US History II

Today in class we decided that the exam this coming Wed, Oct 19th (which deals with material in Chapters 25 and 26) will be open-book, open-note as before. Laptops and smart phones are prohibited.

Resources to help you prepare –

Today’s handout: Exam 2 Study Guide
Today’s practice quiz: Mini-Quiz on Unit 2
Also handed out today: excerpt from Roosevelt’s “Four Freedoms” speech (6 January 1941)

And the last slide from today – these are not all the possible answers to how the Second World War transformed the US, but it’s enough to get you thinking about how you might answer such a question if asked (also consider what evidence you would use).

I have some good news; I was able to get a new copy of the Experience History textbook from the publisher, and I have placed it on course reserve for the benefit of those who don’t yet have access to the book because the bookstore is sold out or for any other reason.

You can ask for it at the library circulation desk as Davidson, Experience History, on reserve for HI 112-01. It can be checked out for 2 hours at a time.

Instructions for Skill Builder 1, due Friday Sept 9

The remaining skill builders in this semester will be based on historical evidence from your textbook, but this first one asks you to look at, evaluate, and draw conclusions from a website.

Navigate to: http://www.chicagohistory.org/wetwithblood/

Investigate the different parts of this website.
Consider the evidence presented.

Write a 2-page (no more, no less) double spaced paper that addresses at least some of these questions:

• What is a historical question this website asks? What kind of question is it (a question of fact, of interpretation, or of something else?)
• What kind(s) of evidence does this website discuss?
• In your view, what is a reasonable answer to the historical question?
• What are the methods of historical investigation in this case?
• Examine the references for this website. How well researched is it?
• Discuss the chosen display design (a Flash Player “e-book”) – how well did it fit this topic?
• What did you find most intriguing, interesting, or useful in exploring this website?

Give your paper a title (not “Skill Builder #1)

Cite the website using a footnote with the proper citation format (Chicago Style), as follows:
Author/creator, Title in italics, year, URL, date of access.

e.g.

Chicago Historical Society and the Trustees of Northwestern University, Wet With Blood: The Investigation of Mary Todd Lincoln’s Cloak, 2000, http://www.chicagohistory.org/wetwithblood/ (accessed September 6, 2011).

Welcome to History 112! In this course you will learn United States history from 1877 to the present. The course also serves as an introduction to the scholarly discipline of history–how historians think, work, and approach the past.

How this site works: I use this website each semester for my sections of 112 and I have left the old posts up from previous semesters as reference for my former students. You can safely ignore any post tagged “Spr11” or “Fall 2010.” Yours will be tagged “Fall11” (tags are at the bottom of each new post).

This main Home page is for class news, announcements, instructions and communication. Please check it between classes for any new additions. The easiest way to do this is to subscribe to its RSS feed (use the orange icon in the upper left corner) using email, Google Reader, or another RSS feed service of your choice.

Under the header, you will find links to other pages within the site which contain the course learning outcomes, syllabus, course calendar and ideas for further reading. Once the term begins I will also post detailed guidelines for the quizzes, papers and weekly assignments.

Some specifics about this course you need to know: This is probably going to be unlike any other history course you have taken. By design, it is meant to be hands-on and student-centered. Expect to be busy and participating in every class: asking questions, working in groups, analyzing sources, using learning tools, and occasionally taking notes – but never texting, surfing the web, falling asleep or zoning out.

You’ll write frequently – something is due nearly every week – and so if writing is not a strength of yours, get to know the Writing Center (Sullivan 306, x8112) or come for help during office hours. The textbook (Davidson, Experience History, Volume 2. 7th ed, McGraw-Hill, 2011 – ISBN 9780077368326) is your main learning companion: buy/rent it, read it, get to know it backwards and forwards, but don’t expect that I will repeat or lecture on its contents during class. I am happy to discuss reading and studying strategies during my office hours if you find you need help in that area.

Early on in the course, we will identify five topics you’d like to know better, one for each time period. Each of those will become the focus of a unit for our class sessions. Whatever course content we don’t work with in class will be tested using online quizzes in Blackboard. You can take the quizzes multiple times on your own time in each unit; they will each be open for about a week. In this design, your interests drive what we do in class, and you decide what we will cover in more detail and what we will minimize or leave out. Every history class is selective in what it covers- the difference here is that YOU get to do the selecting.

I look forward to meeting you! Have a wonderful summer, and I will see you in September.

Some links for this morning’s class:

Al Jazeera English Livestream http://english.aljazeera.net/watch_now/

Mary Louise Kelly’s profile of Osama Bin Laden (NPR) http://www.npr.org/2011/05/02/135905649/bin-laden-from-millionaires-son-to-most-wanted

Obama’s announcement speech last night at 11:30 via CBS, http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7364586n

I will be there by the end of class (I think!) so please take attendance on Wednesday 4/6. You can use that class period however you see fit – one big study session, small group work, individual study time, working on your Civil Rights Movement notes page…

I posted Monday’s slides under the “Slides” tab and also under “Resources” on the Course Blackboard.

Also, here is the blank handout from Monday with key terms from the Vietnam War era and from the Watergate scandal and trial, in case you didn’t pick one up in class.

There’s no class today, Friday 4/1 because of snow. I have posted the class lecture notes and slides that we would have used today under the “Resources” tab on the course Blackboard. See you Monday; the reading for Monday is Chapter 30.

Document Duels can be submitted via email or Digital Dropbox.

Just a heads-up – Next Wednesday, April 6th, I will be giving a talk on campus for a large group of Worcester Public High School students at 9 am. I cannot be in class for our whole hour because of that presentation, but I will plan to be there by 10:15 when class ends. My proposal is that you students come to class without me, and use the class period as a group study session (with attendance taken). I will be happy to address any questions on Monday the 4th also. See the previous post (below) for more information about how to prepare for the exam on Friday the 8th.

WE WILL HAVE CLASS ON FRIDAY Feb 4th because I will be in town, so we will hold "Wednesday’s class" on Friday. That way we still get our two class meetings in. We will discuss Chapter 19, “New Industrial Order.” Part of the class will be hands-on research, so please BRING YOUR LAPTOP if you can. I will collect the third Document Duel in class, and will hand back your papers from last week.

Thanks for your patience during this blizzard-a-week season! –Prof. Hangen

Hello all,

I know that many students are impacted by the snowstorm and by the campus’s loss of electrical power. Some students have gone home or are staying with friends and don’t have their usual access to course materials, computers, etc.

This means that I am not going to be a Grinch about the 9:30 Friday morning deadline for this week’s Document Duel. If you intend to turn one in, write it and get it to me when you can, whether that’s a few hours late or a few days late. Don’t panic. Just proceed at whatever pace you can given your personal circumstances.

See you tomorrow (I hope!) –Prof. Hangen

Outlet image via Sixth Lie, used by Creative Commons license

I’m giving you a heads-up that I will be out of town the end of next week for a conference, so we will not have class on Friday, Feb 4th. Document Duels will still be due; you can upload them before 9:30 am to Digital Dropbox, turn them in on Wednesday Feb 2 in class, or drop them Thursday or Friday in my office mailbox in Sullivan 327-B.

Every Friday, I will post a PowerPoint highlighting the week’s in-class slides, to help you review and improve your class notes. Those will also be archived on a new course webpage called “Slides” starting this Friday 1/28. I’ll still post one next Friday even though we won’t have class. And we will keep to the reading schedule as outlined in the syllabus, although it means we only have one day to discuss Chapter 19 (Wed 2/2).

If you wrote a Document Duel for last week, I have graded them and will hand them back tomorrow. However, to help you in writing your second paper, I’ll be emailing each of you my comments so you know how you did before you finish writing DD#2.

Finally, I have posted an example of a strongly-written Document Duel, for those of you who would like to have a model to work from. Yours does not have to look like this one, but sometimes students benefit from seeing what a good paper looks like. It will also be on the updated Document Duel page; click the tab above.