Article reading and reflections: Diversity articles (Richeson et al 2016, Palfrey 2017)

Articles for this assignment -- diversity/inclusion issues

• Jennifer A. Richeson and Samuel R. Sommers, "Toward a social psychology of race and race relations for the twenty-first century   ," Annual Review of Psychology (2016).
• John Palfrey, “The case for diversity,” in Safe Spaces, Brave Spaces: Diversity and Free Expression in Education (MIT Press, 2017).  [Palfrey 2017]

Steps to follow

1. Read both articles for this assignment, and carefully and take notes.  You should always read a scholarly article thoroughly at least twice.  The first time through, read quickly to understand the overall topic, the specific arguments and evidence, and the flow of the author's logic or narrative.  The second time through, read more slowly to note any useful concepts or terms, any key claims or arguments, and any points where the author seems to nicely summarize their thoughts.  Also note any ideas you don't quite understand or names which aren't familiar!

2. Pick out one specific part of each article to reflect on. These reflections are most effective when they are focused.  You might hone in on one particular example or piece of evidence in the article that surprised you -- or that you find yourself questioning as dubious.   You might narrow in on one particular argument that the author is making, one that you find yourself agreeing or disagreeing with most enthusiastically.   Or maybe there's a particular quote or description in the article that stuck with you.   One good way to think about this is to try to pick out what you think is the "MIS" of this article -- the "most important sentence."

3. Write a one-paragraph reflection on each article.  Now, for each of the two articles in this assignment, write a paragraph about why the particular excerpt from the article that you chose is worthy of wider discussion.  Does it raise a particular question that you'd like to pose to the course?  Does it resonate with something in your own experience that you don't think others would have shared?  Does it connect with another course you've taken at UW-Madison, either supporting or contradicting what you thought you'd already learned?  Detail each article reflection in a way that would be useful for other students to understand and would spark more discussion. These  reflective paragraphs must be longer than a sentence or two!

4. Write a final paragraph comparing or contrasting the two articles.  Based on what you wrote about each article, now try to say something about how the two articles "speak to each other" -- or how they seem to be unrelated.  Feel free to use this paragraph to articulate questions you might have about how the two articles compare, or to talk about which article you find to be more convincing or compelling than the other, and why.

5. Turn it in. Upload your three-paragraph reflection on both articles to Canvas to get credit for this assignment.  

6. Pick one of the two articles for this assignment to post about to your classmates. You may choose to post about the article that you were most engaged with; or, you may choose to post about the article that confused and frustrated you the most!  Either way, you only have to post about one of the two articles each week.  Go to the Discussions page of this web site and find your section's discussion board.  Your TA will have created a post titled something like, "Reflections on the article ____" with the article's title or the author's last name.  Use the "Reply" feature under that post to add your reflection paragraph about this article below your TA's posting.  You should post your paragraph by 11:59pm on the night before discussion section meets.

7. Comment on one other student's reflection.  Once you've posted your own reflection to the text discussion, read through the other student reflections so far, and post a "Reply" comment to at least one of these reflections.   Or post your "Reply" to a comment that another student has made on your reflection.

8. Be prepared to talk about your article reflections in your discussion section.  Make sure you are prepared in case you are called on, as this factors into your discussion participation grade.