COURSE GOALS

1. Goals

While the wording is somewhat different, the following goals are indicated in the first page of the Syllabus:

• Encourage students to learn the basic content involved in North American ancient culture histories
  
• Understand how the archaeological approach reflects and implements the Society for American Archaeology's Seven Principles for Curriculum Reform
  
• Document the cultural trajectories of ancient North American Indian cultures
  
• Emphasize North America prior to European colonization
  
• Examine the 20,000-plus-year archaeological record
  
• Discuss ancient cultural change, development, and diversity of cultural adaptations as indicated by the archaeological record
  
• Locate and organize discussion around the culture areas of North America (e.g., the Arctic, Subarctic, Northwest, Midwest and Great Plains, Northeast, Southeast, Southwest, Great Basin, and California)
  
• Trace the cultural developments that characterized each of the culture areas of North America
  
• Explain the use of the techniques employed by archaeologists—both laboratory analysis and subsequent interpretation
  
• Understand the relationships between ancient North American cultures and their Mesoamerican neighbors to the south
  
• Understand the dynamics of life during ancient times in North America

In addition, by the end of the course, students will have learned how to:

• Translate formal scientific archaeological material into archaeologically grounded personal fictional accounts of past life in ancient North America (i.e., the BACAB CAAS assignment)
  
• Evaluate and take a stand on the various controversies, perspectives and theories concerning the origins of the diverse ancient North American cultural traditions (i.g., Poverty Point: Autochthonous development versus Olmec involvement; Mississippian: Autochthonous Development versus "Greater Mesoamerica," etc.)

2. Syllabus

Regarding the Course Syllabus: My course syllabi have gained a reputation for their detail and length. I have often referred to them as "Course Survival Manuals" and provide considerable, often ancillary, materials. In another sense, they are somewhat contractual in nature and are often referred back to when students are concerned with, or question, procedures. "Check and see what the syllabus says" is something that I often find myself saying.

Following an introductory"Using this Syllabus" heading comes the "Objectives of Course" section. This currently explicitly mentions the Society for American Archaeology's Seven Principles as well as a brief statement about the main content goals of the course. This is then followed by a list of "Required Texts" that the students should buy, as well as some recommended optional ones. In addition to this, students in my classes have access to the extensive lecture outlines that I have created. They may copy them from an accessible Hamline University computer file; for this class, materials are available in module format as outlines on the World Wide Web.

The next section, "Instructional Format," is brief and introductory and is quoted here:

Class activities will revolve around class lectures, class and working group discussions, three full-period tests, and the staged development of a . . . paper. In many instances alternative interpretations of both textual and audiovisual materials will be discussed. While this syllabus provides a detailed sequence of lectures and readings that will be followed, it is not law! Class interest and enthusiasm may lead us to allot more time to certain topics.

In short, I lay out my classes as lectures, but with the expectation that student engagement in particular topics will often lead in unforeseen directions. Parallel with the class lectures is a schedule of developmental assignments (with feedback) leading toward a final paper.

"Course Requirements and Grading" formally presents the schedule for exams. As designed with a writing-intensive component (part of the Hamline Plan), class sizes should not exceed 25 students; the reality is that such classes often have about 30 students. This class size makes it possible to avoid using traditional, quickly gradable multiple-choice, fill-in-the-blank, and/or true-and-false formats in favor of a combination of short identification and longer compositional essays.

Preparation for examinations begins with students' class engagement and taking good notes. Exactly one week prior to a scheduled examination review, students receive a comprehensive study guide—a list of terms and concepts followed by a list of all possible essays that might be asked of them. The scheduled review day is reserved solely for student questions about the study guide. At the end of the scheduled review, my choices for their short identifications and for my essay are announced. Students traditionally have five short identifications to answer, with three of them being my choice and the other two coming from the study guide (students being encouraged not to be redundant in their choices!). I choose one essay and each student the other. They are encouraged to make use of whatever resources they wish, with the exception of other students in the class. They have one week to write up their exams—clearly and with appropriate referencing. Examinations are graded and returned to the student, often with comments like, "This point is not clearly put, please rewrite and resubmit." This is often reiterated personally to individual students prior to and following class. Most such exams are submitted in word-processed form and can sometimes be quite lengthy.

The "Writing a Research Paper—Some General Considerations" and "Writing an Essay Exam" sections are present in all of my syllabi and are provided to help reinforce basic considerations they should be aware of as writers.

Following these sections are a series of sections devoted to the particular writing assignment for the class. In North American Archaeology, this involves doing creative writing.

The particular writing assignment for this class began as an experiment a few years ago. Personally, I found the writings of people like Jean Auel (Clan of the Cave Bear, etc.) to be a wonderful idea—to develop something that went beyond historical fiction. Her book contained a considerable amount of information legitimately derived from sound archaeological work, but at the same time, she included ideas that were not so. In particular, I found her suggestions about Neanderthal thought and communication to be her idea and something that did not seemed suggested by any archaeological indicators I was aware of! I was equipped to question such ideas, but someone outside of academia might not be. Hence, her inclusion of her own ideas of Neanderthal cognition, in light of the fact that she had indeed included appendices referring to her references, would be taken to be valid by the general public—another "truth" about the ancient Neanderthal. I felt that, given sufficient, soundly (archaeologically) derived information, better and more truthfully informed fiction could, and should, be created. I decided to test this by having my students try ("Option B"). Initially, students opted for this assignment (over the original "Option B," the more hypothetico-deductive one I had been using). After the class was over, a number of them confessed that they chosen "Option B" because they thought writing creative fiction would be fun and easy! I was gratified that virtually everyone told me that the easier one would have been "Option A," because they had had to confront directly how they knew what they knew about events and people in prehistory. They found that they wanted to find ways of knowing things like what sleeping conditions would have been like, what kinds of food people ate, whether things people used were prone to breaking, how they kept warm at night, etc. Finding out these things became students' personal agendas. They ended up researching information and writing their paper more for themselves than for me. This resulted in some of the most impressive and archaeologically legitimate papers than I have ever received in any of my classes—and with an intense concern for style and communication as well!

The various sections of this part of the syllabus lay out in detail the developmental sequences leading toward their final paper. These can be found in the various BACAB CAAS modules. Each assignment is read by me, and written comments are made. I include the exact text of their final evaluation sheet in the discussions of the final assignment.

The BACAB CAAS writing assignment, while fictional, is designed to provide a reader with an archaeologically well-grounded set of scenarios about a particular place and time in ancient North America. This means that it should indicate with specific references where information was obtained to "flesh out" scenario details. Therefore, appropriate formatting is required, and instructions to accomplish this are provided in the "Research and Bibliography: Some Research Hints," "Referencing and Bibliography," and "Referencing and Bibliography-World Wide Web Standardized Formatting" sections of the syllabus.

Following this is a "Selected List of Books and Articles Having Material on North American Archaeology" section that contains a lengthy list of books and articles (usually about at least four pages). While clearly not exhaustive, this list makes it possible to quickly recommend references to students who come in for suggestions on where to begin finding references to help in their scenario creation.

This is followed by an annotated list of "Journals That Carry Archaeology Articles on North America." While again not exhaustive, such a list can assist students wishing to do more in-depth literature searches. The same is also true of the following section, "Some North American Archaeology-Related WWW Sites." Please note that often such Web sites tend to be short-lived, and instructors wishing to include those present here should make sure that those they are interested in are still active.

"Attendance" clarifies my perspective that while I do not take attendance, it is in the student's self-interest to come to class because often class discussions end up moving in directions not indicated (or anticipated) in the syllabus.

"Plagiarism" Please note that with increasing use of the World Wide Web, there are abundant opportunities for students to plagiarize: however, it is also quite easy to use the Web to track down the source of the plagiarism (typing in a questionable lengthy suspicious word string into Yahoo, for instance, can provide instructors with this information in nanoseconds!). When such plagiarism is uncovered I have preferred to use it as a "teachable moment," notifying the student of the horrific possibilities for their academic careers and offering them a second chance to completely rewrite their essay in their own words! They are also notified that a second occurrence will lead to the Dean's Office being notified.

In the next sections, "Reading Assignments and Course Outline" and "Topics Schedule: Discussions/readings," students are provided with the rationale for and then sequence of lecture topic discussions, examination dates, and due dates for various components of their BACAB CAAS writing projects. In reality, this represents a "best-case scenario," and depending upon the level of class participation during the semester, often some topics have to be reintegrated and brought together to insure coverage. The goal is to try to divide the semester up in such a way that things are evenly distributed over the 14 or so weeks. Individual paper assignments should not be made due on the same day that take-home exams are. Commentary feedback should be returned in a timely fashion to allow for students to make recommended adjustments, and this should not conflict with exam schedules.

Finally, the "North American Archaeology: Interest Questionnaire" (a PDF file) is handed out at the beginning of the first day of class—prior to having said anything about the class except its name and course number. Students are given about 15 to 20 minutes to complete the questionnaire, and it is then handed in to be put into a three-ring binder. The goal is to allow students to give their preferred name (including nicknames), their preferred e-mail (students often do most communication with AOL or Yahoo instead of using the e-mail address they were given as students), the telephone numbers most used by them (often their cell phone and/or pager), etc. This information is put together into a master list that is copied and then passed back to each student (to further a sense of community; to make it easier for them to get together to study; and sometimes to conspire!). Additional questions provide the instructor with a sense of their perceived competency with certain skills (writing in this class), but also goals and knowledge in other areas. Information provided assists in later counseling of students who are having various kinds of problems in class.

3. Tests and Assessment Strategies

• Regarding Personal Grading and Assessment Philosophy: Years ago, when I was a teaching assistant under Dennis Puleston, he told me that examinations "should never punish a student, but should always be an educational experience." This has had implications for the way that I grade (assess) students. Again, a metaphor seems appropriate. Imagine that you had some kind of medical condition, say, a sprained ankle. If you went to the doctor and were told, "You have a sprained ankle that you have because you X'd it," and then were ushered back to the exit, you would most likely not return to that doctor. On the other hand, if given the same sprained ankle, you went to the doctor and were given a diagnosis, followed by a set of ways to make it well again, you might still limp away, but your ankle would heal and you would probably go back again to the same physician.

My own personal observation is that much grading that is done tends often to be more like that found in the first scenario. Grades are often judgments—verdicts— leaving the student feeling sadness, anger, or some combination of the two, but without necessarily assisting them to better understand the material. I have opted to treat grading and assessment more in line with the latter case.

In fact, if we educators back up and "step out of the box" and consider what we are trying to do, it should become clear that what is most important is what students walk out of our classes with on the last day of the course. Grading and assessment should be primarily for them, the students. We want them to leave our classes empowered with knowledge—facts, strategies, methodologies, etc.—that will enable them to be our colleagues!

Furthermore, we want them to be able and willing to assist and collaborate with others to learn and be productive members of our discipline. Hence, we should find ways to encourage such ethics. Much of the grading practices I have witnessed have in fact encouraged the opposite, primarily through the practice of grade curving. What, and who, does curving serve? It may provide a statistical breakdown of student performance that allows us to report student grading to others. Beyond that, does it truly serve the student? In our culture we are habituated to finding out where we statistically fit within such bell curves. For me, it is merely another kind of "verdict" that can often do more harm than good. In fact, it clearly establishes that excellence can only be a scarce commodity, so, if you are one who has been labeled a "C-student," why should you try harder? Furthermore, instead of encouraging collaboration, curving tends to isolate students and promote competition. There is nothing wrong with trying to excel, but to do so in a manner that does so de facto at the expense of others seems ultimately counterproductive.

In my classes I do not curve. I assume that students may do poorly on my first examinations. This can be the result of a host of factors: laziness, misplaced emphasis in their studies, being tired and overly worked, "test anxiety." Often it is because of unfamiliarity with my approach, with them often wanting to know what the right answer is. Often there is no single right answer. My examinations are designed to help students learn where they will have to do more work. Grades, therefore, are negotiable and can change when, and if, the student later comes in and demonstrates that they now have a command of the material they seemed to lack in their exam. Again, I am most concerned with what they walk out of my class with in their heads on the last day of class. If that means that I must change their first (of three) exams from an "F" to an "A," so be it, provided they have clearly demonstrated that they now have a comfortable grasp of the subject matter.

This strategy means that an instructor must be willing to spend considerable amounts of time and often engage one-on-one with students wanting help. It does not mean a "free gift." My experience is that students are sincerely appreciative of this approach and will take advantage of it. They are the ones who leave the class and who show up in later classes with increased confidence in the subject matter and with a willingness to help others who find themselves floundering.

• Assessment Strategies in North American Archaeology: As indicated in the Syllabus, final grades for this class are calculated based upon student performance resulting from three take-home essay-and-short-identification examinations (totaling 60 percent of the course grade), plus their writing of an archaeologically well-grounded fictional account (BACAB CAAS) (with the total points for their nine sequential assignments constituting the remaining 40 percent).

• Grading does not employ a curve and is based upon the following scale:

A	90-100
	A	(96-100)
	A-	(90-95)
B	80-89
	B	(86-89)
	B-	(80-85)
C	70-79
	C	(76-79)
	C-	(70-75)
D	60-69
	D	(66-69)
	D-	(60-65)
F	0-59	Failing class

As discussed above, the final grades awarded for each examination are ultimately flexible and should be revised if the student subsequently demonstrates mastery of the content of a particular question or skill.

• Examinations and Study Guides: Examinations are done as take-home tests. Consistent with the "contractual" tone indicated in the Syllabus, examinations are meant to be unambiguous as well as educational. Exactly one week prior to a course review students receive a comprehensive study guide.  An example of this can be found in the Internet version of the one used in North American Archaeology: Term List/Study Guide Review for First Take-Home Test. Students are instructed that

Just like the beginning statement in the syllabus, don't let the length of this list intimidate you. There really is a lot of redundancy built into this. Think of short definitions and creative ways you would cluster some of these. Some terms and concepts "comfortably" fit together, while others don't.

Use the following as a review sheet to test yourself. If you can provide a definition and example of each of the following terms and concepts, you are in good shape. Use this to try to test yourself (before I test you!).

During review we will definitely disqualify some of these (i.e., they won't be on your test). I encourage you to work with one another on these terms, and the "class telephone book" should help."

This is followed by a numbered (1-165) term-and-concept list that attempts to help students brainstorm about what has been discussed, on topics ranging from the historical backdrop to the discipline, to a discussion of what we understand about the landscapes when the ancestors of the American Indians came to America and theories about their origins, to discussions of various archaeological culture areas discussed thus far (in this case, the Arctic and Subarctic, Pacific Northwest, and California). Note that this list is long, and the first time this study guide is passed out, students can find it intimidating. Students should be encouraged to approach the list initially and make a decision that they are going to: (1) mark all those terms and concepts that at least jog their memory (preferably that they can use in some kind of informative, meaningful sentence); or (2) mark those that they find completely baffling.  The idea is that with this list they will have an idea of what they might not know.  If they have been in class and have taken notes, theoretically they should have some level of awareness of each of these.

Following this is the pool of all the possible essay questions to be asked during the exam (totaling 21). Students must await the end of the review period one week later to know the essay to be chosen. Therefore, if they want to "hedge their bets," they should study and be able to write on all of them.

Please take a look at the Second Study Guide and the Third (Final) Study Guide for further examples of tests in this class.

Each of the Module Overviews has a link under "Assessment" to the terms and concepts list related to the particular topic of the lesson.  In addition to the Study Guides mentioned above, there is also an Essay Bank that contains all of the essays used thus far for this North American Archaeology class.  At the beginning, above the list of essays, is a matrix with links to individual modules, module names, and then a set of numbered links to each question that is related to the subject of the individual module.

4. Modules

Individual lesson modules can be accessed a number of ways.

Perhaps the best way to get an introduction to ways to navigate through these North American Archaeology class resources is to begin by going to the "Read Me First" site.  This will provide background information useful in navigating through the Cross-Tabulation of Modules and Principles site.  There, one finds a list of all of the course modules, followed by links from each one to each specific lesson portfolio, along with the individual MATRIX Principles associated with each one.  This site also has a number of external links of interest.

In the syllabus, "Topics Schedule: Discussions/Readings" links can be found under the corresponding class lecture topics.  There are also links to each Module Overview as well as to individual sequential assignments and exams.

In addition to using the "back button," individual lesson modules furthermore have additional link redundancies to take you to the associated lecture notes, to the complete list of MATRIX Principles, and under "Assessment," to the appropriate lists of terms and concepts related to each appropriate lesson module.