Heritages of Change: Curatorial Activism and First-Year Writing

Reviewed by Jason Parks, Associate Professor of English, Anderson University on 4/13/24

Comprehensiveness rating: 5 see less

If you teach first-year writing, you'll find a wide range of activities that will help your students develop their skills in research, close-reading and annotation, and more. As I worked though the book, I discovered prompts for writing review essays, an annotated bibliography, and, of course, the main focus of the book: the final project/essay. Chapter 3: Disability Heritage was the most in-depth chapter, which provides a model for approaching a range of issues related to marginalized communities and recent social and political movements. Ultimately, it takes all of the controversial issues we love to bring up in our first-year writing courses and give them order and focus through the lens of "heritages of change."

Content Accuracy rating: 5

This book is very up-to-date and draws on highly respectable sources for it's information, including government websites, the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, and numerous primary documents. One of the primary objectives of the book is to help students explore and investigate issues in a way that allows them to reflect on their biases. Also, the wide range of topics helps prevent the book from becoming heavily biased and/or from prioritizing one marginalized community over another, etc. It's smart and sensitive on every level.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 5

There's nothing in this book related to the content that will become obsolete any time soon (unfortunately). One area that might need to be double-checked would be with regard to the MLA citation examples, etc, since MLA citation rules are often updated. That was very minimal and only at the end of the book though. The examples and links all worked well and were up-to-date. Of course, this book appeals to me because it is very timely (2024). It might need an update in 5 years or so, but it should be a great model for the moment, including material on BLM, Covid-19, etc.

Clarity rating: 5

The writing is targeted directly to first-year students. One of my favorite opening sections to a chapter states, "Conducting research on topics about which you have limited knowledge can be intimidating.” This author understands the minds of students and is sensitive to the ways this can challenge them in terms of content and the entire writing process.

Consistency rating: 5

The terminology is easy to navigate. Terms are highlighted in bold with links and explanations throughout the text. The citations are easy to find and follow.

Modularity rating: 5

The readings were very well-organized with plenty of images, video links, and consistency of sections between chapters. I had no trouble clicking around between sections.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 5

The entire book takes you through the project from start to finish. Each chapter builds on the previous chapter. Nothing is repetitive or missing. You can guide your students through this book and they will have an excellent final project.

Interface rating: 5

No issues at all. Every image was clear, easy to find, and move through.

Grammatical Errors rating: 5

The writing is clear, well-edited, and jargon-free. It's written for students and should be easy to understand, including the selections of text from outside sources and the student examples.

Cultural Relevance rating: 5

This entire book is focused on helping instill cultural sensitivity in students through research and writing. Its entire mission is inclusivity. In short, this book will help students learn to navigate complex issues related to marginalized communities while also participating in activism themselves.

Comments

I was surprised at how practical this book was to apply. It really delivers on it's promise. I've been teaching First Year Writing for over 10 years and this book has all the foundations of first-year writing courses built in (from activities to sources) but it also has a focused and manageable final project and set of goals. I really like the approach. I often ask students to research and write about many of the issues in this book, but I think this book gives them a way of thinking about audience in a new way.