Note: Before you start on your discussion board, you should have read the assigned chapter in Shi, read the assigned Primary Sources in the sourcebook or on Canvas, and watched the Author Videos on Canvas. Once you have completed those first three steps you are ready to begin work on the discussion boards.
Discussion Boards: The discussion boards are intended to recreate digitally some of the most productive conversations that normally take place in the classroom. This participation will take place in two stages during each week.
- Initial Post
Each week after completing the InQuizitive exercise, each student will compose a post on the discussion board. The post should include 4-5 sentences examining what one and only one of the weekly primary sources indicates about one of the topics of the week, pointing to evidence from the primary source to support your contentions. Each post should also include at the end a question of interpretation posed to the rest of the class. For example, “Do you think Jane Addams’s efforts to assimilate new waves of immigrants was actually harmful in that it encouraged immigrants to abandon their ethnic heritage?”
- Responses:
At least 20 times during the semester, you will read through the discussion boards and respond to 1-2 questions using evidence from the textbook or sourcebook to support your contentions. Each response should be 2-3 sentences. You are certainly encouraged to respond to as many questions from your peers as you can, but students only earn points for up to 2 responses each week. To make sure that students are keeping current, responses on posts that are more than 3 weeks old are not eligible for points.
Grading standards for discussion boards: Three times each week (Monday and Wednesday afternoon, and late Friday morning) I will review all posted material and either grade or comment. If I reply with a concern or a suggestion and do not record the points for the reply, you are required to respond before the end of the course week (Sunday at 11:59 pm) in order to receive points for the completion of the requirement. You are of course welcome to respond even if I do record the points for your reply. Please note that I may not have a chance to respond if you wait until Friday afternoon for your initial post, and doing so will at minimum reduce the amount of time you have to respond to my comments before the work week closes. This means that if you leave an insufficient post this late in the week, you may not receive points for it.
Posts should include 4-5 sentences interpreting ONE AND ONLY ONE of the following primary sources. Use your chosen source to illustrate a key interpretative point about the chapter. Lastly your initial post should include an interpretive question for your classmates to reply to.
Options:
- Ellison DuRant Smith, “Shut the Door to Immigrants” (1924)
- The Scopes Trial (1925)
- The Sacco-Vanzetti Case (1927)*