Please remember that there are a couple of steps to the discussion. The first step is your response, the next is responding to another student. This allows you to see another student’s perspective, which is extremely helpful for considering angles to a topic/discussion that you may have missed.

You initial post is due by the end of the day on Thursday, but your response is due by the end of the day on Friday!

Part One: Immigration

In at least 100 words, respond to the following prompt. First, consider the ideas of the melting pot vs. the salad bowl. What do you think of these approaches to understanding immigration? What do you think the United States is more like and why? Second, discuss how the information covered this week intersects with our conversations on race and ethnicity. Please take lecture, external videos, and relevant readings into account in your answer.

Part Two: Transitions and Synthesis

You can find the resources for this portion of the discussion in the Week 8 Navigation. Please refer to the PowerPoint slides on transitions and synthesis. And for quick access, though it is available in the Navigation, here is the video talking about this exercise:

Your job here is to combine different pieces of information. Look for points of agreement and disagreement between sources of information and their discussions. How would you transition between ideas (e.g., quickly link them together with words or sentences)? How would you synthesize information (e.g., draw connections between ideas, rather than summarizing each piece of information one by one)?

Here are the examples from the slides (but make sure to watch the video and look through the slides first!):

1) Transition Exercises

Video games can serve as a means of relaxation for players (citations). Video games often cause stress for a variety of reasons.

Approximately 50% of video game players are women (ESA, 2016). More men play first-person shooter games (Yee, 2017). More women than expected play titles like Assassin’s Creed Syndicate and Dragon Age: Inquisition (Yee, 2017).

*Between paragraphs, you need to link broader ideas together. For example…
Defining Success
[Paragraph that would have a better concluding sentence than this, but this is just an example…] Gender does not influence video game players’ ideas about success.
Defining Skill
Gender influences the way that players see skill.

2) Synthesis Exercises

• Example One [Made Up Examples/Quotes]:

  “The majority of respondents preferred to have a variety of options for breakfast” (Jones, 2010).

  “For many Americans, income can be a major deciding factor in whether or not they have breakfast” (Rodriguez, 2014).

  “One possible diet is intermittent fasting, which leads to many people skipping breakfast to lose weight” (Carter, 2017).

• Example Two [Real information]:

  Women make up approximately 50% of the gaming audience (Entertainment Software Association [ESA], 2016).

  People tend to associate computers, technology, and video games with boys and men (Boellstorff, 2008; Kuzenkoff & Rose, 2012; Salter & Blodgett, 2012; Shaw, 2014; Taylor, 2006; Thornham, 2011).

  Women have been found to spend more time and money on video games (Williams, 2014; Williams et al., 2009; Yee 2008).

  Women have been found to spend less time on video games, focusing on other obligations instead (Lucas & Sherry, 2004;Taylor, 2006; Winn & Heeter, 2009).

Part Three

Make sure to respond to another student!