Today I’m lecturing on revivalism and reform movements in the 1820s-1840s. In preparation for today’s discussion, my students read this text by C.G. Finney. We will also be looking at revival hymns — which means we should probably listen to at least one. I am tempted to play this version of “Rock of Ages”: I…
As I mentioned in an earlier post, I have my students do primary source analysis for homework assignments. They can then use these analyses as the basis for their short papers. For these homework assignments, I require the students to use archives and databases that provide full-page scans of publications. Seeing texts on the page,…
In my U.S. history survey course, I base student grades partly upon two major writing assignments — brief (3-5 page) essays involving a focused inquiry into a historical problem of a student’s own choosing, based upon an analysis of archival sources from their own research. (This is where their source analysis worksheets come in handy…
Last summer, I taught the second half of the survey (in my university system, that’s “U.S. since 1865”). The summer session was one of those lightning-round, five-week sprints. This semester I am proceeding at a more normal pace, again teaching the second half. I adopted/adapted a primary source analysis assignment that I have found to…
