Cleveland: Past, Present, and Future – The African-American Experience

READING SUMMARYASSIGNMENT INSTRUCTIONSEach student in UST 202 is responsible for completing a total of two short reading summary assignments. Each student has been assignedto one of three Reading Summary Groups (A, B, or C) and must complete reading summaries for each of their two designated weeks as indicated on the course outline. If there are two reading selections for the week and the student may complete a reading summary for either readingselection. Reading summaries are due in printed form at the start of class on the Tuesday of each week. Please refer to the syllabus regarding penalty for late assignment submissions. Your reading summaries should not exceed one printed page, single spaced. It must include your name and the author and title of the reading that you are discussing. Your reading summary should generally follow the format below:Overview and Main Concepts: Provide a one-paragraph overview of the reading selection and use three to five full-sentence bullet points to outline what you think are the most important main concepts of the readingselection.Short Critique: Use full-sentence bullet points to identify a strength and a weakness of the reading. These strengths and weaknesses may represent what you liked and disliked about the reading selection, butshould also be based on a critical assessment of the reading selection in terms of itsinformation sources, research approach, and overall perspective or theoretical orientation. You may write in the first person in this section (e.g. “I think that…”).Suggested Class Discussion Questions: Provide two or three questions about the reading selection that could be presented to the class and promote further discussion. Your writing style for this assignment may include indented formatting, full-sentence bullet points, and other methods of summarization and succinct writing. Assume that your audience is your classmates, rather than solely theinstructor.The assignments will be graded primarily on the basis of completeness, but writing quality will also be a factor in whether full creditis awarded for the assignment. An example of a completed assignment for “Cleveland: Journey to Maturity” by David Perry is given on Page 2.UST 202: Cleveland: Past, Present, and Future – The African-American ExperienceReading Summary Assignment – EXAMPLE_____________________________________________________Student Name: Magnus T. VikingReading Summary of “Cleveland: Journey to Maturity”by David PerryOverview and Main ConceptsThe article by David Perry describes and analyzes the historic development of Cleveland. Hecharacterizes Cleveland a proto-typical American city that is generally representative of the American urban experience. The reading selection examines how Cleveland developed as a city, how its economy has changed, and how people of manydifferent races and ethnicities have come to occupy the city. The author concludes the article by looking at how the city is continuing its journeyto maturity in the face of economic distress, racial inequality, and a declining population.In this article, Dr. Perry emphasizes three main points regarding the development of Cleveland:•First, that the development of Cleveland has been strongly influenced by landspeculation and the decisions of private property owners,•Second, that Cleveland’s economy was a model of industrial success between 1860 and1920, but that economic restructuring since the 1960s has resulted in deindustrializationand unemployment, and•Third, that Cleveland has experienced several wavesof immigration and populationgrowth that has produced a diverse population, but that the city has also experiencedhigh levels of social conflict and geographic segregation.Short CritiqueOverall, I enjoyed reading this article because it presented a focused history of how Clevelanddeveloped as a city. I thought that the article’s strongest and weakest points were:•A strong point of the article is that the author provided good examples of how the city evolved, including a description of what kinds of businesses were most successful.•A weak point of the article is that the author saysthat the city’s African-Americanpopulation became “ghettoized”, but does not fully explain how this happened.Suggested Class Discussion Questions•How has Cleveland’s economy continued to “restructure” since 1995 and how will theon-going national economic recession influence Cleveland’s economic future?•How are privatism, economic change, and racial/ethnic relations connected? Are theseseparateforces that influence the city or do they reinforce each other?