Carlos GonzalezGianni Hernandez

Albert LenelEulett McKnight-Samms

Emily SendinAlex Salinas

Diego Tibaquira

The imagination is not only holy, it is precise it is not only fierce, it is practical …

~Diane di Prima

The Federation of Imagination…exploring community, celebrating heritage,

embracing freedom

Federation of the Imagination Overview

The Federation will attempt to bring together educators and students from two MDC campuses (IAC and North), FIU, and a local charter high school, Mater Academy.

Curriculum• The group has decided to work

with one book for the fall semester, Daniel Quinn’s Ishmael.

• This text will be useful in creating a common thread in all of our classes. It addresses many of the themes Jensen does in The Culture of Make Believe.

• Besides Ishmael, we decided that we would each take on one or two of the 13 signposts Dr. Harding mentions in his book Hope and History.

Service-Learning

• Besides having a common reading and research theme, we have also decided on bridging the different campuses and institutions through service-learning. Currently, we are looking at five agencies and are open to other partners:– I Have a Dream Foundation– Lotus House– Roots in the City– Centro Cristiano Casablanca– Give a Kid a Backpack

Foundation

Federation Activities• Student/Community Congresses: Students from the different

classes, campuses, and institutions come together to share insights from their readings and projects, one or two per term. These congresses will allow for students to present and explore the different sign posts of freedom in Harding’s text.

• Shared teach-ins: We will make ourselves available to visit with each other’s classes.

• Gandhi Day of Service: We will use this event to explore the roots of non-violence and the global connections of the Southern Freedom Movement. (Sometime around September 29.)

• Voter registration drive: We will focus on Little Havana, Little Haiti, and Overtown.

• Online web space: We will create and maintain a website (http://federation.wordpress.com) to include a calendar of events along with our own and our students’ reflections.

Federation Activities

• Give a Kid a Backpack Day (sometime in December and/or April)– The students will work on

creating awareness regarding issues of education and poverty in underdeveloped countries.

– The students will conduct a backpack/school supply drive in the community and the college.

Federation Activities

• Federation Quilt/Flag:

– Each MDC/Mater Academy/FIU class will create a quilt piece that represents what they have learned.

– The students at Phillis Wheatley will create quilt pieces representing each country of the world they will learn about in their service learning activities with college/Mater Academy students.

– All quilt pieces will come together to create the Federation of the Imagination flag.

Federation Frescoes

The MDC/Mater Academy/FIU students will work together to create frescoes that will reflect their learning about Earth, social justice, global education, etc.

Carlos Gonzalez & Alex Salinas/ENC 1101

Community as Text• Brown vs. Board

(Harding’s signpost) in connection to Phillis Wheatley

• Jonathan Kozol’s Shame of the Nation

• Persistent De-Facto Segregation

From the Jim Crow Museum: http://www.ferris.edu/jimcrow/menu.htm

“Coon” and “Brute” Caricatures

Updated Slave Caricatures? Pimps, Gangstas, Thugs

Segregation Wall in Coconut Grove

• Wall along Charles Street that separated blacks from whites. Today, the neighborhood is still divided into a “upper-class” section with shops and mansions and the poor, so-called “Black Grove.”

Capstone Project: Mock Trial

• What were the arguments for and against segregation?

• What are the limits of argument and what is the role of protest?

• King's “Letter from a Birmingham Jail”

• How does segregation “damage the soul”? 

• Why should we care about segregation today, and if we do, what should we do about it? – Service-learning as action– Ishmael as impetus to ask questions

Narrative Writing as Framework

• A way to honor voice, explore self, and deconstruct oppressor/dominator mindsets and ideology.

• Invite students to explore Ishmael, Brown, be involved with service all in a spirit that allows them to see themselves in the midst of a great current which asks of them to tap into their most imaginative and courageous (full of heart) selves.

Gianni Hernandez Federation High School Connection

IshmaelI am going to teach Ishmael to my 10th grade students next year. I hope to awaken their environmental consciousness by discussing thematic points that the novel raises. There will be numerous in-class assessments, quizzes, chapter assignments, a whole Ishmael Unit!

Service-LearningI will also assign a community service project that addresses a world concern. I will also offer a research project alternative for students who cannot or do not want to participate in the service project that addresses a world concern (topic to be determined).

Federation Forum/Blog

I will also post discussion questions on the Federation forum and require that they post a certain amount of topics/replies. Hopefully, with time, the subject matter will be interesting enough to them that they do this willingly

Federation of Imagination Service Club

Because students have a community service requirement to fulfill forgraduation I want to provide opportunities for them to do so. I also thinkthat there should be a Federation of the Imagination HS Service club.This can enable students to fulfill the service requirement in a way thatis meaningful and allow them to connect with MDC students.

Guest Speaker ProgramMDC and FIU professors can visit Mater Academy as guest speakers.

Albert W. LenelPHI 2604

• I will implement some of the ideas developed by THE FEDERATION OF THE IMAGINATION in the following ways:

Albert W. LenelPHI 2604

• Students will take a survey at the start of the course to gauge their awareness of some of the issues raised in the Jensen book.

• Those who wish to receive 15 points of extra credit will be required to purchase and read Daniel Quinn’s book, Ishmael.

• Several writing assignments will be assigned to those students working for extra credit, comparing the textbook (Moral Issues in Business, by Shaw and Barry) and Daniel Quinn’s book, Ishmael on topics related to the issues raised in the Jensen book.

Albert W. LenelPHI 2604

• Students working for extra credit will also choose among several alternatives for a service learning component of the class.

• Those students who do the extra credit work will form two groups. Each group will do a class presentation to the rest of the class near the end of the term.

Albert W. LenelPHI 2604

• The first group will present an alternative view of some of the topics covered in the textbook from a perspective reflecting the views of Jensen and Daniel Quinn.

• The second group will present an overview of the service learning project with which they have been involved.

Albert W. LenelPHI 2604

• Finally, at the end of the course, the survey that was given at the start of the class will be taken again.

• The results of the initial survey from the first class with then be compared with the results from the survey repeated at the end of the course for both the extra credit students, and the class as a whole.

Eulett McKnight-Samms

• Sign post #11 Attica---penal system

• Sign post #13 Envisioning the President--study of Barack Obama/Hillary Clinton/John Edwards/Jesse Jackson for comparison/contrast profiles to heighten interest and awareness in national politics.

• Voter registration—service learning activity

LIT 2480 Honors Required Reading: Emily Sendin

• The Trials of Phillis Wheatley: America’s First Black Poet and Encounters with the Founding Fathers by Henry Louis Gates Jr.

• Poetry and Letters by Phillis Wheatley

• The Pain of the Macho and Other Plays by Rick Najera

• How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents by Julia Alvarez

• The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison

• The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros

• Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston

• Ishmael by Daniel Quinn• From Vincent Harding’s Hope

and History: “Advanced Ideas about Democracy” and “Is America Possible?”

• Excerpts from Derrick Jensen’s The Culture of Make Believe

• Women Native Other: Post-Coloniality and Feminism by Trihn Minh-ha

• Excerpt from Gaia and God• Excerpt from Warriors,

Conjurers and Priests: Defining African Centered Literary Criticism by Joyce Ann Joyce

• Excerpt from The Signifying Monkey by Henry Louis Gates Jr.

Themes to ExploreEmily Sendin

• Social justice• Earth ethics• Civic engagement• Gender roles• Power/Economics/

Gender• Discrimination/

racism/sexism

Literary TheoryEmily Sendin

• Post-colonialism• Race theory• Feminism (eco-

feminism)• Queer Theory• African-centered

Federation of Imagination ActivitiesEmily Sendin

•Service learning (Lotus House, Phillis Wheatley Elementary, Give a Kid a Backpack Foundation, Roots in the City)

•Visits to classrooms (campuses)

•Fieldtrips (Eco-tours)

•Green IAC project

•Reading/discussions

•Maintain blogs/Website

•End of term celebration

Diego TibaquiraCGS1060

• The following would be my implementation of the Federation. I try to get my students to explore the following items:– Technology Gap– Civic Engagement– Civic Responsibility– Education as a Civil Right– The current “well covered” existence of

segregation and slavery

Diego TibaquiraCGS1060

• I will use the book as an extra credit assignment. As discussed before Implementing a whole book in my class would be kind of difficult, but adding it as an extra credit assignment might be better and this is an assignment that my students can complete easily specially if they are taking Alex, Carlos, Albert or Emily’s class. Students would be reading the book for one of these classes so doing the extra credit work would not be a big burden. I would request an analysis of the reading and have to come up with maybe a question in particular that would like my students to imagine about!!! Any ideas for the question are welcome!!!

Diego TibaquiraCGS1060

• I will use the chapter from Harding's book as a discussion topic (mandatory). Currently I have to discussion forum assignments. My students have to research a topic and then answer 2 to 3 questions. Then they post their answers and reply to at least 3 classmates. I will assign the reading and have to come up with 3 to 4 questions that I would like my students to imagine!!! Any ideas for the question are welcome!!!

Diego TibaquiraCGS1060

• I have the service learning already implemented. This semester I made it mandatory, but want to discuss the results with Alex and Carlos to see if I should make it mandatory again or like I did in the past optional in-lieu of the final. My service learning project includes the following:– 8-10 hours of service at Centro Cristiano Casablanca– Answer the reflection questions after each visit– Prepare a PowerPoint presentation in topics such as

chat room safety, Internet predators, etc.

FEDERATION OF THE IMAGINATION END OF TERM CELEBRATION