Contents [hide]
- 1 Module overview
- 2 Assignments
- 3 Lesson 2.1: Close Reading and Annotation
- 3.1 WATCH – Intro video
- 3.2 WATCH – What is close reading?
- 3.3 READ – How to do a close reading
- 3.4 WATCH – How to annotate a reading
- 3.5 WATCH – How to use Hypothesis to annotate online documents
- 3.6 Create a Hypothesis Account, and Join Our Class Group on Hypothesis
- 3.7 WATCH – How to annotate a text using Hypothesis
- 3.8 COMPLETE – Reading 2.1 – annotating our first reading assignment!
- 4 Lesson 2.2: Michelle Alexander’s “The New Jim Crow”
- 4.1 WATCH – Video Intro – Part 1
- 4.2 READ – Reading 2.2 – M. Alexander, “The New Jim Crow” – Part 1
- 4.3 COMPLETE – Self-assessment quiz #1
- 4.4 WATCH – Video overview – part 2
- 4.5 READ and ANNOTATE – Reading 2.3 – M. Alexander, “The New Jim crow” – Part 2
- 4.6 COMPLETE – Self-assessment quiz #2
- 4.7 COMPLETE – Discussion Board 2 – on the New Jim Crow
- 4.8 WRITE and UPLOAD – Response Paper 2
- 5 WRITE – Response Paper for Module 2
- 6 WATCH – Summary Video for Module 2
Module overview
By the end of this module, you will:
– become familiar with Michelle Alexander’s arguments about the “New Jim Crow”.
– have a basic working knowledge of fundamental political concepts, such as: race, state, power, ideology, and how they intersect in everyday life
– Identify key ideas across several readings and assigned materials
– have practiced text annotation of the assigned reading
– critically analyze assigned text and video material
Assignments
Assignments will always be due on the Wednesday following the week they were assigned, (unless otherwise specified) at 11:59pm. Discussion Board comments are always be due by Sunday, 11:59pm for each given week, unless otherwise noted. Read the description, then click on the title of the assignment to open it. You can navigate back to this page by using the navigation buttons at the top of the page, or by clicking the back button on your web browser.
Lesson 2.1: Close Reading and Annotation
Close reading is a SLOW, thoughtful, critical reading of a text that you want to understand well (this means, to understand some writing in all of its layers; to be able to explain to someone else what the reading was about, and to make your own judgements about it (do you agree with it, do you find problems with it, are there parts that you don’t understand, does it inspire you, or piss you off, etc.). To achieve such understanding, of the text, we have to understand the form of the text (how it is put together), its meanings, style. In other words, we have to annotate the text that we’re reading. To get you started, complete the following readings and assignments in order, from top to bottom.
WATCH – Intro video
Begin this module by watching this video I made, which will give an overview of the material in this module, as well as contain important points related to what we’re studying here:
WATCH – What is close reading?
Watch the following video, which explores what close-reading is all about. You will be asked about the strategies when completing upcoming assignments:
EST Time: 7 minutes
READ – How to do a close reading
The process of learning the material in our class will always begin by reading texts of some sort. When we close-read a text, read SLOWLY (and more than once), trying to hold on to details, specific facts and arguments made by the author(s). Later in this module you will practice close reading of your own and asked to use strategies from the linked web site. Watch this video for nice overview on some suggestion on how to do a close-reading:
https://writingcenter.fas.harvard.edu/pages/how-do-close-reading
EST Time: 10 minutes
WATCH – How to annotate a reading
Text annotation is a crucial part of close reading. Watch the following video, which models one way of annotating texts. Pay attention to the techniques described in the video, because in the last part of this lesson, you will be annotating your first reading in this course:
EST Time: 4 minutes
WATCH – How to use Hypothesis to annotate online documents
Watch the following video, which shows how to create an account for the Hypothesis annotation software, which we will use to annotate a text in this module (and later on in the semester):
Create a Hypothesis Account, and Join Our Class Group on Hypothesis
- Click on the following link to create a Hypothesis account:
2. After creating your Hypothesis account, click the following link to join our class group in Hypothesis:
https://hypothes.is/groups/e1j15QVN/pol100
WATCH – How to annotate a text using Hypothesis
Watch this video on how to annotate our first reading assignment:
COMPLETE – Reading 2.1 – annotating our first reading assignment!
This is the first text we’ll be studying in our course. It is an excerpt from Michelle Alexander’s “The New Jim Crow”.
Your assignment is to:
1. Do a careful close reading of this text.
2. Annotate this text. To annotate the reading:
– click on the file above to open it
– Use the Hypothesis annotation engine to enter you annotations and comments
Here’s the clean, non-annotated version. I recommend you keep a non-annotated copy of this reading by downloading it on your device:
Lesson 2.2: Michelle Alexander’s “The New Jim Crow”
In this lesson, we will begin our study of American politics by analyzing Michelle Alexander’s key arguments from her influential book The New Jim Crow. Again, I’d like to remind you to do the lesson by going all of the assignments in-order, chronologically, from top to bottom.
WATCH – Video Intro – Part 1
In this video, I give a general intro to the M. Alexander readings, while focusing on the first reading:
READ – Reading 2.2 – M. Alexander, “The New Jim Crow” – Part 1
COMPLETE – Self-assessment quiz #1
Let’s re-read the excerpt that you annotated in Lesson 1. This time, after you read the text, press the button below and take the self-assessment to review your understanding of M. Alexander’s basic arguments made in that excerpt:
WATCH – Video overview – part 2
READ and ANNOTATE – Reading 2.3 – M. Alexander, “The New Jim crow” – Part 2
Here’s the clean, non-annotated version. I recommend you keep a non-annotated copy of this reading by downloading it on your device:
After reading and annotating the excerpt, take the self-assessment quiz:
COMPLETE – Self-assessment quiz #2
COMPLETE – Discussion Board 2 – on the New Jim Crow
Let’s head over to the discussion boards:
And here’s part two of Discussion Board 2:
WRITE and UPLOAD – Response Paper 2
To conclude this module, think about and answer the following questions, which are designed to focus your attention to some of the key ideas we studies in this module.
Instructions:
– Think of your response paper as a collection of short essays. This is not supposed to be a research paper, but rather the goal is to answer each question as fully as you can.
– The questions you see here will appear on our exam in some form or another. Think of this as a preparation for our exam.
– GRADING: Response papers are NOT graded, but you receive credit for completing and submitting them. As the syllabus indicates, response papers account for 20% of your final course grade.
– Type your answers and save them as a Microsoft Word Document.
– A typical response paper should be in the range of 200 words per question.
– When you are finished with your response, upload your paper my entering your name, attaching your paper, and submitting it by using the form below:
Answer the following question in your Response Paper for Module 2:
- What surprised your about the arguments M. Alexander is making?
WRITE – Response Paper for Module 2
Module 2 Reading Response Paper Upload
Upload your Module 2 Reading Response Paper here.
WATCH – Summary Video for Module 2
Let’s summarize the main points that were raised by the two Discussion Boards in this Module, connected to the M. Alexander readings. Please make sure you watch and understand the points that are made in this video, as they will be the basis of what I’m looking for on exam questions related to this Module:
