Plenary Journal and Class Facilitation

In order to ensure connection across FIQWS topic and writing sections, we will start each section of the writing class with a student facilitation of content presented in Monday’s plenary section followed by a short in-class journaling session.

Class Facilitation (25 minutes): The facilitation will be conducted by students in small groups (2-3 students). The content you present must be in some way related to the topic or speakers presented in the week’s plenary session. For example, one of the fall 2022 plenary sessions featured four student activists who spoke about their experiences with organizing labor, the connection between art and activism, creating inclusive spaces for marginalized student groups, and their experiences in student government respectively.

A facilitation of this plenary session would NOT be to summarize the information the speakers presented for the class, however, you could build on what they said by looking more closely at the organizations or activism they introduced. You could give more detailed information, a different example, or a different perspective on their position. You need to be creative and build on the information the speakers introduced during the plenary.

The plenary facilitation should include a 10-15 minute presentation of information and a brief class discussion or activity. You will also need to develop a complex question for the class to consider for their plenary journal after the presentation.

Plenary Journal: The plenary journal writing will take place in class immediately following the student facilitation. There will be a ten-minute writing period during which you should address the question presented by the facilitation group. There will be 11 journaling sessions. You will need to have 9 entries in your journal in order to get credit for the journal.

Plenary Journal Final Reflection: At the end of the semester, we’ll do a final reflection on the writing in the plenary journal. The prompt for the reflection will be distributed during our class on Aril 26th.