TSI satisfied in Reading and Writing
·
Critical Thinking Skills (CT) - creative
thinking, innovation, inquiry, and analysis, evaluation and synthesis of
information
·
Communication Skills (COM) - effective
development, interpretation and expression of ideas through written, oral and
visual communication
·
Social
Responsibility (SR) - intercultural competence, knowledge of civic
responsibility, and the ability to engage effectively in regional, national,
and global communities
·
Personal
Responsibility (PR) - ability to connect choices, actions and
consequences to ethical decision-making
Upon successful
completion of this course, students will:
1.
Create an argument through the use of historical
evidence.
2.
Analyze and interpret primary and secondary
sources.
3.
Analyze the effects of historical, social,
political, economic, cultural, and global forces on this period of United
States history.
For definitions
of the terms above, use the Syllabus & Success Assignment.
This textbook is required for all written assignments: David M. Kennedy, Lizabeth
Cohen, and Mel Piehl, The Brief American Pageant: A History of the Republic, 9th edition. It is the one-volume edition containing 41 chapters and is used
for both History 1301 and History 1302. The ISBN is 9781337124645; however,
that ISBN is a “bundle” and includes both the textbook and an online program
called Mindtap. In this course, we will not use Mindtap.
This course uses Learning Quizzes, Lessons,
writing assignments, and other course work to help you learn the essentials of
history, but also to prepare you for the world of work or, if that is your
goal, for further academic study. You can:
·
Master basic
concepts and content that help you figure out what is happening in the world
you live in
·
Practice skills at
learning new and varied things, something essential in a rapidly changing world
where workers may have to retrain many times
·
Develop skills
necessary as a successful decision maker about your own life and about your own
vote
·
Strengthen
practical skills in reading, problem-solving, and writing that are necessary
for all those roles.
United
States History I covers from the 1500s to 1877. The course is split into three
Units, or major time periods, that reveal shifts in our history. The three time
periods are:
United
States History II covers from 1877 to the 21st Century. The course is split
into three Units, or major time periods, that reveal shifts in our history. The
three time periods are:
·
Unit 1: Creating a New America from 1860 to
1900
·
Unit 2: Moving to the World Stage – America from 1900 to 1945
·
Unit 3: Transformations – America from 1945 to
the Near Present
In this course, you
need to use Blackboard for five things:
1.
Using resources including links, maps, and
primary sources (sources created during the period we are studying)
2.
Taking required Learning Quizzes
3.
Taking required quizzes on the basics of evidence
and using resources with those quizzes
4.
Submitting written assignments to Turnitin within
Blackboard. Caution: You must be in
Blackboard to submit.
5.
Using Blackboard’s My Grades to see your grades
throughout the course and, if needed, your instructor’s Comment to you about
that grade as guidance on what you
need to do.
Blackboard and different student situations:
·
If you have limited Internet or computer access,
see me for ways to work with less time online. Glad to help.
·
If you use WCJC’s computers in a student lab, you
do not have to prepare your computer to work with Blackboard. On the other
hand, if you want to use your own computer, you do have to prepare it for Blackboard.
Tips for that
preparation of your computer are at Blackboard’s Help & Resources. The two
main Resources to use are:
o
Computer Requirements – Tells you any you need to
prepare common computers
o
Browser Check for Blackboard – Tells you what is
OK and not OK (and you need to change) about your current browser
·
If you use Blackboard anywhere (even in WCJC’s
computers), you may need this basic Tip: If you are
not seeing something in the course that you were shown in class or that you saw
on a previous day, you may solve your problem just by changing the browser you
are using today. For example, if you were using Firefox, try Chrome or even
Internet Explorer.
The Getting Started activities are:
· Complete your course plan so you (and I) know the grade you plan to earn and exactly what assignments you know you must do to earn that grade
· Do the Syllabus and Success Assignment form and bring it to class for the Q&A on the due date
· Take the Departmental Pre-Test to determine how much you already know about this period of history
To help you, you attend a course lab, and the instructor provides a quick demonstration. You log into Blackboard and do the first Learning Quiz (both its Self-Test and its Full-Test) and as many Self-Tests as you can.
Whether Learning Quizzes or ones on the basics of evidence, quizzes always consist of:
·
A self-test so you find out what you
know and you do not know. The name
is self-test because you are testing yourself so you know
what you need to do.) The goal is
positive so no points are lost. Self-Tests are extra credit and have questions
that are only worth .01. (A .01 is so small that it is equivalent to a penny
compared to a dollar.)
Tip: On the other hand, it is in your interest to answer Self-Tests accurately so measure
your own brain accurately for 2 reasons.
1. You want to know what you know and do not know so you can work efficiently and correct or complete what you do not know.
2.
If you already know the content in the Self-Test
and prove that by being correct on over 80% of the questions on that Self-Test,
you earn the points for its Full-Test without
taking it.
The instructor enters those points at the end of each Unit after the Learning Quizzes close.
· Once you submit the self-test, Blackboard automatically displays additional content (if needed) and a Full-Test that has so that you can earn full points while teaching yourself the vocabulary and map locations you do not know. You may repeat as many times as you wish, and your highest score counts.
A Visual to Help You: How a Self-Test and its Full-Test works.
You take a Self-Test |
|
↙ |
↘ |
You are right 80% or more of the questions. Notice what you missed. |
You are right 79% or fewer of the questions. Jot down what you missed—not the whole question but brief words. Tip: You can always go back to look at the Self-Test again. |
↓ |
↓ |
Blackboard
sometimes displays resources, such as dictionary definitions. |
Blackboard sometimes displays resources, such as dictionary definitions. If it does, use Ctrl-F (Find) to search the resources for what you missed. (Ask if you need help.) If Blackboard does not display the Full-Test, you made a 0 on the Self-Test. Email bibusc@wcjc.edu with your name, class, and the exact name of the Self-Test. |
↓ |
↓ |
If you want to, you may take the Full-Test. |
You take its Full-Test until you understand. |
When the
Unit tests close, |
Your highest score counts. |
↓ |
↓ |
You have the
Full points |
You have the
Full points |
|
|
There is an incentive for persisting explained before the List of Due Dates at the end of the syllabus.
The main
purpose of the Evidence Quizzes are to help you recognize the IF and
the WHEN
below:
·
IF you know or do not know the basic rules for evidence that you need for this class.
Tip: If
you miss a lot of questions, you do not
need to memorize a lot of words to get the right answers on the quiz. Instead,
you need to realize that you are
going to have to follow instructions
carefully because this work is
different from your prior work.
·
WHEN
you
need to check the rules to be sure
or—if you are not sure—to ask your
instructor for help.
Learning Quizzes let students focus on concepts, such as the meaning of words, the location and traits of places, and parts of essential documents. Understanding concepts helps you understand accurately the facts you encounter. Questions from these quizzes are also 8 (about a third) exam questions of the 25 questions on each Unit exam.
There are 25 questions in sets (so students in the classroom
sitting side by side have different questions). Eight of the 25 sets (about a
third) in the Unit Exam are pulled from Learning Quizzes so you not only pre-earn points for the quizzes, but
you also pre-learn 8 of the 25 unit
questions.
The goal of the exam questions determines the remaining seventeen
(about two-thirds) of the 25 sets of exam
questions. In this class, questions do not
require that you show you know everything,
but you show that you know something.
The questions focus on your recognizing significant traits of such things as
regions, time periods and their dominant beliefs or events, and representative
historical figures. Tip 1: The best
way to recognize and learn these is in the instructor’s Lessons in each Unit,
not in turning the pages of the textbook. Tip 2: The best way to use the Lesson links efficiently is to use the Unit’s
Study Guide (at the top of each Unit’s folder).
The Syllabus & Success Assignment provides a link with examples of these types of
questions.
There is a review for the Final Exam provided in
the course in a folder at the bottom of Learning Modules. The Final Exam has 50
questions, at 2 points each. The questions in the Departmental Final Exam were
written directly or chosen by the History Department. Caution:
Departmental policy is an F for the course
if you do not take the Final. In other words, if you have an A average for all
of the prior work in the course and if you do not take the Final Exam, I am
required to enter an F for your final Letter
grade for the course.
Your Instructor’s Perspective
Writing assignments are freshman level, brief, and use only the textbook and resources in the course. You focus on a specific historical question as though you were teaching another student. You follow rules for citation provided in the course. Every part of the writing is to be based on the 5 Good Habits for Evidence. Grading is not about your style or your opinion or your memories—or mine. It requires you practice skills essential to get and keep a good job.
Your writing assignments are located in 3-Part Writing and Evidence Requirements in Blackboard. Instructions, the required file you are to use (without changes to format or heading), primaries and any materials you need, and the Turnitin Assignment that you use are there.
To reduce the odds that you work contrary to instructions and fail an assignment, some actions require you do something first. Examples are:
· You see the first 3-Part Writing only after you complete the instructions in Evidence Requirements.
· I enter points for your work only after you respond to my feedback following instructions provided in class.
Doing the 3-Part Writing Assignment with on-campus students
is an experiment to try to help students with permission of the History
Department. My hope is that it will help many of you a lot.
You are required to keep in a folder (cheap, ugly, orange) that I provide: all of your marked papers and all of your feedback from me. With the 2nd and 3rd Parts, you always return my orange folder not only the new work but the folder with all prior work and all prior feedback. You will be stronger if you should use them to improve, but at least you must keep all of them in the folder or you lose 20% of the grade for your new work.
·
1st Part: For the visual paper, your
requirement is to follow a Visual Checklist of how the heading, paragraphing,
footnotes, bibliography should look. You also do a first pass at following the
instructions to answer the question provided, but on this pass you not worried
about your best words but content and citation. You use primaries. The paper
and the footnotes must no more than 1 page, with the bibliography on the
second.
Feedback: Your marked paper and the
marked Visual Checklist (The Visual Checklist has a section where you can
respond to feedback.)
·
2nd Part: You use the marked paper
and your marked Visual Checklist to determine how you need to work differently.
Look at your paper and ask yourself if you met the goal of teaching another student this content—should something come out or
be added. Compare your first pass of your paper with the exact page of every
citation to make sure are accurate. Revise and proof (double check everything).
Feedback: Your marked paper and the
marked Good Habits for Evidence rubric.
(The Good Habits for Evidence rubric has a section where you can respond
to feedback.)
·
3rd Part: You use the marked paper
and your marked Good Habits for Evidence rubric to determine how you need to
work differently. If I point out that you are making the same mistake that you
made in the 1st Part, then check that carefully as well. See me if
you do not understand. The question,
primaries, and content are related to the prior paper, but all are expanded to
a larger time period. In other words, you are still teaching another student this content but you will probably have to
remove or reduce content that you thought was important before. Before you
submit make sure you compare the 3rd Part paper with the feedback on
the Visual Checklist and the Good Habits for Evidence rubric that I marked
before.
Feedback: Your marked paper and the
marked Good Habits for Evidence rubric.
(The Good Habits for Evidence rubric has a section where you can respond
to feedback.)
With Turnitin
assignments in this class, you:
· Submit your file to Turnitin in Blackboard. (We do not use Turnitin at a separate website.)
·
May resubmit your file many times until the Due
Date. For example, you may submit to Turnitin for feedback on grammar and plagiarism, then correct the file,
and resubmit it. Submit early so you can ask questions on such things as what
Turnitin has identified in its originality report. Ask if you need help.
In this class, you
are submitting two things—the file to Turnitin and the print of the paper to
your instructor. You must do these 2 things for your work to be graded.
1.
Submit your file
before 11:59 PM on the Due Date.
·
Do not
wait until the last minute. The Turnitin settings in this course will
automatically close Turnitin at 11:59 PM. Caution: The file is not accepted late.
·
If Turnitin seems to be taking an unusually long
time to submit your file, it is usually safest to exit and resubmit.
·
Before you exit, be sure
you see what Turnitin says is its digital receipt. You do not turn in the digital receipt. With all software, it is safest to
save a “Snippet” of a receipt in case there is a problem. If you need help,
ask.
2.
Bring a single-sided print of the paper to your instructor before the seating chart is complete
on your next class day after the Due Date in Turnitin. Caution:
The print and its folder (once you have that) are not accepted late.
This is a
1000-point course, with points added as you earn them. You can see your current
total in Blackboard. At the end of each Unit,
I post an Announcement in Blackboard to help you determine your current letter
grade. If the grade is lower than you want, please ask for help. The Final
Letter Grade is determined by this scale:
Point Range |
Final Letter Grade |
895
– 1000 |
A
(exceptional) |
795
– 894 |
B
(above average) |
695
– 794 |
C
(average) |
595
– 694 |
D
(below average) |
Below
595 |
F
(failing) |
The 1000-point
course consists of these points, with the first 2 being general assignments,
the middle 4 being objective assignments (gradable by computer or a Scan-Tron),
and the last being related written assignments:
·
40 – Getting Started activities (How you
start frequently determines your success at the end)
·
90 – Participation and Self-Management to Help
Both Objective and Written Work
·
200 – Learning Quizzes
·
300 – 3 Unit Exams @ 100 points each
·
100 – Comprehensive Final Exam– Departmental
policy is an F for the course if you do not take it.
·
50 – 4 Quizzes on the basics of evidence in
history and preparing for and participating in a Q&A (question-and-answer)
session on evidence and on the 1st Part of the 3-Part Writing (10 points)
·
220—3-part writing assignment to develop your skills by using prior feedback
and working with evidence and primaries
This course does not
offer extra credit at the end of the class to help a few people make a higher
grade. It does offer incentives
(defined below) to all students for
doing things that will make them better students.
·
It offers grading using the 5 Good Habits for
Evidence (explained below) which can raise your written work by a letter grade
if you just follow those Habits. If you already have the Habits and
consistently follow them, your grade will be fine. If you did not have these
Habits initially but improve consistently and do follow the Habits by the 3rd
assignment, your Good Habits for Evidence points for the 3rd
assignment can overwrite the points for the 2nd assignment.
·
It offers incentives for persistence with
quizzes.
The History Department has student learner outcomes that require
writing based on evidence and that require that you use primaries as well as
secondaries. The Syllabus and Success Assignment form you submit provides a
link to explain those objectives and the meaning of the terms primary and
secondary.
The written work must
be over 25 percent of your final grade, a requirement for all history
instructors. That minimum means formal writing assignments are essential to
pass. For math examples so you can see how that 25% writing requirements makes
success in writing essential, use the Syllabus & Success
Assignment. To pass, everyone must
do all parts of the 3-Part Writing
Assignment.
For many students, a United States history course is the first
time they have had to write about something that is real—not just opinion—and therefore requires verifiable evidence from a reliable
source. Some students never had United States history before. Some students
are very uncomfortable and inexperienced with writing.
Also, history is cognitively like biology: both disciplines are
real and both are also detailed, complex, and interconnected. That means you
have plenty of ways to be wrong about those realities. Many students seem to
have problems with both of these disciplines.
To try to help students with the issues above, this course does
four things:
1.
It provides information and quizzes on these
basic rules of evidence so you can find out what you do not know about evidence before you write.
2.
The instructor initially reviews your paper
using a visual checklist so you can find out if you do not understand an
instruction or footnotes or something basic and correct it before your instructor grades the words you wrote.
3.
It uses one rubric for grading of papers and your
feedback on that rubric tells you which of the 5 Good Habits for Evidence—which
way of working—you may need to change.
4.
With permission of the History Department to
do this experiment to try to help students, it divides a grade for a written
assignment in two grades:
·
One part of the grade for the content of the
written assignment itself
·
One part for following the 5 Good Habits for
Evidence (covered at the top of Required Writing and Evidence Requirements).
For a link to showing you how dividing written grades in those two
parts can help your grade (and your skills), use the Syllabus & Success Assignment.
How This Course
Tries to Help Different Types of Students Persist by Using Incentives
Merriam-Webster’s
Online Dictionary defines the word incentive as:
“something that makes a person try or work
hard or harder.” |
With Learning Quizzes and Evidence
Quizzes, you earn 1 incentive point for each quiz if you:
·
Either already knew the content in the Self-Test
and were correct on over 80% of the questions on that Self-Test, you earn the
points for its Full-Test without
taking it.
At the end of each Unit after the Learning Quizzes close, the instructor not
only enters the points for the Full-Test but also the 1 point incentive.
·
Or complete both Self-Test and Full-Test parts 3
days before the Unit Exam.
Why Do the Full-Tests? 1) Its
Full-Test lets you teach yourself any missed concepts by taking the test as
many times as you want and you pre-learn about one-third of the Unit Exam
questions. 2) Completing both tests results in the 1 point incentive. 3) That
the highest score counts is also an incentive to persist—what Duckworth calls “grit,” something everyone needs.)
For a link to Duckworth’s Ted Talk, use the Syllabus & Success Assignment. She is very impressive.
Factual accuracy is
a key to success with assignments based on evidence, not opinion. Being able to
focus on factual accuracy in class requires self-management by the class. To
encourage self-management, the seating chart is a way to record distracted or
distracting behavior and—the ideal—focused behavior.
If you use the
Lesson links and Learning Quizzes before class, your focused participation can
help the class dialog as part of the lecture. Good participation is useful to others and means such behaviors as:
1) No guessing and no use of information other
than from the textbook or sources within the course
2) No answers that are off topic
3) Asking questions that are on topic (You can
always ask general questions at the beginning of class.)
4) No hogging or bullying (examples available)
5) No use of electronics,
including no attempts to hide them while using them
Each Unit has a Self-Management grade @ 30 points for a total of 90
points (9%) of your final grade. A mark on the seating chart in orange means no
points for the Unit. The chart shows the other possible grades.
Points |
Letter
Grade |
What
Do You Do to Earn It? |
How
Is It Measured? |
Quantity
Required |
23.9 |
C++ averaging as a B- |
In class, no distracted or distracting behaviors |
No orange
dots in your seating chart for the Unit. |
0 (Absolutely not 1 time during the Unit) |
25.5 |
Averages as a mid-B |
Does the above and also does focused
participation in class dialog within lecture |
1 blue
dot in your seating chart for the Unit |
At least 1 time |
27.0 |
Averages as an A- |
Does both things above |
2 blue
dots |
At least 2 times |
30 |
100% |
Does both things above |
3 or more blue dots |
At least 3 times |
Disruptive behavior
that is a consistent problem will result in the student’s dismissal from this
course. The term “classroom disruption” means behavior a reasonable person
would view as substantially or repeatedly interfering with the conduct,
instruction, and education of a class. Examples include resorting to physical
threats or personal insults, coming to class under the influence of alcohol or
a controlled substance other than prescriptions, or abusing students or
instructors with offensive remarks. They also include repeatedly leaving and
entering the classroom without authorization, making loud or distracting
noises, persisting in speaking without being recognized. (See WCJC’s Student Handbook.)
WCJC’s Student Handbook explains responsibilities for attendance and when a student should withdraw from the course. I will consider active attendance throughout the course favorably when computing final grades that are borderline. (Details provided in class.) Active attendance means 3 things: 1) using the upcoming Lesson’s Learning Quizzes before class, 2) using that preparation to participate positively in problem solving in class, 3) taking notes, and 4) removing all distractions. Using a cell phone, smartwatch, computer, or other device during class makes active attendance improbable. Put up all of these devices before class starts. Your self-management in class during each of the 3 Units is measured for a grade. (Covered above.) If you cannot resist using your cell phone—for example—during class, then you will not only lose the points for the Unit, but also before the beginning of the next class you will need to place the device in a safe location provided by the instructor and then pick up your device at the end of class.
Exceptions:
· If you have a family emergency or equivalent event that requires your being able to respond to cell phone messages during a class, then see me before class.
· If counseling has confirmed that you need to use a computer during class and if you use it only for work going on in this class, then provide their form to me and talk with me privately.
For security reasons, the door will be locked 5 minutes after the beginning of the class and remain locked until the end of class. (I have an alarm set on my phone for 5 minutes after the start of class.)
Attendance will be taken once daily at the beginning of the class. If you come into class after the seating chart is complete but before the door is locked, you are not marked as attending for the day. Students who frequently come to class after the seating chart is complete tend to make very low grades for the course. For example, they miss announcements about topics for the day and they do not hear other students’ questions about upcoming assignments.
With papers, work is due at the beginning of class. For example, if you arrive after the seating chart is complete, you cannot hand in your paper copy of a Turnitin Assignment. Tip: If you cannot come to class or be there before the seating chart is completed, have the printed copy timestamped at the reception area before the class starts. Then follow their instructions for putting the paper in my mailbox. Also email me at bibusc@wcjc.edu before the class telling me to check my mail box.
On the date in the List of Due Dates (at the end of this syllabus), you choose your preferred seat; however, students who chat after class starts will be moved to another seat on the next class day. If this occurs, I will mark the problem on the seating chart and, on the next class day, move you on the seating chart and in the room.
WCJC’s Student
Handbook explains student responsibilities and provides examples of misconduct.
It states “plagiarism and cheating refer to the use of unauthorized books,
notes, or otherwise securing help during a test; copying tests [or]
assignments….” The Handbook provides details on college-level policies. In this
course, copying any part of an assignment from the Internet or another source
is a zero (0) on the assignment.
Under section
51.907 of the Texas Education Code, “an institution of higher education may not
permit a student to drop more than six courses, including any course a transfer
student has dropped at another institution of higher education.” This statute
was enacted by the State of Texas in spring 2007 and applies to students who
enroll in a public institution of higher education as a first-time freshman in
fall 2007 or later. There are many exceptions to this rule. Please refer to the
current WCJC catalog for information.
In the History Department, instructors may not drop students.
Students must drop their course. WCJC sets the last date for a student to drop
a course. That date is on the second page of this syllabus and on the List of
Due Dates at the end.
It is your
responsibility:
· To talk to me if you do not know what to do or need help. I am glad to help you, but let me stress this: The earlier we talk, the better your chances of success.
·
To use the
List of Due Dates to determine:
·
What Lessons we are covering in the coming week and
therefore specific Learning Quizzes you should do
·
What is
DUE and when—including preparation that you need to do before class and what
you print and bring to class before the seating chart is completed.
·
To
understand the Late Work Policy (below) so you can understand the consequences
of your decisions.
With due dates for
any assignment, including exams and required writing, there are no extensions
unless it is appropriate to make an extension available to all of you.
You have these responsibilities:
1. At the beginning
of the term, compare all of the Due
Dates with your personal schedule. If you cannot do an assignment on a Due
Date, tell your instructor immediately and suggest an earlier date. Example: If you previously scheduled a trip on the
date of a Unit Exam, suggest an earlier
date to do the exam.
2. If something happens that no one could plan for,
such as suddenly becoming very ill (doctor’s note required) or having a death
in the family, tell your instructor immediately
and provide a valid, written excuse.
What happens depends on whether you have
a valid, written excuse for this event:
·
With
a valid, written excuse provided immediately, these rules apply.
·
If you miss an exam, your make-up exam is taken on
the date of the Final Exam.
·
If you
miss one of the 3-Part Writings, you
receive an extension, set by me, with no penalty.
·
Without
a valid, written excuse, you receive a 0.
Tip: Remember a low grade is better than a 0 so do the assignment as best you can and submit it on time.
I reserve the right to modify the syllabus during
the semester.