Your Task: In 1,700 words, define and explain stereotype threat as a problem which students on college campuses face, and provide a set of possible solutions for this problem.
Background: Stereotype threat and identity threatare complex, powerful phenomena that can affect anyone. Research in this field shows us how pieces of our identity, and the emotional investment related to those identities, can change how we act and even spur drops in our performance when we try to avoid confirming negative stereotypes related to those identities. Claude Steele’s Whistling Vivaldi helps illustrate precisely what these threatsare, how they work, and what we can do to mitigate their harmful effects. To make sense of these theories, though, it is probably easiest to apply them to a clearer, more relatable example, Community College.
What to do: Using Steele, identifyseveral ways in whichcommunity college students might experience stereotype threat and explain why it is important for colleges and universities to be aware of stereotype threat; support and explain your point of view using evidence from the text.To frame your response, use examples from the text as the bulk of your evidence, but you may also draw on personal experience or knowledge when it makes sense.
Once you have established the scope of the problem, propose some solutions. What kinds of programs or services can colleges offer or mandate to help with this problem? What kinds of student or teacher behavior should be encouraged or discouraged? How can we get those people to act in those ways? Can this problem be solved at all?
How to do it?
Introduction: Think about using either a personal narrative introduction, like we have already used in earlier papers, or trying out a definition or Lit Review introduction, as you have been shown in class. Remember to end with a clear thesis that indicates your angle on the problem as well as your propose solution; these two things should be strongly linked, so a subordinator will be useful.
Body Paragraphs: You will have two kinds of body paragraphs, problem and solution, but both types should be based on evidence from a text. Remember to use TEA(EA) paragraphs to make your points clear and focused. Body paragraphs should be organized with an eye towards the paper as a whole.
Problem paragraphs should focus on how certain aspects of stereotype threat affect students in particular, and you may want to focus on CSM students at that. Solution paragraphs should not just suggest general solutions, but should seek to be as specific as possible, telling your reader, when, where, and how practical solutions will be implemented (don’t just tell us teachers should “give good feedback;” tell us what good feedback is, provide an example, explain how we will adjust teacher’s workload in order to give them time to provide this feedback. Etc).
Conclusion: You won’t need any kind of summative conclusion for this paper. Instead think of this section as your “Discussion.” Take a moment to look to the future. Engage in some hypothetical reasoning – If colleges take your advice, what kinds of effects might we see in the future?
Expectations
- 1,700 words
- Clear paper organization
- TEA(EA) Paragraphs
- Great Sentence Focus
- Frequent use of Subordinators and FANBOYS
- 2 Uses of Parallel Structure