Assessment for EDEC 575: Critical Disability Studies for Education

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• 35% Final paper. Drafts of portions of the paper will be submitted as milestones throughout the term:
• 30% Milestones for final project
  
  • 12% Milestone 1 (due weeks 4 & 5)
    
  • 12% Milestone 2 (due weeks 7 & 8)
    
  • 12% Milestone 3 (due weeks 13 & 14)
    
• 10% Presentation of nano-ethnography
  
• 25% Participation, which includes:
  
• weekly worksheets in class
• participation in the discussion forum
• quality peer feedback on the milestones and final paper

• Pick a hashtag that nobody else has picked
• Read the tweets on that hashtag until you feel you've really gotten saturated
• Remember you can do advanced search on twitter: filter by engagement and by time period
  
• For the presentation, concisely convey:
• What is the origin of this hashag? Who started this hashtag and what started it off, what it is about, when was it trending? [1 min]
  
• Main themes of this hashtag, each illustrated with representative tweets [1 min]
  
• How you felt diving into this conversation space [1 min]
  
• What is the one tweet that resonated the most with you? Why that one? [1 min]
  
• How this twitter discussion relates to theories and concepts from this course [1 min]
• Your presentation should feature at least 5 tweets from the hashtag in order to give the audience a feel for the conversation
  

Template for Assignments

• Times New Roman size 12
• 3cm margins
• 1.5 line spacing
• Header: includes your name and assignment's title (e.g. EDEC 575 Milestone 1, EDEC 575 Final Paper)
• Footer: page number and page count (e.g. 1 / 5)
• APA or APA-like citations (we won't be strict about citation formatting)
• Numbered section headers
  

Final Paper Milestones

1. What is the action you are proposing to do? Why are you motivated to do it? What background is necessary for somebody to know about your action (e.g. about the groups you're working with, about yourself, etc) [5 pts; 1/2-1 page]
   
2. What model of disability (e.g. social, affirmation, medical) is underpinning your action? Why that one? How is what you're doing a disability justice issue? [5 pts; 1/2-1 page]
   
3. What related work has been done? Identify at least four other projects that are relevant and describe and differentiate them. [10 pts; 1-2 pages]
   
4. What is your plan for your action? Describe what you would need to carry it out, what impact you think it would have. Include a detailed schedule. What are some backup options if things don't work out as intended? [5 pts; 1-2 pages]
   
5. What would be the three "aspects" of relevant history that you'd need to read up on to understand the historical context of your action? What theoretical tradition (critical vs postmodern) do you think you'll be using to interpret your action? [5 pts; half a page]

1. Give a short description of your intended action suitable for somebody who has not read your Milestone 1 to get up to speed. [1/4 of a page; 5 points]
   
2. Update on planned action. What has changed in your plan? How are things going? What has been done, and what remains? Reflect on your progress: what have you learnt, felt, etc so far. [1-2 pages; 10 points]
   
3. Select a critical or postmodern theory (e.g. DisCrit, queer crip theory) that you will use to interpret your action. Explain why you're choosing that theory. How does your action "look" through this lens? Explain why liberalism would be unsuitable for understanding your action. [1/2-1 page; 5 points]
   
4. What is the historical context of the action you are planning? This should be examined from at least three different "aspects".  (e.g. for a podcast for blind teachers, at least 3 of the following would be described: history of radio for disability activism, history of blind activism, history of disabled teachers, history of workplace accommodation for blind/low vision people). The history is interpreted through the chosen theoretical lens from Q2. [1-3 pages; 10 points]
   

1. A brief description of the project that now includes the theoretical lens and model of disability [half a page; 5 points]
2. An update on your planned action: what has been done, what remains, any blockers. Reflection on what you've learnt and felt in the process. Reflection on how your positionality is affecting this;  what you would change if you did it again; and limitations of your approach. [1 page; 10 points]
   
3. A discussion of how your action has (or might have) an impact, how it relates to related works, how it fits into the historical context, and how your action "looks" through the lens of your theory. [half a page; 5 points]
   
4. Pick the five course readings that are most relevant to your action. Discuss your action in relation to these five readings. Relate these readings to your theory. [1 page; 10 points]
   

Final Paper

1. An abstract, about 100-150 words
2. An introduction which lays out your motivation, who you are, what this paper is about, what groups you worked with. About 1 page. [5 points]
   
3. Background information: what should the reader know in terms of theory, history, related work, etc --- in order to appreciate your action. At least four related works should be discussed, and the history should be examined from at least three different "aspects". About 1-2 pages. [20 points]
4. Theoretical orientation: what model of disability underpins your action? What analytic (theoretical) lens underpins how you interpret what you did? Why that model? Why that theory? Note: this is a *critical* disability studies course, so liberalism is not an acceptable theoretical lens for this paper. [10 points]
   
5. Your action: what did you plan? How did you come up with this plan? How did it actually go? Ideally this includes a photograph or drawing to illustrate what you did, but whether that is suitable will depend on the nature of your action [10 points]
6. Discussion: think through your action, including:
1. The impact the action had, to the best of your knowledge --- on yourself, on your community, on others, etc. How what you did fits into the context you described earlier: how it relates to related work, how it relates to the historical context, how it fits into the academic literature [5 points]
   
2. A reflection on the entire process. How did you feel? What did you learn? What surprised you? How did what you planned compare to what you actually did? What would you do differently if you did it again? How do you think your own positionality affected the action? [10 points]
   
3. The five most appropriate course readings from the course syllabus have been each meaningfully engaged with in the discussion of what you did, and explicitly related to your theoretical lens. [10 points]
7. Conclusion, summarizing what you did so that somebody who reads only the abstract, introduction and conclusion has a sense of your project [abstract + conclusion are 5 points]
   
8. Bibliography; remember that you should cite all sources, including "non-academic" ones like twitter posts and podcasts
   
9. An appendix containing any materials you think are relevant (e.g. lesson plan, handouts) to fully appreciating your action