5. Weekly blog readings: Each week you will have both primary and secondary
sources to read on the blog.
These will be announced in class.
Grading Scale:
Participation: 10%
Indian Removal Debate: 10%
The Slavery Essay: 25%
Midterm Exam: 25%
Final Exam: 30%
The Blog: If you have questions or
comments about this class, or if you want to see the
course readings or the syllabus online, just go to
http://history231fall2012.blogspot.com/
You need to sign in to this blog this week.
You will also have short readings on the blog. I will announce these in class.
Attendance:
Just to be clear, to succeed on tests and papers you really should be in
class.
That’s just common sense, right? To pass this class, you may not miss more than
two
classes. If you miss that third class meeting, you are missing too much of the quarter.
You cannot do that and pass.
GOALS AND OBJECTIVES:
Educational theorists insist that the stating of goals and objectives
before entering into
an instruction-rich environment is crucial. Hence, I am including here the
goals and objectives
created by the History Department. If you’d like to read more about the way we
learn history,
Sam Wineburg, at Stanford, has some wonderful theory on how we adopt historical
learning
practices. (For example, look up the following articles, Wineburg, S. (1991).
On the
reading of historical texts: Notes on the breach between school and academy.
American
Educational Research Journal, 28(3), 495-519. Wineburg, S. & Schneider, J.
(2009). Was
Bloom’s taxonomy pointed in the wrong direction? Phi Delta Kappan, 91 (4),
56-61.) None of
these ideas seem to have been incorporated in what is the official statement of
the History
Department. Instead, the department seems to define “goals” and “objectives” as
events rather
than skills. In this course, however, we will grapple with what it means to
learn and with the
way that the brain engages in historical thinking at certain moments. Hence,
this will not
only be a course about history, about a bunch of stuff that happened (which is
what the goals
below seem to suggest), but will also be a course about memory, about the
processing of
information, about writing effectively from various authorial positions, about
why our brains
work the way they do and how constructing an historical argument can engage the
brain, and
about thinking about history itself. We will get meta-cognitive! (and yes,
we’ll define that
term in class) Obviously, we’ll cover the official goals that follow, and we
will respect the
departmental guidelines, but we will sacrifice those goals in the interest of
quality
instruction. For example, if we are having a brilliant discussion on Andrew
Jackson, and we
begin cutting into the time that I had planned to spend on, let’s say, the
Anti-Mason movement,
we will sacrifice the Anti-Masons in the interest of what I deem authentic
learning. Quantity of
history is not, as opposed to what is printed below and written by people with
a fact fetish,
the key to sound history learning!
History Department Course Goals and
Objectives for History 231 U.S. History to 1865:
Goal 1:
Students will learn the chronology and topical organization of U.S. history
from the origins of European colonization to the conclusion of the Civil War.
Objective #1:
Students will be able to identify the major chronological divisions of U.S.
history and discuss in writing how and why scholars have divided the past into
various periods.
Objective #2:
Students will be able to identify the major topical divisions of U.S. history
and recognize on objective tests and discuss in writing the significance of
such topics as epidemic disease in the founding period, the role of political
ideology in the coming of the Revolution, the rise of slavery and abolitionism,
the political consequences of westward expansion, and the origins of the Civil
War.
Goal 2:
Student will learn about the origins of European colonization and the
consequences of contact among the peoples of America, Europe, and Africa in the
colonial period.
Objective #1:
Students will be able to explain the motivations behind European colonization
of the New World, the origins of the transAtlantic slave trade, the rise of the
plantation economies, and the roles of mercantilism and religious persecution
in the founding of the American colonies.
Objective #2:
Students will be able to define and discuss such terms as Columbian Exchange,
virgin-soil epidemics, and Eurocentrism.
Goal 3:
Students will acquire an understanding of the principal political documents of
U.S. history, including but not limited to the Declaration of Independence,
Articles of Confederation, Constitution, Federalist and Anti-Federalist Papers,
and the Emancipation Proclamation.
Objective #1:
Students will be able to write about the core political ideology of the
American Revolution as embodied in the Declaration of Independence, Articles of
Confederation, and the Constitution.
Objective #2:
Students will be able to explain the historical context and significance of the
Emancipation Proclamation.
Goal 4:
Students will acquire an appreciation and understanding of diversity through
the study of the history of the contributions of ethnic and racial minorities
and women.
Objective #1:
Students will be able to write about and discuss orally the contributions of
African Americans to early American history in terms of labor, society and
culture.
Objective #2:
Students will be able to write about and discuss orally the contributions of
and the prescribed role of women in colonial America and how that role changed
as a result of the American Revolution and the subsequent urbanization of the
United States.
Goal 5:
Students will learn about the lives of significant individuals in American
history.
Objective #1:
Students will be able to identify on objective tests and/or essays the
significant individuals in the history of the United States from colonial times
to 1865.
Objective #2:
Students will be able to write about the contributions of a number of important
people in the history of the United States from colonial times to 1865.
Goal 6:
Students will learn about the importance of republican principles and civic
education in the sustaining of the American political system.
Objective #1:
Students will be able to identify the core principles of republicanism and the
role of an educated electorate through an examination of a number of historical
crises in the era preceding 1865, e.g. the colonial debate over taxation and
representation, the struggle for the ratification of the Constitution, the
Missouri Compromise, the Mexican War, the Nullification Crisis, the Compromise
of 1850, and the Secessionist Crisis.
Goal 7:
Students will learn the geographical setting for historical events and the role
expansion played in American history.
Objective #1:
Students will be able to identify on maps and/or objective exams and essays the
important geographic settings, locations, and context for historical events.
Being Prompt:
Get to class on time. Why does that matter? First, it sends the wrong
message to your principal grader (that’s me). As much as we in the humanities
would like you to believe that these courses are objective (at what time of day
did the Battle of Yorktown begin?), that is not entirely the case. If you send
your principal grader the message that you don’t mind missing the first few
minutes and disturbing others in the class, don’t expect to be given the
benefit of the doubt when the tests and papers roll around. Does that sound
mean? It’s not meant to, but just remember, your actions send signals. Being
late also means that someone who already has everything out and is ready and is
involved in the discussion has to stop, move everything over, get out of the
chair to let you by, pick up the pencil you drop, let you borrow paper, run to
the bathroom because you spilled the coffee, and so on. It’s rude. There’s an
old saying: better two hours early than two minutes late. Old sayings are good.
So, what are the consequences of persistent tardiness? What do you think they
should be? Remember that 10% participation? You are eligible for that grade if
you are on time. Get here on time. And no, I’m not the jackass who watches for
you to be late that one time and stands at the door and points in your face. If
you are late a few (that means three) times, you will lose the entire 10%
participation grade. One time tardiness is not a problem precisely because it
is not persistent.
The Unforgivable Curse:
Speaking of one time issues, there is something that is so severe, so
awful, that if it happens one time, just one time, no warning, no “oh hey I
noticed this and if you could stop it that’d be super,” you will automatically
lose all 10 percent of the Participation grade. Any guesses? C’mon, you must
have some idea. No, it’s not your telephone ringing. If that happens, it’ll
just be slightly funny and we’ll move on. It’s a mistake and not intentional,
and the increased heart rate and extra sweat on your brow from you diving
headfirst into an overstuffed book bag to find a buried phone that is now
playing that new Cristina Aguilera ringtone is punishment enough for you. So, what
is it, this unforgivable crime? Texting. If you take out your phone one time to
send or receive messages you will automatically lose 10% of your course grade.
That means, if you receive a final grade of 85%, it will drop to 75%. If you
receive a final grade of 75%, it will become a 65%. Why is that? The phone
ringing is an accident. Texting is on purpose and is rude. It, in fact, is
beyond rude. It wreaks of the worst of our current society. It bespeaks the
absolutely vile desire we all have to never separate from our technological
tether for even a moment. It sends your fellow classmates and your teacher the
signal that you have better things to do. Checking your phone during class is
like listening to a friend’s story and right in the middle turning away and
talking to someone else. Oh, and guess what, this room is designed to give your
teacher a perfect view of you with a phone beneath the table; is that text
message really worth 10% of the quarter grade? Plus, the way our brains work,
you need to fully immerse yourself, to tune your brain into an optimal, flowing
machine (see Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s incredible book Flow) that can grasp and
can let itself go. Students now tend to see school as a stopover on their way
to a career. Brothers and sisters, that’s deadly! I wish that I could pay for
you all to quit your jobs and just focus on the mind. I can’t yet do that, but
if I could I would, because it’d be worth every penny. Devoting time to the
mind and to thinking deeply about your world will change who you are and how
you approach your future, your family, your job, and your everything. Is that
overstated? I believe it to be true. So, until my stock choices really take off
so that I can pay all of your bills, promise me one thing. When you are in class
or preparing for class, you have to be fully here. Oh crap, now it’s going to
sound like a hippy professor from the 1960s: “I mean, like, be here man, just
be here.” Maybe the hippies were on to something. Devote yourself fully to your
classes by unplugging from the outside world for awhile.
Participation: You do not need to be
the person who speaks out the most, asks the most questions, or comes up with
the most brilliant historical arguments to receive a good grade for
participation. If you are in class and on time, discuss the issues that we
raise, avoid the temptation to nod off, to leave early, or to text people
during class (the three easiest ways to lose credit), and in general act like
you care, then you will receive a good participation grade! Let me reiterate; if you fall asleep in class you will lose the full participation grade. I will gladly help you wityh this if you need me to throw ice cold water on you during class.
Academic Integrity
The principles of truth and integrity are recognized as fundamental to a
community of teachers and scholars. The University expects that both faculty
and students will honor these principles and in so doing will protect the
integrity of all academic work and student grades. Students are expected to do
all work assigned to them without unauthorized assistance and without giving
unauthorized assistance. Faculty have the responsibility of exercising care in
the planning and supervision of academic work so that honest effort will be
encouraged and positively reinforced.
http://www.csub.edu/studentconduct/documents/academicintegrity.pdf