Reading Response #5

READINGS

• Canvas: Cooper, “Being the ‘Go-to-Guy’: Fatherhood, Masculinity, and the Organization of Work in Silicon Valley” Download Canvas: Cooper, “Being the ‘Go-to-Guy’: Fatherhood, Masculinity, and the Organization of Work in Silicon Valley”
• #35 Gerson, “Falling Back on Plan B: The Children of the Gender Revolution Face Uncharted Territory”

ASSIGNMENT

Reading Comprehension Questions (13 points total)

In a short paragraph each, number and directly respond to the questions below (you don’t need to re-write the questions). 

Cooper finds that “fathers internalize the characteristics of the new masculinity, which shapes both how they work and how they parent.”  Explain this quote by doing each of the following:

1. Briefly describe the characteristics of the “new masculinity.” (1 point)
2. Explain how this new masculinity shapes how the men in Cooper’s study work. (2 points)
3. Explain how it shapes how they parent. (2 points)
4. What is the main question that Gerson investigates by talking to young adults? (2 points)
5. According to Gerson, what is most important to young people in their future relationships? What factors from their childhood most shaped their decisions? (3 points)
6. Gerson finds that men and women have differing fallback positions: self-reliant women and neo-traditional men. What do each of these categories mean? What are the differences between the two positions, and what does the contrast suggest to you about the future in terms of gender and equality? (3 points)

Clarification Question (optional)

What do you feel most confused about in relation to these readings?  What could use further explanation or clarification in class?

The best reading responses will:

• Rely mostly on the use of the student’s own words to explain the author’s ideas
• Provide quotation marks and citations when necessary (see above)
• Show excellent comprehension of the main points of the assigned reading(s)
• Directly and fully respond to the questions asked and tasks assigned
• Be specific, referring to particular ideas and examples from the readings rather than vague assertions
• When relevant, apply the concepts and points from the readings to examples and situations not discussed in the readings
• Demonstrate engagement with the information, ideas, and concepts (especially through interesting and thoughtful discussion questions and personal responses)
• Be well written, using proper grammar and spelling and employing clear, coherent prose

Your grade on this assignment will be based on how fully you achieve these objectives.

IMPORTANT NOTES ABOUT READING RESPONSES

How to Approach the Reading Responses

The reading response assignments will ask you a limited set of questions about the assigned readings.  The questions will address something important about the articles, particularly in relation to what we will focus on in class, but they will not cover everything you need to know about the article.  In class, you will be accountable for understanding information and ideas from the reading that are not covered in the reading response questions. 

Reading an article one time does not necessarily mean you have completed the assigned reading; upon completion of the assigned reading, you should be able to:

• Identify the central points of the article
• Explain the central points of the article
• Begin to see connections between the article and other readings and course materials
• Fully and accurately answer the reading response questions

The reading responses will only address this last point, I will ask you to demonstrate the first three as well.

Keep in mind that you should be spending about 9 hours each week completing classwork.  The majority of this time will be spent reading and completing the reading responses and discussions.  This should allow you plenty of time to carefully read the articles, to re-read them multiple times if necessary, and to draft, revise, and finalize your reading response questions.  Read the “Grading” section above before and after writing your response.  Your reading response scores will be the largest component of your overall grade.  Invest the time and effort necessary to do well on them.

General Instructions/Guidelines

Use your own words as much as possible.  When you are using the author’s words, you must give the author credit by putting quotation marks around the exact wording and providing the page number from which the quote came.  Using an author’s words without using quotation marks and citations is plagiarism, which results (at minimum) in a 0 on the assignment and a report to the Vice President of Student services.

I strongly discourage you from using any outside sources to answer these questions; they are meant to gauge your comprehension of and engagement with the assigned readings and should not involve the use of sources beyond the assigned readings.  However, if you do consult outside resources to help answer the questions, you must give credit to these sources by citing the ideas you referenced and quoting/citing any exact wording used in order to avoid plagiarism. 

Technical Details

There are general assignment reminders (not specific to this assignment):

You may type your responses to these questions as text when you click to submit the assignment, or you may upload a PDF or Word file (remember that .pages files will not be readable).  

Since Canvas includes all the necessary details, you don’t need to include any traditional header info. (like name, class, date, etc.).

Learning Objectives

This assignment is designed to advance the following learning objectives:

Module Learning Objectives

• Identify the historical, social, political, and economic processes that have produced structured inequalities in family experiences in the United States.

Course-level Student Learning Objectives

• Explain, analyze, develop, and criticize ideas effectively, including ideas encountered in multiple readings and expressed in different forms of discourse
• Read from sociological and popular literature from different sources