Optional take-home questions for midterm 3

Soc 201A
Midterm 3
Spring 2012
Optional Take-Home Questions

For Midterm 3, you have the option of answering take-home questions on Code of the Street. If you choose to do so, you will not be able to answer the multiple choice questions concerning Code of the Street on the exam. Here are the take-home questions:

Read the introduction and chapters 1 and 2 in Code of the Street. Answer the following questions. Your answers are due the day of the exam, and must be submitted through Turnitin. The instructions on using Turnitin are on the syllabus. Do NOT work together on this assignment. These essays should be written completely independently. Anyone caught plagiarizing will get a zero on this portion of the exam, at minimum.

Part 1.

Read the Introduction in Code of the Street. According to Elijah Anderson, what is the “code of the street”? This part is worth two points. The suggested length of your answer is one paragraph (about five sentences).

Part 2.

Read Chapter 1 in Code of the Street. According to Elijah Anderson, who are the “decent” and who are the “street?” How does he describe both groups? This part is worth four points. The suggested length of your answer is one-half page double-spaced.

Part 3.

Read Chapter 2 in Code of the Street. According to Elijah Anderson, how do young people in inner-city Philadelphia campaign for respect? This part is worth four points. The suggested length of your answer is one-half page double-spaced.

Part 4.

Read Chapter 2 in Code of the Street. According to Elijah Anderson, what is “the dilemma of the decent kid?” This part is worth four points. The suggested length of your answer is one-half page double-spaced.

Take-home essay question. Final, Part 1

Your essay is due the day of the exam and must be submitted through Turnitin. The instructions on using Turnitin are on the syllabus.

Do NOT work together on this assignment. These essays should be written completely independently. Any student caught plagiarizing will receive a zero on this portion of the exam, at minimum.  

Soc 201A
Final, Part 1
Take-Home Essay Question
Referring to Chapter 4 in Code of the Street, according to Elijah Anderson, why is the teen pregnancy rate so high in inner-city Philadelphia? Discuss at least the following: poverty, the “game” that young men play, the “dream” that young women have, “baby clubs,” and the influence of peers. This question is worth 12 points. It is due on the day of the exam. It should be typed and double-spaced. The suggested length is two pages.

Midterm 2, Part 2 possible in-class essay questions

Soc 201A Online
Midterm 2. part 2
In-class Essay Questions

Part 1.

Referring to the Introduction in Code of the Street, according to Elijah Anderson, what is the “code of the street”? This part is worth two points.

Part 2.

Referring to Chapter One in Code of the Street, according to Elijah Anderson, who are the “decent” and who are the “street?” How does he describe both groups? This part is worth four points.

Part 3.

Referring to Chapter Two in Code of the Street, according to Elijah Anderson, how do young people in inner-city Philadelphia campaign for respect? This part is worth four points.

Part 4.

Referring to Chapter Two in Code of the Street, according to Elijah Anderson, what is “the dilemma of the decent kid?” This part is worth four points.

Grassroots Activism: Mothers of East Los Angeles

Grassroots Activism: Mothers of East Los Angeles

Discussion question:

What does the experience of Mothers of East Los Angeles contribute to our understanding of democracy?


Study guide questions:

Minority neighborhoods and communities are more likely to be located near what?

How did Mothers of East Los Angeles come to existence?

How has Mothers of East Los Angeles transformed women’s personal identities and their idea of “mothering”?

Optional Ethnicities

Optional Ethnicities

Discussion questions (these questions are intentionally written provocatively):

Why do black students sit together in school cafeterias?

Why might your black roommate get upset if you (assuming that you are white) ask her about collard greens?

What does Waters mean when she writes that "the invisible hand of pluralism does not do well when power relations and externalities are ignored"?

Study guide questions:

According to Waters, what is ethnicity?

What is symbolic ethnicity?

According to Waters, how are the ethnicities of whites, different from those of non-whites?

Women Without Class: Chicas, Cholas, Trash and the Presence/Absence of Class Identity

Women Without Class: Chicas, Cholas, Trash and the Presence/Absence of Class Identity

Study guide/discussion questions:

What role did social class, ethnicity and gender play in the lives of the women Bettie interviewed?

Were there cliques or groups in your school? What is your assessment of Bettie’s analysis?

Concerted Cultivation and the Accomplishment of Natural Growth

Study guide and discussion questions:

How does parenting differ by social class?

Describe concerted cultivation and natural growth. What are they? How do they affect children?

How did your parents raise you? Do you agree or disagree with Lareau’s analysis?

Possible take-home question for midterm 3

There may be a take-home portion to our third exam. Read the introduction and chapters 1 and 2 in Code of the Street. Answer the following questions. Your answers are due the day of the exam. Do NOT work together on this assignment. These essays should be written completely independently.

Soc 1A
Midterm 3
Take-home Essay Questions

Part 1.

Read the Introduction in Code of the Street. According to Elijah Anderson, what is the “code of the street”? This part is worth two points. The suggested length of your answer is one paragraph (about five sentences).

Part 2.

Read Chapter 1 in Code of the Street. According to Elijah Anderson, who are the “decent” and who are the “street?” How does he describe both groups? This part is worth four points. The suggested length of your answer is one-half page double-spaced.

Part 3.

Read Chapter 2 in Code of the Street. According to Elijah Anderson, how do young people in inner-city Philadelphia campaign for respect? This part is worth four points. The suggested length of your answer is one-half page double-spaced.

Part 4.

Read Chapter 2 in Code of the Street. According to Elijah Anderson, what is “the dilemma of the decent kid?” This part is worth four points. The suggested length of your answer is one-half page double-spaced.

Civility and Order: Adult Social Control of Children in Public Places (from Alone Together)

Civility and Order: Adult Social Control of Children in Public Places (from Alone Together) CHRISTINE HORNE, MARY KRIS MCILWAINE, and KRISTIE A. TAYLOR

Study guide/discussion questions:

How do adults control children in public places?

How do people discipline children differently depending on where they are?

According to the authors of the essay “Adult Social Control of Children in Public Places,” when are adults more likely to explain to the child what’s wrong with his or her disruptive behavior?

How do you discipline your children in public? What factors determine your response?

Marriage, Culture, and Law (from Same-Sex Marriage: The Cultural Politics of Love and Law) KATHLEEN E. HULL

Study guide/discussion questions:

How is gay marriage a form of political action?

How does Hull explain the greater interest among lesbians compared to gay men in marriage?

How is marriage a cultural tool used by gays and lesbians to solve problems in life?

How do the individuals studied by Hull in the essay “Same-Sex Marriage” see their act of marriage?

How would you like marriage to be defined, culturally and legally?

from Nike Culture: Sign of the Swoosh

Discussion question for from Nike Culture: Sign of the Swoosh

What is the relationship between Nike and community?

Does sport fulfill your desire for community?


Study guide questions:

What is the “core dilemma” that Goldman and Papson outline in Nike Culture?

What
takes over the role usually played by religion, community, and work in
fostering the cultural designs for solving problems faced by human
beings: physical survival, establishing relationships, coordinating
activity, and finding a meaningful life?

What is the most
profound effect of Nike advertising, according to Goldman and Papson
(“Nike Culture”)? It’s ability to make people feel what?

The Body and Bathing: Help with Personal Care at Home

Discussion questions:

How does the cultural meaning of bathing shape the experience of assisted bathing?

How do those receiving assistance feel about being bathed by young persons?

How does Twigg interpret respondents’ feelings about having their backs washed?

What kind of relationship did the recipients of care want to have with their caregiver?

Discuss gender differences in attitudes about receiving assistance bathing?

How does this article illustrate the symbolic interactionist perspective?

What is your assessment of Twigg's analysis?

Study guide and discussion questions for "Housebound: Women's Agency in White Separatist Movements"

Housebound: Women's Agency in White Separatist Movements
by Jennifer Fluri and Lorraine Dowler

Discussion questions:

How can the white separatist understanding of the world be explained?

To what extent do you agree or disagree with their views and why?

Study guide questions:

How do white separatists understand the world?

According to Fluri and Dowler, in what ways are white separatist women critical actors in the reproduction of the white nation?

Study guide and discussion questions for "America's National Eating Disorder"

Study guide and discussions questions for "America's National Eating Disorder"
by Michael Pollan

Discussion questions:

What does Pollan mean when he writes that our eating tends to grow more tortured as our culture's power to manage our relationship to food weakens?

According to Michael Pollan, which source is superior with respect to making good food choices, established cultural traditions or science?

According to Michael Pollan, what is the relationship between the food industry and America's national eating disorder?

What is your assessment of Pollan's claims?


Study guide questions:

According to Michael Pollan, the French culture of food successfully negotiates the omnivore’s dilemma, allowing the French to enjoy their meals without ruining their health. True or false?

According to Daniel Bell, there is a tendency in capitalism, in its single-minded pursuit of profit, to erode the various cultural underpinnings that steady a society but often impede the march of commercialization. True or false?

According to Michael Pollan, American’s rely on what in making their food choices?