I've posted assignments for week sixteen. In the assignments, I've included notes on how to complete, format, and turn in your portfolio and a couple of last minute messages for the course.
As always, write with quesitons.
You've been great.
Steve
Monday, December 7, 2009
Monday, November 30, 2009
Class Climate Survey
Some time this week, you will receive an e-mail message in your JSRCC e-mail account from sender name "Class Climate Survey" inviting you to participate in an online survey. This is the college's request for you to evaluate my performance as your instructor. You will receive a separate e-mail message for each course section in which you are enrolled.
Each e-mail message contains a password-protected link to the online survey, specifically identifiable by instructor name, course number, and course section. By clicking this link, your password is automatically recognized, and you are able to respond anonymously to the survey.
The survey itself is very bare-boned, just fourteen questions, so please do it as soon as possible, and feel free to add commentary wherever possible. Thanks in advance for your participation.
Each e-mail message contains a password-protected link to the online survey, specifically identifiable by instructor name, course number, and course section. By clicking this link, your password is automatically recognized, and you are able to respond anonymously to the survey.
The survey itself is very bare-boned, just fourteen questions, so please do it as soon as possible, and feel free to add commentary wherever possible. Thanks in advance for your participation.
Portfolio due date changed. It is now: Tuesday, 15 December
I've moved your portfolio due date from Saturday, 12 December to Tuesday, 15 December. Please plan to have turned in your portfolio to me by Noon on the 15th, and I'll start grading them that afternoon. Of course, if you want to turn your portfolio in early, this is OK, but let me know via email. As the 15th approaches, I'll include details of how you can turn in your portfolio.
Essentially, there are two options for formating your portfolio: an e-portfolio or a physical portfolio. In the e-portfolio, you include an annotated list of hyperlinks to the works you want to include in the evidence section of your portfolio, and you post your cover essay as a blog post and as a .doc attachment in an email to me. Your cover essay is documented by links to the works to which you refer. With the physical portfolio, you turn in a file to me on the morning of the 15th. This file will contain your cover essay and evidence section. Most students document their essay by using short titles and page numbers of the hardcopy of their work, that is, the work to which they refer in the cover essay and which they then include with the essay in the evidence section of the portfolio.
If you want me to, please ask that I look at drafts, and feel free to ask questions. DO NOT PUT THIS PROGJECT OFF UNTIL THE DAY BEFORE IT IS DUE. If you haven't already, start collecting evidence and drafting sections of your portfolio. This week, I will require a paragraph level outline of your cover essay to be posted to your blog.
Essentially, there are two options for formating your portfolio: an e-portfolio or a physical portfolio. In the e-portfolio, you include an annotated list of hyperlinks to the works you want to include in the evidence section of your portfolio, and you post your cover essay as a blog post and as a .doc attachment in an email to me. Your cover essay is documented by links to the works to which you refer. With the physical portfolio, you turn in a file to me on the morning of the 15th. This file will contain your cover essay and evidence section. Most students document their essay by using short titles and page numbers of the hardcopy of their work, that is, the work to which they refer in the cover essay and which they then include with the essay in the evidence section of the portfolio.
If you want me to, please ask that I look at drafts, and feel free to ask questions. DO NOT PUT THIS PROGJECT OFF UNTIL THE DAY BEFORE IT IS DUE. If you haven't already, start collecting evidence and drafting sections of your portfolio. This week, I will require a paragraph level outline of your cover essay to be posted to your blog.
Assignments and Discussion Starters for Week 15 Are Posted.
Two more weeks. The second week of the course just doesn't seem that far behind us.
This week, you'll produce a paragraph level outline of your portfolio cover essay. You'll read and listen about the wide range of religious belief in America. In particular, I've concentrated on the religios beliefs of the founders in the personas of Jefferson, Patrick Henry, and Franklin, and I've concentrated on the Great Awakening--a period of intense religious ferver which preceeded the Revolution. The Great Awakening is represented by a sermon by Jonathan Edwards and a podcast on George Whitfield. You can think of these last two as the rock stars of their age. Woman fainted when they spoke. Men of good judgment gave all they had to charity. Remember Franklin's going to hear a preacher and first decding to give him the copper coins in his pocket but ending up giving all he had--including the gold? That was Whitfiled to whom Franklin was listening.
You'll also get to hear Enlightenment's take on Christian Religion. These will come in the form of Jefferson's "Statue for Religious Freedom" and Tom Paine's "Profession of Faith" in his Age of Reason. I know you'll be surprised to discover how seriously the founders took religion and the role they gave over to debate and discussion of religion as a means through which each individual could weed out superstition from true belief. If you want to get a handle on just how differently many founders viewed Christianity, google "The Jefferson Bible."
Your blog post for the week will have you writing your own profession of faith--a la Paine, and a discussion thread will have you attempting to track down religious believes you--as a class--share in common. This last discussion should give you some idea of the problem religious diversity was to the founders. How do you bring together colonies, many of whom had state sanctioned religions? As you read, listen, and write this week, begin thinking of the "Right to Religious Freedom" and "separation of church and state" as brilliant solutions of building a shared sense of political nationalism among diverse states and people.
As always, write with questions.
Steve
As you read these different accounts,
This week, you'll produce a paragraph level outline of your portfolio cover essay. You'll read and listen about the wide range of religious belief in America. In particular, I've concentrated on the religios beliefs of the founders in the personas of Jefferson, Patrick Henry, and Franklin, and I've concentrated on the Great Awakening--a period of intense religious ferver which preceeded the Revolution. The Great Awakening is represented by a sermon by Jonathan Edwards and a podcast on George Whitfield. You can think of these last two as the rock stars of their age. Woman fainted when they spoke. Men of good judgment gave all they had to charity. Remember Franklin's going to hear a preacher and first decding to give him the copper coins in his pocket but ending up giving all he had--including the gold? That was Whitfiled to whom Franklin was listening.
You'll also get to hear Enlightenment's take on Christian Religion. These will come in the form of Jefferson's "Statue for Religious Freedom" and Tom Paine's "Profession of Faith" in his Age of Reason. I know you'll be surprised to discover how seriously the founders took religion and the role they gave over to debate and discussion of religion as a means through which each individual could weed out superstition from true belief. If you want to get a handle on just how differently many founders viewed Christianity, google "The Jefferson Bible."
Your blog post for the week will have you writing your own profession of faith--a la Paine, and a discussion thread will have you attempting to track down religious believes you--as a class--share in common. This last discussion should give you some idea of the problem religious diversity was to the founders. How do you bring together colonies, many of whom had state sanctioned religions? As you read, listen, and write this week, begin thinking of the "Right to Religious Freedom" and "separation of church and state" as brilliant solutions of building a shared sense of political nationalism among diverse states and people.
As always, write with questions.
Steve
As you read these different accounts,
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Alexander Hamilton Rap...And Now, For Something Completely Different.
Once again proving that the contempoary world's power is too rich and has way, way too much leisure, here is Lin-Manuel Miranda as he performs at the White House Poetry Jam. The piece is, of course, his "Alexander Hamilton Rap." For those who don't know who Hamilton and Aaron Burr are, you can read about them by following the links. Burr kills Hamilton in a duel in 1804 over a series of insults. If you are interested in how such could happen, look up the code duello.
Happy Thanksgiving...Read Washington's Original Proclaimation of the Holiday
http://www.leaderu.com/humanities/washington-thanksgiving-original.html
Once again, we have Katthar to thank for finding an interesting tidbit of literature. It is the original proclamation of George Washington (1789--the year following the adoption of our current Constitution), where he proclaims the first "official" Thanksgiving for the country. It's a cutting from the original newspaper announcement, so you'll also get to see what a newspaper article looked like in 1789.
I remember at least one of you being very excited about the religious leanings of the founders, so you should enjoy this almost prayer. Washington was much more of a recognizable Christian to modern readers than many of the early founders. For instance, this proclamation has a very different character from the religious writings of, say, Tom Paine or Thomas Jefferson, but you should make sure to look for the absence of the word, "God." Franklin, as you read, was always cagey about his religion, but it looks as if he was, at least until late in life, a Deist. Following break, you'll get to read something about the country's early religious life. Did you know that Jefferson was pubically accused of being an Atheist, and many of the most religious Puritan descendents actually hid their Bibles when he was elected president, because they thought he would use his position to impose Atheism as an official, state religio?. If not, check out the pages surrounding Jefferson from Colonial Williamsbugh. The links are on the extra-credit page, and look under the election of 1801.
You should also note that this is the period between the adoption of the Constitution (1787) and the adoption of the Bill of Rights (1791). It is the Bill of Rights which guarantees freedom of religion and separation of church and state. The upshot? The government favoring one set of religious ideas over another was *much* easier in this period just before the adoption of the Bill of Rights.
Steve
Once again, we have Katthar to thank for finding an interesting tidbit of literature. It is the original proclamation of George Washington (1789--the year following the adoption of our current Constitution), where he proclaims the first "official" Thanksgiving for the country. It's a cutting from the original newspaper announcement, so you'll also get to see what a newspaper article looked like in 1789.
I remember at least one of you being very excited about the religious leanings of the founders, so you should enjoy this almost prayer. Washington was much more of a recognizable Christian to modern readers than many of the early founders. For instance, this proclamation has a very different character from the religious writings of, say, Tom Paine or Thomas Jefferson, but you should make sure to look for the absence of the word, "God." Franklin, as you read, was always cagey about his religion, but it looks as if he was, at least until late in life, a Deist. Following break, you'll get to read something about the country's early religious life. Did you know that Jefferson was pubically accused of being an Atheist, and many of the most religious Puritan descendents actually hid their Bibles when he was elected president, because they thought he would use his position to impose Atheism as an official, state religio?. If not, check out the pages surrounding Jefferson from Colonial Williamsbugh. The links are on the extra-credit page, and look under the election of 1801.
You should also note that this is the period between the adoption of the Constitution (1787) and the adoption of the Bill of Rights (1791). It is the Bill of Rights which guarantees freedom of religion and separation of church and state. The upshot? The government favoring one set of religious ideas over another was *much* easier in this period just before the adoption of the Bill of Rights.
Steve
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Assignments for weeks thirteen and fourteen are posted.
I've tried to keep the reading this week focused on the literature surrounding the Thanksgiving Holiday. You have the only two paragraphs which record the 1621 Pilgram Thanksgiving, an address from an Indian Thanksgiving ceremony, and Fanny Fern's description of an 1853 Thanksgiving Day.
I've intentionally keep the reading and writing short, so you can enjoy your Fall break. I thought the reading would give you a deeper appreciation for the holiday, and it might give you some good dinner conversation if you happen to find yourself with friends and family reproducing the 1621 feast.
Enjoy your break, but do do the work.
I've intentionally keep the reading and writing short, so you can enjoy your Fall break. I thought the reading would give you a deeper appreciation for the holiday, and it might give you some good dinner conversation if you happen to find yourself with friends and family reproducing the 1621 feast.
Enjoy your break, but do do the work.
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