Between the World and Me by Ta Nehisi Coates Common Book Facilitation Guide Common Book Program Overview Program and Learning Outcomes

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1 Between the World and Me by Ta Nehisi Coates Common Book Facilitation Guide A partnership of the Dean of the College and Division of Student Life Common Book Program Overview Program and Learning Outcomes Introduce the idea of reading and grappling with a text as a core function of the liberal arts experience. To create a common experience for all incoming students To use the common book as a vehicle to have students see texts as asking questions rather than answering them. To establish the collegiate experience as one where students will dialogue about current topics and understand them in the context of the campus experience. Create moderated discussions of the reading that can bring the diversity of student viewpoints forward. Model the intellectual engagement with different ideas that is part of the liberal arts tradition. Elements of the Common Book Program 1) New students reading and reflections a) Shared with academic advisors 2) Orientation programming a) Small group discussions lead by faculty members and Orientation Leaders b) EQB 2.0 session with Dr. Micia Mosely facilitating and OLs/Proctors as peer leaders 3) Common Book Speaker and related workshops for students and the campus community a) September 14, Dr. Terrell Strayhorn 4) Center for Teaching Reading Groups for faculty and staff in addition to workshops and programs for all members of the community offered by Student Life and the Office of the Dean of the College. Assessment Plan Students will be surveyed on the Orientation Survey, typically administered in early October, to ask questions about achievement of the learning outcomes. Format New students go through Orientation in small groups of approximately 20, led by an Orientation Leader (an upper class student leader). These groups are generally comprised based on nearby housing assignments. On Monday, August 29, Orientation Groups will gather with their OL and a faculty member for a 45 minute conversation prior to going to EQB 2.0, an orientation session designed to further explore diversity, equity and inclusion. EQB 2.0 will be led by an visiting facilitator, Dr. Micia Mosely, along with peer leaders who are Orientation Leaders and Proctors. Prior to these sessions, Orientation Leaders and Proctors will have completed a substantial 6 hour training on diversity, equity, and inclusion with Dr. Mosely. Facilitation Steps Set Ground Rules and establish the space Open the Conversation with a Question Facilitate the Dialogue Ask follow up questions as needed Monitor the time Wrap the conversation

2 Best Practices for Group Facilitation Facilitators are not expected to experts on any of the issues. They are there to guide, not participate in the conversation. To get the most out of the conversation, you want to go beyond people s surface reactions. This means creating the opportunity for people to discover and learn from one another and explore their own ideas. You want to allow participants to take ownership of the conversation. An effective facilitator: Remains neutral about the topic under discussion. An effective facilitator is not seen as having their own agenda or siding with one group. Asks for opinions of the group members, rather than offering their own. This session is not to establish our own opinions as correct (the aim of debate) but to develop those opinions and reactions and learn from those of others (the aim of dialogue). Is always asking rather than telling Explores ideas with people displays a genuine sense of curiosity. Listens to people builds trust. Pushes people to consider different perspectives helping folks to understand why others think in different ways. Helps people to reconcile conflicting remarks they or the group make in a non confrontational manner. Helps everyone s ideas feel respected there are no foregone conclusions Stays focused on the goals for the conversation remember this is about learning and helping the participants gain information about the questions they see to answer. Prepares for each conversation, reading the questions and conversation guide. *Adapted from Hardwood Institute for Public Innovation and United Way Guidelines to Consider Take nothing at face value. Notice what words and phrases people use. Probe by asking, what do you mean and what are you getting at? Listen for where people get stuck. Watch for when people want more facts or if a perception blocks them from talking more about a concern. Ask people to square their contradictions. Illuminate what folks are struggling with. Ask, I know this can be a really tough issue, but how do the two things you said fit together? Keep juxtaposing views and concerns. Pointing out contrast will help people articulate what they really believe and give you a deeper understanding of what they think. Piece together what people are saying. Folks don t usually make one all inclusive statement about what they think or how they feel. Say, Thi is what I m hearing. Do I have it right? Keep in mind the unspoken rules. Different conversations and spaces have their own set of rules. Check out the level of trust people have and what that means for how you should interact. Watch out for your own preconceived views. Everyone has biases that can serve as filters when asking questions and incorporating what you hear. Be alert to them. *Adapted from Hardwood Institute for Public Innovation and United Way

3 Community Conversation Ground Rules To have a productive conversation, people need to know what s expected of them what the norms are for interaction. Orientation Leaders will talk about the ground rules prior to their arrival to the Book Discussion on Monday afternoon. This means a short review is all you will need to do. Please ask people if there are any rules they would like to add. Going over the group rules up front helps put people at ease and enables them to participate productively. Contextual Confidentiality Don t repeat what someone else says in your discussion to anyone else. Do take the discoveries and lesson of the discussion out into the world. Challenge by choice Participation is encouraged, but you decide how vulnerable you want to be. Don t speak while someone is talking. Listen attentively. Challenge the idea, not the person Use I statements, don t make it personal. No name calling or accusations. Draw on your own experiences, views and beliefs. Speak your truth and stay engaged. Keep an open mind Listen carefully and try to understand those who don t agree with you. Experience Discomfort It s okay to stay in the place where you or others feel discomfort. Learning often happens at the edge of comfort. Help keep the discussion on track Stick to the questions try not to ramble. Expect and Accept Non Closure This is a dialogue that can and should go on and on. Avoid feeling like you have to wrap the conversation up neatly. Go to the Source If someone says something that is bothering you. Don t talk about that person to others, rather, talk to the person about what was said and why it bothered you. Ask for additional rules the group wants to add What to Avoid If you have read any of the responses provided by new students prior to Orientation, do not reference them with any specificity. Never call out a particular thing someone wrote. Do not ask any person of color for their particular opinion as a person of color. Do not expect any one student to represent the ideas or experiences of an identity group. You are likely to have only one or two persons of color in your group. Be sensitive to this dynamic. Many Posse students are from Prince George County, which is featured prominently in the book. There have been concerns shared that students from PGC will be stereotyped. Be aware of this dynamic and never put a student on the spot to talk about or represent a particular area or experience. Avoid being the expert.

4 Troubleshoot the Conversation *Adapted from Hardwood Institute for Public Innovation and United Way If Then A few people dominate the conversation Engage each person for the start. Make sure everyone says something early on. Ask, Are there any new voices on this issue? or Does anyone else want to jump in here? Be direct and say, We seem to be hearing from the same people. Let s give others a chance to talk. The group gets off on a tangent or a person rambles on and on Ask, How does what you re talking about relate to our discussion? or So what does that lead you to think about (the question at hand)? Ask the person to restate or sum up what they said in a few words. If you can t get a person to focus, interrupt him/her when they take a breath and move to another person or question. Then bring him/her back into the conversation later. Perhaps emphasize to ramblers that we need to make space for everyone who wants to participate to do so. Someone seems to have a personal grudge about an issue and keeps talking about it People argue Remind the person where the group is trying to focus. Ask him/her to respond to the question at hand. Acknowledge the person and move on. Say, I can understand where you are coming from, but we need to move on. If the person continues to be disruptive, interrupt them. Say, We heard you, but we re just not talking about that right now. Don t let it bother you too much it s okay as long as it is not mean spirited. Think about the difference between dialogue and debate mentioned above. Dialogue, not debate, is the goal. Find out what s behind the argument ask why people disagree; get to the bottom of it. Break the tension with a joke or something funny. Stop to review the ground rules. Take a break. People never disagree or are too polite Play devil s advocate. Bring up or introduce different or competing ideas and see how people respond. Tell the group you ve noticed that they don t disagree much and ask if everyone is really in as much agreement as it seems.

5 Sample Questions 1. Ask your group to develop a list of questions and issues that the book evoked in them. What would they like to talk about? What questions does this book raise? 2. On page 7, Coates writes, But race is the child of racism, not the father. He seems to be suggesting that racism precedes race and that without racism, there is no category of race. What do you think? 3. Coates says, In American, the injury is not in being born with darker skin, with fuller lips, with a broader nose but in everything that happens after. (pg 120) What is he saying here? 4. Coates states on page 60 that Hate gives identity. What does he mean? How can we make sense of this bold statement in the context of our identities as Americans? 5. Coates writes, on page 103, In America, it is traditional to destroy the black body it is heritage. How do you understand this sentence? 6. In what ways does this book inform or change your understanding of the events that have taken place in the past few months? 7. The deaths of Michael Brown, Trayvon Martin, and Jordan Davis have brought the dangers of being young, male, and black to public light in a way that other deaths, in the past, have failed to do. Why do you think this is? 8. Have you had an experience equivalent to the author s experience at Howard? What feels like Mecca to you? Where do you feel like you re part of a community? What do you hope from this community? 9. Why did Coates use manhood as an overlying theme? Would it have been less, equally, or more effective for him to incorporate the black female struggle as well into this text? 10. Can this book also be seen as a plea for education reform? When Coates says that the schools were not concerned with curiosity, but rather with compliance, what does that tell us about how the educational institution in America perpetuates racial injustice? 11. Rather than categorizing people as either good or bad in two distinct categories, it is clear that Coates speaks of humans as having pure and dark intentions and actions simultaneously. It is not the bad white people vs the good black people. That being said, how does Coates speak of humanity and its complexities? 12. Coates refers to the word people as a political term and frequently references white people as those who believe themselves white. What can this kind of dissociation from race do as the United States progresses? Moving forward, how can reminding people that race is purely a social construct aid in this fight? 13. Throughout the reading, there is a very clear theme of disembodiment as he discusses the system that makes your body breakable (pg 18). He also, however, says that our bodies are ourselves, that (his) soul is the voltage conducted through neurons and nerves, and that (his) spirit is (his) flesh (pg 79). What does this mean for the black community as a whole? 14. What are the different aspects of the American Dream, or the Dream, as Coates calls it, that are discussed in this literature? How are they problematic? 15. On pg. 78, Coates speaks of the recent talk about diversity, sensitivity training, and body cameras. He says that these are all fine and applicable, but that (they) understate the task and allow the citizens of this country to pretend that there is real distance between their own attitudes and those of the ones appointed to protect them. If speaking about diversity, sensitivity training, and body cameras allows the American people to dissociate racism from themselves, what is it that we should be discussing? How can we make the American people face the racial injustices and prejudices that still exist? 16. Coates says that he not only cannot tell his son it is going to be okay, he cannot even tell him that it might be okay. The struggle is really all I have for you, he tells his son, because it is the only portion of this world under your control. That being said, in general, is this text hopeful? Or is it pessimistic? 17. What does Coates want us to learn from this text? What should be our primary take away? 18. Is it insightful/realistic that he does not offer answers to the problems discussed, or is it just bleak and unhelpful? Sample Question References Cottom, T. (2015, August 3). "Between the World and Me" Book Club: Not Trying to Get Into Heaven. Retrieved September 9, 2015.

6 Zemel, D.G. (2016, January). RAC Reads Guide Retrieved August 14, 2016