Smoke Signals Discussion

For this discussion board you are required to write and upload one (1) initial post and two (2) response posts on the issues raised in the film Smoke Signals and accompanying readings about the film. Ideally, students will either reference the articles directly or draw ideas from them.

Purpose

This discussion is designed to help you make connections between the content we’ve explored up to this module as it relates to this module’s lesson content.

Instructions

INITIAL POST

For this discussion board, you are required to discuss the issues that cause poverty and/or the impact of poverty. Ideally, students will either reference the poverty articles directly or draw ideas from them. In addition, given that this is a film class and we will be dealing with the ways in which poverty is represented in film, please feel free to include either personal observations or insights you might have about the ways in which poverty is presented/discussed in the media, television, and film.

I recommend that you first draft this comment in a word document and paste it into CANVAS to avoid losing your ideas if you get disconnected from CANVAS.

Your initial comment needs to be approximately 150+ words in which you attempt the following:

1. Identify and summarize in your own words a key concept or idea examined in class in this module. Make sure that you provide the name of the reading or video and/or author/speaker so that other students know which text(s) you are referring to.
2. Evaluate this idea. In other words, provide your own opinion on the significance and validity of the idea you have summarized. Questions you might want to consider but are not limited to are:
   • Do you agree or disagree with the definition provided by the author/speaker?
   • Do you think that the concept/idea makes sense?
   • Can you apply this concept or idea to the United States in the past or present?
   • How relevant is this idea to this class, your studies, your experiences of America, the US as you see it?

REPLIES

You must respond to at least 2 posts written by other students. Your responses can either be to other students’ initial posts OR as a reply to posts that have been written in response to your own initial point.

The goal of response posts is to further the discussion. While online discussion boards are not the same as face-to-face discussions in a classroom, their role in this course is to generate a similar level of interaction among students and to stimulate the generation of ideas. Students learn most from their interactions with other students. Therefore, when writing your response posts, think about the various ways in which your comments clarify, expand upon, and even complicate those ideas discussed in the initial post to which you are replying.

Your response posts must attempt the following:

1. They must address the key points raised by the student in the initial post
2. They must specifically reference concepts and/or ideas and/or examples raised in the article or video being discussed in the initial post