GRADING STANDARDS AND CRITERIA:<\/strong> History majors must earn 73% or higher in this course to receive credit. History majors earning grades of 72% or lower must repeat the course.<\/p>\n Keep all assignments and exams returned to you so that any discrepancies can be easily and fairly straightened out.<\/p>\n EVALUATION:<\/strong> Readings<\/em>: You are expected to read, digest and consider all of each week\u2019s readings. CSUF expects three hours of outside work for each hour spent in the classroom. That means that this class can have as much as 7.5 hours of outside work each week. You should plan to spend approximately 3-4 hours each week reading for class. If you find that the reading is taking up more time than that, come meet with me to discuss reading and study strategies.<\/p>\n Reading responses:<\/em> TEN times during the semester, starting after week 3, you will post substantive commentary on the day\u2019s reading to the class blog. This blog is meant to be a conversation amongst scholars (you and your peers). These should be more than simple summaries \u2013 they should demonstrate a critical consideration of the day\u2019s reading. Through these response papers, you will develop the skills necessary to critically read historical monographs and articles. In the early weeks of the course, you will be responsible for identifying the central thesis of a reading. Over the course of the semester, you will work to be able to identify supporting arguments and types of evidence, and to critique authors\u2019 use of evidence in making their arguments.<\/p>\n For every response after the first day of posts, you must also substantively reference a response written by one of your peers. This should not merely mention something someone has written (\u201cI agree with X\u201d) but build on it (\u201cX wrote that \u2026 and this makes me think about \u2026\u201d)<\/p>\n These responses should be between 250 and 350 words, and can be written with informal, personal prose. However, direct references to others work must be accompanied by a citation or hyperlink. You should budget between 30 minutes and 1 hour for each response.<\/p>\n These responses will be assessed as:<\/p>\n Your overall response grade will be an average of the grades of your ten responses. I understand that speaking in class can be a stressful or daunting experience for some students, so I expect that everyone contribute to making the classroom a comfortable and respectful intellectual environment in which everyone can participate. If you have anxiety about public speaking, please arrange a meeting with me as soon as possible, so that we can discuss alternative means of engagement.<\/p>\n Your overall participation grade will be an average of your daily participation grades.<\/p>\n Preparatory assignments:<\/em> These assignments are designed to model historical practice. They provide students with the opportunity to explore different kinds of historical writing, and practice that writing in advance of the final paper. Together, and with revisions, some of these papers will constitute a first draft of your final research proposal. More detailed instructions and rubric for each preparatory assignment will be distributed throughout the semester.<\/p>\n Final project: The final project will take the form of a 10-12 page research prospectus for a project on some disaster in American history \u2013 either one we\u2019ve covered in class or another that you are interested in. A list of disasters and brief bibliography of readings concerning them will be circulated early in the semester to help you choose.<\/p>\n The final paper will contain: History event:<\/em> Once during the semester, you must attend, and within one week, write a brief (250-350 word) report on a public history event. This could be a campus lecture, a lecture in a local library, a museum exhibit or (with prior approval) a historically themed movie, play or other performance. If you attend and report you will receive full credit. If you attend and do not report, or do not attend at all, you will receive no credit. The grade for the write-up for this event will replace your lowest blog post.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" GRADING STANDARDS AND CRITERIA: In this course the plus\/minus system will be used. The grade breakdown is as follows: 98 \u2013 100% = A+ 93 – 97% = A (outstanding performance) 90 \u2013 92% = A- 87 \u2013 89% = B+ 83 \u2013 86% = B (good performance) 80 \u2013 82% = B- 77 \u2013 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-21","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.shroutdocs.org\/hist300a-fall2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/21","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.shroutdocs.org\/hist300a-fall2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.shroutdocs.org\/hist300a-fall2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.shroutdocs.org\/hist300a-fall2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.shroutdocs.org\/hist300a-fall2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/courses.shroutdocs.org\/hist300a-fall2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/21\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":569,"href":"https:\/\/courses.shroutdocs.org\/hist300a-fall2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/21\/revisions\/569"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.shroutdocs.org\/hist300a-fall2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nIn this course the plus\/minus system will be used.
\nThe grade breakdown is as follows:
\n98 \u2013 100% = A+
\n93 – 97% = A (outstanding performance)
\n90 \u2013 92% = A-
\n87 \u2013 89% = B+
\n83 \u2013 86% = B (good performance)
\n80 \u2013 82% = B-
\n77 \u2013 79% = C+
\n73 \u2013 76% = C (acceptable performance)
\n70 \u2013 72% = C-
\n67- 69% = D+
\n63 \u2013 66% = D (poor performance)
\n60 \u2013 62% = D-
\n0 \u2013 59% = F<\/p>\n
\nParticipation: 20%
\nPreparatory assignments: (3.3% x 9 assignments): 30%
\nReading responses (2% x 10 responses): 20%
\nFinal Project (Research Proposal): 25%
\nAttendance at a history event: 5%
\n*You cannot pass the class unless you have an average of 50% or higher in ALL of these categories.*<\/p>\n\n
\nParticipation:<\/em> An essential component of the craft of history is expressing yourself clearly in a variety of ways, including orally. In this course, your learning depends upon your regular, informed and thoughtful participation in discussion, writing and blog posts. In order to participate fully you must have completed all of each week\u2019s reading.
\nParticipation will be assessed both by how much you contribute in whole-class discussions, and how much you contribute to discussions in group work.
\nParticipation will be assessed as:
\n\u2022 Excellent (multiple comments \/ questions in class or in group work): 100
\n\u2022 Satisfactory (one comment \/ question in class or in group work): 80
\n\u2022 Unsatisfactory (present in class, but no engagement): 50 points
\n\u2022 Absent (see absence policy for a discussion of permitted absences)<\/p>\n
\n\u2022 A topic statement
\n\u2022 A review of FIVE secondary sources (articles\/chapters AND at least one book) from the relevant historical literature.
\n\u2022 An argument about the state of the field as exemplified by those secondary sources.
\n\u2022 A series of historical questions that remain to be answered on the topic.
\n\u2022 A discussion of the kinds of primary sources you might use to answer those questions.
\n\u2022 An identification of TWO archives that hold primary sources that might be of use.
\n\u2022 A brief primary source analysis that shows how you might use one of the identified primary sources to explore identified historical questions.<\/p>\n