Chapter 2

Summary:
By Nicki Woitas
1. After orientation and a week of activities to get students acquainted and
involved, Rebekah Nathan had already started her observations and participation. She was looking forward to finding patterns in students’ daily lives once classes started, but quickly realizes this is easier said than done. Because of the endless choices of courses, dorms, jobs, clubs, and past time events, Nathan finds it nearly impossible to find two like students. Schedules of sleeping, school, homework, work, and partying are too varied to record. One consistency she does find is in the appearance of dorm hallways and doors. With formal bulletin boards advising students on getting involved, studying techniques, making healthy choices, resolving problems, and protecting themselves from assault and rape. Then there are the informal displays students arrange on the doors to their room. Including the central themes of nudity, sexuality, drinking, craziness, spontaneity, and “fun”. Nathan is off to an interesting start in her observation and participation of modern day college life.

2. You can almost hear the intrigue and surprise in Rebekah Nathan’s voice when she comes across something new or something she didn’t expect. She is very descriptive in her observations of the physical appearance of the dorm life, and uses great examples of images and texts to convey her overall summary of patterns and themes she has observed so far. I think the use of interviews and having some students fill out daily diaries really gives her some great insight on things she can’t personally participate in. This also is providing the audience with a variety of viewpoints, and in doing so, expanding the audience.


Vocabulary:

By Dan Lewis

In chapter two we could not find 10 words to define. Click on the link below for an article related to the book.


http://collegeuniversity.suite101.com/articlecfm/college_freshman_year_101
This website is a survival guide to freshman year in college. It talks about studying habits, sleep patterns, the dos and don'ts of college, and how to get involved. Supported by statistics, this website gives very informative hints to having a successful freshman year.

Graphic Organizer:
By Catherine Wagner

Rebekah Nathan describes the first week of living in a dorm with other students who are eighteen to twenty years of age. She notes the many differences between what she has brought for her dorm room and the clutter of the other students' belongings. She also notes the RA’s bulletin board, and different messages relayed to the students. I also included school days in the graphic organizer, because Nathan talked about finding out about the study habits of the students in her dormitory hall. These are the three main points presented in chapter 2.

Discussion Questions:
By Catherine, Ashley, and Nicki


1. In this chapter the author does a lot of comparing between past and present study habits and the amount of free time students have. Based on the tone and structure of the author's writing, how do you think she interprets her findings? What do the statistics show? Explain.

2. At the end of the chapter Nathan talks about how college promotes a “community”, but it is contradictory how everyone has varying schedules and finds it hard to make friends. Do you find this to be true? What makes it hard/easy to make friends in college?

3. One interesting part of this chapter was the RA's speech about alcohol. What do you think the RA was really saying, try reading between the lines of the alcohol policy? Do you think this is fare? Is this bending the rules on underage alcohol consumption?

4. Nathan talks about decorating dorm doors. Do people do this on your floor? Do these pictures and quotes we put up really represent us, or do we simply post them for an image we want to portray? Is it wrong to maybe put up a religious quote or a poster against abortion?