Syllabus History 1301 (Course No. 3817) Spring Semester, 1995
Dr. Ken Weatherbie
Office: HH-209 ( ) Hours: __________
Social Science Dept., HH103 ( )
E-mail: kenbie@aol.com
History should be studied because it is an absolutely necessary enlargement of human experience, a way of getting out of the boundaries of one's own life and culture and of seeing more of what human experience has been. And it is the necessary, unique way of orienting the present moment, so that you know where you are and where we have come from and so you don't fantasize about the past and make up myths to justify some immediate purpose--so you can make decisions based to some extent on what has gone before, on knowledge of actual experience. --Bernard Bailyn, historian
Reading & Exam Schedule
(See TAN and HM codes below; numbers refer to chapter numbers in TAN and HM)
Jan 17 Introduction (Mar) 21 TAN9
19 TAN1 23 THIRD EXAM
24 TAN2 28 TAN10; AH24
26 HM8 30 HM20
31 TAN3 Apr 4 TAN11
Feb 2 FIRST EXAM 6 HM19; HM23
7 TAN4 11 TAN13;
HM21,HM22
9 HM12;HM13 13 FOURTH EXAM
14 TAN5 18 TAN14
16 HM14; HM15 20 HM18
21 TAN6 25 TAN15
23 SECOND EXAM 27 HM24; HM25
28 TAN7 May2 TAN16; HM26
Mar 2 HM16 4 FIFTH EXAM
7 TAN8 FINAL EXAMS
9 HM17 May 8-12
Please Note: You are required to have all reading assignments completed by class time on the date scheduled. You must have a Scantron A9
Form 882-E or 882-ES for each Exam and the Final Exam.
There will be a Map Test (see handout) at the end of the semester.
This is a departmental exam required of all students enrolled in a
history course.
The Final Exam will be a comprehensive test sampling the entire
semester's assignments. You will have three formal Writing
Assignments (see handout) using material from the required reading.
Required Reading
TAN Garraty, John A. The American Nation: A History of the United States to 1877. Volume I. Eighth Edition. New York: Harper Collins, 1994. Also required; Weatherbie, Ken. Study Guide to accompany John A. Garraty, The American Nation. Volume I.
HM McClellan, Jim R. Historical Moments: Changing Interpretations of America's Past. Volume I: The Precolonial Period Through the Civil War. Guilford, Conn.: Dushkin, 1994.
Your grade will be determined by your performance on:
Percent-Each Percent-Total | Letter grades
Five Exams 7 35 | 90 - 100=A
Final Exam 10 10 | 80 - 89=B
Map Test 10 10 | 70 - 79=C
Three Essays 5, 7, 8 20 | 60 - 69=D
Group Quizzes 1 20 |
LearningLog 5 5 |
Grades are NOT curved. Each of the first four Exam grades will be replaced by its successor, if higher. Your Final Exam grade will replace your lowest Exam grade, if higher.
Please Note
Make-Up Exams and Deadlines: No "make-up" exams (or quizzes) will
be given.
If an emergency forces you to miss an Exam, see or call the
instructor as soon as possible. The Final Exam score will
substitute for one missed exam score. You may arrange to take an
Exam early. However, all deadlines for written assignments are
absolute NO EXCEPTIONS.
Absences: Three consecutive or four total absences will result in your dismissal from the course with a grade of "W" or "WF" depending on the instructor's determination of your grade at the time of dismissal.
Each class begins when the instructor convenes it and ends when the instructor dismisses it. Failure to attend any part of a class session will in most cases be counted as a complete absence. No distinction is made between an "excused" and an "unexcused" absence. You are responsible for knowing your attendance status and for requesting adjustments to your attendance record.
Withdrawals: If you decide not to continue coming to class, you must initiate a drop at the Registrar's office. If you do not, and the instructor does not drop you, College policy states that you will receive an "F" for the course.
Building Policy: Smoking is NOT allowed in the building. Drinks and food are NOT allowed in the classroom.
Special Dates
Jan 16 (Monday) Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday
Feb 24 (Friday) Last day to drop this course with an automatic "W"
Mar 13-17 (Monday-Friday) Spring Break
May 1 (Monday) Last day to drop this course
Cooperative Learning
This course in American history is taught using the principles of Cooperative Learning. This means that the traditional models of learning with which you are most familiar and most experienced, individualized and competitive learning, are de-emphasized, though not discarded. Cooperative learning (CL) is based on a different set of assumptions about how learning occurs. It values different things, it has some different goals, and it utilizes different procedures.
CL Assumptions
Learning is an active, constructive process; knowledge is created, not transmitted.
Learning is influenced by the context and activity in which it is embedded.
Learners are diverse, they bring multiple perspectives to the subject.
Learning is inherently social.
Learning has affective and subjective dimensions; social
interaction stimulates learners and learning, learners see themselves as responsible creators of their own knowledge & meanings.
CL Goals
Student involvement in their own education.
Experience in cooperative enterprise; valuing teamwork,
capacity for tolerance, caring for how others are doing, cooperative and social skills.
Reinvigoration of democracy; habits of participation, sense of responsibility to others to the community at large, refined listening and articulation skills.
Firmer grasp, better understanding, and deeper appreciation of the subject matter.
CL Essential Elements
Positive Interdependence; individual success depends heavily on group success and vice versa
Promotive Interaction; the basic learning environment is in small group, face-to-face discussion of the material.
Individual Accountability; each student has personal responsibility to the group effort and is tested for his/her own learning.
Social Skills; consensus-seeking, problem-solving, decision-making are important learning and socials skills and can be taught and learned through practice.
Group Processing; groups improve their performance when given a formal and frequent opportunity to reflect on their work.
CL Implemented
In practice, CL demands a reconfigured classroom and classroom procedures. Most class time is devoted to small group discussion. These discussions are focused on material provided by the professor, who has become less a transmitter of information and more a designer and manager of learning experiences. You are assigned "roles" within each group: Gatekeeper, Taskmaster, Checker, Recorder, etc.
Group study is followed by individual quizzes or production of a group report. Your Group Performance grade is determined by a combination of your individual scores on these quizzes and reports, and your group's scores.
Your success in this cooperative group work depends on two things: your will to work together and your skill at working together. You can learn both of these. The course is designed to promote your acquisition of both the will and the skill to cooperate with each other to learn American history.
CL Expectations
This course's CL structure does make significant demands on both you and the professor. CL has high expectations about your participation and cooperation. It demands that you change roles:
From listener, observer, and note-taker to active problem-solver, contributor, and discussant;
From low or moderate expectations of preparation for class to high ones;
From a private presence in the classroom (and few or no risks therein) to a public one, with many risks;
From attendance dictated by personal choice to that having to do with group and class expectations;
From competition with or indifference toward other students to cooperation with them;
From responsibilities and self-definition associated with learning independently to those associated with learning inter-dependently;
From seeing the professor and the lecture as the source of authority and knowledge, to seeing other students, yourself, and the thinking of your group and the class as additional and important sources of authority and knowledge.
These shifts in roles may be problematic. Your schooling has probably reinforced the values of the competitive and "teacher-as-source-of-knowledge" model. You may have learned to succeed in that model. You are not familiar with CL's procedures and they will take a little time getting used to. It's OK for you to be cautious, even anxious and skeptical, but persevere. Soon you will discover the stimulation and satisfaction of learning in concert with others.
(Portions of the above are borrowed and adapted from Goodsell, Anne, Michelle Mahaer, and Vincent Tinto. _Collaborative Learning: A Sourcebook for Higher Education_, Vol. I. University Park, PA.: National Center on Postsecondary Teaching, Learning, and Assessment, 1993.)
Writing Assignments
You are required to write three essays in this course. You will write each essay out of class and bring the finished essay to class. It is due at the beginning of class on the date scheduled. Exact requirements for each essay and its due date will be established as each specific assignment is made.
Each essay will be based on your knowledge, analysis, and interpretation of the documents or essays assigned in the supplemental readings. When grading your essay, I will consider each of the following:
Substance Your essay must have a main point and a consistent point of view. It must clearly identify your subject and the point you are making. I expect a full discussion of each part of the essay assignment. I also expect your essay to reflect that you have read carefully the material assigned.
Organization Your essay must have coherence and unity. There must be a logical and clear development of the main point, each sentence must relate to the main point, and sentences must relate to each other. I expect correct paragraphing and smooth transitions within and between each paragraph. Your essay must have a title, introduction, body, and conclusion.
Mechanics Since these are essays written out of class, you are responsible for proof-reading your essay to make sure you have used correct grammar, spelling, punctuation, capitalization, syntax (arrangement of words in a sentence), and diction (word choice). I will expect your paper to be clean and neat in appearance. Your essay must be typed (double spaced) on white, 81/2" x 11" paper. Use either a 10 or 12 point font (elite or pica type).
Evidence Your essay must present historical information that is both accurate and relevant. It must contain specific details, supporting examples, and clarifying verbal illustrations that help demonstrate or prove your main point.
You must hand in all writing used in the preparation of your essay. Your grade will be based on both the final product of your writing and the extent to which you demonstrate your commitment to the prewriting, writing, revising and proof-reading process.
Your essay will be graded Accept (A), Accept with reservation (AR), or Rewrite (R). If you turn your paper in by the deadline and receive 1) an "A," this completes your writing assignment and you receive full credit of 100 percent; 2) an "AR," you have the choice of taking 80 percent credit, or you will be given one week to revise the essay and turn it in a second time for regrading up to full credit; 3) an "R," you will be given one week to revise the essay and turn it in a second time for regrading for maximum credit of 80 percent. If you fail to hand in an essay by the original deadline, or fail to hand in a Rewrite by the rewrite deadline, you will receive no credit (0 percent) for it. Deadlines are final and absolute, no exceptions for any reason.
There is nothing exceptional about these requirements. They ask nothing more than that you present your knowledge, understanding, and point of view clearly and economically. Meeting these standards is a requirement of each essay. Please Note: Writing each essay is a requirement of this course.
Complete failure to hand in an essay will diminish your course grade by one grade.
Note: While you are assigned just three formal essays, you will be writing almost continuously in this course. All of it is required, much of it is ungraded. In some cases a designated reporter will be responsible for writing up conclusions for their group's work for the day. This will be a rotating responsibility. In other cases, I will require half or full page individually written conclusions from group work. Frequently, you will be asked to write an evaluation of your group's work and make written observations on what your group does well and what it could do better. You are expected to complete the instructor-prepared discussion guides for each reading assignment and bring those written notes to class to help guide your contributions to group discussion. You are also expected to keep frequent entries in your LearningLog. See what a mean by writing almost continuously?
LearningLog
You are required to keep a cumulative written record of your responses to your experiences in this course LearningLog. Here you will record your reactions to the professor, readings, lectures, audio-visual materials, tests, discussions, and other components of the course. Your LearningLog
might contain such things as:
your reaction to any new information that surprises you or seems contrary to what you have been told before
your views on any controversial material presented in the reading or in class
your conclusions about the significance of historical personalities or events
how you see a historical person or event affecting your life today
what problems you are having in the course, what confuses you or frustrates you
what successes you are having in the course, what pleases you or interests you
what connections you see between what you have learned before and what you are learning now
what connections you see between the course material and the "real" world
what connections you see between what you are learning in this course and what your are learning in other courses
your feelings about what is happening in the course and in your group how you see yourself as a learner, what progress you are making, skills you are developing, new insights and perspectives you have, conclusions you have drawn, . . .
The LearningLog is not a diary nor a set of notes. It should focus on the course content and course procedure, but it should register your thoughts, your responses and reactions to information, ideas, and the way things are done in the course. It is a record of how you perceive yourself as a learner in the course; how you think about and feel about what is being presented and how it is being presented. It should be a record of your interaction with the professor, other students, and the course material.
For the most part, you will make LearningLog entries outside of class, although you should bring your LearningLog to class (or leafs of paper you can enter into your LearningLog later). From time to time I will ask you to write LearningLog entries in class, usually at the very beginning or end of a class.
Your LearningLog will determine 5 percent of your course grade. It is graded on a 10 point scale according to my sense of your consistent interaction with the course material. Therefore, I will collect your LearningLog periodically (though irregularly) to read it, or portions of it, and respond to some of your entries. You should star or asterisk any entry to which you particularly want a response from me. Remove any entries you do not want me to read. Your writing must be legible and you should not be sloppy on matters of quality of writing, but your entries will not be graded for spelling, punctuation, and usage errors.
Keep your LearningLog entries in a loose-leaf binder, one entry per
page. Entries can be of varied length, from a few lines to a full
page. Make an entry frequently, try to average two to three times
a week on your own.
Skillful learners are habitually aware of what and how they are
learning (it's called metacognition). Faithful attention to your
LearningLog will make you a more successful learner.
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