Diverse Perspectives
Course Syllabus

Course Description: Diverse Perspectives is a study of oppression and social justice which completes the Diverse Perspectives Graduation Standards. (Emphasis added) The course will critically analyze the following forms of oppression: racism, sexism, classism, religious oppression, lookism, ableism, and ageism. Reading is both upper-level academic and fiction-based. Students will peer journal on a weekly basis. Other forms of writing will include: reaction papers, reader response, letter of action, citizenship project papers, and a final documented research paper. Additionally, communication skill requirements include individual and group presentations and the study and practice of dialogue and discussion.

Course Objectives:
Big Lake High School's English Curriculum Requirements:
 Students should be able to:

  • Recognize strategies used by the media to inform, persuade, entertain, and transmit culture.
  • Analyze the impact of the media on the democratic process at the state, local, and national levels
  • Make warranted and reasonable assertions about an author'[s arguments in an expository text by using elements of the text to defend and clarify interpretations
  • Write reflective compositions which explore the significance of personal experiences, events, conditions, or concerns by using rhetorical strategies.
  • Write a historical investigation report by analyzing several historical records of a single event and examining critical relationships between elements of the research topic.

    Minnesota Department of Children, Families & Learning's Diverse Perspectives Standard Requirements:
    A student shall evaluate events and actions from diverse United States and world perspectives by identifying:

  • How race, culture, gender, and disability may influence beliefs, actions and world view
  • How data and experiences may be interpreted differently; and
  • issues, topics, or concepts around which disagreement or ambiguity exists, including describing points of view, investigating reasons for alternate viewpoints; and analyzing how the interpretation of an issue is affected by omitted viewpoints

    Course Materials:
     Andrzejewski, Julie. Oppression and Social Justice: Critical Frameworks. Needham Heights, MA: Simon and Schuster. 1996.
    Minnesota Humanities Commission, Editorial Board. Braided Lives. St. Paul, MN. 1991
    Seo, Danny. Generation React: Activism for Beginners. New York: Ballentine Books. 1997