Dr. Roy Rosenzweig, the Mark and Barbara Fried Professor of History & New Media and director of the Center for History and New Media at George Mason University, passed away October 11, 2007, of cancer.
More information is available at
http://hnn.us/articles/43739.html
http://historycoalition.org/2007/10/12/roy-rosenzweig-1950-2007/
One of the problems frequently cited in the SoTL literature is learning objectives. I’ve recently begun requiring my students to link their presentation objectives to class LOs as noted in the syllabus. They are having a terrible time doing it.
They are not the only ones. Many of my colleagues, to judge by syllabi linked online, also have a hard time defining clear LOs. Here’s my challenge to you: list your learning objectives (or a link thereto) here, and let’s all start looking at them.
Here are mine for my World Civ class to 1500. I welcome comments, suggestions (oh please!!) and critiques.
1. Students will analyze various kinds of visual art for what that art can inform them about the specific society/culture that produced it. To do this effectively, students will analyze their readings in the assigned text(s) so that they can compare and contrast the values, structures and issues of the producing society with those exhibited in the art.
2. Students will synthesize and evaluate the art for its relevance to the study of the history of the producing society/culture.
3. The analyses, syntheses and evaluations will be manifested in various products that each student will be communicating in both written and oral forms.
The full syllabus is available here.
Marie
Oklahoma City University
Hello All,
I’d like to say hello to the group. Lendol Calder directed me to the site, and I’m excited about it becoming an important forum for talking about our common pedagogical concerns.
I’m the director of the Teaching of History program at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Housed in the history department, we prepare BA and MAT students to become middle and (mainly) high school teachers. We also serve as the main resource for teaching issues generally in the department. At the same time, I have an active research program outside the teaching of history and am currently working on a book about controversies over vaccination in American history.
Below I will include the syllabus for the Teaching of History course I’m currently doing for our MAT students. Any suggestions and criticisms will be greatly appreciated. I might well change course during the semester, and in any case next year’s students will greatly benefit!
With best wishes,
Robert
johnsto1@uic.edu
****
History 500 Robert Johnston
BSB 135 UH 930
Fall 2007 (o) 312-413-9164
Wed, 5-8 (h) 773-381-7285
Office Hours: W, 10-12, johnsto1@uic.edu
and gladly by appt.
COLLOQUIUM ON THE TEACHING OF HISTORY
History of Magic was the dullest subject on their schedule. Professor Binns, who taught it, was their only ghost teacher, and the most exciting thing that ever happened in his classes was his entering the room through the blackboard. Ancient and shriveled, many people said he hadn’t noticed he was dead. He had simply got up to teach one day and left his body behind in an armchair in front of the staff room fire; his routine had not varied in the slightest since.
Today was as boring as ever. Professor Binns opened his notes and began to read in a flat drone like an old vacuum cleaner until nearly everyone in class was in a deep stupor, occasionally coming to long enough to copy down a name or date, then falling asleep again.
–J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (1998), 148
You’re not in this class to become Professor Binns. Instead, you want to excite your students, to stir their intellectual imaginations, to help them love history the way any good citizen should!
But how? Certainly, in part through learning the nuts and bolts of the trade. We will indeed explore some basic mechanics in this course: drawing up a lesson plan, finding a perfect primary source, learning how not to misuse a textbook.
Yet focusing on nuts and bolts alone is, well, nutty. To become the best teacher that you can be–as well as to come to grips with why you might want to spend the rest of your life doing something (nutty) like teaching history–sustained reflection on the highest philosophical and intellectual principles is necessary. This course seeks to provide the opportunity to think deeply about history while you initiate yourself into the mysteries of the craft.
We will focus on U.S. history, but I welcome you bringing in pedagogical issues from other areas of history.
Assessment: One of the basic principles of a graduate class, it seems to me, is that intellectual work should be done for the sake of the intellect—and not for the sake of a puny notation on paper. I will provide you with copious commentary on your work, but I will not evaluate the work you do over the course of the semester with formal grades. If, however, you are at any time concerned about how I am responding to your work, please feel free to discuss this with me.
Plagiarism Statement: Plagiarism is a serious violation of university codes on academic integrity. Plagiarizing material from the web, printed sources, other students’ work, or any other source constitutes grounds for failure in this course. Incidents of plagiarism may also be brought before the university judiciary board resulting in further disciplinary action. Students uncertain of the definition of plagiarism must ask the instructor prior to submitting their work. Ignorance is not an acceptable excuse for plagiarism.
Students with disabilities who require accommodations for access and participation in this course must be registered with the Office of Disability Services. Please call 312/413-2103 (voice) or 312/413-0123 (TTY).
REQUIRED TEXTS
Books available for purchase at UIC Bookstore and on reserve at Daley Library:
Christopher Lasch, Plain Style: A Guide to Written English, ed. Stewart Weaver (2002)
Sam Wineburg, Historical Thinking and Other Unnatural Acts: Charting the Future of
Teaching the Past (2001)
James Loewen, Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong (1995)
Diane Ravitch, The Language Police: How Pressure Groups Restrict What Students
Learn (2003)
James A. Percoco, A Passion for the Past: Creative Teaching of U.S. History (1998)
Frederick D. Drake and Lynn R. Nelson, Engagement in Teaching History: Theory and
Practices for Middle and Secondary Teachers (2005)
Susan Ohanian, One Size Fits Few: The Folly of Educational Standards (1999)
D. Antonio Cantu and Wilson J. Warren, Teaching History in the Digital Classroom (2003)
Articles. Most articles are available through the UIC Library website. I will hand out the exceptions, along with chapter readings not in the required books, in class.
Email network. You are required as well to subscribe to the email list H-High-S, an electronic forum on secondary school history teaching. Please go to this website to subscribe:
http://www2.h-net.msu.edu/.
We will occasionally begin classes with discussion of the messages on this list. Prior to September 4th, please forward me your first regular message from the list to confirm that you have successfully subscribed.
Clinical Hours. Before October 3rd, all non-certified students must complete 10 clinical hours observing or working with a middle school or high school history or social studies teacher(s). If you need assistance finding a school, please let me know. You must complete a “Field Experience Log” and submit it to me by October 3rd. These forms are available from the Council on Teacher Education, located in room 3015 in the College of Education, or at http://www.uic.edu/educ/cte/FElog.pdf.
Written Work. Please be attentive to the writing assignments embedded in the syllabus, especially the 10-15 page primary source-based paper on some part of Chicago or Illinois history, due December 14th. More generally, I am convinced that good writing is critical to good history teaching, so we will be paying a good amount of attention to your prose. Toward that end, each of your papers should include an appendix that lists three writing issues from Lasch’s Plain Style that you have tried to improve or perfect. Please list the relevant page number.
Beware also of my pet writing peeves. Feel free to add more of these obsessions to the class’s burden:
–unless you are British, place commas and periods inside quotation marks.
–use italics, not underlining, for book and journal titles.
–don’t use semicolons unless you have a license.
–“methodology” is ugly and used incorrectly at least 99 per cent of the time. Please use “method.”
–do not confuse the style for footnotes/endnotes with that for bibliographical entries.
–use a short title, as well as the author’s name, in a repeat citation of a given work.
COURSE SCHEDULE
8/29 Introductions: Why Do We Teach History?
Senator Robert C. Byrd, “Learning the Lessons of American History,” http://byrd.senate.gov/hist_index.html
Ira Berlin and Lee W. Formwalt, “White House Initiative on American History,” OAH Newsletter, November 2002
Mary Beth Norton, “History Under Construction in Florida,” New York Times, July 2, 2006
Matthew J. Franck, “Construction Deconstructed,” National Review Online, July 3, 2006, http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=Y2U4MzdlMWMxMTNlOTJiMzY2OGJjNjYxYmY2NTU5N2U=
9/5 The Philosophy, Psychology, and Politics of Teaching History
Wineburg, Historical Thinking, all (but skim ch. 2)
“American History 101,” a debate between Jon Wiener and Diane Ravitch in the on-line magazine Slate, May 2005
Leon Fink, “Getting Lost—and Getting Home in History,” AHA Perspectives, November 2001, http://www.historians.org/perspectives/issues/2001/0111/0111tec1.cfm
For the initial entry, go to:
http://www.slate.com/id/2118427/entry/2118440/
Then, after reading this first entry, click on entries 2 through 6.
ESSAY DUE: Five-page engagement with Wineburg (especially), the Wiener/ Ravitch debate, and Fink
9/12 No Class—Rosh Hashanah
***Please tell me by email which school you plan to contact over the next week for your observation hours, if you haven’t already done so****
NOTE: Lots of reading ahead for next week!
9/19 What’s Wrong (or Right) with Textbooks?
Loewen, Lies My Teacher Told Me, 11-97, 171-199, 213-318
Ravitch, The Language Police, ix-xi, 3-111, 133-170
Tony Waters, “Why Students Think There Are Two Kinds of American History,” History Teacher 39(November 2005): 11-22
Ann Hurlbert, “Textbook Message: What Writers of School-Kid Histories and Culture Warriors Could Learn from Jon Stewart,” New York Time Magazine, February 6, 2005, 13-14
Leon Fink, “Making Textbooks Worthwhile,” Chronicle of Higher Education 52(September 16, 2005), B12, http://chronicle.com/weekly/v52/i04/04b01201.htm
Cynthia R. Hynd, “Teaching Students to Think Critically Using Multiple Texts in History,” Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy 42(March 1999), 428–36
***Textbook excerpts (to be distributed in class) from:
Howard Zinn, A People’s History of the United States (1999 edition)
Robert D. Johnston, The Making of America: The History of the United States from 1492 to the Present (2002)
Walter A. McDougall, Freedom Just Around the Corner: A New American History, 1585-1828 (2004)
Larry Schweikart and Michael Allen, A Patriot’s History of the United States (2004)
Jon Stewart, Ben Karlin, and David Javerbaum, America (The Book): A Citizen’s Guide to Democracy Inaction, with a foreword by Thomas Jefferson (2004)
Thomas E. Woods, The Politically Incorrect Guide to American History (2004)
and a variety of high school and college texts such as Gerald A. Danzer, The Americans and Jacqueline Jones, et al, Created Equal
9/26 No Class–Sukkot
***Visit a Chicago-area library or museum and write up a one-page report on the resources available that might help your research or teaching.***
***And start (or keep) working on your projects and reading for the end of the semester!***
10/3 Alumni Evening
UIC grads who are current teachers will come to visit: Milena Sjekloca, Nicole English, Linda Becker
*****You must have finished your observation hours by this date.*****
10/10 The Spirit of Great History Teaching
Percoco, Passion for the Past
Joyce M. Cruse, “Practicing History: A High School Teacher’s Reflections,” Journal of American History 81(December 1994): 1064-1074
Drake and Nelson, Engagement in Teaching History, Part I and ch. 8
10/17 Friends or Foes? The Standards Wars
Ohanian, One Size Fits Few
Richard Rothstein, “We Are Not Ready to Assess History Performance,” Journal of American History 90(March 2004): 1381-1391
Illinois History and Social Studies Standards on the web, http://www.isbe.state.il.us/ils/social_science/word/goal16.doc
Thomas B. Fordham Foundation, Effective State Standards for U.S. History: A 2003 Report Card, Foreword, Introduction, Conclusion and Recommendations, and Illinois, http://www.edexcellence.net/institute/publication/publication.cfm?id=320
Albert Shanker Institute, Education for Democracy (2003), http://www.ashankerinst.org/Downloads/EfD%20final.pdf
Sarah Drake Brown, “History Standards in the States,” History Teacher 39(May 2006): 367-381
Diane Ravitch, “The Controversy over National History Standards” in Elizabeth Fox-Genovese and Elisabeth Lasch-Quinn, eds., Reconstructing History: The Emergence of a New Historical Society (1999), 242-252
Jonathan Zimmerman, “Minorities Support ‘Racist’ Tests,” Christian Science Monitor, June 2, 2005
***FIND AND PRESENT: an article of your own on standards***
Recommended: Gary B. Nash, Charlotte Crabtree, and Ross E. Dunn, eds, History on Trial: Culture Wars and the Teaching of the Past (paperback edition, 2000), prefaces, chapters 7-10 (this will not be distributed)
ESSAY DUE: Three-page manifesto on standards
10/24 Using Primary Sources in the Classroom
***MEET IN Educational Technology Laboratory, ECSW Room 2011****
Drake and Nelson, Engagement in Teaching History, ch. 7
Cantu and Wilson, Teaching History in the Digital Classroom, Preface, chs. 1-6
ASSIGNMENT: Find three primary sources on the web–one from the pre-1800 period, one from the 19th century, and one from the 20th century—that you would consider teaching. Bring enough copies of one of them for everyone in class, and email me the links for all three by noon.
****DUE: Description of your research paper topic (one paragraph to a page)****
**I ENCOURAGE YOU TO HAVE YOUR TOPIC IN PLACE EVEN EARLIER**
10/31 The Technology Revolution?
***MEET IN Educational Technology Laboratory, ECSW Room 2011****
Cantu and Warren, Teaching History in the Digital Classroom, chs. 7-13; skim chs. 14-17
Michael Coventry, Peter Felten, David Jaffee, Cecilia O’Leary, and Tracey Weis, with Susannah McGowan, “Ways of Seeing: Evidence and Learning in the History Classroom,” Journal of American History 92 (March 2006): 1372-1401
Roy Rosenzweig, “Can History Be Open Source? Wikipedia and the Future of the Past,” Journal of American History 93(June 2006): 117-146
ASSIGNMENT: Find three good history websites. Email me the URLs by noon, and be prepared to present the sites to the class.
11/7 The Craft of Research
Lasch, Plain Style. Be prepared to share one intriguing (or infuriating) example from each chapter to share with the class.
Drake and Nelson, Engagement in Teaching History, ch. 10, conclusion
DUE: Two-page research plan for your research paper. Include a discussion of the issues that you will be addressing as well as the main primary and, if appropriate, secondary sources you expect to use. Be sure to state where the primary sources are located and when you plan to examine them.
11/14 Film and History
ASSIGNMENT: Out of class, see “Glory”
In class, see excerpts from “Eyes on the Prize”
Robert Rosenstone, Visions of the Past: The Challenge of Film to Our Idea of History (1995), Introduction, chapters 1-2
Drake and Nelson, Engagement in Teaching History, Part II
*****Due: Draft of U. S. History syllabus, curriculum unit, and three lesson plans. By email *****
11/21 A Potpourri of Research on History Teaching and Learning
Feature Article: Lendol Calder, “Uncoverage: Toward a Signature Pedagogy for the History Survey,” Journal of American History 92(March 2006): 1358-1370
Thomas Andrews and Flannery Burke, “What Does it Mean to Think Historically,” AHA Perspectives 45 (January 2007): 32-35, http://www.historians.org/perspectives/issues/2007/0701/0701tea2.cfm
G. Williamson McDiarmid, “Challenging Prospective Teachers’ Understandings of History: An Examination of a Historiography Seminar,” in Leona Schauble and Robert Glaser, eds., Innovations in Learning: New Environments for Education (1996), 203-241
Thomas Fallace and Johann N. Neem, “Historiographical Thinking: Towards a New Approach to Preparing History Teachers,” Theory and Research in Social Education
33(Summer 2005): 329-346
Caroline Hoefferle, “Teaching Historiography to High School and Undergraduate Students,” OAH Magazine of History, April 2007, 40-44
Stephanie D. van Hover and Elizabeth Anne Yeager, “‘Making’ Students Better People?’”: A Case Study of a Beginning History Teacher,” International Social Studies Forum 3(2003): 219-232
Robert B. Bain, “‘They Thought the World Was Flat?’: Applying the Principles of How People Learn in Teaching High School History,” ch. 4 in M. S. Donavan and J. D. Bransford, How Students Learn: History in the Classroom (2005) http://www.nap.edu/openbook/0309074339/html/
Keith C. Barton and Linda S. Levstik, Teaching History for the Common Good (2004), ch. 13 (“Teacher Education and the Purposes of History”)
Patrick Allitt, I’m the Teacher, You’re the Student: A Semester in the University Classroom (2005), ix-15
Peter Seixas, “Schweigen! Die Kinder! Or, Does Postmodern History Have a Place in the Schools?,” in Peter N. Stearns, Peter Seixas, and Sam Wineburg, eds., Knowing, Teaching, and Learning History: National and International Perspectives (2000), 19-37
Sam Wineburg, “Crazy for History,” Journal of American History 90(March 2004), 1401-1414
Be prepared to discuss which of this week’s readings you liked best–and least.
ESSAY DUE: Five-page essay on “Why I Want to Teach History,” based on reflections from all the readings in the course, with special attention to this week’s readings. Also include reflections on your classroom observations.
11/28 NO CLASS–TGIVING
Two-page annotated bibliography of primary and secondary sources for research paper due.
12/5 Bringing it All Together
ASSIGNMENT DUE: U.S. History syllabus, curriculum unit, and three lesson plans.
Individual presentations of lesson plans, I
12/12 Party!
We meet from 5 to 9 p.m. this evening.
Individual presentations of lesson plans, II
Also, individual research presentations: you will take the “Historian’s Chair” and introduce your research project via distribution and discussion of a selected primary source.
***DUE: Friday, 12/14, 10- to 15-page research paper on Chicago or Illinois history,
based on primary sources***
No doubt in part because of the discussions held by the steering committee of HISTSOTL with then ISSOTL President Barbara Cambridge in Washington last year and further discussions with the conference organisers, the 4th ISSOTL conference set aside an afternoon (Wed 4 July) for discipline specific meetings. While only three disciplines took this opportunity, history was one of them. With South Australian wines and Victorian and Tasmanian cheeses provided by the School of History and Philosophy at UNSW a most pleasant afternoon unfolded.
Eleven historians (which was not quite the total number of historians at the conference) from Australia, UK, USA and South Africa attended the meeting. Three members of the HISTSOTL steering committee (Leah Shopkow, Geoff Timmins and Sean Brawley) were present. Three of the attendees were not foundation members of HISTSOTL.
After a welcome and introduction from Sean Brawley as the local organiser for the steering committee, Geoff Timmins with assistance from Leah and Sean discussed the activities of HISTSOTL to date. After this context setting the gathered were divided into small groups to ponder what steps forward the organization could take.
The groups were asked to write down their responses and these follow:
Group 1:
Group 2:
Group 3:
In the wake of these reports discussion flowed.
After these discussions the meeting discussed two pertinent issues. The first was how one structures a Gateway course for History and the second was on the issue of progression.
All up, the afternoon session was a great success and does over something of an approach for future disciplinary meetings.
The conference itself was, as always, brimful of useful ideas and insights. My Australian colleagues learned much from our visit to DC the previous year. There was an excellent conference dinner (with two historians, Brawley and Baker the last to leave!) and at the various receptions the alcohol flowed freely (rather than being issued by a ticket with a limit of two drinks). A university rather than hotel location also seemed a winner.
As well as the various presentations by historians, Leah Shopkow and Arlene Diaz’s ‘Decoding the Disciplines Workshop’ was one of only three held at the start of the conference and was very well received. The next ISSOTL conference (and the next opportunity for HISTSOTL members to meet face to face) will be in Alberta Canada 16-19 October 2008.
Cheers,
Sean Brawley
Comment here on Lendol Calder’s “Toward a Signature Pedagogy for History Education,” published in the May 2007 issue of the History SoTL Newsletter.
Click here for instructions about how to register and participate.
I would appreciate the comments and feedback of this community on my fall 06 experiment. The class and an accompanying blog are documented at
http://web.mac.com/critterdom/iWeb/Hooper%27s%20Study%20Pages/Welcome.html
I am planning another, different experiment in fall 07 (I’m currently on sabbatical and involved to my eyeteeth on yet a different project) that will integrate art into a World Civ to 1500 class. That class will have a working subtitle of History through Art, and use various visual arts to illustrate and explore the cultures and values of the societies that produced the art. At least, that’s the plan. If anybody knows of a good supplemental text that focuses on the arts and would generally fit this scenario, please let me know.
SoTL will play a key role in the development and implementation of this (and all of my future) classes. I am delighted that this society has been created!
Marie Hooper
Oklahoma City University
I would like to post a set of questions here about scholarly research into the teaching and learning of history. I know that sometimes terminology differs across national boundaries (for example, in the connotation of the term “assessment”), so feel free to comment about that.
1. What are the major research issues that need to be addressed by historians (us)?
2. What are good models of historians conducting such research?
We are a diverse group of people who do not all know one another yet and who come from all over the world (Australia, Bulgaria, Canada, Cyprus, Japan, Sweden, Uganda, UK, and US are represented so far). Feel free to post a comment here to introduce yourself to the group. Or, write a post describing your work and others can provide feedback.
The first issue of the newsletter is now online. Follow this link for articles about the development of history SoTL in Britain, Australia, and the US, and a summary of the formation of the society. You will also find profiles of the Visual Knowledge Project at Georgetown University and the Peer Review of Teaching Project at the Unviersity of Nebraska-Lincoln.
Welcome to the website for the International Society for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in History!
Look around, try all of the links, make suggestions.
Click on the “Register” link at the bottom right. On the page that appears you will define a username (it cannot be changed) and enter your email. A password will be immediately sent to you.
When you receive the password, click on the “Login” link at bottom right. You will be asked for your username and the password. Once logged in, you will be able to modify your user profile with your name, etc. When you are finished, click on “Update Profile” at the bottom right, then on “View site” on the top left. Then you will be able to reply to this post.