1. Interpret Chua’s claims. For Chua, what factors define success and accomplishment?
2. Examine Chua’s claims. Does Chua believe in a meritocracy? Why or why not? (Similar to the first question in the prompt for Project 1) 
3. Compare Chua’s belief in meritocracy with Sandel’s belief in meritocracy. 
4. Critique Chua’s claims. Is there anything Chua may be hiding or distorting about success? (Similar to the second question in the prompt for Project 1) 
5. Make a claim that reflects your discussion. 
6. Put your discussion in paragraph form. 

1. Individually identify what the thesis statement is
2. Share what you think with your pod 
3. As a pod, decide what y’all believe the thesis statement to be 
4. Post what y'all identified the thesis statement to be. 

1. Is it too broad or too specific?
2. Is it arguable based on the available evidence?
3. Does the evidence support it?
4. Does it offer something new to the existing literature?

• Structure
• Critical thinking about meritocracy and education 
• Thesis statements 
• Making claims 
• Supporting claims with reasoning and evidence 
• Concessions/rebuttals for counterpoints 
  
  

• What grade would each of the students earned? 
• What exactly is being graded? 
• What do you like about our current contract grading system and what would you do to improve it? 
• Does it encourage or discourage you from learning the writing skills you need?

• Recall meritocracy. In 1-2 sentences, what exactly does the ideology of meritocracy value?
• Describe the role of labor in labor-based grade contract. Provide a 1-3 sentence summary of Inoue’s Ch 3.
• Critique the role of meritocracy in labor-based contract grades. In 2-5 sentences, how does meritocracy inform labor-based contract grades?  
• Argue a side. In 2-5 sentences, does labor-based contract grading solve issues surrounding meritocracy or does it perpetuate those issues? 

1. Moore, R. (2019, October). 4 in 10 College Students Weren't Taught How to Manage their Finances.

1. Hall, E. (2022, April 29).Work Experience Education (WEE). Work Experience Education (WEE) - Career Technical Education (CA Dept of Education).

"They Give Teachers a Hard Time": Symbolic Violence and Intersections of Race and Class in Interpretations of Teacher-student Relations

• Teachers contribute to meritocracy because they treat students different based on social status and race. 
• It is reliable because the author is a professor that has done research on this specific topic.

Critical Pedagogy and Teacher Education: Radicalizing Prospective Teachers

1. Stress overload in first-generation college students: Implications for intervention:Amirkhan, James H; Manalo, Rodel, Jr; Velasco, Sarah E. Psychological Services (Apr 7, 2022)
2. This source discusses how first-generation college students report high stress-overload, compared to generation college students, which gives an insight into their academic performance and health issues. i.e. high stress-overload equals poor academic performance and increased health issues. I believe this is a reliable source because it is copyrighted by the American Psychological Association which means that this source had to have been peer-reviewed.

1. Effects of digital learning skill training on the academic performance of undergraduates in science and mathematics: Bernacki, Matthew L; Vosicka, Lucie; Utz, Jenifer C; Warren, Carryn Bellomo.
2. This source demonstrates how many STEM majors fail to complete their degrees due to lack of learning skills. To combat this, they performed a study where first-generation college students received training and results showed that their academic performance improved due to the adoption of the methods taught in the training course. I believe that this is a reliable source because 67 other documents reference this one

1. Monaghan, D. B., Hawkins, J., & Hernandez, A. (2020). Dream adjusters: High school counselors in a low-income school district. Education and Urban Society, 52(5), 704-733. doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/0013124519887712

1. Deslonde, V. L., & Becerra, M. D. (2018). High school counselors' influence on low socioeconomic students' college enrollment. Journal of School Counseling, 16(24), 1-29. Retrieved from https://www.proquest.com/scholarly-journals/high-school-counselors-influence-on-low/docview/2228639086/se-2?accountid=14524

• Does the poster communicate clearly and effectively your problem, its significance and your solution?
• Does the poster communicate your ethical position on the problem and solution?
• Does the poster adopt successful written and visual “cues” for intended audiences?
• Does the poster provide information to viewers in a way that is concise, easy to follow, and well-organized?
  
  

• There is a lot of text
• Intriguing
• Good use of spatial mode - each section is organized in a manner that has each topic sectioned off into different blocks of text

1. It employs spatial, linguistic and visual mode
2. The problem is difficult to discern - it doesnt give enough background or context to the fair/unfair model. It does not effectively convey its significance, as it does not explain the effects. The solution is more clear 
3. because the problem is hard to determine, the authors position is also hard to discern
4. The periodically educating section indicates that the audience is intended to be for-profit engineering-based companies
5. Everything is labeled clearly but it is difficult to determine the purpose of some of the boxes of text and the order we should follow when reading it.

1. The color coding is nice

• The text is a bit small relative to the pictures
• The spacing is uneven and it does not use san serif (no line) fronts for the body texts like ariel.
• The pictures do not seem very relevant and they do not line up with each other
• The colors of the boxes are easy on the eyes but the inside text is kind of hard to read because its very dense and the spacing is off
• The title is a different font from everything else

1. It employs spatial mode, visual and linguistic
2. It clearly conveys the problem, however, it does not explain the significance as it does not expand on the effects of the issue. The solution is clearly conveyed and its implementation is shown in the “methods” section
3. Yes it communicates the ethical position
4. The audience is UCSD students. The title cues that this is the intended audience
5. Yes it is easy to follow and structured in an organized reader friendly manner. However, the pictures do not seem very relevant and don't include any text that provides context that would explain their significance