Introductory Presentation–During the second and third weeks of classes, students will give a five-minute presentation about themselves and how they relate to Virginia. As part of this assignment, students will need to incorporate multimedia into their presentation (e.g. Prezi, PowerPoint, Google Slides). This assignment counts towards your participation grade.
- Includes at least 5 slides.
- Gives an introduction and conclusion to presentation.
- Meets the 5-minute criteria.
- Speaks loudly and coherently.
- Uses suitable posture and gestures.
- Answers questions competently
Class Participation—Because this course is a speaking intensive seminar, students are required to contribute to class discussions daily to receive a passing grade. Grades will be based on whether a student participated and the substance of comments.
Class Preparedness—Students must be prepared to participate in in-class activities, workshops, and peer review sessions throughout the semester. Grades will be based on consistent preparedness and thoughtful engagement.
Patawomeck Museum & Cultural Center Field Trip—At 3pm on Friday, November 7, our class will visit the Patawomeck Museum & Cultural Center in Stafford County, Virginia. This fieldtrip is mandatory, and all students are to notify their other professors and work to avoid any conflicts. Medical and family emergencies are the only exceptions to participating, and these will require appropriate documentation.
Classroom Discussion Facilitation—Each student along with a partner(s) will lead class discussion of a reading assignment for two days during the semester. At least one day must be reserved for a general discussion of the assigned text(s); the other day can include role-playing, analyzing primary documents, and/or staging a debate. Finally, students must meet with me at the end of class on Friday prior to their facilitation to discuss their plans. Grades will be based on the following criteria:
- Meets with me to discuss their facilitation plans on Friday in class prior to their facilitation.
- Has a facilitation plan to present at Friday’s meeting.
- Responds to feedback and makes appropriate changes before facilitation.
- Lays out classroom activities for the week on the first day of facilitation.
- Writes questions that address larger themes within the reading(s). NOTE: Avoid questions that can be answered with a “yes” or a “no.”
- Writes questions that address details within the reading(s).
- Develops a classroom activity that creatively enhances information/knowledge from the text(s).
- Appropriately handles student participation/lack of participation.
- Speaks loudly and coherently.Uses suitable posture and gestures.
DoOO Project: Over the course of the semester, students will conduct research on a local history project of their choosing that will be housed on Domains of One’s Own (DoOO). There will be a series of assignments over the course of the semester that will lead to the final product. They include the following:
Project Proposal (2-3-pages): A short document that addresses the following:
- The subject that you plan to research.
- A working argument.
- A brief discussion of your primary sources and 2 book length secondary sources (3-4 articles are equal to one book).
- Brief discussion of what your website, along with Timeline JS and StoryMap JS, will accomplish in communicating to a broader public about your topic.
- The significance of your proposed project.
- Bibliographies will be a separate page, formatted using Chicago Manual of Style, and separated into primary and secondary sources. Secondary sources must meet the following criteria: 1) written by experts in their field; 2) published with a reputable press/organization; 3) includes in-text citations (not only a bibliography). Primary sources must be from the periodization (or close to it) and the location from which you are writing.
Research Archive: Students will assemble an archive of primary and secondary sources related to their project and house them digitally (OneDrive, Google Drive, etc.). In addition to a collection of sources, students must address the following:
- Curate the collection to identify important connections among texts.
- Preserve contextual information as to where these texts were found by generating a bibliography that is also housed in the archive.
- Format the bibliography using Chicago Manual of Style.
- Provide a description of your research process in finding these texts. House this statement in the archive.
- Provide a statement about confirmation bias and how you attempted to avoid this problem. Also house this statement in the archive.
Final Presentation: At the end of the semester, students will also give a formal, 7-to-10-minute presentation on their projects. They will be graded on the following criteria:
- Includes an introduction and conclusion.
- Gives an overview of the project with a statement of their thesis.
- Engages historiographical and/or theoretical literature.
- Discusses at least 2 sources/examples as evidence.
- Meets the 7-to-10-minute criteria.
- Speaks loudly and coherently.
- Uses suitable posture and gestures.
Final DoOO: At the end of the semester, students will be graded on their final website. Students are expected to include the following in their final project:
- Has developed a distinctive visual style to the website.
- The landing page has a brief summation of the website’s purpose and argument, containing no more than 250 words. Citations are required and are not included in the word count.
- A professional “about me” page that also contains no more than 250 words. This is a separate page from the landing page.
- Videos, images, and sound recordings are appropriately attributed on all pages, including digital tools.
- Use both Timeline JS and StoryMap JS to narrate topic. Each has a separate page. Contextual narration of no more than 250 words plus citations must be included.
- Includes a bibliography as a separate page. Primary and secondary sources are separated.
Final Essay—During our final exam period, students will write an essay on Virginia using our readings and class discussions over the course of the semester as evidence to support their arguments. At least five reading assignments must be incorporated into the essay. Handwritten/typed notes and/or hard copies of books/articles are allowed to help students write their essays.