Title: Imagine a course

Context/Objectives: I found this writing assignment in the Lost and Found collection of Adrienne Rich’s teaching materials (Toni Cade Bambara also used a version of it with students) and used it as a warm-up, in-class writing assignment in my “Introduction to Narrative” course at Queens College.

Type: In-class writing (could also be a blog assignment)

Time: 15 min

Lesson:

“Write a description of a course you would like to take some day–on any subject, or covering any kind of material. Talk about how you feel this material could best be taught, and what you would hope to be doing in this course. (It might be film-making, writing, history, some technical skill, contemporary issues, art, etc.)…If you know books you would like to be reading in such a course, name them, telling why you chose them. Also tell why this particular course would seem valuable to you, what you hope to gain from it for your life.”

–Adrienne Rich, ‘What We Are Part Of’ Teaching at CUNY: 1968-1974. 2 vols., edited by Iemanja Brown et al. New York: The Adrienne Rich Literary Estate.

Additional Resources:

• Rich, Adrienne. (1968-1974) 2013. ‘What We Are Part Of’ Teaching at CUNY: 1968-1974. 2 vols., edited by Iemanja Brown et al. New York: The Adrienne Rich Literary Estate.

Contributed by: Danica Savonick