Title: "Problems Associated With Single Mothers in the United States Today".
Assignment: Students are to write a 750 word essay (3 pages) using Danziger’s methods of acquiring knowledge to explore the theme of single motherhood in the United States today. Develop an insightful argument to explain the issue as you have defined it. Draw on data, concepts, and ideas from the sources you have been assigned from the list below. (Note: some students will be assigned sources 1, 2, 3, 4; others sources 1, 2, 5, 6.) Use the sources assigned to you for evidence to support your argument.Sources
1. Scholarly information on single motherhood in the U.S.
Scholarly information is in books written by scholars (as opposed to popular books) and in scholarly journals. Thus it includes books, chapters in books, and journal articles. Scholarly sources DO NOT INCLUDE mass media. You cannot use newspaper articles, popular magazines (like Time, Newsweek, Cosmopolitan, Ms., etc.), pop psych books, or TV shows for this part of the assignment.
Use the library to find scholarly material. A search of library resources (books and journals as well as data bases like Sociofile, America History and Life) will provide you with materials on single motherhood in the U.S. today. Ask the librarians or their aides for help on sources.
How many scholarly sources should you consult ? Enough to provide evidence for your argument.
2. The Bean Trees, by Barbara Kingsolver. The protagonist of The Bean Trees is a single mother (Taylor). Use Taylor’s experiences in The Bean Trees to illustrate points you make in your essay.
3. Specific authority sources ( a parent, teacher, mentor, priest, etc.)
4. Personal thought (personal intuition, personal reasoning skills, personal experience)
5. General authority sources (mass media, general audience books, etc.)
6. Common knowledge (also called conventional wisdom)
During a class session students will do the following related activity:B
reak into groups of four. Have the groups choose one person to take notes and do the report out. List the six sources of knowledge on the board. ALLOW ABOUT 30 MINUTES FOR THE GROUPS TO EVALUATE THESE SOURCES. Report out by category... write comments on the board.1. scholarly research
2. Bean Trees
3. specific authority
4. personal opinion
5. general authority
6. conventional wisdom
Each group is to evaluate each source of knowledge used by group members for the assignment. Evaluate each source for
1. reliability
2. validity
3. usefulness for building the argument in your paper
Information Competencies in this Assignment:
In this assignment, the student is clearly asked to perform information competency #1 articulate a research question, issue or problem; #2 make multiple and different determinations about the types of sources needed although they are given specific guidelines; #3 conduct research through electronic and book-based data retrieval systems; #4 make selections from, integrate, and synthesize information retrieved in the search; #5 evaluate the credibility of the information retrieved; #6 use computer literacy skills; and, #8 develop long-term, adaptable, cross-disciplinary research skills.
