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Skill Practice: Annotating Texts
Reading is an active process. To help stay engaged with a reading, it’s important to take notes and annotate as you read. This might include underlining keywords, noting a paragraph’s topic, writing questions, or circling important ideas.
By annotating a text, you may be able to remember key information better and review the information in the text more quickly. Overall, annotating a text is important; it’s why this book has so much white space around each of the readings, but how should students annotate? The answer depends on you. You need to create a system for yourself. You can highlight, underline, circle and star information. Whatever method you choose, you should be using your annotations to make sense of the text and to help you study it later. Fill in the table below. Decide how you will mark each of the following information.
Things to Annotate
Ways You Plan to Annotate Information
Main Points
Supporting Points
Keywords and Definitions
Confusing Information
Interesting Ideas
Other __________________________________
Practice
Look at the annotations below of “Reading 5.” Then, answer the questions below.
In the process of resocialization, old behaviors that were helpful in a previous role are removed because they are no longer of use. Resocialization is necessary when a person moves to a senior care center, goes to boarding school, or serves time in jail. In the new environment, the old rules no longer apply. The process of resocialization is typically more stressful than normal socialization because people have to unlearn behaviors that have become customary to them.
The most common way resocialization occurs is in a total institution where people are isolated from society and are forced to follow someone else’s rules. A ship at sea is a total institution, as are religious convents or monasteries. They are places cut off from a larger society. The 6.9 million Americans who lived in prisons and penitentiaries at the end of 2012 are also members of this type of institution (U.S. Department of Justice 2012). As another example, every branch of the military is a total institution.
In what ways are people resocialized in a boarding school? Is that really so different from normal school life?
ex. of total institutions: monasteries, prisons, military
What did the student highlight?
main ideas
supporting details
confusing information
What did the student underline?
main ideas
supporting details
confusing information
What kind of notes did the student make in the margins?
Pre-Reading
Pre-Reading Activity
Discuss these questions with a classmate.
How have you changed socially or psychologically as you have grown older?
What are some life stages people go through?
Which life stage do you think is the easiest? Why?
Explain how socialization occurs and recurs throughout life
Understand how people are socialized into new roles at age-related transition points
Describe when and how resocialization occurs
Socialization isn’t a one-time or even a short-term event. In fact, socialization is a lifelong process.
In the United States, socialization throughout life is determined greatly by age norms and “time-related rules and regulations” (Setterson 2002). As we grow older, we encounter age-related transition points that require socialization into a new role, such as becoming school age, entering the workforce, or retiring. For example, the U.S. government says that all children must attend school. Child labor laws, made into law in the early twentieth century, nationally declared that childhood be a time of learning, not of labor. In countries such as Niger and Sierra Leone, however, child labor remains common and socially acceptable, with few laws to regulate such practices (UNICEF 2012).
Big Picture
Gap Year: How Different Societies Socialize Young Adults
Have you ever heard of gap year? It’s a common custom in British society. When teens finish their secondary schooling (high school in the United States), they often take a year “off” before entering college. Frequently, they might take a job, travel, or find other ways to experience another culture. Prince William, the Duke of Cambridge, spent his gap year practicing survival skills in Belize, teaching English in Chile, and working on a dairy farm in the United Kingdom (Prince of Wales 2012a). His brother, Prince Harry, helped AIDS orphans in Africa and worked on a farm in Australia (Prince of Wales 2012b).
In the United States, this life transition point is socialized quite differently, and taking a year off is generally not seen as a good thing. Instead, U.S. youth are encouraged to pick career paths by their mid-teens, to select a college and a major by their late teens, and to have completed all collegiate schooling or technical training for their career by their early twenties.
In other nations, this phase of the life course is tied into conscription, a term that describes compulsory military service. Egypt, Switzerland, Turkey, and Singapore all have this system. Youth in these nations (often only the males) are expected to do a number of months or years of military training and service.
How might your life be different if you lived in one of these other countries? Can you think of similar social norms—related to life age-transition points—that vary from country to country?
Many of life’s social expectations are made clear and enforced on a cultural level. Through interacting with others and watching others interact, the expectation to fulfill roles becomes clear. While in elementary or middle school, the prospect of having a boyfriend or girlfriend may have been considered undesirable. The socialization that takes place in high school changes the expectation. By observing the excitement and importance attached to dating and relationships within the high school social scene, it quickly becomes apparent that one is now expected not only to be a child and a student, but also a girlfriend or boyfriend. Graduation from formal education—high school, vocational school, or college—involves socialization into a new set of expectations.
Educational expectations vary not only from culture to culture, but also from class to class. While middle- or upper-class families may expect their daughter or son to attend a four-year university after graduating from high school, other families may expect their child to immediately begin working full-time, as many within their family have done before.
Sociology in the Real World
The Long Road to Adulthood for Millennials
2008 was a year of financial disaster in the United States. Many people who did not have the money to pay their loans had to give their homes to the bank that gave them the loan. Also, bank failures set off a chain of events which caused government distrust, loan defaults, and large-scale unemployment. How has this affected the United States’s young adults?
Millennials, sometimes also called Gen Y, is a term that describes the generation born during the early eighties to early nineties. While the recession was at its highest point, many were in the process of entering, attending, or graduating from high school and college. Large numbers of graduates were unable to find work, and sometimes they moved back in with their parents and struggled to pay back student loans.
According to the New York Times, this economic problem is causing the Millennials to postpone what most Americans consider to be adulthood. According to Henig (2010), : “young people remain untethered to romantic partners or to permanent homes, going back to school for lack of better options, traveling, avoiding commitments, competing ferociously for unpaid internships or temporary (and often grueling) Teach for America jobs, forestalling the beginning of adult life”. The term Boomerang Generation describes recent college graduates, for whom lack of adequate employment upon college graduation often leads to a return to the parental home (Davidson, 2014).
The five accomplishments that define adulthood, Henig writes, are “completing school, leaving home, becoming financially independent, marrying, and having a child” (Henig 2010). These social milestones are taking longer for Millennials to attain, if they are attained at all. Sociologists wonder what long-term impact this generation’s situation may have on society as a whole.
In the process of socialization, adulthood brings a new set of challenges and expectations, as well as new roles to fill. As the aging process moves forward, social roles continue to evolve. Pleasures of youth, such as late night partying and dating many different people, become less acceptable in the eyes of society. Responsibility and commitment are emphasized as the basis of adulthood, and men and women are expected to “settle down.” During this period, many people enter into marriage or a civil union, bring children into their families, and focus on a career path.
Just as young children pretend to be doctors or lawyers, play house, and dress up, adults also engage in anticipatory socialization, the preparation for future life roles. Examples would include a couple who live together before marriage or soon-to-be parents who read infant care books and prepare their home for the arrival of their new baby. As part of anticipatory socialization, financially able adults begin planning for their retirement, saving money, and looking into future healthcare options. The transition into any new life role, despite the social structure that supports it, can be difficult.
Resocialization
In the process of resocialization, old behaviors that were helpful in a previous role are removed because they are no longer of use. Resocialization is necessary when a person moves to a senior care center, goes to boarding school, or serves time in jail. In the new environment, the old rules no longer apply. The process of resocialization is typically more stressful than normal socialization because people have to unlearn behaviors that have become customary to them.
The most common way resocialization occurs is in a total institution where people are isolated from society and are forced to follow someone else’s rules. A ship at sea is a total institution, as are religious convents or monasteries. They are places cut off from a larger society. The 6.9 million Americans who lived in prisons and penitentiaries at the end of 2012 are also members of this type of institution (U.S. Department of Justice 2012). As another example, every branch of the military is a total institution.
Many individuals are resocialized into an institution through a two-part process. First, members entering an institution must leave behind their old identity through what is known as a degradation ceremony. In a degradation ceremony, new members lose the aspects of their old identity and are given new identities. The process is sometimes gentle. To enter a senior care home, an elderly person often must leave a family home and give up many belongings which were part of his or her long-standing identity. Though caretakers guide the elderly compassionately, the process can still be one of loss.
In other situations, the degradation ceremony can be more extreme. New prisoners lose freedom, rights (including the right to privacy), and personal belongings. When entering the army, soldiers have their hair cut short. Their old clothes are removed, and they wear matching uniforms. These individuals must give up any markers of their former identity in order to be resocialized into an identity as a “soldier.”
After new members of an institution are stripped of their old identity, they build a new one that matches the new society. In the military, soldiers go through basic training together, where they learn new rules and bond with one another. They follow structured schedules set by their leaders. Soldiers must keep their areas clean for inspection, learn to march in correct formations, and salute when in the presence of superiors.
Learning to deal with life after having lived in a total institution requires yet another process of resocialization. In the U.S. military, soldiers learn discipline and a capacity for hard work. They temporarily ignore personal goals to achieve a mission, and they take pride in the accomplishments of their military unit. Many soldiers who leave the military transition these skills into excellent careers. Others find themselves lost upon leaving, uncertain about the outside world and what to do next. The process of resocialization to civilian life is not a simple one.
Reading Comprehension
Complete the summary of the “Socialization Across Life” reading.
Socialization is a lifelong process that reoccurs as we enter new (1)________________________ _________________________, such as adulthood or senior age. (2)_____________________ is a process that removes the socialization we have developed over time and replaces it with newly learned rules and roles. Because it involves removing old habits that have been built up, it can be a (3)_________________________ process.
Choose the best answers to the following questions according to the reading.
Which of the following is not an age-related transition point when Americans must be socialized to new roles?
infancy
early childhood
adolescence
adulthood
Which of the following is true regarding how the U.S. socializes recent high school graduates?
They are expected to take a year off before college.
They are required to serve in the military for one year.
They are expected to enter college or the workforce.
They are required to get married and buy a house.
What was the main reason the reading gave for why the millennial generation has had to delay typical “adult” behavior?
technology
finances
new norms
education
Answer the questions in your own words.
How does the gap year section of the reading relate to socialization? Why was it included here?
What are the five accomplishments that Henig says define adulthood?
How is living together an example of anticipatory socialization?
What are the steps in the resocialization process?
Vocabulary Practice
Complete the sentences by matching the two parts.
1. ______ Although the factory wasn’t able to attain the ideal quality standard,
a) they quickly became friends.
2. ______ While their first encounter was stressful,
b) they were able to compete on price.
3. ______ Because there were few job prospects in their country,
c) they have still found that some children have low literacy skills.
4. ______ Even though basic education is compulsory,
d) they decided to immigrate.
5. ______ Unless dogs bond with their owners,
e) they might not be obedient.
Complete the paragraph below using the words in the box. You may need to change the form of the verbs to match the grammar of the sentences.
capacity enforcing inspection isolate phase
The school is investigating a recent episode of cyber bullying. Upon closer (6)_________________________ of students’ personal devices and the offensive emails, they have determined that multiple students may have been involved. Now the administration is trying to (7)_________________________ the problem and identify if the messages were sent from school computers. The school district recently increased their (8)____________________ to deal with such issues, creating a dedicated cyber-bullying taskforce. They disagree with parents who think bullying is just a (9)_________________________ that children will grow out of. The administration thinks it can cause real psychological harm. Because they are tasked with (10)_________________________ school policies and creating a safe learning environment for students, they take these issues very seriously. They intend to address the cyberbullying through both education and punishment.
Reading Discussion
Discuss these questions with your classmates.
Why might people take a gap year? Would you be interested in that? Why or why not?
Consider a person who is joining a sports team, attending college, or even a child beginning kindergarten. How is the process the student goes through a form of socialization? What new cultural behaviors must the student adapt to?
Since inmates are often resocialized in prison, how can governments help with their re-entry into normal society?
Download the original, un-adapted version for free at https://cnx.org/contents/AgQDEnLI@13.13:JpBA6gIv@7/5-4-Socialization-Across-the-Life-Course ↵