For the past two years I have been using a grading rubric for writing assignments in all of my courses. In my first few years of teaching I was reluctant to consider using a rubric. I thought a rubric would place burdensome limits on my subjective leeway in assigning grades for writing. And wouldn’t a…
This semester, I am teaching a course titled “Social Science Approaches to the American Past.” It’s in one of the interdisciplinary programs on campus, with the stated goal of teaching students how social scientists think. This has been an interesting challenge for me as a teacher and a historian (particularly a historian who leans more…
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…
As a Civil War historian starting a new academic appointment, I have had the great good fortune to start work at a university about a half-hour drive from a major national military park. Even better, the Chickamauga-Chattanooga NPS is presently celebrating the sesquicentennial of those battles, and for the next several months will enjoy an…
Nearly all undergraduate history programs have a required capstone course for their majors, an opportunity for students to draw on the knowledge learned in their history courses and use research skills to produce an original piece of scholarship. At my university (a mid-sized public institution), our capstone courses focus on specific topics ranging from “The…
While a TA for a class on religion in American history, I puzzled over why so many students insisted that Charles Sheldon should be considered the founding figure of Social Gospel theology (rather than Washington Gladden). We discussed both figures in lecture, and there it was, right on the top of page 307 of the…
This semester, I am experimenting with digital history pedagogy. FWIS 167 – The Rise and Fall of Atlantic Slavery, a writing intensive course, uses tools in the digital humanities to explore the rise and fall of Atlantic slavery. You can access the course website at riseandfallofslavery.wordpress.com. Each week the students post brief blog entries on the…
Just so everyone knows, we at this blog are vigorously against assault – and when a certain comedian recommends that certain people (men) videotape themselves assaulting other people (women) on camera, we say “NO!” And because of that, we are ending our relationship with that certain comedian.
Many thanks to Ed for the invitation to join this outstanding blog. Ed asked me to contribute after I shared with him my experiment in digital history pedagogy. This semester, I am teaching a small seminar for Rice University freshman on the Rise and Fall of Atlantic Slavery. While this course is not a survey, and at…
TUSH.0 recognizes that the world is ending today. Goodbye to our loyal fans. God(s) bless (or don’t, whatever is your approach). Thanks for all the memories.
