BOOK INTRODUCTION

Being a College Student IS Different!  College is a vast change from high school. The examples listed on page 1 of your text are common occurrences for first year college students. “A” essays in high school are frequently “C” essays in college because you are frequently taught what to think in H.S. whereas in college you are expected to be creative and question on your own.  You will be forced to think critically in this class in a manner that many of you have never done before; however, when you go to college life will be much easier for you once you have mastered the technique here.

Critical Thinking  How well you think critically will be reflected in your essays and class discussions  According to the text, critical thinking involves:  Asking questions  Looking for underlying ideas and assumptions  Focusing on motives and causes  Realizing that everything has a hidden meaning

Cultural Myths Before you can properly think critically, you must understand the idea of cultural myths. Cultural myths are the ideas we are raised with that are ingrained before we are taught to question them. They are dangerous because they blind us to other points of view. Essentially, they are ideas we can’t control because we don’t know they exist. Generally, we believe in the same myths our parents do.

Myths to be broken down…  Your book is organized to break down the cultural myths you were raised with one at a time.  First, we will start with the myth of family and gender. This part will focus on how you perceive family and what you expect from family. It will also focus on our gender roles and why we behave the way we do.

 Secondly, we will discuss America’s changing role in the world today. We will mostly focus on why other nations hate America so fervently. Most of the articles in this section are written by people of other nationalities.  We will then discuss the idea of money, race, and success. This will examine in-depth the belief that anyone can make it if they try hard enough. A separate aspect of this will include America's educational system and the failings present in it.

 Just to reiterate, you will be talking about many personal, controversial topics in this class. Be respectful and open and you will find that your views of the world and life have changed by the end of the semester.  Be Nice!!! You will be removed from the class if you are consistently rude toward others. Also, if sent to a Buddy Room, you will get absences that count toward UMKC’s total count.

HOW TO READ IN A COLLEGE CLASS

 It is imperative to read the essays we discuss in class critically.  You must mark passages that provide insight or create a specific reaction in you. You can focus on these in class discussions and it will make passages easier to find when you are writing your essays. Reading essays critically

 Always, always question!  Any question that comes to mind should be written down so it can be discussed later.  Your goal for this semester is to write essays based off the topics presented in the essays we read in RA. In order to do this you will have to read actively and question why the authors of the essays hold their views.

One of the best ways to read these essays is to evaluate how they argue their point. Most of the essays in this book are argumentative. Evaluate how they argue their point, how effective it is, etc. Other things to mark about would be questions you have, emotions, whether you agree or disagree and why, etc. Really, there is no set guideline to reading critically. Everyone will find their own pattern, but whatever that may be it is imperative that you do find it and actively participate in your reading.

Reading Journals  So I can see what your thoughts are on the reading, and make sure you are reading, you will have to do reading journals on your wiki for the RA readings as well. Journals will help you focus on the reading as you do it as well and help with your critical reading.  The due dates for the wiki link are listed on the schedule. The s are due by 7am on the date listed. After that, they will not be accepted.  Do these as soon as you finish reading!!!! They will only take five minutes when the reading is fresh in your mind and then the work will always be done and not stress you out.

Journal Expectations  You should do one entry per reading (so there will be two per day on the days with two readings). These won’t take long as they are personal thoughts.  They should be a minimum of 10 well-developed sentences (six words won’t count). They should focus on anything you want to. Parts you agreed with, things you hadn't thought about before, parts you disagreed with, etc. Posts will have points deducted if they are not written in formal English, contain slang, or contain offensive language.