In the following I provide the instructions I used for an Alternative Campus Tour Assignment in my first-year undergraduate class at York University. The course was canceled in 2021 but the material can still be used as templates for any other university or college program. My own experience is that students appreciate the Campus Tour. Some of them produce insightful and reflective essays on the experience that are part of this website. All of them gain insights into the importance of digging where they stand, understanding and problematizing the every-day environment that they walk or pass through, venturing out of the classroom into other indoors or the outdoors, researching and speaking about a particular site on campus with a group of peers, and then listening to other peers who speak about other campus sites.
The documents below include:
- The instructions of the exercise itself. I preface and complement these instructions with lectures where I contextualize the exercise and simulate the role of a guide. In seminars, the Teaching Assistants coach students to research a particular site and then practice their roles as guides. Assignment 2 Instructions for Campus Tour
- The instructions for writing a reflection after the campus tour is concluded. Assignment 2 Essay on Campus Tour
