HTLab Decolonizing Our Assessment Practices

Register here by Monday, October 24 (link will be sent several days before the workshop)

This first Humanities Teaching Lab of the 2022-2023 season will focus on strategies for countering bias in assessment and offer suggestions on ways to hold space for the existence of diverse perspectives. The process of decolonizing our assessment practices requires a willingness to act as a witness to student lived experiences. It requires a pedagogy that (1) de-centers the instructor, (2) empowers the student to experiment, and (3) nurtures the decision-making skills required for successful engagement in the critical thinking process.  

Dr. Marina del Sol (Howard University), will share methods for constructing assignments and assessment practices that decolonize traditional, hierarchical ways of teaching and learning.  Participants will also have the opportunity to discuss antiracist assessment practices that foster diversity, equity and inclusion, which will then serve as a guide as they develop their own multimodal assignments. 

In this HTLab, participants will: 

• Discuss theoretically informed assessment practices that center the experiences and voices of BIPOC students. 

• Explore multimodal assignment formats that engage with the digital humanities (e.g., visual annotated bibliography using a StoryMap, video reviews, visual pre-writing, wireframing, etc.). 

• Imagine potential modifications to current assignments for a course.