"Sweet Land of . . . Conformity" Quiz

ANALYZING AN EXPOSITORY TEXT FOR ITS CONTROLLING IDEA AND SUPPORTING DETAILS

Quizizz Creator: Kimberly P Coleman, HS English Teacher

This activity is based on your reading of "Sweet Land of ... Conformity by Claude Fischer.

LANGUAGE INTENTIONS: I will read EACH passage below and analyze its message to determine what Supporting Detail category this paragraph fits under based on Fischer's dual controlling idea: "Americans consistently answer in a way that favors the group over the individual. In fact, we are more likely to favor the group than Europeans area.

Paragraph 8:This quality in the American character struck observers from overseas, including Alexis de Tocqueville, who in his 1830s book, “Democracy in America,” famously tied the relatively new word “individualism” to what seemed so refreshingly new about the Americans. Popular culture today reinforces this image by making heroes of men (it’s almost always men) who put principle above everything else, even if — perhaps especially if — that makes them loners.

• SUPPORTING DETAIL 1: Americans favor communalism (group) over individualism.

• SUPPORTING DETAIL 2: Individualism has its own uniquely American definition.

• SUPPORTING DETAIL 3: America values group thinking much more than Europeans.

Tags

CCSS.RI.8.2

CCSS.RL.11-12.2

CCSS.RL.8.1

CCSS.RL.9-10.2

CCSS.RL.7.2

Paragraph 9: But in modern America, when you look at real issues where individual rights conflict with group interests, Americans don’t appear to see things this way at all. Over the last few decades, scholars around the world have collaborated to mount surveys of representative samples of people from different countries. The International Social Survey Programme, or ISSP, and the World Value Surveys, or WVS, are probably the longest-running, most reliable such projects. Starting with just a handful of countries, both now pose the same questions to respondents from dozens of nations.

• SUPPORTING DETAIL 1: Americans favor communalism (group) over individualism.

• SUPPORTING DETAIL 2:Individualism has its own uniquely American definition.

• SUPPORTING DETAIL 3: America values group thinking much more than Europeans

Tags

CCSS.RI.8.2

CCSS.RL.11-12.2

CCSS.RL.8.1

CCSS.RL.9-10.2

CCSS.RI.7.2

Paragraph 10: Their findings suggest that in several major areas, Americans are clearly less individualistic than western Europeans. One topic pits individual conscience against the demands of the state. In 2006, the ISSP asked the question “In general, would you say that people should obey the law without exception, or are there exceptional occasions on which people should follow their consciences even if it means breaking the law?” At 45 percent, Americans were the least likely out of nine nationalities to say that people should at least on occasion follow their consciences — far fewer than, for example, the Swedes (70 percent) and the French (78 percent). Similarly, in 2003, Americans turned out to be the most likely to embrace the statement “People should support their country even if the country is in the wrong.”

• SUPPORTING DETAIL 1: Americans favor communalism (group) over individualism.

• SUPPORTING DETAIL 2:Individualism has its own uniquely American definition.

• SUPPORTING DETAIL 3: America values group thinking much more than Europeans

Tags

CCSS.RI.8.2

CCSS.RL.11-12.2

CCSS.RL.8.1

CCSS.RL.9-10.2

CCSS.RL.7.1

Paragraph 11: Such results contradict the message we send when we assign students the work of say, Henry David Thoreau, a follower of Emerson’s who wrote “Civil Disobedience,” or celebrate the bravery of Martin Luther King Jr. They contradict much of the justification for the Second Amendment, whose supporters see it as empowering the individual with a gun to say no to the state.

• SUPPORTING DETAIL 1: Americans favor communalism (group) over individualism.

• SUPPORTING DETAIL 2:Individualism has its own uniquely American definition.

• SUPPORTING DETAIL 3: America values group thinking much more than Europeans

Tags

CCSS.RI.8.2

CCSS.RL.11-12.2

CCSS.RL.8.1

CCSS.RL.9-10.2

CCSS.RL.7.1

Paragraph 12: But what about more intimate arenas of life? In 1991, the ISSP asked respondents whether they agreed that “Right or wrong should be a matter of personal conscience.” Americans came in next to last of seven nationalities with 47 percent agreeing, one point ahead of the Norwegians, but almost 20 points behind the Dutch and more than 40 points behind the Austrians.

• SUPPORTING DETAIL 1: Americans favor communalism (group) over individualism.

• SUPPORTING DETAIL 2:Individualism has its own uniquely American definition.

• SUPPORTING DETAIL 3: America values group thinking much more than Europeans.

Tags

CCSS.RI.8.2

CCSS.RL.11-12.2

CCSS.RL.8.1

CCSS.RL.9-10.2

CCSS.RL.7.2

Paragraph 13:The nature of individualism is complex, however, and there are at least a couple of ways that Americans in the ISSP and similar surveys do appear more individualistic than Europeans. For one, Americans are usually the most likely to say that individuals determine their own fates. What happens to you is your own doing, not the product of external circumstances. For Americans, things are the way they are because individuals made choices.

• SUPPORTING DETAIL 1: Americans favor communalism (group) over individualism.

• SUPPORTING DETAIL 2:Individualism has its own uniquely American definition.

• SUPPORTING DETAIL 3: America values group thinking much more than Europeans.

Tags

CCSS.RI.8.2

CCSS.RL.11-12.2

CCSS.RL.8.1

CCSS.RL.9-10.2

CCSS.RL.7.2

Paragraph 14:Also, the closer survey questions get to matters of economics and government, the clearer it is that Americans are strong believers in laissez-faire. Americans are much likelier than Europeans to reject government or workers interfering with owners’ authority to run their businesses.

• SUPPORTING DETAIL 1: Americans favor communalism (group) over individualism.

• SUPPORTING DETAIL 2:Individualism has its own uniquely American definition.

• SUPPORTING DETAIL 3: America values group thinking much more than Europeans.

Tags

CCSS.RI.8.2

CCSS.RL.11-12.2

CCSS.RL.8.1

CCSS.RL.9-10.2

CCSS.RL.7.1

Paragraph 15: Nonetheless, the libertarianism of Emerson does not characterize Americans’ broader understandings of the role of the individual in society. In fact, Americans seem much more willing to submerge personal liberty to the group than Europeans are.

• SUPPORTING DETAIL 1: Americans favor communalism (group) over individualism.

• SUPPORTING DETAIL 2:Individualism has its own uniquely American definition.

• SUPPORTING DETAIL 3: America values group thinking much more than Europeans

Tags

CCSS.RI.8.2

CCSS.RL.11-12.2

CCSS.RL.8.1

CCSS.RL.9-10.2

CCSS.RL.7.2

Paragraph 16: Yet, the notions of individualism and liberty have lost none of their rhetorical power in today’s America — we clearly see ourselves as individualists, far more so than Europeans do. How do we explain this contradiction, between the celebration of America as the land of individual freedom and Americans’ actual tendency to favor the group?

• SUPPORTING DETAIL 1: Americans favor communalism (group) over individualism.

• SUPPORTING DETAIL 2:Individualism has its own uniquely American definition.

• SUPPORTING DETAIL 3: America values group thinking much more than Europeans

Tags

CCSS.RI.8.2

CCSS.RL.11-12.2

CCSS.RL.8.1

CCSS.RL.9-10.2

CCSS.RL.7.2

Paragraph 17: The answer, I think, is that Americans have historically adhered to a distinctive view of the individual’s place in society, a view that can be called “communal voluntarism.”

• SUPPORTING DETAIL 1: Americans favor communalism (group) over individualism.

• SUPPORTING DETAIL 2:Individualism has its own uniquely American definition.

• SUPPORTING DETAIL 3: America values group thinking much more than Europeans.

Tags

CCSS.RI.8.2

CCSS.RL.11-12.2

CCSS.RL.8.1

CCSS.RL.9-10.2

CCSS.RL.7.2