Cities: Communities, Spaces, and Places
Freshman Seminar Topics in Social and Behavioral Sciences
(COR 2203.003; HSS 4.04.20)

Harvey J. Graff
hgraff@utsa.edu
University of Texas
San Antonio, Texas, USA

Fall 2001
Introduction and Course Objectives | Requirements | Syllabus

 
INTRODUCTION and COURSE OBJECTIVES

Learning Community Theme - Exploring Our Pasts: Understanding Our Presents
Our objective in the Learning Community is to examine the transformation of the North American Continent---its peoples, cultures, and institutions---from before European contact through the Civil War and beyond. Within each Freshman Seminar we will examine how these transformations have shaped over time-individual families, the spaces we collectively occupy and the institutions through which we maintain our societies. These themes help to link courses in U.S. history, English, and the Freshman Seminar.

Learning Community & Freshman Seminar Themes
Drawing on approaches and evidence from American history, literature and language studies, and interdisciplinary urban studies, we examine the various worlds in which Americans and other peoples have lived, studied, grown up, worked, and played. We will do this across the three interrelated courses that together make up this Learning Community. We are especially interested in the physical, social, cultural, economic, and political environments in which we, and other peoples, form our communities and relationships in terms of cities, physical spaces, and places transformed by the people who use them. As spaces and places, cities provide special perspectives. The Learning Community contributes to successful transitions to college and practice in both the skills and the substance of learning central to studies at the university level. In fact, it is one distinctive kind of community and place.

Freshman Seminars at UTSA
Freshman seminar courses are designed to help students new to UTSA to develop academic and social connections to the UTSA community. This three credit hour course, which fulfills a core curriculum requirement, offers beginning UTSA students the opportunity to participate in a small class taught by specially selected faculty, staff, or administrators. The course integrates academic content organized around a specific theme based on the instructor's interest with learning strategies designed to promote academic success, including time management, note-taking, test-taking, and writing.

The course meets twice a week for fifty minutes each session. Students also participate in at least fifteen hours of "third hour" activities throughout the semester designed to connect them with UTSA and community resources and promote positive college experiences. Students will choose from a range of activities, including attendance at cultural and academic event; participation in tutoring and Supplemental Instruction; visiting a professor or an academic advisor during office hours; and participation in UTSA library, Career Center, Tomas Rivera Center for Student Success, Counseling Center programs, and other campus programs. I also encourage activities off campus and throughout San Antonio, letting the 3rd hour activities requirement take you to new places.

Graff's Freshman Seminar
Freshman seminar courses take new college students into new educational, social, and cultural environments and relationships that are central to what's often called the transition from high school to college. Using the city (often but not always San Antonio) as our major example and grounds for study, this seminar introduces its participants to and gives opportunities to practice many of the basic skills of thinking, reading, test-taking, writing, and research that are fundamental to learning regardless of one's major area of study or likely choice of employment. As spaces and places, cities offer special perspectives.

This will include use of historical and present-day examples, facts and fictions, human expressions across several media including academic writing, journalism, history and social science, fiction, visual materials including films, and participant-observation. In addition to practice in reading very different kinds of texts (not only in writing and print), we will also review different kinds of analysis and understanding that emphasize different kinds of thinking.

The communities, places, and spaces we will investigate include San Antonio and UTSA itself. Course work will include assigned reading, individual and group exercises, quizzes, explorations on campus and across San Antonio, research, writing, and oral reports. The seminar itself is one community and one place (a space transformed by members of the seminar). This will also help us to integrate our studies with those in English and History.

Among our special points of interest and themes are:

  • from space to place;
  • community(ies);
  • environment(s);
  • reading cities;
  • writing/expressing cities;
  • experiencing the city/the experience of cities;
  • the city as content and perspective.
We will also explore the parallels and connections between universities and cities.

UTSA Freshman Seminar Program Objectives
  1. practice critical thinking and problem-solving skills essential for academic success orally and in writing
  2. explore learning theories and their application to the college experience, including learning styles and related effective learning strategies;
  3. identify different learning goals and practice effective, individualized strategies to assess and achieve them;
  4. practice and improve related skills, including test-taking, note-taking, listening comprehension, time management, use of technological resources and the library, reading, and writing, that promote academic success;
  5. identify and explore the connections between specific ideas and skills gained in the freshman seminar and other courses taken across the UTSA curriculum;
  6. be an effective member of (task-centered and support-based) student academic work groups;
  7. learn about UTSA resources, regulations, and procedures that promote academic success;
  8. respect diversity within the UTSA community and how that diversity shapes the college experience
In this seminar, we will also
  • learn about cities, communities, spaces, and places;
  • encounter and explore different academic disciplines and interdisciplinary research and thinking;
  • consider and practice different modes of analysis, understanding, and expression across different disciplines, genres, and media; and
  • begin to explore San Antonio as well as UTSA.

Conduct of class sessions
During regular class meetings, we will take up a variety of activities and projects. These will include taking quizzes, participating in exercises, screening films, exploring different perspectives and skills, discussing assignments or assigned readings, listening to guest speakers, presenting individual or group work, and related activities. Come to class on time, prepared for the session by completing any assigned work or other preparation; bringing paper, pens, pencils, and other items announced in preceding meetings or the syllabus.

REQUIRED BOOKS
(ordered by bookstores)

Linda O'Brien
How to Get Good Grades in College. Woodburn Press, 2000
Raymond A. Mohl, ed.
The Making of Urban America. 2nd ed. Scholarly Resources, 1997
Jack Finney
Time and Again. Scribner, 1995 (1970)
Some additional reading will be available on Reserve in the Library (see below).

Students also need to purchase a daily and weekly calendar/planner and two folders-one to hold course materials and required work; one to hold reports on 3rd hour activities.




REQUIREMENTS:
making and building connections in learning

Assignments include both individual and group activities. Some of these activities and assignments will count toward the group portion of grades. Evaluation of fellow members of your group will also figure in the final grades. We will form activity groups by the end of the first week of classes.
25% Preparation, attendance, participation
25% 3rd hour activities and reports
        15 plus a final summing up and critical evaluation (2 pages)
30%
Assignments
1)  Academic majors at UTSA
2)  Learning styles/thinking styles
3)  Library and other sources of information
4)  Exploring city experiences & diversity in the city and university
20% Final research projects
        oral and written presentations about selected San Antonio urban topics


Preparation, attendance, participation. . . . . . . . 25%
  1. Regular attendance; prepared to participate.


  2. Making and maintaining semester daily and weekly calendar.
    Make a calendar that includes your assignments, exams and quizzes, due dates and deadlines for all your courses (plus other events whose dates you know) for week 2


  3. In-class activities-exercises, quizzes, group activities, writing projects, discussion projects, films. Presentations of academic skills will include in-class exercises. Be prepared.

    Often based on required reading, films, and presentations on academic skills, this work will include reading quizzes, discussions, writing exercises. Some will relate to presentations on learning skills: note-taking, outlining, summarizing, analyzing, critiquing, comparing and contrasting, asking and answering questions. We will use
    • How to Get Good Grades;
    • essays in Mohl, ed., The Making of Urban America;
    • Finney, Time and Again; other work;
    • and films ("The City," "Metropolis," "Mission Hill and the Miracle of Boston" or perhaps "The Social Life of Urban Spaces" and "Style Wars")
There will be no make-up quizzes or exercises


3rd hour activities and reports. . . . . . . . 25%
15 hours plus a final summing up and critical evaluation (2 pages)
Activities will include UTSA 1604 activities and services; UTSA Downtown campus, Institute of Texas Cultures, and San Antonio sites and events. Lists of possible activities and other suggestions will be provided, and pages to log in your activities.Each student will keep a log of activities attended; at the end of the semester, you will write a brief conclusion, reflecting on the activities, making connections, and commenting critically on your experience. There may be opportunities to use some 3rd hour activities in relationship to other assignments on learning, diversity, San Antonio, and related topics. Try to include at least one activity each from UTSA Downtown Campus; Institute of Texan Cultures; and off-campus in San Antonio.

Assignments. . . . . . . . 30%
1.   Academic majors at UTSA
Reports by individuals but assisted by brainstorming and planning by entire class and activity groups. What information about disciplines and subjects that you might consider for your major do you think you need to get? What questions do you want to try to answer? Plan how to research a major, conduct the research, and make a brief presentation (no more than 5 minutes) to the class during 3rd or 4th week. Consider using printed materials and interviewing students and/or professors. If you do interviews, write out your basic questions in advance (Later in the semester: possibility of additional reports on UTSA resources.)

2.   Learning styles/thinking styles
thinking urban and seeing cities
Identifying and comparing different ways of seeing, thinking, and understanding, and different ways of reading and writing, including cognitive mapping and visual thinking; dealing with facts and fictions; "reading" books, films, cities, etc; overviews and detailed specifics or case studies. Throughout the semester, we will use course materials as basis for exercises and comparisons of different kinds of texts and media, and the challenges they can present: The Making of Urban America; Time and Again; other works; and films ("The City," "Metropolis," "Mission Hill and the Miracle of Boston" or perhaps "The Social Life of Urban Spaces" and "Style Wars") etc. Students will write reports individually but they should follow and draw upon group and class discussions about questions and plans for comparing different kinds of thinking.
Due week 6; 2-3 pages: written reports comparing different ways of understanding different kinds of materials, problems and possibilities: fact and fiction, textual and visual, print and film, etc.

3.   Library and other sources of information:
Group Projects
UTSA and San Antonio. Locate, examine, evaluate a source that relates to San Antonio's history or present (it may be possible to use sources again in either or both diversity or final research assignments). Find a source (what is a source?) that is new to you, and design ways in which to discover its usefulness and its limits. How do you define "usefulness" and "limits"? How do we get the information we want or need from different sources? How does it answer our questions? Accuracy is just one aspect. Relevance is another. The source you select may be a traditional printed or written source or something new (e.g., electronic, video, audio, etc.). Among the possible selections are some that might overlap with other assignments, for example, sources of information on a building, a block, a neighborhood, a person, or an event. This assignment can relate to experience/diversity projects and final research projects. For other ideas, look for sources used in articles in Mohl, ed., Making of Urban America or by used by Finney in researching Time and Again.
Due week 9; 2-3 pages.

4.   Exploring city experiences & diversity
in the city and university
Student groups will design this project and then actually attempt it and evaluate it. There are many possibilities; they might include researching and visiting (perhaps also interviewing people) an ethnic restaurant, business, neighborhood, or cultural or historical institution. In each case, plan to do research on your choice. Develop questions that you will try to answer with your investigation of diversity in the city. Essays in Mohl, ed., Making of Urban America may help. If you plan to include interviews, prepare your basic questions in advance. Watch the wording very carefully to avoid giving even unintentional offense. Ask the same question to each subject. Also ask yourselves these kinds of questions: Is your group culturally diverse; how do you define diversity and how can you identify it or its absence? What different kinds of diversity exist? What are special relationships or connections between cities and diversity? (Are there really "special relationships"?) How do cities promote diversity? How do cities limit or challenge diversity? What can we learn from diversity? Why is diversity promoted today?
Due Week 12; 3-5 pages plus notes.

Final research projects group & individual components. . . . . . . . 20%
oral and written presentations about selected San Antonio urban topics
Group research projects with individual components; oral and written reports to study a San Antonio question or topic, including relationships among past, present, and future, or comparative perspectives. Among the themes especially well suited to this project are: experiencing cities; experiences of cities; urban diversity. Each group will:
  1. Define its topic, generate questions, approaches, likely sources, etc.
  2. Plan its work and divide up tasks and allocate group labor
  3. Identify sources for research
  4. Conduct library, archival, field research
  5. Study the evidence gathered
  6. Make conclusions on the basis of the research in light of the questions and problems
  • Use topics, methods, and approaches in essays in Mohl, ed., Making of Urban America, to help orient San Antonio research projects.
  • Draw on Mohl, Finney, films, other course materials to help plan and conduct study.
  • Use course materials to suggest topics, questions, approaches or methods, sources, connections, or comparisons.
  • Possible topics include researching the history of a building or a block, an area, a neighborhood, a person, or an event. They can make an exciting challenge, one for which the Mohl book and other course resources will help you.
  • Each paper should have an introduction and a conclusion; endnotes as necessary; bibliography of sources; tables or illustrations if needed or useful.
  • Groups have responsibility to edit the individual portions of the report into one coherent paper. Define your roles clearly and allow time for organizing and coordinating.
  • A handful of articles about San Antonio history is on Library Reserve for your use in this project. They are also listed below.
Oral presentations during final 2-3 weeks of semester; final papers due by last day of classes. Length: 7-8 pgs. plus notes, bibliography, tables, illustrations, etc.


Turning in assignments
All work that is turned in for evaluation or grading should be typed, usually double-spaced, with margins of 1-1½ inches on all sides; printed in 11 or 12 point font, in a legible type face. Be sure that your printer ribbon or toner allows you to produce clear copies. Follow page or word limits and meet deadlines. Follow any specific assignment requirements (formatting or endnotes or bibliography, for example). Your writing should be gender neutral as well as clear and to the point. If you have a problem, see me, if at all possible, in advance of due dates. Unacceptable work will be returned, ungraded, to you. There will be penalties for work submitted late without excuse.

Grades*
Final grades are based on each student's performance on all required activities listed above. The ranges for specific grades will depend on the overall class performance. Final grades may be curved; grades on specific examinations and group assignments will not be curved. Significant improvement in students' work over the course of the semester will be rewarded. Group work is a significant part of the course and its grade. Students will have an opportunity to evaluate the contribution of all the members of their group.

*Students should keep track of their scores and their progress in the course.
Because of confidentiality laws, I cannot report grades by email or telephone.

Attendance, missed activities, and late assignments
Attendance is essential for successful participation in this course. Each student is responsible for all material presented, discussions, and group activities. I will note absences. More than two or three unexcused absences may lead to deductions from your grade. If you have an emergency or are ill, contact me as soon as possible. There will be no make-up quizzes. Under very special circumstances, a student may be excused from a quiz. This includes cases of illness or emergencies. Contact me as early as possible, preferably before the time of the quiz. Late assignments will be penalized five points for each day late. Please discuss with me as soon as possible any problems you have with the course.

Civility
Mutual respect and cooperation, during the time we spend together each week and the time you work on group assignments, are the basis for successful conduct of this course. The class is a learning community that depends on respect, cooperation, and communication among all of us. This includes coming to class on time, prepared for each day's work: reading and assignments complete, focusing on primary classroom activity, and participating. It also includes polite and respectful expression of agreement or disagreement-with support for your point of view and arguments--with other students and with the professor. It does not include arriving late or leaving early, or behavior or talking that distracts other students. Please turn off all telephones, beepers, CD or MP3 players. Please remove ear- or headphones.

Academic Honesty
Scholastic honesty is expected and required. It is a major part of university life, and contributes to the value of your university degree. All work submitted for this class must be your own. Copying or representing the work of anyone else (in print or from another student) is plagiarism and cheating. This is unacceptable in this class and also prohibited by the University. Information on scholastic dishonesty, including plagiarism, is provided in the STUDENT HANDBOOK. See also the statement in the UTSA Catalog. When in doubt, consult the instructor.

I expect all students whose names appear on each group report and on group quizzes to have contributed to the work that led to the preparation of that item.

Disabilities
To receive support services, students with disabilities must register with the Office of Disability Services:

MS 2.03.18
voice   458-4157
TTY   458-4981


ADDITIONAL READINGS

Some or all of these articles will be available at the Reserve Desk in the Library for you to read:

For Week 5:
Charles Tilly
"Anthropology on the town," Habitat 10 (1967), 20-25 [required reading]
For research on San Antonio history:
Char Miller and Heywood Sanders, eds.
Urban Texas: Politics and Development (Texas A & M University Press, 1990):

  • Char Miller and David R. Johnson, "The Rise of Urban Texas," pp. 3-29, 174-177
  • David R. Johnson, "Frugal and Sparing: Interest Groups, Politics, and City Building in San Antonio, 1870-85," pp. 33-57, 177-181
  • Char Miller and Heywood T. Sanders, "Olmos Park and the Creation of a Suburban Bastion, 1927-39," pp. 113-127, 196-198
  • Heywood T. Sanders, "Building a New Urban Infrastructure: The Creation of Postwar San Antonio," pp. 154-173, 203-204

David Johnson
"Power and Progress in San Antonio Politics, 1836-1970," in The Politics of San Antonio: Community, Progress, and Power, ed. David R. Johnson, John A. Booth, and Richard J. Harris (University of Nebraska Press, 1983), pp. 1-27, 214-219.



SYLLABUS
Cities: Communities, Spaces, and Places

*All dates and related matters in the syllabus are subject to change


Week 1:   Introduction/Forming Community(ies)/Time
(Aug. 27 & 29)
  • Begin to read How to Get Good Grades
  • Read Nash, "Social Evolution," in The Making of Urban America
  • "The City" (1939) film
  • Getting to know each other; forming groups; running on time
  • Why go to college? Why join a Learning Community? Goals, questions, expectations, presumptions
  • What is a syllabus? Why is it important?
  • Making time and keeping time: calendars and organization
  • *Calendar assignment for Week 2
  • *Assignment on majors (or week 2) for Weeks 3-4
Week 2:   Searching & Finding: University resources, Majors; Basics and Beyond
(Sept. 5)
  • Read Gilfoyle, "Strumpets and Misogynists," in The Making of Urban America
  • Continue reading How to Get Good Grades
  • Basics: reading, understanding, note-taking, test-taking, etc.
  • Managing Time & Setting Goals (L. Duncan)
  • *Making semester calendar assignment due
  • *Assignment on majors
Week 3:   Academic Basics: Skills Here, There, and Everywhere
(Sept. 10 & 12)
  • Begin reading Finney; Time and Again: fictions and facts in researching, reading, and writing the city in history
  • Read Miller, "The Enemy Within," in The Making of Urban America
  • Discuss Nash and Gilfoyle articles; reading quiz (maybe!); "The City"
  • *Oral reports on majors
  • Reading for courses (L. Duncan) (Wed.)

LC Welcoming Reception      September 12      3:30-5:00       UC Laurel Room

Week 4:   Basics and all that stuff (again)
(Sept. 17 & 19)
  • Continue reading Finney, Time and Again
  • Read Ryan, "The American Parade" in The Making of Urban America
  • Discuss readings and film: possible quiz or group work
  • Discuss basics; begin to discuss learning styles/thinking styles assignment: thinking urban and seeing cities (*assignment for week 6)
  • *Oral reports on majors
Week 5:   Basics, Reading, Thinking, Understanding
(Sept. 24 & 26)
  • Read Charles Tilly, "Anthropology on the town," Habitat 10 (1967), 20-25 [Library Reserve]
  • Continue reading Finney, Time and Again (?quiz, exam, exercise?)
  • Read McShane and Tarr, "The Centrality of the Horse in the Nineteenth -Century American City," in The Making of Urban America "Anthropology on the town"; texts & reading-reading and writing cities
  • *Learning styles/thinking styles assignment: thinking urban and seeing cities
  • Taking Notes, etc. (L. Duncan)(Wed.)
Week 6:   Thinking and Learning Styles/Information Sources
(Oct. 1 & 3)
  • Finish reading Finney, Time and Again
  • Read Czitrom, "Underworlds and Underdogs" in The Making of Urban America
  • "Metropolis" (1928): reading films; reading cities
  • Seeing cities and thinking urban: picturing the city, visuals, including urban research, fiction, film, non-fiction, etc.---discussion, possible activities or quiz
  • *Learning styles/thinking styles---thinking urban and seeing cities
  • *Assignment due
Week 7:   Thinking and Learning
(Oct. 8 & 10)
  • Read and compare Powers, "The 'Poor Man's Friend,'" and Peiss, "Leisure and Labor" in The Making of Urban America
  • Thinking urban and seeing cities: Finney, maps, films, fiction, nonfiction, etc.
  • Getting Advice & Registering for courses (L. Duncan)(Wed.)
Week 8:   Information
(Oct. 15 & 17)
  • Read Pacyga, "Chicago's 1919 Race Riot" in The Making of Urban America
  • Library session (Wed.)
  • *Project on city sources and urban information
Week 9:   Diversity in Cities and Higher Education
(Oct. 22 & 24)
  • Read Sanchez, "Music and Mass Culture" and Biles, "The New Deal in Dallas" in The Making of Urban America
  • Making comparisons, finding and using information, analysis, synthesis
  • *City experience and diversity project
  • Taking tests (L. Duncan)(Wed.)
  • * Projects on information sources due
Week 10:   Diversity
(Oct. 29 & 31)
  • Read Hirsch, "Harold and Dutch, A Comparative Look" and Mohl, "Blacks and Hispanics" in The Making of Urban America
  • "Mission Hill and the Miracle of Boston" film
  • *City experience and diversity project

LC Studies Skills Seminar      October 29      1:00-3:30      UC Laurel Room

Week 11:   Ambiguity, Uncertainty, Disagreement: Rooms for Errors
(Nov. 5 & 7)
  • Read Sharpe and Wallock, "Bold New City or Built-up 'Burb" in The Making of Urban America
  • *City experience and diversity project
  • *Final research projects
    •
  • [tba:  Style Wars" or "Small Urban Spaces" films]
  • [tba:  Archives session]
Week 12:   Taking It Apart/Getting It Together
(Nov. 12 & 14)
  • Optional: read Mohl, "New Perspectives," in The Making of Urban America
  • Additional readings or films (if any---tba)
  • *Final research projects
  • *Diversity projects due

LC Cultural Diversity Seminar      November 14      1:00-3:00      MS Kiva

Week 13
(Nov. 19 & 21)
  • Additional readings or films (if any---tba)
  • *Final research projects
Week 14
(Nov. 26 & 28)
  • *Oral presentations on final research papers
Week 15
(Dec. 3 & 5)
  • *Oral presentations on final research papers
  • *Final research papers due
  • First semester review and wrap-up
Final Exam
(Dec. 12)
  • TBA: scheduled for Wed., Dec. 12, 7:30-10:15 a.m.


Syllabus prepared for archive 10 Oct 2001.