Checklist for Online Lesson Plan and Lesson Plan

A global pandemic, inflation rates at the highest they’ve been in 40 years, and mass shootings, oh my. With all that’s happening in the world, how can we not all be a little bit traumatized? When I first approached this topic, I was mostly thinking of my students and of headlines like the one from Boston University noting depression and anxiety levels peaking for college students. However, through discussions with my fellow colleagues, it became abundantly clear the collective trauma that resides within our (virtual and in-person) classrooms?

We’re English instructors! Writing instructors! We are not therapists! (I agree)! So, the question became, what falls within our scope as compassionate educators of subject material and universal communication practices to include? What is too demanding, out of scope, and just too much? This is where trauma informed practices can be utilized to not just support students, but support ourselves as instructors as well, and some can be done in as little as five minutes!

Trauma Informed approaches to teaching can start from that very first class, and even in the email before the very first class, with your syllabus. Our syllabi can be used as a means of managing class expectations, something that many are struggling to do. There is a feeling that surrounds instructors of needing to provide instant responses, and always being on call. In your syllabus, I highly recommend including a section about contacting you. This section can clearly outline expectations and help students know how to reach you, but also what to expect in terms of response time and hours you will be checking your email. Here is a sample:

• Contacting Me: It’s okay to ask questions! You can reach me via email at (your email here) I am available Monday – Friday 10:00 a.m.–6:00 p.m. to meet with you virtually and answer your questions. I usually respond to emails within 24 hours. I am not available on weekends. Please review assignments before the weekend so that there is time for me to respond to your questions during the times when I am available.

This is a trauma informed practice in that it clearly sets your boundaries and gives students something concrete to refer to. While it won’t always be effective at preventing students from sending that email at 1:00am and hoping for a response, it may help you feel less obligated to respond immediately.

On your syllabus, you may also choose to make a space for “additional services”. This can include items such as the Language Lab, the Writing Center, tutoring center and more. In this section, I also strongly suggest adding something about the counseling center on your syllabus. I also have added a small section about additional support through NYC Well as well.

• The Counseling Center: The mission of Counseling Services is to enhance students’ academic, intellectual, personal, and social growth. Special attention is given to students’ health and well-being, with the aim of alleviating the effects of painful experiences, enhancing self-understanding and understanding of others, and fostering students’ pursuit of their goals. Counseling Services also presents workshops, training, and educational consultation to the college community. They can be reached by phone at 718-997-5420 and by email at counselingservices@qc.cuny.edu. Phone calls and emails are responded to every weekday from 9 am to 5 pm More information is available at this link: https://www.qc.cuny.edu/cs/
• Additional Supports: NYC Well is your connection to free, confidential mental health support. Speak to a counselor via phone, text, or chat and get access to mental health and substance use services, in more than 200 languages, 24/7/365.
  You can reach them by texting “Well” to 65173, by calling 1-888-NYC-WELL (1-888-692-9355), or by accessing their free chat services on their website available here: https://nycwell.cityofnewyork.us/en/

Outside of the syllabus, two practices that can be easily built into your course. One of which is including trigger warnings on reading assignments. Just the other day as I was teaching The Yellow Wallpaper in my English 162W class, I had several students say they wished I had included a trigger warning. We took a pause from the class to process this and then made a list together of possible trigger warnings for me to include attached to the reading for next semester. These trigger warnings can easily be added to documents and saved for future semesters. Additionally, Mahavongtrakul advocates for setting earlier submission deadlines so that students do not budget their time to stay up until midnight submitting assignments. I have started implementing the 9:00pm deadline in my own courses this semester and have been pleasantly surprised by the results.

A final five-minute practice that I found not only beneficial for students, but for myself is one I learned from a training I attended with the lineage project and CUNY in March. The practice included a short two-minute check in that can be performed at the beginning of class that reminds students that they are here and present for the next 110 minutes of class. I found this practice to be grounding, not only for students but also for myself. As instructors it may be difficult to switch between the many hats we wear throughout the days, so taking a few minutes at the beginning of class to walk through this check-in activity also helped me to prepare for the next hour or so of teaching.

Perhaps the most pivotal part of trauma informed teaching practices is to remember that healthy boundaries in the classroom support both instructors and students. You may be surprised to note what trauma-informed practices you already practice, and then remind yourself of the items that are outside of your role and ability to provide. It is okay to have empathy and care for our students, but we are not trained counselors (or at least I’m not). There are ways to support our students with their learning goals while also ensuring we care for ourselves and are not in a never-ending loop of grading late assignments in our desires to be flexible or accommodating. We can implement systems in our classroom that better support ourselves and our students while also not overhauling certain systems that already work or creating endless hours of further work for our loads. Most importantly, we can continue to utilize our writing instruction as a means of teaching students to be critical thinkers and effective communicators.

Annotated Bibliography

• Evans, Jesse Rice. “Open Access Pedagogy: A Manifesto.” Anti, 20 Nov. 2020, https://antiableistcomposition.wordpress.com/2020/11/13/open-access-pedagogy-a-manifesto/.
  Similar to the call for action from UCLA – this manifesto highlights the importance of access as a means of anti-ableism. In doing so, we must think of hybridity and online learning as enhancing this means of access. It relates to larger conversations of how we utilize our virtual and in-person classroom spaces as a way to fight against the inherent ableism that is often present within societal expectations. This manifesto outlines some key points that I think are at play in my trauma informed approaches – at the most basic recognizing the universal experience of trauma we all are experiencing.
• Hybrid access now: Statement by UCLA Student Coalitions. Disability Visibility Project. (2022, February 23). Retrieved June 14, 2022, from https://disabilityvisibilityproject.com/2022/02/06/hybrid-access-now-statement-by-ucla-student-coalitions/
  This manifesto outlines the needs of students at UCLA and their request for continued online/hybrid access to classes. While the shift to online instruction at the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic was a form of emergency instruction, Covid-19 is still a very real concern. This statement highlights the concerns of students who are unable to return to in-person instruction modes due to health concerns. In addition, it speaks to the inherent ableism and racism in the assumption that in-person modes of instruction are best for all students and are easily able to be returned to. This call for action, further highlights the need to continue to create space in both in-person classrooms and virtual classrooms to support students.
• Mahavongtrakul, Matthew, and Kaeleigh Kayakawa. “Trauma-Informed Pedagogy.” UCI, https://dtei.uci.edu/trauma-informed-pedagogy/.
  This is where the majority of my approaches come from here. It is important to note that this article is very student centered in the suggestions it offers for taking trauma informed practices into the classroom. What I have highlighted from this as key are the items that are easiest to accommodate such as trigger warnings, earlier deadlines so that students don’t work until midnight, and setting clearer boundaries and expectations. Some of these approaches fall outside of the scope of expectations that we should have for ourselves and also fall far outside the emotional labor instructors should be expected to perform.
• McAlpine, Kat J. “Depression, Anxiety, Loneliness Are Peaking in College Students.” Boston University, 17 Feb. 2021, https://www.bu.edu/articles/2021/depression-anxiety-loneliness-are-peaking-in-college-students/
  This article outlined the rising mental illness concerns for students. A mental health researcher conducted a study of students at Boston University, a large urban university, during the 2020 pandemic and found over half of students were experiencing symptoms of anxiety and depression. The article begins to call for ways professors and instructors can help mitigate these symptoms and better support students. She inherently is calling for trauma informed teaching practices without labeling them so explicitly. The article fails to account for faculty’s own struggles and difficulties. I would also love to see how the professor followed up this study to see how a comparison with students at the beginning of the pandemic compared to now, two years later.
• Shroeder, Ray. “Wellness and Mental Health in 2020 Online Learning.” Inside Higher Ed, 1 Oct. 2020, https://www.insidehighered.com/digital-learning/blogs/online-trending-now/wellness-and-mental-health-2020-online-learning.
  This is another article that felt pivotal as I approached this project as it took into account the toll of the sudden shift to online learning. I think it is helpful to understand how quick changes in course expectations (and course modalities) can be a negative experience for students (and instructors). It also highlights the general mental health concerns of many students in college during this time. This is in juxtaposition to other articles listed in this bibliography which have neurodivergent and other learners calling for increased online course modalities. Thus, allowing readers of these works to try to navigate an understanding between very different viewpoints.