Humanities Homework Help

This will be our final reading assignment on “unseen” skills! You’re about to read an excerpt from one of the most influential scholarly articles written in the field of Education in the last twenty years–Tara J. Yosso’s, “Whose culture has capital? A critical race theory discussion of community cultural wealth.” We’ll rely heavily on previewing skills here to make our reading go a little more smoothly.

Click here for a .pdf of the excerpt from Yosso’s article that we’ll be focusing on! Download Click here for a .pdf of the excerpt from Yosso’s article that we’ll be focusing on!

Here’s what to read in the .pdf version above:

• Scan the first page of the article, so you can see information about the journal it’s published in.
• Read the section entitled, “Challenging racism, revealing cultural wealth” section on pages 75-81 carefully.
• I’ve also included the many pages of references given at the end of this article here in the .pdf because references are important! This will also make it easy if you’d like to look up any of the material Yosso is drawing from.

Directions

Please copy the following questions into a word processer (like Word or Google Docs) and type in your response to each question.

IMPORTANT: Be sure to explain your answers IN YOUR OWN WORDS. It’s great if you can point out a quote that answers the question, but just copying in a quote doesn’t show that YOU understand what the author is saying. Show what you know–and avoid plagiarism! 🙂

1. PREVIEWING: Check your mindset! Write a sentence or two about what goes through your head when you page through the article for the first time. Are your reactions positive or negative? Noticing how you’re reacting to this text will help you manage any negative responses so that you can jump in with an open mind and better understand what Yosso is trying to say.
2. PREVIEWING: Look up the author! Who is Tara J. Yosso, and what subjects does she normally write about?
3. PREVIEWING: Take a look at the first page of the article. Based on the jounal title, can you tell who this article is written for? Who is Yosso’s intended audience?
4. PREVIEWING: (I told you we were going to hit the previewing hard on this one!) Take a look at Yosso’s title. What does “capital” mean here? How could you rephrase the question in the title in your own way?
5. Author’s purpose: Yosso very clearly state on page 75 that she’s writing in order to correct “deficit” thinking about students of color. In 1-2 sentences, what is deficit thinking, and why is it a problem in schools? Be sure to concentrate on what Yosso is saying about deficit thinking and how she might define it. If you just pull up a dictionary and look up “deficit,” you won’t get a full answer!
6. Main ideas: In your own words, define aspirational capital. This should take 1-3 sentences.
7. Main ideas: In your own words, define linguistic capital. This should take 1-3 sentences.
8. Main ideas: In your own words, define familial capital. This should take 1-3 sentences.
9. Main ideas: In your own words, define social capital. This should take 1-3 sentences.
10. Main ideas: In your own words, define navigational capital. This should take 1-3 sentences.
11. Main ideas: In your own words, define resistant capital. This should take 1-3 sentences.
12. RESPONDING & CONNECTING: Write about one type of capital that you believe you have, and how this form of “cultural wealth” has helped you or could help you in your academic career. OR Write about one form of capital that you wish you had more of and why you think this form of capital would be helpful to you. Responses should be 4-5 good, healthy sentences.