Common Reading 2006-2007
Barbara Ehrenreich's Nickel and Dimed
Discussion Guide for Faculty-led Student Groups at the Opening Sessions for Students

Thank you so much for volunteering to meet with a group of new students to welcome them into the intellectual life of the college. Students consistently evaluate the faculty-led discussions as one of their favorite portions of the Opening Sessions program. We appreciate your energy and enthusiasm!

Day’s Libretto: For your session, you will have one hour, from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.  Please plan on arriving in your classroom by 11:15 a.m.

Prior to your session, students will attend a plenary from 10:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. in the Mainstage Theater.  There, we will begin a discussion of Nickel and Dimed by framing the Common Reading and the major themes and issues in the book.  We will focus specifically on the idea of the American worker in the new economy.  Students will see a dramatization of several scenes from Nickel and Dimed produced by Professor Will Koolsbergen.  If you are available to join us, we would love to have you attend the Plenary Session prior to your faculty-led discussion. 

Students will arrive at your session between 11:15 a.m. and 11:30 a.m.  On their way from the theater to your session, they will stop and pick up a bag lunch, which they will bring with them to your session. 

After your session, students will proceed to one of three special orientations for our new First Year Academies beginning at 12:45 p.m.  We are asking for your assistance in walking with your students to their Academy Orientation Room.  These rooms are outlined in the letter you received from Dean Arcario.  Please let us know if you need additional information.  The day’s program ends with optional tours of the college.  Students who are interested can also attend Leadership and Diversity programs beginning at 1:45 p.m.  Please feel free to join us for any of these other activities during the day.

Organizing Your Session:What makes the faculty-led discussion sessions such a rich experience for students is your creativity and the variety of approaches to leading discussion on the common reading.  This year is no exception.  What follows is a brief list of ideas for leading discussion on the book.  Feel free to devise your own session plans.  These suggestions simply serve as a possible springboard for your own ideas;  please feel free to borrow liberally or to go in another direction entirely.  You may want to begin your session by determining how many students have read the book; usually, many students have read the Common Reading in its entirety.  Sometimes, groups of students receive the book at Opening Sessions, so you should prepare for a mixed group.  However, since students will have seen a portion of Nickel and Dimed on stage, you should have success with encouraging both students who have and have not read the book to talk about the themes and ideas in the text.

Setting the Room: Before students arrive, you may want to create a particular setting for students to interact with.  You might want to use photographs of “work” as a visual prompt for students to respond to, stimulating discussions of the text.  You might want to list different kinds of jobs on the board, along with the rate of pay.  You might write the average wage of American workers as compared to workers in other countries on the board.  You might also consider using a cartoon, like Dilbert, or a video clip from a television show like The Office or Roseanne to highlight popular representations of “work.”  Consider different ways that you might engage students visually when they enter the room.  You might also consider using some of the resources from LaGuardia’s Media Services Center (listed below).

As you prepare for Student Opening Sessions, you may also want to visit this year’s Common Reading Website.  George McCormack, with technical assistance from Ali Abdallah, has designed a wonderful site full of resources, links, and teaching ideas.  We anticipate that the site will be up by the 26th of August, at the latest.  George has written extensive summaries, provided vocabulary lists, and discussion questions for each chapter in the book.  We encourage you to take advantage of George’s work as you prepare your own session with students!  Once the website is live, you will be able to access it at:  http://www.lagcc.cuny.edu/nickeldimed/.

Some other Internet resources include:

• The Library of Congress’s “American Historical Memory Collection:
• “America at Work”
• < http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/awlhtml/awlwork.html>
• Highlights from the WPA Collection
• < http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/wpaposters/highlight4.html>
• Putting America to Work, U. S. Mayor’s Council
• < http://www.usmayors.org/uscm/wash_update/documents/ puttingamericatowork2006.pdf>
• The U.S. Department of Labor
• < http://www.dol.gov/>
• Bureau of Labor Statistics—July 2006 Employment Summary
• < http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm>
• Bureau of Labor Statistics, “American Labor in the 20th Century”
• < http://www.bls.gov/opub/cwc/cm20030124ar02p1.htm>
• U.S. Department of Labor—Minimum Wage Laws (by state)
• < http://www.dol.gov/esa/minwage/america.htm>
• Barbara Ehrenreich’s Website
• < http://www.nickelanddimed.net/>
• **See especially “Resources”
• “Low Wage Trade”, an interview with Ehrenreich in The Village Voice
• < http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0121,sandler,24951,1.html>

Some helpful books in the LaGuardia library include:

• Fantasia, Rick.  Hard Work:  Remaking the American Labor Movement. (HD6508 .F23513 2004)
• Friedman, Thomas.  The World is Flat. (HM846 .F74 2005—Reserve)
• Osterman, Paul.  Securing Prosperity:  The American Labor Market, How it Has Changed, and What to Do About It (HD 5724 .O765 1999)
• O’Toole, James.  The New American Workplace (Browsing Collection)
• Steger, Manfred.  Globalism:  The New Market Ideology (HF 1379 .S738 2002)
• See also, “Mediagraphies” for media resources.  See especially “Career Services” and “Labor”
• <http://www.lagcc.cuny.edu/library/media/mediagraphies/default.htm>

About the Author: (From her web site:  http://www.nickelanddimed.net/)

Barbara Ehrenreich is the author of thirteen books, including the New York Times bestseller Nickel and Dimed. A frequent contributor to the New York Times, Harpers, and the Progressive, she is a contributing writer to Time magazine. She lives in Florida.

General Themes in Nickel and Dimed:This year’s common reading lends itself to both the contemporary and the historic.  In addressing minimum wage work, Ehrenreich’s text presents themes such as:  the economy, labor conditions, the American workforce, working conditions, minimum wage, income gaps, access to health care, benefits, the cost of living, living wage, and work ethic.  The book, as part of a larger discussion of American labor, provides an important snapshot into the economy of the late 1990s and is an excellent comparative study in considering the development of the American labor force.  In short, how have working conditions changed throughout the course of American history?  What themes and issues remain constant?

Getting Started:

Once you have settled into your session, you may want to begin by talking with students about the intellectual life of college.  Why does LaGuardia welcome its new students with a book?  What does this say about the intellectual life of the college and how students are asked to participate in that life?  What role will ideas play in shaping a student’s education?  Why do professors from all different disciplines participate in discussions about a single book?  How is undergraduate education shaped, in part, by the ability to look at issues from many different perspectives?

Pre-Reading Exercises: (helpful for groups where many students haven’t read the book)

1. Examine the front cover of the book.  Ask students to talk about the photograph and what it suggests about work.
2. Ask students what connections they make between the image and the title of the book.

Association Questions:

1. Ask students to discuss work in the United States.  What does that word mean?  What is the difference between the kinds of jobs that Ehrenreich has in the book and the kinds of jobs students want to have once they graduate?
2. Ask students if they are familiar with the history of labor in the United States?   How has the idea of the American workforce changed over time?
3. Ask students to compare “work” in the United States to “work” in a global context.  What are some of the differences?  In what way is “work” a cultural, social, and political construct?
4. Talk about the titles of the book’s chapters.  What do these titles reveal about the book?  About Ehrenreich?  About Ehrenreich’s perception of “work” in the United States?
5. Ask students to consider Ehrenreich’s project.  Given her background, does this seem like a legitimate “study” of work?

Association Exercises:

1. Ask students to free write for 5 minutes on the topic of “work.”  Ask students to share their free writes.
2. Ask students to brainstorm all of the jobs they have had.  Ask students to brainstorm all of the jobs members of their families have had.  Ask students to share their free writes.

   A modification of this might be to have all of the students list their jobs on the board so that you have a large visual “map” of their employment histories to work with.

3. Ask students why they have come to college.  If some students respond that they are seeking an education related to future employment, explore the relationship between work and education.  How does Ehrenreich’s book speak to this?

Additional Resources:

For Discussion Questions for specific chapters, please see this year’s Common Reading website at:  <http://www.lagcc.cuny.edu/nickeldimed/>.

For comments, suggestions or further inquiries about this year’s Common Reading, please contact J. Elizabeth Clark (x5665) or lclark@lagcc.cuny.edu.

**This Discussion Guide for Student Openings Sessions was created by J. Elizabeth Clark.

J. Elizabeth Clark, Ph.D. (lclark@lagcc.cuny.edu)
Professor of English
Office: E-103 H in The Department of English
Phone:718.482.5665
Summer 2009 Office Hours

Site Credits: This site was last updated on 13 May 2009. Site designed and maintained by J. Elizabeth Clark. Technical Assistance provided by Delwar Sayeed and Priscilla Stadler.