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What Would Beyonc Do: Exploration of Our Identity

Through Media
ORNG 001, Fall 2017, Wednesday 1:00-3:30 PM
Tangelo Classroom Building, Room 211

Professor: Fernando Perez Office Hours: MWF 11:00-1:00 or by

Associate Professor, College of Orange appointment.
fperez@orange.edu, 234-234-2345 Office: Persimmon Building, Room 123

Required Materials:
Access to the six Beyonc albums
Dangerously in Love
BDay
I AmSasha Fierce
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Beyonce
Lemonade (Purchase Visual Album)

Adichie, Chimamanda Ngozi, Americanah. NY, NY: Anchor, a division of Random House LLC,
2014. Print.

Cogen, Samuel S. 50 Essays: A Portable Anthology. 5th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins, 2016.
Print

Course Description
This course is an exploration of our identity and the role that we have in the systems of Social
Justice, Oppression, and Privilege. We will begin by developing the students critical thinking
and active reading and listening skills. Using those skills, students will use popular media,
especially works by Beyonc, to explore their identities surrounding the critical themes of
gender, race, and socioeconomic status. Key texts, group discussions, and self-exploration
activities for each of these themes will help the students come to understand their identities and
how they fit into the interplay of privilege and oppression.

Learning Outcomes
After taking this course, students should:
Be able to identify the systems of Social Justice, Oppression, and Privilege though
interpretation of key materials for this course
Be able to assess their gained knowledge about Social Justice, Oppression, and Privilege
and create their own definitions of these terms
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Be able to identify the interaction between systems of Social Justice, Oppression, and
Privilege in popular media
Come to see themselves as active contributors to the interplay of Social Justice,
Oppression and Privilege,
Engage in dialogue and interact with others in a way that promotes Social Justice.
Be more interested in exploring their own identities regarding themes of gender, race, and
socioeconomic status.
Be able to reflect on their new understanding of their identities through different
reflective exercises

Course Schedule

Date Readings and Materials Assignments Due

8/30/17 Intro to Active Reading and Read Intro, Ch. 1 and Ch.2 of
Critical Thinking 50 Essays

Read Part 1 of Americanh

(Ch. 1 & Ch. 2)

9/6/17 Media and Yourself Listen to assigned song

Me, Myself, and I- Read Ch. 3-12 of Americanah

Dangerously in Love

9/13/17 Personal Identity Listen to assigned song

Superpower-Beyonc Read Ch. 13-22 of

Americanah

Groups 1 & 2 will present

their photo project
9/20/17 Oppression Listen to assigned song

Listen- BDay Read Ch. 23-30 of

Americanah

Groups 3 & 4 will present

their photo project
9/27/17 Privilege Listen to assigned song

If I Were a Boy- I amSasha Read Ch. 31-36 of

Fierce Americanah

Groups 5 & 6 will present

their photo project
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10/4/17 Social Justice Listen to assigned song

All Night- Lemonade Read Ch. 37-41 of

Americanah

Groups 1 & 2 will present

their photo project

10/11/17 Interplay of Oppression, Listen to assigned song

Privilege, and Social Justice
Read Ch. 42-48 of
Formation- Lemonade Americanah

Groups 3 & 4 will present

their photo project

10/18/17 Perpetrators of Oppression, Listen to assigned song

Privilege, and Social Justice
Read Ch. 49-55 of
Haunted- Beyonc Americanah

Group 5 & 6 will present

their photo project

In preparation for Mid

semester evaluation, please
schedule a one-on-one
meeting with me to go over
personal evaluation.

Please complete self-

evaluation and send to me via
email the day before our
meeting

10/25/17 Mid-semester Evaluation Please complete class

evaluation and work group
evaluations by Monday at 1
pm (two days before class)

11/1/17 Gender Biases Listen to assigned songs

Upgrade U- BDay Reflection Paper due.

***Flawless- Beyonc
Group 1 & 2 will present
their photo project
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11/8/17 Internalized Oppression Listen to assigned song

Pretty Hurts- Beyonc Group 3 & 4 will present

their photo project

11/15/17 I Institutional Racism Listen to assigned song

Freedom- Lemonade Group 5 & 6 will present

their photo project

11/22/17 NO CLASS Please take some time to

work on your Final Portfolio
Thanksgiving Break Presentations.

Enjoy your time off!

11/29/17 We Are One Listen to assigned song

Community Involvement As a class, we will walk to

Program our nearest Community
Center.
I Was Here- 4

12/6/17 Final Portfolio Presentations Individual Presentations

Final Portfolio Paper due

Final Portfolio Presentation

due

12/13/17 Final Portfolio Presentations Individual Presentations

Participation and Attendance

Key to this class is the discussions that will be held in class. Each person has different views on
the topics that are going to be covered, so participation is a must to gain and share knowledge. In
order to receive full participation, students need to be present in class and be active members of
our discussions by sharing their own ideas. One free, no questions asked, opportunity to miss
class will be given to each student. This should be used wisely and only be used for last case
scenarios like sickness. If student plans on missing class, it is their responsibility to contact the
professor to provide any necessary information that will be provided during class. This is also a
great opportunity to utilize work groups and receive any notes or materials covered in class for
the date missed.
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Reading Quizzes
Reading quizzes will be given out at the beginning of each class session. These will have a total
weight of 5% of your overall grade. The quizzes will not cover specific details about the
readings, but will be more focused on overall themes in the readings. The lowest quiz will be
dropped and not affect the overall grade.

Assignments
Group Photo Projects (2 assignments)
Students will work in groups of three throughout the semester, creating work groups. With their
work groups, students will be responsible for summarizing the key points and creating a five-
minute presentation connecting the readings to the topic of class for that week. Part of the
presentation will include a photo representation of how the work group interpreted the topic of
the week. The photos should depict the groups take on the topic and should use the readings and
resources provided to create their own definition of the topic and show how it applies to their
own identities. For this assignment, students will be graded on their ability to create a clear
definition of the weeks topic. They will also be graded on their ability to summarize the
readings in a concise way and being able to present these ideas in an organized way. Creativity
will also hold a weight to the overall grade for this assignment.

Reflection Paper
The first half of the semester is focused on introducing the major topics of Social Justice,
Oppression, and Privilege and the formation of our identities around these social themes. For this
reflection paper, students will explore their identities and tell their story of coming to understand
what social justice, oppression, and privilege are. In a 5-7 page paper, students will provide
definitions for each of the three themes presented in the first half of this class. Definitions should
use the readings and resources provided, as well as in-class discussions and work group
collaborations. Once students have defined the themes, they will connect these definitions to
their identities and describe how their identities connect or do not connect to these themes.
Students job as a writer, is to take the reader on a journey through the first eight weeks of class,
showcasing their new found understanding of their identities and their growth due to readings
and discussions about social justice, oppression, and privilege. For this paper, length will have an
effect on the overall grade, but most importantly, this assignment will be graded on students
ability to form their own definitions of these themes, while seamlessly connecting them to class
readings and discussions. This is a reflective paper, so feel free to use I statements and use
very descriptive language.

Mid-Semester Evaluations
Mid-semester evaluations will take place on the 9th week of the semester. Students will be asked
to evaluate the class content and the professor in the hope of guiding the class in a way that is
more helpful for them to learn for the rest of the semester. Along with a class evaluation,
students will be asked to do evaluations of their work groups. They will receive evaluations from
their peers and will give their peers evaluations, offering positive feedback as well as
constructive feedback. We will have an in-class workshop for the work group evaluations. Most
importantly, students will also be asked to do self-evaluations. I will do a similar evaluation, then
we will meet one-on-one and discuss the students progress and agree on practices for the rest of
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the semester to achieve more growth. Mid-semester evaluations will be graded, taking into
consideration the thought-process that went into this form of self-reflection and students ability
to construct feedback for others.

Final Portfolio
The final portfolio will consist of two components. First, throughout the semester we will do
different in-class reflective exercises for each week, each with that weeks topic at the center of
the exercise. Students first task for this assignment will be to choose a reflective piece that
shows their personal growth. They will then use that piece and write a reflective paper
showcasing why that piece is the most influential of the semester. The 5-7 page paper should
focus on why that specific piece shows their most salient identity and how it has developed
throughout the course of the semester. The paper will be graded on the connection that is made to
old reflective pieces and the ability to seamlessly integrate class readings and discussions.

The second part of the portfolio will consist of a 7-10 minute presentation with 5 minutes for
questions at the end. The presentation will include aspects of the paper, including sharing some
of the personal growth that has happened this semester. Students will also be asked to pick a
piece of media that has influenced their identity growth (do not worry, it does not have to be
Beyonc related) and connect it to their own identities and growth. This can be a song, scene
from a movie, or anything that has been produced for mass media consumption. Get creative!
This assignment will be graded in students ability to form an organized presentation that is able
to deliver the information needed in the allotted time. Creativity will play a big role in overall
grade.

Grading
Participation and Attendance 15%
Reading Quizzes 5%
Group Photo Presentations (10% for each one) 20%
Reflection Paper 20%
Mid-semester Evaluations 15%
Final Portfolio 25%

Grading Scale
100-94=A,
93-90=A-,
89-86=B+,
85-83=B,
82-80=B-,
79-77=C+,
76-74=C,
73-70=C-,
69-65=D+,
64-61=D,
60-58=D-,
57>=F
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Academic Honesty
Academic honesty is an expression of interpersonal justice, responsibility and care, applicable to
Loyola University faculty, students, and staff, which demands that the pursuit of knowledge in
the university community be carried out with sincerity and integrity. The School of Educations
Policy on Academic Integrity can be found at: www.luc.edu/education/resources/academic-
policies/academic-integrity/ For additional academic policies and procedures refer to:
www.luc.edu/education/resources/academic-policies/

Accessibility
Students who have disabilities which they believe entitle them to accommodations under the
Americans with Disabilities Act should register with the Services for Students with Disabilities
(SSWD) office. To request accommodations, students must schedule an appointment with an
SSWD coordinator. Students should contact SSWD at least four weeks before their first semester
or term at Loyola. Returning students should schedule an appointment within the first two weeks
of the semester or term. The University policy on accommodations and participation in courses is
available at: www.luc.edu/sswd/
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Designing or redesigning a course can be intimidating for professors, but it is an

opportunity for creating an environment that fosters learning and growth. Although the task of

designing a course can be daunting, it is critical for professors to critically think about the type of

learning that they want to happen within their classroom. Luckily, there are numerous resources

that professors can use to develop a class that fits their teaching style. When designing my

course, I followed the approach of L. Dee Fink presented in their book Creating Significant

Learning Experiences and the approach of Laura I. Rendon as explained in her book

Sentipensante. Taking different strategies that both of these authors presented and combining

them, I created a fusion of teaching styles and course designed which helped me construct a

course designed to be a first-year seminar course. To explain how I used this fusion of both Fink

and Rendon to create my course, first I will give a brief description of my course and the

different components that form the course syllabus. I will then explain the process that I used to

create the course syllabus and the learning activities presented in this course. To conclude, I will

reflect on the choices that I took on creating my syllabus and the process itself.

The title of my course is What Would Beyonc Do?: Exploration of Our Identities Through

Media. I designed this course to be a first-year seminar course, in which students will have the

opportunity to explore what social justice, oppression, and privilege are in relation to their own

identities through the use of popular media, in this case, the works of Beyonc. When beginning

to create my course syllabus, I used the approach that Fink introduces as backward design. Fink

describes the process of backward design as when

the designer starts the process by imagining a time when the course is over, say one or

two years later, and then asking, What is it I hope that students will have learned, that
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will still be there and have value, several years after the course is over? The answer to

this question forms the basis of the learning goals. (p. 71)

Taking this into account I created my course description and learning goals in a way that will

portray and carry out my mission for this course. As I mentioned before, I wanted to design my

course as a way for students to gain knowledge about social justice, oppression, and privilege

and for them to explore their identities, especially when these social themes have an interaction

in their lives. Rendon teaches us about creating a class environment that fosters growth of the

whole student by giving them the opportunity to explore their identities and help them build a

relationship through teaching social justice. Rendon writes about an integrative framework in

which, the I is about the we. The individual exists in relationship to the community (p. 107),

that I used the idea of creating a sense of community around social justice education as a

foothold to create my learning goals. For example, a part of my learning goals is for my students

to be able to gain knowledge about the systems of social justice, oppression, and privilege, assess

that knowledge, and use it to formulate their own definitions of these terms. My learning goals

revolve around the idea of my students seeing themselves as active contributors to these systems

and being able to engage in dialogue and practices that promote social justice with a sense of

community in mind. I decided to use Beyonc and her works as a way to show students how

these systems are at play in our everyday lives and the media that we consume. The learning

goals that I created, along with the materials supporting the goals will help students come to the

realization that they have an impact in the systems of social justice, oppression, and privilege,

and I want them to view themselves as agents of change. As Rendon explains, activist practice

served to awaken a critical consciousness that enabled students to recognize social inequities and

to take action to remediate them (p. 101). My goal for using Beyonc is to keep my students
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interested in the topics up for discussion and also to challenge them to identify these systems at

play in their everyday lives.

Following Finks model of backward design, after creating my learning goals, I moved

on the develop feedback and assessment procedures. Fink introduces a three column integration

model that helps develop assessment procedures from the learning goals, as well as finding the

correct learning activities that will help all of these aspects be integrated in the course design. I

used this model to help develop both my assessment and learning activities. For example, I used

the three column method for my learning goal of students being able to assess their knowledge

about social justice, oppression, and privilege and creating their own definitions of these terms.

For this specific learning goal, I decided that a reflective essay in which the student is asked to

define these terms using the readings and materials and explain their growth and new insights

they have gained is best to assess if they have fulfilled this learning goals. Following Finks

model, I then created learning activities that will help the students succeed in writing their

reflective essay, which I chose as listening to various Beyonc songs, reading about specific

topics, and engaging in in-class and work group discussions. These activities will help the

students gain practice in engaging in reflective work and guide them through their growth of

understanding these terms and applying them to their own life. When choosing different learning

activities, I used the Castle Top diagram presented by Fink, which helps ensure that activities

have the correct amount of in-class and out of class engagement to help the students learn.

The main focus of this course is for students to gain some understanding of their

identities and how their identities have an impact on the systems of social justice, oppression,

and privilege. The type of learning that I want my students to do is more developmental, which is

why I have put so much emphasis on reflective writing as assessment procedures and exercises
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for in-class discussions. Rendon mentions pairing outer learning (intellectual understanding)

with inner learning (reflective processes) can yield a broader form of education that generates

factual knowledge of the course material, as well as deeper insights, which inform wisdom (p.

89). I plan on implementing that throughout the course in different exercises, like writing and

illustrative work, but also through the use of group work. My hope for creating work groups is

that students will have a space to reflect on the material being covered with their peers and learn

from one another. Focusing on reflective work will help me assess the student's growth

throughout the semester.

Developing the course syllabus was not as daunting owing to the fact that I was using the

backward integration model that Fink describes. I had a difficult time formulating different

learning goals that I wanted my course to revolve around, but that was just a matter of truly

figuring out what I wanted my students to learn. Once I had my learning goals, it was an easy

process of creating learning activities and assessment procedures for the class. Using the three

column model and the castle top model was definitely extremely helpful when using them as

guides for developing the course. One idea that I struggled with when creating the course

syllabus, specifically when developing activities, was that after reading both Fink and Rendon, I

was presented with a multitude of different activities that could be used. I had to take a step back

and reel it in. This process took a substantial amount of my own reflection to figure out what

activities would be helpful and how to not saturate the class with activities. Multiple ideas were

rushing through my head and the class syllabus was going in countless directions all at once.

This is when I decided to frame the class heavily revolving on reflective work, and then I moved

on to try to figure out different reflective exercises that will help the students grow in their

identities and knowledge about social justice, oppression, and privilege. Another idea that I
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struggled with was wanting to create a class that was too similar to those that I have taken in my

Masters program. At first, I was using reflective work that did not take the students status as

first-year students into consideration. I wanted to develop material that may have been too

extreme for students, like leading a class on specific topics and having to share their identities

with the whole class. I figured that some students would not be comfortable with this or did not

have set of skills needed for this developed, so instead I built in exercises that will help them

develop these skills and will enable them to do this in future classes. This is the reason why I

decided to integrate so much group work, as well as smaller presentations that did not have such

a heavy burden on the students as sharing their identities with the entire class. When developing

my syllabus, I also came to understand that to be able to teach this class I would need to be super

aware of my own identities and ensure to not superimpose my own thoughts onto the students.

Creating my own syllabus seemed like a task which I was not able to do. With the help of

Fink and the backward integration design I was able to understand this task better and view it in

a different light. Using the backward integration design, I was able to formulate learning goals

that were in line with what I wanted my students to learn. I was able to then use the learning

goals and the three column model to choose the correct assessment procedures and learning

activities that I wanted to use as tools for my class. Developing a course syllabus was

challenging, but it allowed me to reflect on what is important to me. I knew that I wanted to

focus on doing a first-year seminar course, as I believe that social justice education should start

as soon as possible. Creating the syllabus and developing learning activities was a great exercise

for when I will need to develop programs as a Student Affairs professional. I gained knowledge

on methods of developing programs that will foster student learning.

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References

Fink, L.D. (2003). Creating significant learning experiences: An integrated approach to

developing college courses. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Rendn, L.I. (2008) Sentipensante (Sensing/Thinking) Pedagogy: Educating for Wholeness,

Social Justice, and Liberation. Sterling, VA: Stylus Publishing.