What you need to know about the Journalism Book Club
Your part: Generate and contribute to discussion regarding themes and ideas found in the book, "The Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama" by Gwen Ifill (2009, Random House).
Purpose: To help you make connections between the themes in the book and your role as a journalist-in-training, as well as to improve your reading comprehension and critical-thinking skills.
Scope: You will participate in small group discussions of the reading selections during the Journalism Book Club sessions, which will be held over the course of the semester.
Format: You will be expected to generate questions to spark discussions related to the readings and your classroom activities. For each session you will be assigned a different role, including discussion director, content connector, literary luminary and positive participant.
Evaluation: The Book Club project is worth a maximum of 50 extra credit points in Prof. Linda Bowen’s classes. Discussion sessions are worth 10 points each, including completion of session assignments. Completed handouts will be collected at the end of each session.
The following elements may be used to evaluate participation:
• How well are you prepared for the discussion?
• Do you use the text to share passages, to support ideas and opinions?
• How effectively have you contributed to the conversation?
• Do you listen actively to others?
• Do you ask questions? Are they relevant?
• Do questions get a thoughtful response? Do you contribute thoughtful ideas?
• Do you build on other people’s comments?
• Do you keep the group on task?
• Do you make appropriate personal connections to your life?
• Do you make appropriate connections to other books, authors and experiences?
• Do you demonstrate critical thinking skills when discussing concepts?
Feedback: Periodically, you will complete a self-assessment based on your assigned roles.
Note: If you are not present on the day of discussion, you will not earn points. See evaluation section above.