First Person Narrative

Weight: 25% Come prepared to present on your created persona at the beginning of class on Nov 9. You may still upload your assignment at 11:59 pm on Nov 9. In order to begin to understand the perspectives of the people with whom we may encounter, it is essential for us to critically examine the circumstances from which they have come. In this two-part assignment, you will be given the opportunity to create a persona of an Aboriginal person that has come to be involved in your social work agency (fictional) and then provide an analytical discussion/reflection. Part 1: Creation of the persona (750-1000 words) By using first person narrative, reveal what that persona’s life experience would have been like. 1.How have you been affected by the residential school system? 2. What was your childhood like? 3. How have you been affected by racism? 4. Describe your struggles with the school system, government authorities, etc. 5. Finally, describe your route to involvement with the social services system. Create specific details about yourself regarding your family, community, etc. Although it is expected that you take on the persona of someone else, please be sure that your writing reflects your own personal academic skills. It may be tempting to include a writing style that may truly reflect your persona but for the sake of this academic assignment, we will require you to capture the “personality” of your imagined person while still following the constructs of academic writing. Part 2: Analytical Discussion/Reflection (750-1000 words) Based on the persona you created, 1. Identify the colonial policies that may have had an impact on their behaviour 2. Discuss how these policies have impacted /are impacting your created persona 3. Briefly describe your social location, and reflect on how it could influence your work with your created persona 4. What are your thoughts and feelings as you prepare to begin work with this persona as your client? 5. Identify and discuss 2 things you can do in your beginning work towards reconciliation with this persona. This written portion would also include some description of the internal process of doing this assignment, open to description of feelings of empathy, foolishness, anger, frustrations, healing etc. Feel free to discuss some of your own thoughts and experiences both before and after having completed the assignment. Students will be expected to discuss their created personas in class and be prepared to reveal their thoughts and insights about this assignment on November 9th. APA Format