I.
Word Association. You will have 30 seconds to write down all the words that come to mind on the two words
that I say.
Word #1 ____________________________
II. Muddiest Point
Word #2____________________________
II.
Polarization
Note: All data are from ANES, except Obama reading, which is from YouGov in 2011. (Thanks to
Jason Reifler for sharing the latter data.) Each data point shows the average of all readings taken
during that president’s time in office.
Source: Haidt and Hetheringon (September 17, 2012), “Look How Far We’ve Come Apart.” New York
Times. http://campaignstops.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/09/17/look-how-far-weve-come-apart/?_r=0
(last retrieved, June, 2015).
Supporting text from the article:
“The American National Election Study (ANES) has been asking Americans since the 1970s to rate different
groups on what they call a “feeling thermometer.” You can say how warm or cold you feel toward groups such
as immigrants, members of the military, the Republican Party or the Democratic Party, using a scale that runs
from zero (really cold, really dislike them) to 100 (really warm, really like them).”
Questions to ask as you read the graph:
1. What is being measured on the x-axis and the y-axis?
2. What does each of the lines represent?
3. What do you learn from this data? What story is being told? What is changing over time? What is staying the
same?
4. Is this a good source? On what basis are you evaluating the source?
III.
What I think the rate should be for earnings above $400,000.
Tax Rate
My first answer
My second answer
Questions to ask yourself as you read the table from top to bottom:
1. The table is in three parts, moving from top to bottom (with bold and dark blue/red being Part 1). What do you
learn from each part?
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
2. What do the three parts together tell us? What story is being told?
3. Is this a good source? On what basis are you evaluating the source?
IV.
Reflection
1. Something new that I learned:
2. A question I still have/something I’d like to know:
3. Bonus question: