Category: Writing

Component Evaluation: Reimaging Sites of Care

Component Evaluation: Reimaging Sites of Care Timing: 60 minutes; flexible Mode: In-class; Online Disability justice scholars have theorized and dreamed up ideas around care work and communities. Care is understood as relational and involving feelings, practices, and labour that connect people together. In disability circles, care is about collectivity and resistance to the ableist structures …

Component Evaluation: Language and Visualization

Component Evaluation: Language and Visualization Timing: 35 minutes; flexible Mode: In-class OPTION 1: In groups of 2-4 have students write down the word capitalism on a blank sheet of paper. Ask them to visualize the connections between capitalism, oppressions, and mental health that are discussed in Cheers to Capitalism. Once those connections are established, encourage …

Component Evaluation: Deconstructing Madness

Component Evaluation: Deconstructing Madness Timing: 40 – 50 minutes Mode: In-class; Online Although it is extremely important to challenge depictions and false representations found within film and other media, we should not discount the benefits of fiction and non-fiction narratives to participate in practices of bearing witness and truth-telling needed to combat stigma and produce …

Component Evaluation: Community Grant Proposal

Component Evaluation: Community Grant Proposal Time: 120 minutes; flexible Mode: In class; Online Community art collaborations are supported by a variety of institutions that help fund different projects. This funding is a crucial part of ensuring the larger success of a project. Funding allows organizers to be paid, to seek out needed materials, and the …

Component Evaluation: Perspective Taking

Component Evaluation: Perspective Taking Timing: 30 Minutes Mode: In-class; Online Making specific references to events described in the components used in this unit, students take the perspective of a 1981 Greenacres worker, resident or a family member and write a 250-word letter to the Chairman of Metro Toronto (the 1981 equal of today’s mayor) saying …

Component Evaluation: Order of Canada

Component Evaluation: Order of Canada Timing: 30 minutes; flexible Mode: In-class; Online The Order of Canada, one of the highest honours that a Canadian citizen can receive, is awarded in recognition of outstanding achievement, dedication to the community and service to Canada.  The Order’s motto Desiderantes meliorem patriam (“They desire a better country”) underscores the fact …

Component Evaluation: Movie-Making

Component Evaluation: Movie Making – Thinking about Process Timing: 45 Minutes Mode: In-class; Online Have students download this book chapter that filmmakers Lanny Beckman and Megan Davies wrote about the process of creating the Inmates documentary.  Use the following questions as the basis for a written or oral reflection on the book chapter. If students have …

Component Evaluation: Intersectional Analysis

Component Evaluation: Intersectional Analysis Timing: 30 Minutes Download Beckman’s piece titled “What If?  …Cancer Prisons” as a prompt for your students in a creative writing or cartooning exercise. Ask your students to respond to Beckman’s satirical treatment of the criminalization of mental difference and substance use.  Encourage them to use humour (carefully!) to delve deeper …

Component Evaluation: Think Piece

Component Evaluation: Think Piece in Governmentality Timing: 45 Minutes; Flexible  Mode: In-class; Online Professor Kathy Kendall, the sociologist who discovered the 1940s radio plays, describes them as an example of governmentality, the creation of the ideal Canadian citizen through the guidance of mental health experts and the use of public education. Listen to Kendall make …