash or check, the reader costs $65 including tax. If you pay with your student ID, the cost is $59.63.

Class organization: The class consists of two (Tu/Th) required seminar class meetings a week.

Enrollment in a section is not based on writing level. This is a 5-unit class, and it is expected that you will commit at least 150 hours per quarter to it, divided roughly as follows: Class meetings (30 hours); reading and writing (60 hours); assignments and projects (60 hours).

University of California, Santa Cruz Oakes College

Grading: Oakes 1 should be taken for a grade, which breaks down as follows Reading and related assignments

40%

Reflection and metacognitive work

40%

Attendance, participation, and engagement

20%

Assessment of course outcomes & student achievement: Students engage in a shared metacognitive activity (at all colleges) that is assigned at the end of the course and used to assess individual achievement of course learning outcomes. They are assigned a short research article identified as “excellent research, excellently written,” and asked to write an account of what the article says (comprehension) and why it is an excellent example of its genre (evaluation). They are asked to utilize the critical vocabulary of the course to demonstrate comprehension and evaluation.

Students do not need to be expert in a genre or knowledgeable in a discipline to be able to complete this assignment. They simply need to be able to use their own observations of the source-observations that should increase in richness and acuity after a quarter of instruction focusing on ACMES. Attendance is essential. Lateness and absences affect your grade. If you must miss a class, please contact me beforehand, preferably by email, and make sure to return to the next class wellprepared. If you miss more than two classes, you may fail this course.

Course Information Course Assistants Our course assistants this quarter are Adriana and Rachel. You can contact them to ask questions, discuss the readings, brainstorm ideas for your assignments, and talk about your adjustment to UCSC and Oakes College. You can also make an appointment to meet up with them to discuss any of these things or to work through our reading assignments together. They will help you get the most out of our readings in preparation for our class discussions and essays.

Core Café “Core Cafe is a weekly, casual conversation for first-year scholar-activists who enjoy breaking down barriers, relating across difference, and shifting frames of reference. We meet Tuesdays from 8-9pm in the Guzman Room. Come and stop in, meet some new folks, chat about Core readings, munch on some free snacks, and claim your role in the intellectual-activist community at Oakes. For more information, look up “Oakes Core Cafe” on Facebook.

Westside Writing Center The Westside Writing Center is available all year long to Oakes, Porter, Rachel Carson, and Kresge students, for any writing project, question, or need. The Writing Center is committed to helping students become effective, empowered writers, and works with individuals to discuss

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and develop their ideas, and to analyze and strategize around their writing needs. The Writing Center’s Graduate Tutors have diverse specializations. Some have backgrounds in science, music, and multiple languages as well as in teaching writing, and students may want to seek out their expertise for a particular course they are taking. The Westside Writing Center is located in Oakes 111. Students can sign up for an appointment here: https://ucsc.mywconline.com/ and will get the most from their experience if they plan ahead.

Academic Integrity Academic integrity is taken seriously in this class and on our campus. Be sure you are familiar with the student code of conduct related to academic integrity, which can be found in in sections 102.00 – 102.05 here: http://deanofstudents.ucsc.edu/student-conduct/studenthandbook/pdf/100.0-code-of-student-conduct.pdf. Cheating, fabrication, facilitating academic dishonesty, and plagiarism, or using another’s thoughts, words, or ideas without credit, will result in a failing grade for the assignment and likely for the entire course. Other’s ideas must be credited. Exact quotes are to be in quotation marks and include the author name, date, and page number. If you are unsure about how to cite or what to cite, please see me and/or visit http://library.ucsc.edu/help/research/what-is-plagiarism.

If you have questions about citation, the Westside Writing Center (WWC) offers quarterly workshops on proper citation. These workshops usually happen around week 8 of the quarter.

Please contact the WWC Director, Andrea Seeger at anseeger@ucsc.edu for more information.

Selling Notes Please note that students may be disciplined for selling, preparing, or distributing course lecture notes, including notes created independently by students. The unauthorized sale of lecture notes, handouts, readers or other course materials is a violation of campus policies (Section 102.23 of the UC Student Policies and Regulations Handbook) as well as state law. Violation by distribution to the public may also constitute copyright infringement subject to legal action.

Accessibility I strive to make this a classroom that is accessible for all students. If you qualify for classroom accommodations based of the impact of a disability, please submit your Accommodation Authorization form to me, during my office hours, within the first two weeks of the quarter.

Please contact the Disability Resource Center (DRC) to coordinate these accommodations at 831459-2089 V, 831-459-4806 TTY, or drc@ucsc.edu.

Sexual Violence and Harassment Please be aware that under the UC Policy on Sexual Violence and Sexual Harassment, faculty and student employees (including Teaching Assistants, Readers, Tutors, etc.) are “responsible employees” and are required to notify the Title IX Officer of any reports of incidents of sexual harassment and sexual violence (sexual assault, domestic and dating violence, stalking, etc.) involving students. Academic freedom exceptions exist for disclosures made within a class

University of California, Santa Cruz Oakes College

discussion or assignment related to course content; under those conditions only, a report to the Title IX Officer is not required. If you have experienced sexual harassment or sexual violence, you can receive confidential support and advocacy at the Campus Advocacy Resources & Education (CARE) Office by calling (831) 502-2273. In addition, Counseling & Psychological Services (CAPS) can provide confidential, counseling support, (831) 459-2628. You can also report gender discrimination directly to the University’s Title IX Office, (831) 459-2462. Reports to law enforcement can be made to UCPD, (831) 459-2231 ext. 1. For emergencies call 911.

CARE - Support for Survivors of Sexual Violence Kresge R-714 (to Left of Owl’s Nest) To make an appointment: care@ucsc.edu, care.ucsc.edu or 831-502-2273 Walk in: Mon-Fri 9am-12pm, 1pm to 5pm CARE is a confidential space (we do not report to Title IX or police) for students, staff and faculty to discuss issues of dating violence, sexual assault and/or stalking. Our free traumainformed services include: discussion of rights and options, safety planning, accommodations as needed and referrals.

Student Precarity Any student who faces challenges securing their food or housing and believes this may affect their performance in the course is urged to contact Oakes College Advising at oakesadvising@ucsc.edu or the Dean of Students to access slug support, at deanofstudents@ucsc.edu. Furthermore, please notify me if you are comfortable. This will enable me to connect you to additional campus resources.

Plenaries Attendance at the scheduled Wednesday evening plenary session events, from 7:10 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. in the Media Theater, is mandatory. All the sections of Oakes core have assigned seating—our class will be sitting together and I will be taking attendance. Missing a plenary session is the same as missing a class meeting.

Plenary Schedule: 10-3: Graham Boyd and American Violet 10-24: Darrick Smith 11-7: Oakes Advising Plenary 11-14: Maya Chinchilla 11-28: Corrine Gould Please be aware that during these events, you are a representative of Oakes College and UC Santa Cruz, and your behavior reflects upon all of us. You are expected to treat our speakers and films with the utmost respect and to give them your full attention. Please do not bring a laptop to these events and make sure to silence your phone and refrain from talking with those seated near you. You will be immediately expelled from the Media Theater if you are at all disruptive to others. Expulsion from the event means that you will be counted absent from the event, and therefore missing a class session, which will affect your grade.

University of California, Santa Cruz Oakes College

Oakes Core Course—OAKS 1-11 (Oakes 102, Tu/Th 3:20p.m. – 4:55p.m.)—Fall 2018 Oakes 1: Communicating Diversity for a Just Society ___________________________________________________________________ Schedule of Classes and Assignments

**This schedule may change due to time constraints or other learning opportunities** Setting the Stage

Weeks 1 and 2: Listening to the Conversation; Readings on Institutionalized Oppression Weeks 3-5: Engaging in the Conversation: Understanding Positionality; Readings on Social Identity Formations Weeks 6-7: Furthering the Conversation; Readings on Felt in the Body Weeks 8-10: Deciphering the Conversations of your discourse community; Readings on Resistance and Social Action