Critical Thinking: Ray Rice

I was really pleased by the vast majority of your posts during our previous digital conversation. Although I did not respond to every student, I had the opportunity to read your postings. Most of you gave the assignment the detail and attention it required and responded to your classmates thoughtfully.


In class today, we will be focusing on the article we read during our last meeting, A Punch is Seen, and a Player Is Out and Ray Rice and His Rage.

I'd like you to focus on answer the following:

1. What is our cultural perception of domestic abuse, why people get abused and who is an abuser?
2. Pick one quote from the article and analyze it. What does it mean? Does the word choice influence your opinion? How does it factor into the issue at hand?
3. In our discussion of the topic, and of the "players" involved, there are several people or entities that might be identified as "wrong-doers". Discuss one of those wrong-doers and their involvement in the situation. How might their actions affect others and what could they have done differently? (You may NOT use Mr. Rice as an example as that would be too obvious.)
4. Make a prediction about how you think the Ray Rice saga will impact perceptions of domestic violence by sports fans. 

• Respond to TWO posts from your classmates-- comment about their ideas, ask questions about their posts, or add to their post in some way. 

All posts should be a minimum of five full sentences and should be respectful and academic. You should have a minimum of 6 posts in total. 

'Be nice': Dad transforms Ray Rice jersey with pro-girl message

Losing is Good For You

NYTimes Article: Losing is Good for You

In short responses of 5-6 sentences, discuss the following:

• Discuss a time when you lost more often than you won.

• What is so "victorious" about losing? Discuss any lessons you learned during a time when you lost.

• Discuss the larger cultural message implied by showing up and succeeding. Give an example of how this plays out in your own experience or observation.

• Respond to TWO of your classmates' posts. Go beyond restating their ideas and say more than "I agree" or "I disagree". Discuss the ideas they have posted.

Some things to consider:

• Are the ideas valid? Why?
• Are there some things they should consider further?
• Is there some logic missing?
• What other ideas compliment what they are discussing? 

Remember to be academic, respectful and friendly in your responses and to sign your name to your posts.

Please finish all  posts by our next meeting. You should have a minimum of 5 posts, total.

Dear students:

Welcome to Fall 2014. We will be using our blog as a forum for written communication and as resource for course-related information. You will find information such as a general outline of what is taking place in class/what will be due in the upcoming weeks, PDFs and links of select handouts and extra materials of interest to you, as well as the course syllabus should you lose it.

I recommend the following:

• A Gmail account to make it easier for you to interact with and sign on to our blog, which is powered by Google.
• That you save your log in and password somewhere accessible so you are not delayed when assignments are given if you forget your information.
• That you "follow" the blog. It will make it easier for you to find the link.That you write the web address accurately in your notebook for use at home. (Note: http:// without the "www")
• Students have sometimes run into glitches and lost their carefully thought out responses. Copy, cut and paste information from Word into the comment field of our blog just in case there is a problem in the posting process .
• That you read your comments for coherence, spelling and logic, making sure it applies to the questions asked.

Wishing all you a successful semester,

Angela Zeitz