Description
Q1
Negative stereotypes abound regarding Muslim Americans and were really ramped up with 9/11 as well as President Tr*mp banning Muslim’s from the United States. This is a quick video with reactions from Muslim Americans around YOUR age! Tell me what you think!
For full points:
- A short paragraph (at least three sentences) from you expressing your reaction to this video.
- A quick comment to a classmate as well!
Young Muslim Americans react to Islamophobia
abound: exist in large numbers or amounts
Essay
I would like this to be more of a reflection piece vs. a formal essay. This will lessen the stress for you and give you a chance to sum up topics/points that interested you the most in this class. So here is the format:
1. Write FIVE paragraphs covering FIVE points of interest to you in this class. Each paragraph should be about 150 words and include at list one APA citation from one of our assigned articles. This citation whether it is a direct quote or a paraphrase, should help to back up you point. Your paragraphs can be written in first person and totally be your opinion. You are welcome to use examples or observations from your life. This is also a time to disagree with topics that were brought up in the class. Remember, you are NOT required to espouse liberal viewpoints in my class to receive full points I promise!
2. You will note in my example below that I used THREE citations from the article I selected. This is because I find it easier to generate more words if I have more stuff to talk about. This assignment is about your opinions, but you need to back them up with citation. So why not do more than one citation? Yes!
3. Your five points of interest must come from different weeks of class. You can pick any week but be sure to not do points in the same week. This way you will cover more topics!
4. These paragraphs are not connected. Meaning each one stands on its own. You dont need to worry about transition sentences, thesis statement and making the paragraphs tie into each other.
5. While I encourage you to be casual in this written assignment, this does not mean I want a half-hearted attempt here! You have written important and reflective commentary via the Reading/Discussion assignments and I expect that type of caliber here as well!
Paragraph Example
One of the topics that really stood out for me was Disability normalization in childrens picture books
(Aho & Alter, 2018, p. 303). I always thought using the example of the book Susan Laughs was a
good idea because it presented Susan as normal. But the normal I was referring to was modeled
after abled bodies ideals. My social conditioning tricked me again! In the book, you only realize
Susan is disabled on the very last page when it is revealed that she uses a wheelchair. Surprise! So
in an attempt to make disabled children fit in, Aho and Alter (2018) report that varying abilities in
childrens books are now played down or left until the end of the story so the child in question can
still be considered similar enough to be included and liked (p. 304). Ugh, what a horrific message
you have to measure up to the ideal in order to be accepted! And then finding out that by using this
method in books, we are not only patronizing disabled people but inadvertently reinforc[ing]
societal discomfort about disability (Huges, as cited in Aho & Alter, 2018, p. 5). So, this whole new
drive to fold childrens books about disability falls flat on its face if you take this approach. I had to
throw out so many of my good examples and really think about this. It gets complicated, thats for
sure!
