Critical Reading Assignment: Class
This exercise is designed to develop your critical reading skills. These skills will be useful in this course as well as in other social science courses you take at FIU and in life more generally. In order to successfully complete this assignment, you will need to be able to identify and explain the main argument of the reading, understand the evidence upon which the reading draws, and compare/contrast the reading to others that we have read this semester. Here is a handoutLinks to an external site. with some helpful guidance on how to read for a sociology class.
You will write 2-4 sentences (as specified below) in response to each of the categories below.
This critical reading response should be written with respect to this week’s reading: Calarco, J. (2018). “Coached for the Classroom”. In Negotiating Opportunities: How the Middle Class Secures Advantages in School. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
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Quotation: Provide a quotation (2-4 sentences) from the reading that you feel represents the main idea of the reading. The quotation must be taken from the main text of the article (not the abstract). Include a page number.
Concept: Interpret or summarize the main idea in the quotation in your own words. (3-4 sentences). You should not use any specialized vocabulary. Make the main idea of the reading intelligible to someone who is not in this course and is not a sociology student.
Evidence: Describe the evidence on which the author is basing their conclusions. (3-4 sentences). Did the author use interviews? If so, who did they interview? Did they conduct ethnographic fieldwork? If so, where?
Compare: Compare or contrast your reading with another reading (it can be any reading from this semester). (3-4 sentences). What are the points of agreement or disagreement among the authors? How does this piece help us to think differently about a piece that we read earlier in the semester or extend our knowledge about a topic that we have learned about?
Question: Pose a critical thinking question and tell me why this question is worthy of consideration. (3-4 sentences). You might have a question about whether the author’s evidence supports their conclusion. Or you might reflect on the extent to which the authors’ conclusions could be relevant to an understanding of other social settings. Or you might have questions about the implications of the findings for the way you conduct your life or society is organized. There are lots of possibilities for posing interesting questions. Your question should demonstrate careful engagement with the reading.
Before you submit your assignment, please be sure that you’ve organized it under the following 5 subheadings in bold: Quotation, Concept, Evidence, Compare, Question.