Exploring the Texts: Criminal Justice Reform by Aaron Roberts https://padlet.com/arobe012/explorations Explore, try out, and get a feel for the readings in this unit en-us 2020-06-20 05:43:40 UTC 2023-04-02 16:07:37 UTC hello@padlet.com Rationale (students will see instructions, not the rationale) arobe012 https://padlet.com/arobe012/explorations/wish/634209674 One of our group members mentioned that the Prezi rhetorical fingerholds activity was not very accessible and could cause issues for certain students. The more I thought about it, the more I agreed with this person. I worked up an alternative approach to the Prezi fingerholds using Padlet instead, which allowed for better accessibility, better phone usage, and far better multimedia incorporation. This version was made with the texts I’ll be assigning for a unit on mass incarceration in my 100 class as a sample. 

This activity is designed using the concept of rhetorical fingerholds. Rhetorical fingerholds (Ortmeier-Hooper) give students "ways in" to a reading, an activity, or set of readings. The concept is focused on three ideas: entering (what they know), bridging (connecting their knowledge to the activity/reading), and advancing (stretching beyond their existing knowledge). The goal is to build little notches that students can grab and use to connect a reading to their lives or knowledge they have while also pushing themselves forward into new territory. Read more from Ortmeier-Hooper here!

I do this activity on the first day of our unit, before students have read anything. Usually, the texts for the unit are all spread around the room. Students explore in groups and then we discuss as a class. Here, as students explore the sandbox style layout, they engage with content about the text/author/genre--usually an image, video, audio recording, or link to a website--that gives them background information on what they are about to read. Then, I ask students to engage with the text itself a little bit.The goal is not to read the text entirely yet, but to explore. I ask students to answer some questions that are designed to start forming the bridges between their experiences and the content we are going to be working with in the unit. Below, I've included some general question types I use and in the posts I showed some text-specific questions.

  • Who is the author(s) and what do we know about them?
  • What type of text is it and where might you encounter it or things like it out in the world?
  • Who might the intended audience be? How can you tell?
  • What kinds of sources does the text use?
  • Do you have any experience with this genre of text?
  • What have you seen in your own life that reminds you of this or you can connect to/relate to?
  • Write one question you have about the text that you'd like your group to answer
Below, I included a screenshot from Ortmeier-Hooper showing examples of entering, bridging, and advancing questions. 

]]> 2020-06-20 05:47:42 UTC https://padlet.com/arobe012/explorations/wish/634209674 Ear Hustle Podcast arobe012 https://padlet.com/arobe012/explorations/wish/634221466 Ear Hustle is a podcast written, co-hosted, recorded, scored, and produced at San Quentin State Prison by inmates and co-hosted by a visual artist who volunteers at the prison. Earlonne, the now (as of 2018) formerly incarcerated host, and Nigel cover topics about life in prison and criminal justice reform.
Explore:
Your episodes:

Before you listen, answer the questions below in the comments:
1. Do you listen to any podcasts? Comment below with one we should check out! 

2. Does listening to someone tell their story have a different impact for you than reading about someone’s story? How is it different? 

]]> 2020-06-20 06:33:28 UTC https://padlet.com/arobe012/explorations/wish/634221466 Victor Rios, Street Life arobe012 https://padlet.com/arobe012/explorations/wish/634224767 You're already familiar with Rios from our narrative essay and migration unit.
Here is the reading for this unit. 
Answer one of these questions in the comments: 
  1. Think about this text in relation to all of the other ones on this page. How is it different? 
  2. How do you use narratives, written or otherwise, in your life to connect to others or to argue/discuss something?
]]> 2020-06-20 06:47:17 UTC https://padlet.com/arobe012/explorations/wish/634224767 Michelle Alexander: The New Jim Crow arobe012 https://padlet.com/arobe012/explorations/wish/635249351 Michelle Alexander's The New Jim Crow has become one of the most widely-read criminal justice reform texts since it's publication in 2010. Ten years later and her words are more timely than ever.

Check out this overview and reason for reading the book: Chris Coursey's "Black Book Review: The New Jim Crow"

And here are some students--OwlEyesReviews YouTube Channel--giving their review and impressions of the book

Before you read, open the file below and just look around. Scroll through it, read headings, look at notes, maybe read one paragraph. Get a feel for what kind of book it is. Don't read it all yet!
Here is the chapter you'll be reading for class.
Then, answer the question below in the comments:
If you were one of these reviewers, give your classmates a tip for reading academic articles and books. How do you do it? What advice can you offer someone who might not like reading these types of articles/books? What have you yourself struggled with in the past while reading books like this?
]]> 2020-06-21 19:04:42 UTC https://padlet.com/arobe012/explorations/wish/635249351 US Dept. of Justice Memo on Private Prisons arobe012 https://padlet.com/arobe012/explorations/wish/636363438 Before you read on, think about the question below to yourself:

 If you were researching for a school project and found a government memo that you are considering for a source, what is your first thought? Is it a trusted source? Is it more/less "trusted" than another type of source?

The memo you will be reading was written by US Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates in August of 2016. Within six months, after the election/inauguration of a new administration, Yates (who was the acting US Attorney General at the time) was fired for refusing to enforce and legally defend President Trump's now-infamous refugee and immigration ban. Here's a news story vid that gives a quick overview.

More recently, the Attorney General role has come under scrutiny. William Barr, the current US Attorney General, recently fired a federal prosecutor who was a former fundraiser/donor for President Trump but who was also leading several sensitive investigations related to Trump. Here's an overview of this story from Democracy Now! and Yale Law Professor Emily Bazelon.

Answer the question below in the comments:
Did either of these stories change how you might view the US Justice Dept. memo as a source? How should we handle memos from the Justice Department or US Attorneys General in general as writers and researchers? What might be a flaw?
]]> 2020-06-22 16:37:45 UTC https://padlet.com/arobe012/explorations/wish/636363438 UCLA Latino Policy and Politics Initiative--Disrupting the Black-White Paradigm arobe012 https://padlet.com/arobe012/explorations/wish/636506802 This report (click the image at the bottom of the post) was compiled by the UCLA Latino Policy and Politics Initiative. Too often, research and resources focused on criminal justice reform only consider the issue from a Black/White perspective. As the Vera Institute of Justice shows us, Latinx people are often left out of this important conversation. Sometimes data is not even collected or is incorrectly collected. Latinx inmates are counted as White in some state correction facilities, or not counted at all, which leads to an over-inflation of White inmate numbers and hides the deep racial disparities in prisons. This report tries to break down the stereotype that mass incarceration is only a Black/White issue.

Click the image below to open the document, take a quick look at it, then...

Answer the questions below in the comments:
This is a looooong document that is wide-reaching and filled with data. If you were researching for a paper and found this document, how would approach it after briefly looking at it? How can you use the table of contents, the executive summary, and the section headings to help you make sense of or break up this article? 
]]> 2020-06-22 18:45:34 UTC https://padlet.com/arobe012/explorations/wish/636506802 Connect Back to Last Unit: Immigration Detention Facilities arobe012 https://padlet.com/arobe012/explorations/wish/636673654 In our last unit, we discussed migration and immigration. Now, we're moving into mass incarceration. To treat these two incredibly important social issues as entirely distinct would be not telling the whole story. Whether it be private prisons, over-policing in communities and schools, or racist policies that ruin lives and separate families, the prison industrial complex and US immigration policy/enforcement share many traits and mechanisms.

Your reading, this article by the Marshall Project in partnership with The Guardian, gives an overview of how the immigration detention industrial complex was constructed and functions in our society.

Take a look at the article and explore for a few minutes. Then, answer the question below in the comments:

This is a multimedia experience with audio, video, graphs, charts, and images alongside the text of the article. Do you like things like this? Do they help you to read/understand an article? How so?
]]> 2020-06-22 21:51:19 UTC https://padlet.com/arobe012/explorations/wish/636673654 Prison Labor and Prison Strikes arobe012 https://padlet.com/arobe012/explorations/wish/636691361 We'll be spending a lot of time talking about what causes mass incarceration and what we can do to help people stay out of prison. But what about the rights of those who are already in prison? As we learned in the documentary 13th, the connection between prisons and labor not only dates back to slavery but also resembles slavery still today. This article from The Conversation describes the background of a recent prison labor strike and how companies make money in prisons. This article from the Guardian, written by Kevin Rashid Johnson (incarcerated in a max sec. prison in Virginia, written while in solitary), details why one inmate is speaking out while risking his already limited freedoms. John Oliver, while using humor in a humorless situation, details the issue nicely in the video below (CW language).

Before you read, go to The Conversation website and explore this source. How would you classify it? Who are the authors? Who is the audience? Are there any corporate sponsors or outside influences? Does it pass our CRAAP test? Report your findings below in the comments!

Do you think the article from The Conversation is more credible than the article from The Guardian? Why?
]]> 2020-06-22 22:17:21 UTC https://padlet.com/arobe012/explorations/wish/636691361