By Justin Jamail
Present the students with a large, upside down map of Africa. The names of the countries should either be removed, or placed right side up within the upside down map. Instruct the students to write down their reactions to the inverted continent. Next, ask them to write down the assumptions and/or agenda of the mapmaker. Make it clear that you, the instructor, are not responsible for creating the map – perhaps you found it somewhere. Lie about this convincingly. When the students are done recording their responses, ask them to determine what their reaction to the map says about their own assumptions. (Did they think the mapmaker had a political agenda? Did they think the map was made in Iceland or Greenland by people who see continents from the top down?) Get them to think about why they had the initial reactions they did and how their own context may have contributed to their conclusions. Finish with a discussion on how students can use a text – even a map – to look at themselves. This act of gaining self-knowledge when responding to a text can be helpful during the Unit Two essay.
