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How to write a thesis statement: Use this list to check your work.

Course Schedule

Before beginning read pages 1-5 of this textbook and the Final Exam

Periods

Due Date

Assignments

Discussion

I. 1870s

to ca. 1900

R, 6/21*

Assign m ent 1

Discussion 1

M, 6/25

Assignment 2

Discussion 2

II. ca. 1900

to 1929

R, 6/28

Assignment 3

Discussion 3

M, 7/2

Assignment 4

Discussion 4

III. 1929

to 1945

R, 7/5

Assignment 5

Discussion 5

M, 7/9

Assignment 6

Discussion 6

IV. 1945

to ca. 1970

R,7/12

Assignment 7

Discussion 7

M, 7/16

Assignment 8

Discussion 8

V. ca. 1970

to present

R, 7/19

Assignment 9

Discussion 9

M, 7/23

Assignment 10

Discussion 10

R, 7/26

Discussion 11

T, 7/31

Final Exam Due on Canvas by 11:59 pm

*You are required to submit one assigned task during the first week to remain enrolled in the class.

If you fail to do so, you will be withdrawn. If withdraw, re-enrollment will not be allowed.

PROLOGUE ESSAY: The essay below explains the general philosophy behind this class. You should read it carefully and be sure that you understand the nature of the class.

M.J. Smith, On Creating a Usable Past.

There’s an adage about history, that it’s just one damn thing after another. Lots of people think that history is a linear narrative of persons, places, events, and the like, the ‘knowing’ of which makes someone an expert in history. Historians, many believe, have a vast, encyclopedic knowledge of the past that they convey to students who are expected to ‘learn’ that information. But, as the philosopher of history R.G. Collingwood said in 1946, “Nothing capable of being memorized is history.” For our purposes, history is not a collection of information or “knowledge” about the past, but an intellectual tool that has value only to the extent that it is usable.

As with any tool, history requires a set of skills to be applied properly and effectively. In the words of the American Historical Association, history involves “the study of the human past as it is constructed and interpreted with human artifacts, written evidence, and oral traditions. It requires empathy for historical actors, respect for interpretive debate, and the skillful use of an evolving set of practices and tools.” In this class, you will be given the opportunity to develop those skills, methods, and habits of mind that will help you make use of the intellectual process, or discipline, that is history.

From its original Greek, the word history means to inquire. Writing in 1931, historian Carl Becker wrote that history is “an imaginative creation.” It is born in the mind, and it requires that we develop what Lendol Calder described in 2016 as “disciplined process of problem solving and supported by evidence.” The skills of historical inquiry can be used to solve problems, address issues, and develop ideas in your daily life. If done properly, you will be able to construct interpretations supported by evidence within a historical context.

In addition to the tools of inquiry, the course also calls for the development of empathy or historical perspective. As you study the experiences of people in the past you will need to understand them on their own terms, born of the historical context in which they lived. You should develop this ability to empathize with the people in the past not for their benefit, but for yours. Connecting with the people of the past helps you understand your place in the present. It gives you examples, experiences, and exemplars of how others have dealt with problems and took advantage of opportunities.

Thus, to create a usable past you need to develop skills: The ability to use evidence and reasoning to come to meaningful conclusions about historical problems. The ability to express understanding of the historical contexts from which the evidence is drawn. The ability to apply empathy to the people of the past. The ability to use the past to address contemporary issues.

At the end of the course, if you can do these things well, you will have a broader and stronger set of thinking skills. You will think more critically and effectively. You will have gone a long way toward creating a usable past. This will help you in all walks of life; it will make you a better citizen, family member, worker, and leader.

GUIDELINES FOR COURSEWORK

GUIDELINES FOR CHARACTERIZING CONTEXT. Making use of the past begins with understanding the context in which historical events, people, movements, ideas, institutions, cultures, etc. are positioned. Explaining historical context requires a clear statement of the broad nature and general contours of the period in question. This is its character and should encompass the entire period.

Learning Outcome addressed: Express Understanding of Historical Context.

How to Characterize Historical Context:

· 1. Write a two to four sentence statement that identifies and fully encompasses the period in question.

· 2. Express the nature and contours of the overall period. Don’t focus on one aspect.

· 3. Be scholarly, coherent, and show proper writing mechanics. Write in third person.

Exceeds Satisfactory:

· 4. Show complexity or thoughtfulness. Clearly suggest the distinctiveness of this period.

Example of a Characterization: The formative period for the United States began in antiquity and continued through the mid-1700s as the population and “American” culture took shape. Over this period indigenous peoples, Europeans, and Africans came to occupy the region that would become the United States. While Europeans were the dominant culture in the region, African slaves provided important and lasting elements of American life. The development of American culture and society in this period, a sense of American identity, was a necessary precursor for the movement for political independence that followed.

GUIDELINES FOR DESCRIBING FEATURES. You should be able to identify the most significant features of the period, those with the biggest impact. These are most impactful features, rather than specific details. Typically, there are five to seven such features.

Learning Outcome addressed: Express Understanding of Historical Context.

How to Describe the Most Significant Features: Use this list to check your work.

· 1. Describe the historical features of the period that had a broad impact, in two or three sentences each.

· 2. Be scholarly, coherent, and show proper writing mechanics. Write in third person.

Exceeds Satisfactory:

· 3. Show a sense of judgment about what is significant; don’t include unnecessary specifics or details.

Example of a Statement on a Significant Feature*: Development of the American colonies relied heavily on the use of indentured servitude and slave labor. Both added significant social and cultural elements to the country. But while slavery was a violent forced migration of Africans, indentured servants were mostly white Europeans.

*There are typically five to seven of these for each period.

GUIDELINES FOR WRITING A THESIS.

Paragraphs and essays must begin with a concise statement that expresses your argument, interpretation, or claim about the issue in question. If it is clearly a factual statement, it is not a thesis. The thesis is what gives your work coherence, or holds it together. It is the controlling idea for the body of the work that follows. Without a thesis or with a weak thesis, the work is out of control; it is a ramble or a list. The thesis should be clear, focused, and complex. See the example below for a thesis for a paragraph.

Learning Outcome Addressed: (2) Develop and express a historical interpretation in a thesis.

How to write a thesis statement: Use this list to check your work.

· 1. Write a two to four original sentences thesis. Avoid using the terms of the question.

· 2. Identify the historical period in question within the thesis.

· 3. Focus fully and directly on the issue in question as reflected in the sources.

· 4. Be scholarly, coherent, and show proper writing mechanics. Write in third person.

Exceeds Satisfactory:

· 5. Be complex; address more than one aspect of the issue or idea. Reflect all of the sources.

· 6. Be thoughtful or insightful, rather than conventional, basic, or bland.

Example of a Thesis Statement:

Immigrants from Europe and Asia in the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries faced derision and bigotry from the those who saw them as an economic and cultural threat. These new immigrants confronted the discrimination through activism and adaptation while maintaining their cultural heritage. They formed close-knit communities that helped them cope with life in their new homeland while providing a means to organize and advocate for their needs. While preserving their cultural heritage benefitted the immigrants, it fueled suspicion and distrust among the pre-existing population.

GUIDELINES FOR USING EVIDENCE.

Paragraphs should be developed with evidence in the form of primary and secondary sources. Secondary sources are the accounts produced by historians or other scholars, generally long after the events have taken place. Primary sources are original letters, photographs, works of art, interviews, printed accounts, official records, statistics, or other material produced at the time to which they refer or by those who witnessed the events of the time. You must clearly identify the sources you use as part of a sentence, integrated within your own prose, as shown in bold face in the example paragraph below. Short quotations from sources, integrated carefully within your own sentences, make for good writing.

Learning Outcome Addressed: (3) Support the thesis with evidence.

How to use evidence: Use this list to check your work.

· 1. Write a point of two to four sentences.

· 2. Identify the source as part of a sentence.

· 3. Clearly support the thesis.

· 4. Cite sources in boldface by author, time reference, and type.

· 5. Incorporate at least one quotation from a primary source, not more than 15 words.

· 6. Be scholarly, coherent, and show proper writing mechanics. Write in third person.

Exceeds Satisfactory:

· 7. Fully develop the point without going over four sentences.

· 8. Uses the source and quotations very effectively to provide strong support for the thesis.

Example of a Point of Evidence:

In a 1902 magazine article, a Polish Jew named Sadie Frowne demonstrated her resolve to be a part of the American nation. Frowne recalled her arrival in America, the hardships of the voyage, and the joy she felt upon seeing the “Goddess of Liberty.” She lived in Jewish neighborhood in New York, but worked in the wider community where she had to fit in. She notes that she “can read quite well in English now and I look at the newspapers every day,” demonstrating her willingness to assimilate to her new nation.

GUIDELINES FOR DISCUSSION PARTICIPATION: Over the term you will discuss the experiences of people in the past. You should make direct reference to the source or sources by author, use some of the words from the sources, place the people in their historical context, and show understanding of the lived experiences of the people in the sources. Unlike other work in this class, discussion comments may be written in first person.

Learning Outcome addressed: (4) Show historical perspective or empathy.

Historical Perspective/Empathy:

By developing an appreciation of how others see, and saw, the world, we gain range, depth, and openness in our thinking. This is empathy, and it means to understand people in the past on the terms that come from the conditions in which they lived. You should be able to explain the lived experiences, decisions, and actions of people in a specific historical and social context. And you should be able to demonstrate understanding of how people in the past thought, felt, made decisions, acted, and faced consequences.

Empathy doesn’t mean sympathy; you don’t have to agree with historical actors. It means that you understand “where they are coming from” even if you find their ideas, words, and actions repugnant. As the writer Sisonke Msimang said recently, “We can’t afford to ignore the protagonists we don’t like.” The past includes many stories, and we can’t accept only those that confirm our world view. In the words of novelist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, “Many stories matter. Stories have been used to dispossess and to malign, but stories can also be used to empower and to humanize. Stories can break the dignity of a people, but stories can also repair that broken dignity.”

In 1964, the great American writer James Baldwin said, “You think your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read. It was [writers of the past] who taught me that the things that tormented me most were the very things that connected me with all the people who were alive, or who ever had been alive. Only if we face these open wounds in ourselves can we understand them in other people.” Baldwin’s message applies clearly to reading history and the stories of the past. When we read the stories of people in the past we can see what they faced and home they coped. This is empathy.

How to Participate in Discussions: Use this list to check your work.

· 1. Post a coherent original comment of about 150 words for each discussion by the due date.

· 2. Show historical perspective or empathy as explained above.

· 3. Post thoughtful responses to two classmates’ posts in each discussion within a day or two of the due date.

Exceeds Satisfactory

· 4. Participate significantly more than required.

Example of a one-paragraph informal comment for discussion:

Immigrants had a difficult time when they came to America. I can see that both Chinese and Jewish immigrants faced discrimination even though they came here to have a better life. Mary Tape just wanted to send her kids to good schools, but when she did they were “hated.” And Jews came from Russia but said “they were safer from assault and insult in that country than they are on the streets of Chicago.” Maybe it was because they were both seen as “different” than the white, Anglo, Christian Americans who were already in America. Both groups probably set themselves apart from society by living in neighborhoods where there were others like them. I can see that in the article by Jacob Riis. He showed how New York was divided up into these little communities of immigrants. That was probably more comfortable for them and gave them access to things that they might not find outside their own community, so it was understandable. Maybe that’s true for all of the United States at that time.

Example of an informal reply to a classmate:

You said in your post that immigrants should “mix-in” with the American community. My own grandparents came from Italy and had to make serious adjustments to life in America. They lived in the Italian neighborhood that helped them adjust. Maybe that’s why some people resented the immigrants; they were seen as different or people who set themselves apart from the “Americans.”

Part I (1870s to ca. 1900)

ASSIGNMENT 1: Answer the questions outside of Canvas. Save your responses. Submit on Canvas before the deadline on the Class Sc h edule.

1a. Write a statement characterizing this period based on the essay by Richard White below. Follow closely the Guidelines for Characterizing Context.

1b. Identify the five to seven most significant features of the period, based on White’s essay. Follow closely the Guidelines for Describing Features.

● Richard White. “The Rise of Industrial America, 1877-1900.” The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History 49 W. 45th Street, 6th Floor · NYC, NY 10036 (646) 366-9666 © 2009–2014 All Rights Reserved. [https://www.gilderlehrman.org/]

When in 1873 Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner entitled their co-authored novel The Gilded Age, they gave the late nineteenth century its popular name. The term reflected the combination of outward wealth and dazzle with inner corruption and poverty. Given the period’s absence of powerful and charismatic presidents, its lack of a dominant central event, and its sometimes tawdry history, historians have often defined the period by negatives. They stress greed, scandals, and corruption of the Gilded Age.

Twain and Warner were not wrong about the era’s corruption, but the years between 1877 and 1900 were also some of the most momentous and dynamic in American history. They set in motion developments that would shape the country for generations—the reunification of the South and North, the integration of four million newly freed African Americans, westward expansion, immigration, industrialization, urbanization. It was also a period of reform, in which many Americans sought to regulate corporations and shape the changes taking place all around them.

The End of Reconstruction

Reforms in the South seemed unlikely in 1877 when Congress resolved the previous autumn’s disputed presidential election between Democrat Samuel Tilden and Republican Rutherford B. Hayes on the backs of the nation’s freed blacks. A compromise gave Hayes the presidency in return for the end of Reconstruction and the removal of federal military support for the remaining biracial Republican governments that had emerged in the former Confederacy. With that agreement, Congress abandoned one of the greatest reforms in American history: the attempt to incorporate ex-slaves into the republic with all the rights and privileges of citizens.

The United States thus accepted a developing system of repression and segregation in the South that would take the name Jim Crow and persist for nearly a century. The freed people in the South found their choices largely confined to sharecropping and low-paying wage labor, especially as domestic servants. Although attempts at interracial politics would prove briefly successful in Virginia and North Carolina, African American efforts to preserve the citizenship and rights promised to black men in the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the Constitution failed.

The post How to write a thesis statement: Use this list to check your work. appeared first on superioressaypapers.

Express the nature and contours of the overall period. Don’t focus on one aspect.

understanding the context in which historical events, people, movements, ideas, institutions, cultures, etc. are positioned. Explaining historical context requires a clear statement of the broad nature and general contours of the period in question. This is its character and should encompass the entire period.

Learning Outcome addressed: Express Understanding of Historical Context.

How to Characterize Historical Context:

· 1. Write a two to four sentence statement that identifies and fully encompasses the period in question.

· 2. Express the nature and contours of the overall period. Don’t focus on one aspect.

· 3. Be scholarly, coherent, and show proper writing mechanics. Write in third person.

Exceeds Satisfactory:

· 4. Show complexity or thoughtfulness. Clearly suggest the distinctiveness of this period.

Example of a Characterization: The formative period for the United States began in antiquity and continued through the mid-1700s as the population and “American” culture took shape. Over this period indigenous peoples, Europeans, and Africans came to occupy the region that would become the United States. While Europeans were the dominant culture in the region, African slaves provided important and lasting elements of American life. The development of American culture and society in this period, a sense of American identity, was a necessary precursor for the movement for political independence that followed.

GUIDELINES FOR DESCRIBING FEATURES. You should be able to identify the most significant features of the period, those with the biggest impact. These are most impactful features, rather than specific details. Typically, there are five to seven such features.

Learning Outcome addressed: Express Understanding of Historical Context.

How to Describe the Most Significant Features: Use this list to check your work.

· 1. Describe the historical features of the period that had a broad impact, in two or three sentences each.

· 2. Be scholarly, coherent, and show proper writing mechanics. Write in third person.

Exceeds Satisfactory:

· 3. Show a sense of judgment about what is significant; don’t include unnecessary specifics or details.

Example of a Statement on a Significant Feature*: Development of the American colonies relied heavily on the use of indentured servitude and slave labor. Both added significant social and cultural elements to the country. But while slavery was a violent forced migration of Africans, indentured servants were mostly white Europeans.

*There are typically five to seven of these for each period.

GUIDELINES FOR WRITING A THESIS.

Paragraphs and essays must begin with a concise statement that expresses your argument, interpretation, or claim about the issue in question. If it is clearly a factual statement, it is not a thesis. The thesis is what gives your work coherence, or holds it together. It is the controlling idea for the body of the work that follows. Without a thesis or with a weak thesis, the work is out of control; it is a ramble or a list. The thesis should be clear, focused, and complex. See the example below for a thesis for a paragraph.

Learning Outcome Addressed: (2) Develop and express a historical interpretation in a thesis.

How to write a thesis statement: Use this list to check your work.

· 1. Write a two to four original sentences thesis. Avoid using the terms of the question.

· 2. Identify the historical period in question within the thesis.

· 3. Focus fully and directly on the issue in question as reflected in the sources.

· 4. Be scholarly, coherent, and show proper writing mechanics. Write in third person.

Exceeds Satisfactory:

· 5. Be complex; address more than one aspect of the issue or idea. Reflect all of the sources.

· 6. Be thoughtful or insightful, rather than conventional, basic, or bland.

Example of a Thesis Statement:

Immigrants from Europe and Asia in the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries faced derision and bigotry from the those who saw them as an economic and cultural threat. These new immigrants confronted the discrimination through activism and adaptation while maintaining their cultural heritage. They formed close-knit communities that helped them cope with life in their new homeland while providing a means to organize and advocate for their needs. While preserving their cultural heritage benefitted the immigrants, it fueled suspicion and distrust among the pre-existing population.

GUIDELINES FOR USING EVIDENCE.

Paragraphs should be developed with evidence in the form of primary and secondary sources. Secondary sources are the accounts produced by historians or other scholars, generally long after the events have taken place. Primary sources are original letters, photographs, works of art, interviews, printed accounts, official records, statistics, or other material produced at the time to which they refer or by those who witnessed the events of the time. You must clearly identify the sources you use as part of a sentence, integrated within your own prose, as shown in bold face in the example paragraph below. Short quotations from sources, integrated carefully within your own sentences, make for good writing.

Learning Outcome Addressed: (3) Support the thesis with evidence.

How to use evidence: Use this list to check your work.

· 1. Write a point of two to four sentences.

· 2. Identify the source as part of a sentence.

· 3. Clearly support the thesis.

· 4. Cite sources in boldface by author, time reference, and type.

· 5. Incorporate at least one quotation from a primary source, not more than 15 words.

· 6. Be scholarly, coherent, and show proper writing mechanics. Write in third person.

Exceeds Satisfactory:

· 7. Fully develop the point without going over four sentences.

· 8. Uses the source and quotations very effectively to provide strong support for the thesis.

Example of a Point of Evidence:

In a 1902 magazine article, a Polish Jew named Sadie Frowne demonstrated her resolve to be a part of the American nation. Frowne recalled her arrival in America, the hardships of the voyage, and the joy she felt upon seeing the “Goddess of Liberty.” She lived in Jewish neighborhood in New York, but worked in the wider community where she had to fit in. She notes that she “can read quite well in English now and I look at the newspapers every day,” demonstrating her willingness to assimilate to her new nation.

GUIDELINES FOR DISCUSSION PARTICIPATION: Over the term you will discuss the experiences of people in the past. You should make direct reference to the source or sources by author, use some of the words from the sources, place the people in their historical context, and show understanding of the lived experiences of the people in the sources. Unlike other work in this class, discussion comments may be written in first person.

Learning Outcome addressed: (4) Show historical perspective or empathy.

Historical Perspective/Empathy:

By developing an appreciation of how others see, and saw, the world, we gain range, depth, and openness in our thinking. This is empathy, and it means to understand people in the past on the terms that come from the conditions in which they lived. You should be able to explain the lived experiences, decisions, and actions of people in a specific historical and social context. And you should be able to demonstrate understanding of how people in the past thought, felt, made decisions, acted, and faced consequences.

Empathy doesn’t mean sympathy; you don’t have to agree with historical actors. It means that you understand “where they are coming from” even if you find their ideas, words, and actions repugnant. As the writer Sisonke Msimang said recently, “We can’t afford to ignore the protagonists we don’t like.” The past includes many stories, and we can’t accept only those that confirm our world view. In the words of novelist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, “Many stories matter. Stories have been used to dispossess and to malign, but stories can also be used to empower and to humanize. Stories can break the dignity of a people, but stories can also repair that broken dignity.”

In 1964, the great American writer James Baldwin said, “You think your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read. It was [writers of the past] who taught me that the things that tormented me most were the very things that connected me with all the people who were alive, or who ever had been alive. Only if we face these open wounds in ourselves can we understand them in other people.” Baldwin’s message applies clearly to reading history and the stories of the past. When we read the stories of people in the past we can see what they faced and home they coped. This is empathy.

How to Participate in Discussions: Use this list to check your work.

· 1. Post a coherent original comment of about 150 words for each discussion by the due date.

· 2. Show historical perspective or empathy as explained above.

· 3. Post thoughtful responses to two classmates’ posts in each discussion within a day or two of the due date.

Exceeds Satisfactory

· 4. Participate significantly more than required.

Example of a one-paragraph informal comment for discussion:

Immigrants had a difficult time when they came to America. I can see that both Chinese and Jewish immigrants faced discrimination even though they came here to have a better life. Mary Tape just wanted to send her kids to good schools, but when she did they were “hated.” And Jews came from Russia but said “they were safer from assault and insult in that country than they are on the streets of Chicago.” Maybe it was because they were both seen as “different” than the white, Anglo, Christian Americans who were already in America. Both groups probably set themselves apart from society by living in neighborhoods where there were others like them. I can see that in the article by Jacob Riis. He showed how New York was divided up into these little communities of immigrants. That was probably more comfortable for them and gave them access to things that they might not find outside their own community, so it was understandable. Maybe that’s true for all of the United States at that time.

Example of an informal reply to a classmate:

The post Express the nature and contours of the overall period. Don’t focus on one aspect. appeared first on superioressaypapers.

What about the impact on the city itself?

Week 6 Short Responses – Question 3 Name three specific consequences of the Boston busing crisis.

The next activity uses a rich text area. You can tab to the editor body. Press ALT-F10 to get to the toolbar. Press ESC to return to the editor body. A save button is available in the top toolbar all the way to the right and will become visible when it receives focus.

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Saved

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Week 6 Short Responses – Question 4

Describe one cause of the event you have chosen for your historical analysis (keeping in mind that there are many), and explain one piece of evidence from your research that you will use to support this assertion. Describe one consequence of the event, and explain one piece of evidence from your research that you will use to support this assertion.

The next activity uses a rich text area. You can tab to the editor body. Press ALT-F10 to get to the toolbar. Press ESC to return to the editor body. A save button is available in the top toolbar all the way to the right and will become visible when it receives focus.

Top of Form

Saved

Submit

Bottom of Form

Click “Download Word Document” below to download your short responses to the questions posed during the week’s assigned learning blocks. After downloading, save this document locally on your computer or in a cloud drive, being sure to rename the document to reflect the assignment you are submitting (Week 6 Short Responses).

After downloading, review your responses. Make sure they completely answer the questions in the prompt. If you have not answered a question, the words “[no response]” in brackets will appear. Your short responses will be graded using the guidelines and rubric document included in your learning environment in Theme Three under 6-4 Week 6 Short Responses.

When all of your responses are completed, saved, and edited, submit your assignment in your learning environment by clicking on the assignment title within Theme Three under 6-4 Week 6 Short Responses, then Add Attachments and uploading your assignment.

Active Reading

Reading comprehensively is important in order to understand and process the information presented in text, especially in scholarly sources. Active reading is one strategy that will help you read critically in this course and others.

Active reading refers to a process of reading in which you approach the text with an intention to understand not simply what it says but also how it says it. In passive reading, we read simply for information, or sometimes we read only to be entertained or distracted for a short time. After engaging in passive reading, the content doesn’t always stick with us. And most of the time, it doesn’t matter.

But if we want to remember and learn something while we read, active reading practices will help us get a better grip on the reading, and what we have read will stick with us later on. Up until now, you have been reading excerpts of texts and finding sources for your historical analysis essay. You should apply active reading strategies as you begin to read your sources closely.

Active Reading Strategies

Click on each of the following tabs to learn more about each active reading strategy.

Pre-Reading Inquiry

Take Notes

Make Connections

Summarize

Apply What You Have Learned

Critical Analysis

As you engage in active reading, you should also be critically analyzing the texts. This approach will ensure that you are not a passive reader. As you read your sources, you should consider questions like:

· What is the author’s main argument?

· Is the author’s argument supported with evidence?

· Can you find evidence from the text itself to support your argument?

· What connections can you make to this text and others you have read on this topic? What differences do you see?

· Do you agree or disagree with the author?

Keep these strategies in mind in this course and your future classes, and you will become a more active and critical reader.

Week 6 Short Response

Using the active reading strategies you were introduced to in this learning block, critically analyze one of your secondary sources for your historical analysis essay. Those active reading strategies include:

· Ask yourself pre-reading questions, such as: What will be the subject of this reading? What do I hope to learn from this reading?

· Take notes while reading

· Make connections to other texts you have read

Week 6 Short Responses – Question 1

Which source will you analyze using active reading strategies? Include the name of the article, the author, the publication, the date, and where you found it.

Read your chosen source using the active reading strategies you learned on the previous page. Then, summarize the overall meaning and content of the reading. Write your summary below. Your summary should be at least one paragraph long.

The next activity uses a rich text area. You can tab to the editor body. Press ALT-F10 to get to the toolbar. Press ESC to return to the editor body. A save button is available in the top toolbar all the way to the right and will become visible when it receives focus.

Desegregating Boston’s Schools

In Brown v. Board of Education (1954)*, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously that racial segregation in the public schools is unconstitutional. What it did not provide was an answer to the practical question: How do we do that?

A year later, in a decision that became known as Brown II, the court provided an answer to that question—sort of. It delegated the task of carrying out school desegregation to federal district courts and said that schools in segregated districts should be integrated “with all deliberate speed.” The ambiguity of that phrase was seized on by many opponents as a license for delay, and for close to a decade, there was little progress in integrating many segregated districts. (Civil Rights Movement Veterans, 2016)

The passage of the Civil Rights Act in 1964, coupled with later Supreme Court decisions ordering school districts to speed up the pace of desegregation, lent the process more urgency. But resistance to school desegregation—not just in the South but in many cities of the North and West as well—remained a formidable obstacle to the goal of achieving racial balance in public schools.

In Massachusetts, the state legislature in 1965 passed a law requiring the integration of all segregated schools in the state, the vast majority of which were in the capital city of Boston. (Levy, 1971) But the Boston School Committee resisted, and it was not until 1974—when a federal court ordered a citywide school busing* plan to end segregation of the Boston schools—that the process of integration finally began.

That process did not go smoothly. Fierce resistance in several of the city’s predominantly white neighborhoods forced state police and National Guard troops to escort African-American students into the schools, and the ensuing “Boston busing crisis” roiled the schools, and the city, for years. (Lukas, 1985) The Boston public schools were not declared fully desegregated until 1987.

This learning block uses the events of the Boston busing crisis as a prism for looking once again at the concepts of cause and consequence, and as a way to illustrate how you can use historical evidence to make an argument that supports your thesis.

Learning Objectives

In this learning block, you will:

· Describe the causes, course, and consequences of a historical event

· Use historical evidence to support the development of an analytical thesis statement

Boston, Busing, and Backlash
The struggle for voting rights, which we looked at in Theme: Analyzing History, Learning Block 3, was a struggle against de jure segregation* that existed in just one part of the country: the states of the Old South. But the problem of de facto segregation* was one that existed throughout the country, and its effects were perhaps seen most clearly in the nation’s public schools.

A series of Supreme Court cases in the early 1960s made it clear that de facto school segregation was unconstitutional and that segregated schools would be integrated by court order if necessary. Beginning in the early 1970s, the Court began requiring school busing* plans, which would send African-American students to largely white schools and send white students to largely African-American schools, as a means of achieving greater racial balance.

In Boston, the city’s small but growing African-American community began protesting the quality of public schools in largely black neighborhoods in the early 1960s. In 1965, in response to a federal investigation of possible segregation in the Boston public schools, the Massachusetts legislature passed the Racial Imbalance Act. The new law outlawed segregation in Massachusetts schools and threatened to cut off state funding for any school district that did not comply. (Levy, 1971)

A R.O.A.R button opposing Boston’s desegregation. (Click button for citation)

Of the 55 Massachusetts schools identified as racially imbalanced, 45 were in the City of Boston. But the Boston School Committee, an all-white elected body led by Louise Day Hicks, refused to acknowledge the segregation and balked at any plan to remedy the situation. Hicks’s opposition to school desegregation boosted her popularity, particularly in the city’s working-class, heavily Irish-American neighborhoods; in 1967, she narrowly missed being elected mayor, but in 1969, she was elected to the city council, and in 1970, she was elected to Congress to represent her home neighborhood, the Irish-American enclave of South Boston. (Lukas, 1985)

The School Committee continued to stonewall demands to implement a meaningful desegregation plan. But in June 1974, federal Judge W. Arthur Garrity, deciding a lawsuit brought against the School Committee by the NAACP*, ruled that Boston’s schools were unconstitutionally segregated. He ordered that any school whose enrollment was more than 50 percent nonwhite must be balanced according to race.

To achieve that balance, Garrity ordered the schools to adopt a widespread busing plan by the first day of school in September. That announcement triggered a powerful backlash among white parents and students. Hicks formed an anti-busing group called Restore Our Alienated Rights (ROAR) that spearheaded much of the opposition to Garrity’s desegregation order.

While the plan involved the busing of thousands of students from different neighborhoods across the city, the greatest attention was focused on the high schools in South Boston—a heavily working-class and overwhelmingly Irish-American part of town—and Roxbury, an overwhelmingly African-American neighborhood. Garrity’s order effectively paired the two schools, by requiring that they essentially swap hundreds of students.

Decades after the fact, Garrity’s busing order is still hotly debated in Boston. Supporters say that his unyielding approach was the only way to overcome white resistance and achieve racial balance in Boston’s schools. Critics say Garrity focused too much on the goal of achieving mathematical balance, rather than focusing on a plan to improve school quality for both African-American and white children. (Gellerman, 2014)

Robert J. Allison, professor of History at Suffolk University in Boston and author of A Short History of Boston, describes the causes and consequences of the Boston busing crisis in this video:

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When school opened in September, resistance to the busing plan was fierce. A throng of white protesters greeted the buses rolling into South Boston High School that September with jeers and epithets; some of the protesters began throwing bricks and rocks at the buses and at the state police escorting them. The incident marked the beginning of two years of angry and often violent confrontations between white and black parents, students, police, and protesters. (Wolff, 2015)

Anti-busing protesters attack attorney Theodore Landsmark as he exits Boston City Hall, 1976. (Click button for citation)

From 1974 through 1976, the process of public education in Boston was turned into an ongoing tableau of state troopers and National Guardsmen in riot gear, escorting children into schools past jeering crowds; fights both inside and outside of schools, leading to hundreds of arrests; thousands of high-school students, both white and African-American, boycotting classes on a regular basis; and angry confrontations between protesters and public officials, such as Mayor Kevin White and Senator Edward M. Kennedy, who were deemed to be “pro-busing.” (Lukas, 1985)

All of this did not leave a lot of time for actual education. In the 1974-75 school year, school officials estimated that 12,000 of the school system’s 93,000 students were chronically or permanently absent; in the following year, that figure was estimated at 14,000. (Wolff, 2015) The average rate of absenteeism during the 1974-75 school year was approximately 50 percent. (U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, 1975)

The Boston protests, taking place in the heart of what was presumed to be one of the most “liberal” cities in America, attracted widespread media attention. They exposed sharp racial divisions in the city, and they also highlighted divisions based on class: many of the white protesters in working-class neighborhoods such as South Boston and Charlestown felt aggrieved that their neighborhoods had been singled out for busing, while schools in Boston’s more affluent suburbs were unaffected. (Lukas, 1985)

The worst of the violence and protests was over by the end of 1976, but the city and its schools were permanently changed. By the time Boston’s schools were declared desegregated in 1987, the student population had declined by almost 40 percent and the overwhelming majority of students were nonwhite. (Hoover Institution, 1998) While historians still debate whether the Boston busing crisis was a necessary cause* of these sharp demographic shifts in the city’s public school system, the events of 1974-1976 clearly contributed to changing perceptions of the school system among parents and students.

The Consequences of Boston’s Busing Crisis

Forty years after the fact, it’s worth asking the obvious question: what were the effects of Boston’s tumultuous school desegregation effort? To put it another way: What were the consequences of this historical event?

In assessing the consequences of any event, we first need to identify the groups or institutions that might have been affected. We could, for instance, look at the effects of busing on individual students—by tape-recording interviews with former students who were actually on the buses, to see what effect the experience had on their later lives. This type of research is known as oral history*.

We could also look at the impact of busing on the public school system itself. A few relevant statistics:

· In 1971-72, three years before busing began, there were 93,000 students in the Boston public schools; 61% were white; 32% were African-American; and 7% were other racial minorities. (U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, 1975)

· In 1990, three years after the schools were declared desegregated, there were 60,000 students in the Boston public schools; 22% were white; 48% were African-American; and 30% were other racial minorities. (Boston Studies Group, 2010)

· In 1971-72, Boston public schools had one of the highest dropout rates in the country. (U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, 1975) In 1990, the dropout rate had dropped below the national average. (Boston Studies Group, 2010; National Center for Education Statistics, 2015)

· In 1970, 10 percent of Boston public school students went on to graduate from college; in 1990, 30 percent did so. (Boston Studies Group, 2010)

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Use LearningCurve’s game-like online

what’s yours? Use LearningCurve’s game-like online quizzing to discover what you know and learn what you don’t. Quiz feedback links you to your book for review –– with a chance to try again! Try it today and find out why students across the country rave about the LearningCurve advantage.

LaunchPad — intuitive, content rich, and assessment ready Intuitive and easy-to-use, LaunchPad’s course space and interactive e-book includes all in one place the complete narrative e-book, primary documents, maps, images, videos, assignments, activities, and more. Formative and summative assessment, including short answer, essay questions, multiple-choice quizzing, and LearningCurve allow you to rehearse the content before class and achieve greater success in class.

For access to LearningCurve 1. Go to bedfordstmartins.com/henrettaconcise.

1. Click to enter your student access code. Enter it exactly as it appears below, including any dashes, and follow the on-screen instructions.
2. If your code does not work, it might have expired. You can purchase access to LearningCurve at bedfordstmartins.com/henrettaconcise.

Important: LaunchPad users should access LearningCurve through their LaunchPad access code (not from the LearningCurve access code listed here).

Scratch off to reveal code. Do not peel.

STUDENT ACCESS CODE

For technical support, visit macmillanhighered.com/support. Instructors: For instructor access, visit bedfordstmartins.com/henrettaconcise and register as an instructor.

ABOUT THE COVER IMAGE

African Americans on the Move, 1940 Migration and mobility are major themes in American history. Immigration to and migration within the United States have been constants of the nation’s past and remain so in the present. One of the most breathtaking relocation stories in this long history is that of African Americans in the twentieth century. Between 1910 and 1970, between 5 and 6 million African Americans left the South for the North and West, transforming the nation in the process. Here a family prepares for the journey from Florida to New Jersey in 1940.

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End with a conclusion, where you note how events of the era shaped the world we live in today.

America and the world changing in Chapters 25-28?

Answer the question in an essay of about 10-12 paragraphs (at least four pages of writing).

Develop a main point that relates to all of the chapters. For example, you might consider how America’s relationship to the rest of the world changed in this era. Or, you might consider how our economy and society changed, and what forces underlie these changes.

This essay should include, within it, at least two key terms or questions from each of the reading handouts for Chapters 25-28. Please put each key term (or key words from a question) in bold the first time you discuss it in a significant way.

Include at least four pictures with brief descriptions to note how they help us grasp the main points.

Please start with an introduction, where you give an overview of the major events or trends you wish to cover.

End with a conclusion, where you note how events of the era shaped the world we live in today. You may also want to reflect on how the material helps you grow as a historian.

Keys to Success:

· Explain your points simply, like you would to another student.

· Write in short to medium-sized paragraphs.

· Use specific examples from our readings and class discussion.

· Instead of footnotes, provide page numbers (410) or section numbers.

· Relate your answers to major concepts and trends we have covered.

· Note how specific things in the pictures add to our understanding.

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Defining key terms

Synthesizing information, comparing and contrasting sources
Testing a thesis, making a historical argument, using refutation
Amassing support for a position
Documenting sources
Because this may be a longer paper than you have written before and a complex process is involved, it is recommended that you complete this paper using the following steps:

Choose a topic related to U.S. History up to 1877 (Chapters 1-15) that you would truly like to explore and that you are willing to spend some time on. Your chosen topic should be focused. Pose a question that you really want to answer. You may want to begin with more than one topic in mind.
Do some preliminary reading on the topic(s). You may begin with the textbook, then further explore the information available. Refine your topic. Summarize your topic, your interest in the topic, the questions you want to answer, and a hypothesis you want to test.
Gather information from a variety of sources. Use a minimum of four sources for your paper, and at least one must be a primary source.
Examples of primary sources are ones that are used in our discussion forums 2 – 8.
They are sources that are contemporary to the times under investigation.
An example of a secondary source is our textbook, though the textbook also contains excerpts of primary sources, which you may use as a source in your paper.
Outline the results of your research and the plan for your paper (you are not required to submit the outline).
Write the final draft and be sure to include a Works Cited List, and use the correct MLA documentation style.
Grade Rubric

INTRODUCTION & THESIS: The paper makes a clear and effective statement (the thesis) about the chosen topic. /15

FOCUS AND DEVELOPMENT: Body of the paper focuses on this thesis and develops it fully, recognizing the complexity of issues. /30

SUPPORT AND SYNTHESIS: Uses sufficient and relevant evidence to support the thesis (and primary points), including facts, inferences, and judgments. Quotes, summarizes, and paraphrases accurately and effectively–appropriately introducing and explaining each quote. /30

CONVENTIONS: Uses MLA format correctly; includes a Works Cited list; is free of errors. /10

CORRECTNESS AND STYLE: Shows critical thinking and depth of understanding; uses appropriate tone; shows sophistication in language usage and sentence structure. /15

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Leadership Class
Using APA 7th Edition format write a 2-page paper aboutan Ethical principle or theory.
1. Define the principle.
2. Provide historical context.
3. Discuss underlying assumptions.
4. Include examples.
5. Conclude the paper with your personal opinion.
Must have a cover page and reference page.
Spell Check!
2 spaces between sentences!
At least 3 sentences to make a paragraph.

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Using APA 7th Edition format write a 2-page paper aboutan Ethic appeared first on nursingessayswriter.com.

This is the group assignment about Smart and Sustainable Cities, and we choose the city of Songdo in South Korea.
Please finished my part: “Introduction and Explanation of this city.” I am doing the introduction so that I may cover some of their parts at the beginning.
my teammate will finish：
Theory of smart Sustainable cities like the explanation as to why they did this and what was the purpose of doing that.
Proposed initiative as if what were the results of the case study and the impact on the city
Improvements needed in the project like economic and technological.
External research on the city like smart city pitfalls, transportation, smart and sustainable building/ conclusion

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Read Columbus’s letter to Lord Treasurer Sanchez (in this unit’s Readings). Compose a short essay (250-500 words) in which you compare his portrayal of Native Americans with Aztec, Congolese, and Chinese portrayals of Europeans in the primary sources in Ch.12 “Global Themes and Sources: Cultural Contexts in the Age of Exploration.” Sources of all information and quotations must be cited in footnotes or endnotes.

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