Some people find metaphors useful and helpful in finding ways to make intangible ideas more understandable. Perhaps you have a way of making your interests, your major or your passion understandable to others. For example, for me, history is a weaving, complex and meaningful. The evidence comes in many colors and textures; historians use that evidence to weave a story of the past for the use, entertainment or guidance of present and future generations. Each weaver has a favorite pattern, method, loom, material, color; some weavers can move into another creative space, use and combine methods, patterns, materials, colors. Any critical appreciation of the weaving moves beyond the complexity and beauty of the overall pattern to something that illuminates the intricacy of the micro-patterns, methods and fibers. Do you have a metaphor for your passion? Your life?
Course Description and Rationale
This class will work to develop skills that are needed across fields and majors: those of investigation, analysis, synthesis and evaluation. The class will focus on texts (evidence) that illuminate the development of civilizations around the world prior to 1500CE. The materials and course meet the cross-cultural General Education requirement, which in turn is designed to deepen students’ appreciation and understanding of a culture other than your own.
Learning Objectives:
Students will, in written and oral forms, demonstrate their abilities to:
• Analyze, synthesize and evaluate (AS&E) social, cultural and political developments that led to the emergence of civilizations across the world;
• AS&E the impact of nomadic peoples on those societies;
• AS&E the role(s) of religion in the development and perpetuation of cultures; and
• AS&E other developmental, environmental and geographic factors in the development of ‘civilizations.’
Course Format and Approach:
• The class will be seminar in format. This means that students will assume the duties of leading and directing discussions. Students are required to actively engage the materials and issues, demonstrated by leading and contributing to discussions, debates and intellectual exchanges as they examine, analyze and discuss various issues, civilizations and events. There will be no lectures; students will plan, lead and direct the class.
• PowerPoint presentations (PPT) are available for the materials/texts online. Students are encouraged to use these presentations to guide their reading and preparation of the materials.
• Student presentations must not be simple recitations of the text, the PPT, or disconnected from the issues, events and materials of the text(s). Rather they are to be focused on AS&E and guide the class through the materials. Rubrics, also available on-line, are to be used to guide students in the preparation of their class presentations and will be used by both the instructor and their peers to evaluate those presentations. Students are expected to improve over the term, and thus will be evaluated on their improvement. That means that early presentations, while graded on the same elements, will count for less than those later in the term. See the notes in the Grading section for further clarification.
Prerequisites and Assumptions
There are no prerequisites for this class. The instructor does, however, hold certain assumptions:
• It is my job to guide students in their exploration of specific issues/subjects as they develop critical thinking and communications skills.
• Students are here to learn how to learn. Research shows that most undergraduate students will change their major field of study more than once during their undergraduate career. Other studies demonstrate that people tend to change their careers multiple times over their lifetimes. Thus, learning to learn is essential; it facilitates life at a very practical level.
• Students will come to class prepared. Lower-level learning (knowledge, comprehension and application; what I have called investigation) will occur from reading and preparing the materials before class; upper level (analysis and up) will be worked on in class.
• By every measure active, participatory learning is more meaningful than passive learning. Like any and every other activity, proficiency comes with practice.
• Most students in lower division history classes (and some in upper division classes) regard historical knowledge as something static and to be acquired. It is not.
• An unquestioning approach to history (frequently manifest as ‘a bump on a log’ approach) is counter-productive to all the goals of higher education.
• History is constructed by people for specific purposes. It is incumbent upon all to approach the study of history and the evidence on which it is based critically. Students must question the purpose, viewpoint and end use of any history. What the author intends may be completely different than how the text, evidence or argument is used by consumers (intent does not always match consequence).
• Communications skills are vitally important. Speaking and writing clearly are the skills most prized by employers. In history, the primary and most valued method of communication is the written word. Thus, the three (history, reading and writing) cannot be de-linked. Like any and every other activity, proficiency comes with practice.
• Critical thinking is a valuable skill no matter what the subject studied; developing CT skills is the primary task of higher education. This differs significantly from the purpose of primary and secondary education, which is to produce law-abiding citizens.
• Students understand and apply the basic tenets of Judeo-Christian traditions and are at least marginally aware of how those traditions have impacted the society in which they live.
Section One: Early Societies (Chapters 1-5)
• In this section, we will explore and assess the earliest civilizations, from Sumer in Mesopotamia to Classical Greece and Rome. Students will present the text’s analyses and syntheses of the characteristics and developments of these societies, following the notes and the study guides on the website.
• No later than September 21, 2006, students will submit at least two (2) short essays based on the questions they have selected from the website Study Guides for this section. These essays will demonstrate the student’s learning and abilities to analyze, synthesize and assess developments across cultures. All students should use the appropriate rubrics to ensure that their essays represent their best work. The better of these two essays will count toward the final course grade.
Section Two: Outside the Western World (Chapters 6-11)
• This section encompasses the majority of world societies and religions. Students will present their own analyses of the materials, and formulate and present their own assessments of the issues, processes and events covered within the text.
• No later than November 9, 2006, students will submit at least two (2) short essays based on the questions they have selected from the website Study Guides for this section. These essays will demonstrate the student’s learning and abilities to analyze, synthesize and assess developments across these diverse cultures. All students should use the appropriate rubrics to ensure that their essays represent their best work. The better of these two essays will count toward the final course grade.
Section Three: The European Emergence (Chapter 12)
• This final section builds on students’ learning and prepares them to pull all the evidence together and produce a final demonstration of their analytical and evaluative abilities. Students will present their own analyses and answers to the big question: How did Europe move from a geographically insignificant and politically divided regional actor to dominate the world and produce a powerful international paradigm?
• No later than December 7, 2006 students will submit their final two short essays that address this big question. All students should use the appropriate rubrics to ensure that their essays represent their best work, as these two essays will represent their learning for the entire term. These final two essays will both be used, along with the papers from the fist two sections to figure the final course grade. The formula is explained under the Grading section of this syllabus.
Projects: Creative projects are an enormously effective learning tool, and it is for that reason that I am going to require all students to produce at least three, one within each section (see Sections for clarification of materials).
Goal: To encourage (indeed, require) students to engage with different kinds of evidence and materials to create new ways to learn history. A project might be a performance, a picture, a photograph – nearly anything! Let’s work together to make history come alive for you, and to demonstrate YOUR learning and abilities. There are few limits:
• Must demonstrate the students’ abilities to AS&E;
• Projects must be an original work of the student AND
• Must be linked to the material within the section AND
• Visual or aural (not written as an essay, paper, formal presentation or lecture) AND
• Submitted on or before the final day of that section.
• Performances are encouraged. If, for example, a team of students performs a scene from a play, the performance, if not the work itself, is original and will be graded accordingly.
• Group work is possible on no more than two of the projects.
Suggestions and ideas are on the SG pages for each section. Do not be limited to those suggestions – if you have an idea, talk to me and we’ll figure a way to make it work.
Project rubrics (available on the website) are somewhat similar to those of class presentations.
• Originality, creativity and clarity of objective will be more highly rewarded.
• All projects will be peer reviewed, and those reviews will count no less than 40% of the project grade.
• Group projects will also have a peer evaluation of individual performances and contributions to the group effort. That evaluation will form a significant portion of the group and individual grade.
Grading: The purpose of a grade is to clarify to the student how well they have demonstrated their learning and abilities. In this class, grades will be earned as follows:
• Section essays: there will be a total of 6 essays written, of which four (4) will count for 33% of the final course grade. The Essay from Section One and Two will count for 7 points each (for example, if a student receives a B on that paper, it is 85% of 7 pts, or 5.95 pts); Section Three’s essays will be averaged together for the remaining 19 points of the 33 total.
• Projects: three creative projects, one within each section will count for a total of 33% of the final course grade. Project grades have at least two components: the instructor’s evaluation and at least one peer evaluation. In the case of group work, a group peer evaluation will also be a significant factor. Peer evaluations will count no less than 40% of the project grade.
• Participation will account for the final 34% of the total course grade. Students will present at least once in each section of the course. See the Sections description for further details. Presentation grades will have at least two components: evaluations by both the instructor and at least one peer reviewer. In the case of group work, a group peer evaluation will also be a significant factor. Peer evaluations will count no less than 25% of the participation grade.
o Section One presentation: 7 points
o Section Two presentation: 12 points
o Section Three presentation: 15 points
In no case is it the responsibility of the instructor to remind students of their responsibilities. Do not count on me to chase after you and remind you to schedule your presentations or get your papers, projects or work in on time. Use the worksheet provided to figure your grades as you receive them. YOU are in control of your final grade; earn the best grade you can!
