This is a syllabus as an artwork and a proposal for an English as Second Language (ESL) course. In this proposed class, the structure, policies, and agreements are constructed by the classroom community, the writing produced is assessed based on labor, and the labor is influenced by creative-research practices and social justice. This syllabus-artwork is heavily guided by Asao B. Inoue’s and Samuel D. Rocha’s pedagogical theories and it is physically made of photocopies and transparencies: cheap and replaceable materials, “a rough draft guide for introduction to academic writing” contains a redacted and amended syllabus, poetry by Rhina P. Espaillat, language justice quotes from Simmons University and Sophia Park, and sculptures and drawings of shapes created by my former students to represent their experiences of ESL writing. This artwork-syllabus is designed to be shared, remixed, critiqued, amended, edited, or transformed to fit the needs of the community in which it might be employed. It is an idealistic and living document that values student labor over objective deliverables and knowingly centers teaching on the biased, political, and essential base of language.
