Social Problems in the U.S
This week, you should write a short reflection responding to the topic: “Poverty.”
You should demonstrate what you have learned about the basics of “social problems” from this introductory chapter, discuss your response to the reading, and pose any questions or critiques.
Reflections should be 700 words, give or take, and key components of your reflections should:
Note essential concepts, theories, and overarching trends from the readings.
Organize your reflection around themes found within the readings and any additional resources.
Reflect on the material and what you learned.
What are your thoughts about the topic?
Relate the material (using terms and concepts accurately) to your personal life or a real-life example.
Discuss any questions you might still have concerning the topic or provide a critique.
Discuss anything you found confusing or that you do not understand.
If you thought the readings did not address an essential aspect of the topic, you can discuss that here, too.
Always provide support! You should cite from the reading(s) and any outside sources throughout your reflection.
While opinions are welcome, as graduate students, you should always be ready to show support beyond yourself for any statement you make.
“Anyone can say anything, but can you support it?”
When reflecting and relating the material to your life or a real-life example, I will assess how accurately you use the terms – not your opinions. Opinions cannot be graded, but whether you provide support for your opinions and how accurately you use and apply the terms and concepts can.
Reflections should not summarize the reading, and you do not need to address all the material/concepts in the chapter. The goal is for you to think critically about and apply the material (see the first bullet).
This is the link to the poverty article
Listed below is the book for this class: This assignment will come from Chapter 2:
Required Materials:
Barkan, Steven E. 2020. Social Problems: Continuity and Change Version 2.0. FlatWorld. ISBN:
978-1-4533-9215-7
This is the feedback from my teacher gave me about the last reflection I did:
Nicely done! You do a great job touching on each part of the prompt.
What I would like to see going forward is a bit more emphasis on what you learned from the chapter and readings while interweaving it with your reflections.
For example, you provide separate sections for each part of the prompt: What you learned, Your thoughts, Examples, Questions/Critiques, and Final Thoughts.
This is fine, but how might you identify major themes and then address each in turn? You do not need to talk about everything in the chapter.
But, in your next reflection, you might talk about the poverty line in one section of your reflection. In this section, you would address what it is (what you learned – with citation) but overlay that discussion with your thoughts or a real-life example.
Then, in your next section, you might address statistics of poverty, synthesizing them with one (or more) of the theories and then address a real-life example.
You do not have to provide a real-life example for everything you address, but I would like to see your reactions to each. Some might have more detail, others less – and that is fine.
