Your Emergency Contact Information and Your Plan for the Grade You Want to Earn          Date __/__/___ 
Complete any yellow underlined sections on the 1st 2 pages. The last pages also include tips and details about opportunities and extra credits that are referred to in the syllabus. Ask if you have any questions.

1.	Type your name as shown in Blackboard, your phone number, and an alternative email address so I have several ways to reach you if it is in your interest if I contact you. (Example: you did not complete your Final Exam.) 

Last Name: ________________ 1st Name________________   Phone # ____- ____-_____  Alternative Email: ____________________ 

2.	There are requirements set by the state of Texas, by WCJC, by the History Department, and by the instructor. If you did not notice each of these requirements, go back to the 2nd and 3rd page of your syllabus and look carefully: Place an X in the __ to the left of EACH section in the syllabus (pages 2-3) to confirm you understand or ask for help.
__	Course Objectives for the History Department – including requiring that students use primaries and “historical evidence” and they analyze (not just repeat) and that instructors’ courses consist of a minimum of 25% written assignments	
__	Academic and Personal Integrity –  including a 0 for assignments if you do not practice academic integrity	
__	Classroom Civility	
__	Attendance Policy and Due Dates and Your Responsibilities – including no make-ups and having to have verifiable, written excuses (such as a doctor’s note)	
__	Six Course Drop Limit – a Texas requirement about the maximum number of drops	
__	Dropping a Course with a Grade of “W” – including how instructors in the History Department cannot drop students (Students must do that.)	
__	Communication with Your Instructor – including how often you must log in, especially given the speed of doing 16 weeks of work in 8 weeks	

3.	Place an X in the __ to the left of EACH of the statements to confirm you understand or ask for help. 
__	The Departmental Requirement is a minimum of 25% of your grade being written work.  With 30% specific written work, you must do some written assignments—or—only want a C for the course and always make 100% on each objective assignment (a risky plan). If you don’t understand, click here to see examples of the math.	
__	On the other hand, if you follow the 5 Good Habits for Evidence, you can make a decent grade even if you are not skilled or comfortable with writing. Click here for required Course Objectives, the separate Good Habits for Evidence grade, and how it can help you.	
__	Do you know any job that pays well that doesn’t require these habits or any decision you could make safely without these habits? If you think you do a job that does not require the 5 Good Habits for Evidence, try this link. Unfortunately, most students do not realize they are not being careful enough with evidence. For example, over 60% of students since 2011 usually did not know basics such as being factually accurate when writing about real things until this course. Click here to see what past students said they did not know before.  	
__	If there is a problem with following the Good Habits for Evidence or with anything incomplete about an assignment, your instructor enters 1.11 as a temporary placeholder for the grade and posts a comment with that grade telling you what you need to do.	

4.	 Place an X to the left of YOUR planned grade in this 1000-point course. Notice the difference in 895 and 894 points.
_ A (895-1000 points)   _ B (795-894 points)   _ C (695-794 points)   _ D (595-694 points)   _ F (594 or less)

5.	Place an X in the __ to the left of each of the assignments you plan to do so you earn the grade that you plan. 
Tip: If you want an A, you need to select them all. If you have questions, ask. I am glad to help. 
Caution: If your √’s do not add up to the points required for the grade you want or if you would have to make 100% on each assignment with an √’s, you will have to redo this and will get ½ the points. If you have questions, please ask.
Getting Started (Subtotal 50 Points)
	Assignment 	Points	
_	Take Syllabus Acknowledgement Quiz (1) and the Evidence Acknowledgement Quiz (12 extra credit)	1	
_	Post your Introduction in the Discussion available from Getting Started	4	
_	Determine your plan and submit it to Turnitin 	20	
_	Follow the instructions in the Course Tour 	25	

Unit 1 (Subtotal 340 Points)
	Assignment 	Points	
_	Take Evidence Quizzes 1, 2, 3, and 4 @10 each	40	
_	Post your 1st Primary Writing in its discussion on the Discussion Board @ 20 points for content and 20 or following all 5 Good Habits for Evidence. 	20
20	
_	In the same discussion, reply to 2 other students’ Primary Writings with a careful Peer Review on content and evidence @ 10 points for content and 10 for following all 5 Good Habits for Evidence for each one	20
20	
_	Post and reply on the Discussion Unit 1: Collaborate! 	20	
_	Take Unit 1 Objective Exam (100), Concepts Exam (50), and Written Exam @ 25 points for content and 25 or following all 5 Good Habits for Evidence	200	
Unit 2 (Subtotal 260 Points)
	Assignment 	Points	
_	Take Evidence Quiz 5, 6, 7, and 8 @10 each	40	
_	Post and reply on the Discussion Unit 2: Collaborate! 	20	
_	Take Unit 2 Objective Exam (100), Concepts Exam (50), and Written Exam @ 25 points for content and 25 or following all 5 Good Habits for Evidence	200	
Unit 3 (Subtotal 250 Points)
	Assignment 	Points	
_	Read and prepare carefully for your writing; submit your Plan in Turnitin for your Analysis of Primaries @ 20 points for content and 20 or following all 5 Good Habits for Evidence. (The grade for the Good Habits for Evidence for the analysis determines the Good Habits grade for the Plan.)	20
20	
_	Post and reply on the Discussion Unit 3: Collaborate! 	20	
_	Take Unit 3 Objective Exam (100) and Concepts Exam (50) (No Written Exam.)	150	
_	Write your Analysis of Primaries and submit your paper to Turnitin for feedback and correct and resubmit  @ 20 points for content and 20 or following all 5 Good Habits for Evidence	20
20	
Final Exam (Subtotal 100 Points)
	Assignment 	Points	
_	Take the Final Exam (100)	100	

Additional Information about improving your grade and tips that may help you:
Page 3 – Two Ways You Can Improve Your Grade
•	If You Miss Questions on the Evidence Quizzes, How Can You Improve Your Grade?
•	If You Do Not Follow the 5 Good Habits for Evidence on an Assignment and Earn Only a 0, How Can You Improve Your Grade?

Page 4– Opportunities for Extra Credit and Tips about Exams
•	Opportunities for Extra Credit – with the Evidence Quizzes
•	Opportunities for Extra Credit – with Self-Tests
•	What Are the Objective Exams in This Course? What Does the Course Provide to Help You?
o	Unit Objective Exams
o	Unit Concept Exams
o	Final Exam

Page 5 - Information about Collaborations and Peer Reviews.
•	What’s a Collaboration? What’s a Concept? How Do You Save Time and Even Earn Extra Credit?
•	What Are Peer Reviews? What Is Different about Peer Reviews (and Grading of Writing) in This Class?

Page 3 – Two Ways You Can Improve Your Grade
If You Miss Questions on the Evidence Quizzes, How Can You Improve Your Grade?
Background: For many students, a freshman college history class is the first time they had to write about reality or use evidence (verifiable proof). Evidence is essential for personal decision-making and jobs that pay well. If you want reasons, try this link. Unfortunately, most students do not realize they are not being careful enough with evidence. For example, over 60% of students since 2011 usually did not know basics such as being factually accurate when writing about real things until this course. Click here to see what past students said they did not know before.

To help these new students, the course provides information and quizzes on these basic rules of evidence so you can figure out what you do not know about evidence before you write. 

How Can You Improve Your Grade: To help students succeed and change even though you did poorly on an Evidence Quiz, you can earn full points for it:
a)	If you take it by the recommended date listed on the prior page
Tip: I enter a 1 point incentive for every quiz done on the recommended date.
b)	If you figure out why you missed it or realize you need help to figure it out
c)	And if you contact your professor within 1 week of its recommended date and talk—briefly—with your professor.

My teachers—from 4th grade on—helped me learn these basics. I am glad to help students. Students who miss these questions and do not figure these basics out, tend to fail their writing assignments.
If You Do Not Follow the 5 Good Habits for Evidence on an Assignment and Earn Only a 0, How Can You Improve Your Grade?
Background: The Course Objectives for the Department (listed on the second page of the syllabus) mean that the Department focuses on writing.  If you want to know more about the Course Objectives, including the meaning of words in the objectives such as primary and secondary and argument, click here and look at the top of the link.

To help new students unaccustomed to writing about reality or using evidence (verifiable proof), I asked permission of my department to try an experiment to help students. It divides written grades in two parts:
•	One part of the grade for the content of the written assignment itself
•	One part for following the 5 Good Habits for Evidence that are introduced in Getting Started – It is an all or nothing grade. You either earn a 0 or full points for that writing’s 5 Good Habits for Evidence.

By splitting the grade in two parts, a student who is not comfortable with writing but who tries to read, observe, and write carefully (and thus follow the 5 Good Habits for Evidence) can make a higher grade. If you want to see an example of the math, click here and look at the bottom of the link. 

How Can You Improve Your Grade: To help students succeed and change even though they made a 0 on the 5 Good Habits for Evidence for a writing assignment, you can earn full points for it:
a)	If you reply to the feedback within 1 week of my return of your paper and its rubric to you
An Announcement in Blackboard tells you when papers are returned.
b)	If within that week you figure out why you missed it or realize you need help to figure it out
c)	If within that week, you contact your professor and talk—briefly—about what habits to change so you prevent this error
How this works: 
When you do a), b), and c), I replace the 0 in the gradebook for the 5 Good Habits for Evidence for that writing with the full points for it (Example: for an assignment @ 20 points for content and @ 20 points for following all 5 Good Habits for Evidence, I change the 0 to 20.)
If you try use habits in your next writing assignment that prevent this error, you keep these points. If you do not quite succeed but you want to keep the points, then you talk with me again.

 
Page 4– Opportunities for Extra Credit and Tips about Exams
Also see opportunities for extra credit with Collaborations on page 5.
Opportunities for Extra Credit – with the Evidence Quizzes
If you take them by the recommended due date, you earn 1 extra credit point. You also qualify to improve your grade on an Evidence Quiz if you follow the instructions on the prior page.

Opportunities for Extra Credit – with Self-Tests
Self-tests let you measure what you assume is true so you can tell what you need to work on. You also earn small extra credits. They are provided with concepts (in Required Concepts) and with historical content within a Chapter in a Unit.

The Course Schedule covers the password for Self-tests. Self-tests
•	Allow you to take a test only 1 time, but Blackboard displays all of your answers and shows if you are right or wrong.
•	If you answer at least 1% of the questions, Blackboard also displays the same test, but you can take this one:
o	unlimited times 
o	with highest score counting

Caution: When you take a self-test, answer as accurately as you can so you can realize what you know and do not know and therefore learn efficiently. If I notice that individuals are consistently just clicking enough to display the full test and that they do not seem to be trying to measure themselves so they can actually learn, I will reset the self-test and the full test.

Tips that May Help You with Exams
What Are the Objective Exams in This Course? What Does the Course Provide to Help You?
The general term objective means a test that can be graded by a machine or primarily by machine. In this course, there are two types of objective exams at the end of each Unit:
•	Unit Objective Exams – Use the Study Guide at the top of each Unit to see a list of all facts required from the textbook.  
Tip to Succeed: 
o	Print the Study Guide and use it to record so you can review easily. (Tip: print Study Guides landscape instead of portrait to have more room to write.) 
o	As you work through the list, look up a fact in the index (back of the book) and write the page number(s) where you found the information next to the fact. Also write 1 to 3 words as a reminder of that fact. 
o	When you are ready to review for the exam, use the study guide as a way to self-test by explaining aloud each fact. If you cannot remember, use the page number you wrote to refresh your memory.
Tip to Avoid Error:  To avoid error in understanding a fact that carries over to the next Unit, before you look at the index, look at the Course Schedule to see the last chapter covered in the Unit and its last page number. When you use the index, do not use any page after that last page number.

•	Unit Concept Exams – Use the Concepts list for the Unit available in Required Concepts and on the link in the description for a Unit collaboration. 
.Tip to Succeed: Look at the list of concepts required so you can listen for the words. Print the list and write brief reminder words about its meaning. Look up words you know that you do not know using the free, online dictionary provided in the course.

The Final Exam is also objective. To help you review, the course provides two files of questions (matching, map, and multiple choice)—one without answers so you can self-test and one with answers so you can grade yourself. If you miss a question, look it up. If you cannot find it in the index, just ask.

Page 5 - Information about Collaborations and Peer Reviews.
What’s a Collaboration? What’s a Concept? How Do You Save Time and Even Earn Extra Credit?
Merriam-Webster Online defines:
•	Collaborate as “to work jointly with others or together especially in an intellectual endeavor.” 
•	Concept as “an abstract or generic idea generalized from particular instances” – For example, you cannot understand the Tariff of Abominations in 1828 or the Hawley-Smoot Tariff in 1930 unless you first understand the concept of tariffs.

Each Unit has a Collaborate! Discussion available from the Discussion Board and also from Required Concepts. Think of it as daily work that will save you time by your working together. In that discussion, you can:
•	Follow the directions to post a definition of a word on the list of Concepts for the Unit.
•	Read and download other people’s posted definitions to save yourself time
•	Post a question about content on the Study Guide or concepts on the list of Concepts for the Unit
•	Answer another person’s question

You must follow the directions carefully so your postings are useful to others. Your work must also be timely—you need to do the work in time for others to use it. 

To earn the 10-point incentive for your 20-point collaboration, you do these 3 things:
1.	If your collaboration for a Unit is over 70% (or 14 points) 
2.	If the grade for the Unit’s Concept Exam is over 70% (or 35 points)
3.	If you post consistently throughout the Unit and not all of your posts in the last 2 days of the collaboration 
What Are Peer Reviews? What Is Different about Peer Reviews (and Grading of Writing) in This Class?
Merriam-Webster Online defines peer review as “a process by which something proposed (as for research or publication) is evaluated by a group of experts in the appropriate field.” 

Because this course uses as sources only the required textbook and primaries provided in this course, you:
•	Cannot just write something like “good job” You must follow the rubric for the 5 Good Habits for Evidence
•	Can practice the skills of an expert in the content when you evaluate another student’s work. You must compare side by side the student’s paper with the page of the textbook or primary the student cited.
 If you want an example of how this course helps people practice the skills of an expert, click here.

I reserve the right to modify the syllabus during the semester.

WCJC Department:	History – Dr. Bibus	
Contact Information:	281.239.1577 or bibusc@wcjc.edu	
Last Updated:	2017	
WCJC Home:	http://www.wcjc.edu/