Skill Practice: Speculating
As you read, you need to be constantly asking yourselves why an idea might be true or what might happen in the future. These questions help you to make speculations. You can think of speculating as making guesses, inferences, or predictions. At university, professors expect students to not only read and understand a text but to think about the greater implications of the information. By learning to speculate as you read, you’ll be more prepared for university. Here are some questions to ask yourself as you read:
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Questions to Ask Yourself |
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Speculating about the Past |
Speculating about the Future |
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As you read, try to ask yourself these questions. They will help you think more deeply about the reading and become a more thoughtful student.
Pre-Reading
Pre-Reading Activity
Discuss the questions with a classmate.
- Agents of socialization are people or institutions that contribute to individuals’ socialization. What are some agents of socialization? Name at least five.
- What is the role of the government in socialization?
- How can media shape the way individuals are socialized?
Look at the diagram below. It summarizes the beginning of the “Reading 4.” Quickly preview the reading. Try to fill in the missing parts.
Reading 4: Agents of Socialization [1]
Agents of Socialization
Socialization helps people learn to function successfully in their social worlds. How does the process of socialization occur? How do we learn to use the objects of our society’s material culture? How do we come to adopt the beliefs, values, and norms that represent its nonmaterial culture? This learning takes place through interaction with various agents of socialization, like peer groups and families, plus both formal and informal social institutions.
Social Group Agents
Social groups often provide the first experiences of socialization. Families, and later peer groups, communicate expectations and reinforce norms. People first learn to use the tangible objects of material culture in these settings, as well as being introduced to the beliefs and values of society.
Family
Family is the first agent of socialization. Mothers and fathers, siblings and grandparents, plus members of an extended family, all teach a child what he or she needs to know. For example, they show the child how to use objects (such as clothes, computers, eating utensils, books, bikes); how to relate to others (some as “family,” others as “friends,” still others as “strangers” or “teachers” or “neighbors”); and how the world works (what is “real” and what is “imagined”). As you are aware, either from your own experience as a child or from your role in helping to raise one, socialization includes teaching and learning about an unending variety of objects and ideas.
Remember, however, that families do not socialize children in a vacuum. Many social factors affect the way a family raises its children. For example, we can use sociological imagination to recognize that indiv