Carol Lasser,Oberlin College

Syllabus for “Oberlin History as American History, Spring, 2012

 

 

2/21/2012

History 268

Oberlin History as American History

Spring 2012

Tuesdays and Thursdays 9:00-10:50

King 343

Professor Carol Lasser Office: Rice 317

Carol.lasser@oberlin.edu X56712

Office Hours: Thursdays 3-4:45 and by appointment

 

 

 

Main Street, Oberlin, Ohio, 1910-1927

From Our Common Center Database

 

 

 

Course Objectives:

This course engages students in exploring the history of Oberlin, Ohio, both for its uniqueness and for its reflections of broader trends in American history.  It challenges students to (dis)cover, understand and evaluate the past of this complex multicultural community in relation to the national narrative about struggles for civic identity, human rights, racial equality and social justice. The course combines analysis of primary sources with secondary readings in order to equip students to do original research into the history of the town.  We look into a variety of representations, including art, photographs and maps; and we probe the possibilities for working with both community history and community memory. In this way, we develop knowledge with which to construct, question, refine, and contest our understandings of our community and our nation.

This year, students enrolled in the course will focus their research projects on the history of community civic culture, especially celebrations and public ceremonies.  These explorations should help us better understand the changing ways in which narratives of our community are constructed, the meanings of civic participation and public celebration, and the creation of the identity both of the town and of its inhabitants. College students will be undertaking “real” history research, but with a sensitivity to, and in collaboration with stakeholders in that history— the members of the community for whom these histories are meaningful sources of contemporary understanding. Students are especially urged to take this class for four hours of credit, which will place them in partnership with students from Oberlin High School.  Our work will also generate a significant resource for future historians and citizens.

 

Organization of the Course:

Students may choose to take the class for three hours credit or for four hours credit.

For the first half of the semester, the assignments for all students will be the same.  After Spring Break, students taking the course for different hours will have some different assignments.

Students taking the course for four hours credit will be placed in a partnership with students from the tenth grade American history course taught at Oberlin High School by Mr. Kurt Russell.  Teams of high school and college students will work together for the second half of the semester.  Final projects for students taking the course for four hours will involve coordinating research with their high school partners (as delineated below) and helping them assemble materials for a paper and a presentation.  Grades for students taking the course for four hours will be based in part on their documented efforts to work with high school students to create the assigned paper and presentation.

Students taking the course for three hours credit will not be placed in a partnership with high school students.  Nonetheless, they are expected to be aware of the meaning of their work to the broader Oberlin community.  Their final project will be a paper on Oberlin history based on original research (as delineated below).

 

An Important Note on Readings Assigned for History 268

At this time, there are no required texts to be purchased for this course. All readings will be available either at the class Blackboard site, or on the special websites cited in the syllabus.   Check your syllabus for the location of the assigned material.  Please let me know as soon as possible if there are problems with the readings.

You are encouraged to print out all readings, mark them up, and bring them to class.   The assigned readings will be discussed in class, and you will use them in your papers. You are required to bring to class some readings, indicated on the syllabus by **; you may print these readings out, or you can bring them to class on a laptop.

Some readings can be accessed online via urls supplied in the syllabus.  Readings without urls are on the class Blackboard site under “Readings.” You are expected to do all readings and assignments, and come to class prepared to discuss them.

 

SCHEDULE OF CLASSES

Tuesday, February 7

Introduction to the Course and Its Objectives: 

What Does it Mean to “Do History”?

Oberlin: College and Community

 

Thursday, February 9

History And Memory:

Constituencies and Engagements

Required Reading:

• Carl Becker, “Everyman His Own Historian,” American Historical Review, 37 (January 1932): 221-236 online at http://www.jstor.org/stable/1838208
•  Roy Rosenzweig and David Thelen, Chapter 1:”The Presence of the Past: Patterns of Popular Historymaking,” pp. 15-36, in The Presence of the Past.
• David Thelen, “Memory and American History,” Journal of American History 75 (March 1989): 1117-1129, online at http://www.jstor.org/stable/1908632

Questions:  How does Becker define “History”?  Do you find his definition distinctive?  How does it compare to other definitions of “History” that you have used? How do Rosenzweig and Thelen see people engaging in “making history”?  Are they doing what Becker’s “Everyman” [sic] is doing when “he” studies “History?”  What is the relationship of “history” and “heritage”?

Required Blackboard Posting

Remember to bring a copy of your posting with you to class.

Tuesday, February 14

Getting to Oberlin:

Required Reading:

• Thomas Sherman, A Place on the Glacial Till, selections
• (Introduction, pp. 3-9 optional)
• Chapter 3: People, pp. 57-84
• Chapter 4: Western Reserve, pp. 85-109
• Robert Fletcher, A History of Oberlin College
• Chapter 9: A Grand Scheme, pp. 85-92
• Chapter 10: Oberlin Colony, pp. 102-116
• Chapter 11: Oberlin Institute, pp. 117-128
• Covenant of the Oberlin Colony** http://www.oberlin.edu/external/EOG/Documents/Oberlin_Covenant.html (note that some excerpts from this document appear in Chapter 10)
• Prospectus for the Oberlin Collegiate Institute** http://www.oberlin.edu/external/EOG/Documents/OberlinProspectus.html (note that some excerpts from this document appear in Chapter 11)

Questions:   Why was Oberlin founded?  What was the original relationship between the “colony” and the “Oberlin Collegiate Institute”?  What did you discern about the national context for the founding of Oberlin from your reading in Fletcher?  How would you characterize the political, social and religious outlook of the founders?

Why are the histories written by Sherman and by Fletcher so different?  What are their various purposes? What are their sources?

What strikes you as special or surprising in the Covenant or in the Prospectus?

Required Blackboard Posting

Remember to bring a copy of your posting with you to class.

 

Thursday, February 16

Oberlin’s Second Founding:

The Commitment to Radical Racial Egalitarianism

Required Reading

• Robert Fletcher, A History of Oberlin College
• Chapter 12: Immediate Emancipation, pp. 142-150
• Chapter 13: The Test of Academic Freedom, pp. 151-166
• Chapter 14: the Guarantee of Academic Freedom, pp. 167-178
• Geoffrey Blodgett, “Myth and Reality in Oberlin History,” in Oberlin History: Essays and Impressions, pp. 5-19;
• John Jay Shipherd, Pastoral Letter, 1835** http://www.oberlin.edu/external/EOG/History268/shipherd.html
• Constitution of the Oberlin Antislavery Society, 1835** http://www.oberlin.edu/external/EOG/Documents/OberlinAntiSlaveryConst.htm
• An Appeal on Behalf of the Oberlin Institute in Aid of the Abolition of Slavery** http://www.oberlin.edu/external/EOG/Weld Abolition Appeal/weld_appeal.htm

Questions: Why did the Oberlin Collegiate Institute accept students of color?  How “radical” was the decision?  What evidence do you have to support your point of view?  Could you argue a different point of view?

Required Blackboard Posting

Remember to bring a copy of your posting with you to class.

Tuesday, February 21

Women and Gender at Early Oberlin

 Required Reading:

• Robert Fletcher, A History of Oberlin College (below is the suggested order for reading)
• Chapter 24: The Joint Education of the Sexes, pp. 373-385
• Chapter 21: Female Reformers, pp. 290-315
• Lori Ginzberg,  “’The Joint Education of the Sexes’: Oberlin’s Original Vision,” from Carol Lasser, ed., Educating Men and Women Together, pp. 67-80

• Carol Lasser and others, “How Did How Did Oberlin Women Students Draw on Their College Experience to Participate in Antebellum Social Movements, 1831-1861?
  • Introduction: http://womhist.alexanderstreet.com/oberlin/intro.htm
  • Sally Rudd to Mary Caroline Rudd, 1836 http://womhist.alexanderstreet.com/oberlin/doc3.htm
  • Annual Report of the Oberlin Female Moral Reform Society, 1840 http://womhist.alexanderstreet.com/oberlin/doc6.htm
  • Mary Sheldon, “Women and Politics,” 1848 http://womhist.alexanderstreet.com/oberlin/doc5c.htm

Questions: Were women and men “equal” at early Oberlin?  Why did the college accept women?  Why did women enroll? What did they hope to gain by attending Oberlin?

Required Blackboard Posting

Remember to bring a copy of your posting with you to class.

Thursday, February 23

The Evolution of Antislavery Activism in Oberlin

Required Reading:

• Geoffrey Blodgett, “Oberlin Starts the Civil War,” in Oberlin History: Essays and Impressions, pp. 55-60;

• Robert Fletcher, A History of Oberlin College (Blackboard)
• Chapter 18: Hotbed of Abolitionism, pp. 236-253
• Chapter 25: Free Soil and the Underground Railroad, p. 386- 400
• Chapter 26: Higher Law, 401-416
• Carol Lasser, “Enacting Emancipation: African American Women Abolitionists from Oberlin College and the Quest for Empowerment, Equality, and Respectability,” Women’s Rights and Transatlantic Antislavery in the Era of Emancipation, Kathryn Kish Sklar and James Brewer Stewart, eds.,

Questions:  Was antislavery a religious, social or political movement in antebellum Oberlin?   What moments seem particularly important in its evolution?  Why was the Oberlin Community such a hotbed of antislavery activity? What are the implications of the Oberlin-Wellington Rescue for our community today?

Required Blackboard Posting

Remember to bring a copy of your posting with you to class.

 

 

 

Tuesday, February 28

 “Race and Opportunity in Oberlin, 1850-1900”

Guest Lecture by Professor Gary Kornblith

Thursday, March 1

“Seeing” Oberlin History

Meet at the Print Room at the Allen Art Museum

Students with last names A-K: 9:00 to 9:50

Students with last names L-Z: 10:10 to 10:50

Enter the Museum via the walkway on E. Lorain Street that leads into the Art Courtyard; hang your things on hooks and proceed to the Print Room on the Second Floor

Important Rules for the Print Room:

1. Pencils only; no pens.
2. All jackets, hoodies, backpacks, purses, bags, umbrellas, hats, scarves, etc. must be left on the hooks by the back door of the museum.
3. Shoes and shirt must be worn.
4. Please do not touch the artwork.
5. No food or drink.

Optional Extra Credit Blackboard Posting

Before Class on Tuesday, March 6, please post a reflection on how understanding visual and material culture might help us better understand Oberlin history. Describe a specific object you saw that helped you make connections. 

This posting can take the place of another posting over the course of the semester, or can be posted for additional credit.

 

 

Tuesday, March 6

Oberlin between Jubilee and Centennial:  Temperance, Race, and Gender

• William Bigglestone, Chapter 1: “The Scene” and Chapter 5: “The Cause,” pp. 1-12 and 77-101 in Oberlin: From War to Jubilee

• J.F. Brand, “Letter from Oberlin, Western Christian Advocate, September 28, 1881
• James Fairchild, “The Oberlin Temperance Pronouncement,” The Advance, February 16, 1882;
• Excerpts from Secretary’s Book of the Ladies Temperance League of Oberlin, 1884;
• “Why Did African American Women Join the Women’s Christian Temperance Union, 1880-1900?” Document Project by Thomas Dublin and Angela Scheuerer,  Introduction, Women and Social Movements in the United States website, http://asp6new.alexanderstreet.com/was2/was2.object.details.aspx?dorpid=1000679650
• Excerpts from Frances E.W. Harper, Superintendent of Colored [sic] Work, Women’s Christian Temperance Union, “Work Among the Colored People,” 1884

Optional

• Mark Twain, The Man That  Corrupted Hadleyburg (1899), etext on Blackboard

Questions: What happened to Oberlin’s reform spirit after the Civil War?  What are the similarities between temperance and abolition as social movements?  What were the gender dynamics of temperance in Oberlin?  What about the dynamics of race?

Required Blackboard Posting

Remember to bring a copy of your posting with you to class.

Thursday, March 8

Did Oberlin Retreat from Reconstruction?

NIAGARA AND NEWSPAPERS

Meet in Mudd

Required Reading

• Booker T. Washington, “The Atlanta Exposition Address,” Chapter XIV in Up From Slavery  online at http://xroads.virginia.edu/~HYPER/WASHINGTON/ch14.html
• W.E.B. DuBois, “Of Mr. Booker T. Washington and Others” from The Souls of Black Folks online at http://www.bartleby.com/114/3.html
• Excerpt from W.E.B. DuBois, On the Origins of the Niagara Movement, from Autobiography
• David Diepenbrock, “Black Women and Oberlin College in the Age of Jim Crow,” UCLA Historical Journal 13(1993): 27-51.
• The Niagara Movement in Oberlin: A History in Newspaper Articles http://www.oberlin.edu/external/EOG/Niagara Movement/niagaramain.htm

Questions:  Can you explain what the Niagara Movement was, and why it met in Oberlin in 1908?  What issues were controversial during the meeting in Oberlin?  How did Diepenbrock see race relations in Oberlin in this period?

Required Blackboard Posting

Remember to bring a copy of your posting with you to class

Tuesday, March 13

Oberlin’s Race Relations, 1920-1945

Required Reading:

• The Barbershop Controversy of 1944 (REPOST AS NEEW ITEM…..http://www.oberlin.edu/external/EOG/History268/barber.html

Special Assignment: For this class, you will use the skills you learned about searching for articles in Oberlin newspapers to find an article that reflects race relations in Oberlin for a time that will be assigned to you during the period between 1920 and 1940. You may work in teams, so long as each individual brings at least one article.  You may choose to start your search with the online index  to Oberlin Newspapers at http://www.oberlin.edu/cgi-bin/cgiwrap/library/ref/index.php?db=newsindex

Bring newspaper article to class!

Thursday, March 15

Oberlin Politics, 1960-1965:  Housing Controversy in a Small Town

Required Reading:

• Aaron Wildavsky, Chapters 1, 6, 7, 8, and 17, (pp. 3-13, 83-126 and 236-252) in Leadership in a Small Town

• Donald Reich, “The Oberlin fair-housing Ordinance “ in Lynn Eley and Thomas Casstevens, ed., The Politics of Fair-Housing Legislationp.105-147

Questions:  What sense did Wildavsky make out of Oberlin local politics?  What importance did he accord race? How much power did he find among people of color in the community?  What happened to Oberlin’s Fair Housing initiative?

Class will include an exploration of doing history with maps.

Preliminary Research Prospectus: Assignment for 3 Hour Students: Please submit a preliminary prospectus for your final research paper.  Your proposal should include: (1) the topic you want to research (2) at least three questions that you want to address in your research and (3) the kinds of primary sources you hope to use (i.e. newspapers, oral histories, church records, etc.)  Your proposal is due by 4:30 today.  This assignment will help you make the most of your upcoming library research session.  See also the description of your research prospectus at the end of this syllabus.

Required Blackboard Posting

Remember to bring a copy of your posting with you to class

Tuesday, March 20:

Four Hour Students: Partnership Discussion at Oberlin High School.

High School Students and College Students will indicate their preferences for celebrations to research.  Be sure to use time together to introduce yourselves, and to trade contact information.

Four Hour Reading Assignment:

Look at the following and discuss with your partner BEFORE you meet your students. Remember that you are NOT teaching these articles to them—but they can inspire your discussions.

• John Bodnar, “The Memory Debate,” in Remaking America: Public Memory, Commemoration, and Patriotism in the Twentieth Century
• Elizabeth Pleck, “The Making of the Domestic Occasion: The History of Thanksgiving in the United States, Journal of Social History 32(Summer 1999): 773-789; Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3789891

 

Three Hour Students: Meet in Mudd 113 for Research Session with Librarian Ms. Eboni Johnson

Three Hour Students: Remember to bring a copy of your research proposal with you to this session.

Thursday, March 22: Archives Visit

All Students meet at 9am in Archives on Mudd 4^th Floor

Required Reading:

• Please browse the website of the Oberlin College Archive: http://www.oberlin.edu/archive/
• Please look in particular at a “Finding Guide,” to be found as any of the highlighted files onhttp://www.oberlin.edu/archive/holdings/finding/index.html
• Post the name of the Finding Guide you explored before class.

High School students will join us for the first hour of class.

 

Spring Break

Tuesday, April 3

 Four Hour Students: 9 am meeting at Mudd with High School Students

Be sure to bring with you a plan for your session that includes ways to: brainstorm your topic, think about sources, think about how to assign responsibilities, and  think about your timetable for research.

Three Hour Students

You must submit a Revised Research Prospectus and a Research Timetable by Wednesday, April 4 at noon, and sign up for an appointment with the Professor  Thursday April 5 or Friday April 6.

All Students:

10 am: Discussion of Oral History: Method or Source?

In Library Room

Required Reading:

• Studs Terkel, Hard Times, pp. 56-60, 62-69 and 71-75
• Michael Frisch, “Oral History and Hard Times: A Review Essay,” and “The Memory of History,” pp. 5-27 in A Shared Authority
• Katherine Borland, “‘That’s Not What I Said’: Interpretive Conflict in Oral Narrative Research,” pp. 320-332 in The Oral History Reader,

Thursday, April 5

Four Hour Students: 9 am meeting at Mudd with High School Students

If possible, share some sources with your team.  Begin to assign responsibilities, and  think further about your timetable for research.

10 am follow-up meeting in Mudd Group Room

Research Timetable for Four Hour students due Sunday, April 8 at noon.

Three Hour Students : No formal class, although you will be expected to sign in at the Library and use the time for research and writing.

Tuesday, April 10

Four Hour Students: 9 am meeting at Mudd with High School Students

All Students

10 am: Ms. Phyllis Yarber Hogan

Oberlin’s Lincoln Street

In Library Room

Thursday, April 12

Four Hour Students

9 am meeting at Mudd with High School Students

All Students:

10 am: Discussion of Oral History: Nuts and Bolts

In Library Room

Required Readings

• Oral History Association, “Principles and Practices,” at http://www.oralhistory.org/do-oral-history/principles-and-practices/
• Linda Shopes, “What is Oral History?”

Tuesday, April 17

Four Hour Students: 9 am meeting at Mudd with High School Students

Three Hour Students: 10 am class in Library

Progress Report Due: Please describe what you have accomplished

Bring 3 copies of this report, and 3 copies of your Research Prospectus and Timeline to class

All Students:

10 am in Library: Oberlin’s Cooperative Heritage

Thursday, April 19

Four Hour Students: High School Oral History I

Three Hour Students: Consultations to be scheduled

Tuesday, April 24

Four Hour Students: High School Oral History II

Three Hour Students : No formal class, although you will be expected to sign in at the Library and use the time for research and writing.

Thursday, April 26:

Four Hour Students: 9 am meeting at Mudd with High School Students

Progress report due Friday, April 27 at 5 pm

Three Hour Students

10 am:  review of presentation expectations and scheduling

Tuesday, May 1

Four Hour Students: 9 am meeting at Mudd with High School Students

Three Hour Students : No formal class, although you will be expected to sign in at the Library and use the time for research and writing.

Thursday, May 3

Four Hour Students: 9 am meeting at Mudd with High School Students

Three Hour Students: 10 am in Library: Presentations

All students attend 10 am presentations

Tuesday, May 8

Four Hour Students: 9 am meeting at Mudd with High School Students

Three Hour Students: 10 am in Library: Presentations

All Students attend these presentations

Thursday, May 10

Final Class

Four Hour Students: 9 am meeting at Mudd with High School Students

Three Hour Students: 10 am in Library: Presentations

All Students attend these presentations

Thursday, May 17 at 9 am:

Examination Period

Four Hour Students: Team Presentations

At this time, project and self evaluation due.

Three Hour Students: Attendance at these presentations is optional;

ALL PAPERS AND FULL PROJECT DOCUMENTATION DUE AT 11 AM

GRADING INFORMATION

Grading is an art, not a science.   To that end, I provide the following information on the weighting of each assignment.  Please note that any written work, before the final project, may be rewritten to improve your standing in the class IF you check with me in advance.

Any unexplained absence from class will lower your grade.  Late work, including late postings, will be penalized, with penalties increasing for degree of lateness.

Grading Proportions: Four Hour Students

Grading Proportions: Three Hour Students

 

 

Expectations for Blackboard Postings:

The course Blackboard site has a section called “Student Posts on Readings.”  It has a forum for each topic on a Blackboard posting is required or optional.  You will add a posting at least eight times during the semester (this means you can miss one required posting).  Your posting should engage one or more of the questions about the readings posed in the syllabus, and, if you wish, it can engage with the reflections posted by other students.  Postings should be clearly written, using standard spelling and grammar.  They should demonstrate your comprehension of the readings.  A posting should be at least one paragraph in length.  Postings are due by 7 am on the day they are assigned—that is before class.

 

What is a Research Prospectus?

Describe your topic, and describe the kinds of sources you expect you will use.  Reference the ways in which others have viewed your topic, and how that has shaped your thinking.  Go from your topic to more specific questions you want to ask; and, if you can, be more specific about your sources.

 

What is a Research Timetable?

 Writing your research outline involves refining your conception of your project, assigning tasks and setting deadlines.   At this point, you need to convince me that your project is focused and “do-able,” and that you have identified good sources.  You should be able to summarize the focus of your inquiry in two or three sentences.  In addition, you will want to consider all the components you are expected to include in your final project, think about what each will entail, develop a schedule for the tasks involved, and, if you are working on a group project, assign responsibilities.

You may want to explore whether there are any related primary or secondary sources at the Oberlin Heritage Center or in Archives or Special Collections. To use materials at these locations, you will need to make special scheduling efforts. Your research outline should make clear how much time you think you will need to spend working with these sources, and may assign particular responsibilities to individuals.

 

 

Three Hour Students:   Your Final Submission (due at 11 am on Thursday, May 17) must have these components:

• 10-12 page (text)  Research Paper;
• appropriate formal citations of materials used in the paper (footnotes or endnotes, using Chicago Manual of Style format);
• a formal bibliography, using separate categories for primary sources and secondary sources;
• References to least three appropriate secondary sources;

• Evidence of significant use of a substantial number of primary documents.  These can be documents within a single collection (perhaps 10 letters in a collection); or maybe one dozen newspaper articles, or some mix of materials.  The important point here is that you want to demonstrate your use of a substantial number of sources.  Papers that cite fewer than 6 primary sources will not receive credit.
• You may use oral histories (and they will be categorized as a primary source) but remember:
• Each oral history should be accompanied by a signed permission.
• The final submission should include of your oral history permission forms.
• At least two photos or graphics.  You may use more if you wish, but please, unless these visuals are critically evaluated as primary sources (and listed in your bibliography), they will not count as primary sources.

 

Important Information for Fourth Hour Project

You will meet with your high school students each Tuesday after Fall Break.  YOU are responsible for working out in advance(with a college partner if you have one) the content, materials and goals for each work session with your high school students in order to achieve the goal for the session.  Be well prepared, with readings, questions, alternatives if your plans fall flat.  Leave your students with a clear understanding of what you expect them to do during their Thursday work session without you. 

 

Mr. Russell expects each team’s projects to have the following components:

• The overall paper will explore the history of some holiday/celebration in Oberlin.
• The paper will include both information and some reflection on what the meaning of the holiday has been to various parts of the community.
• It will include at least 2 pages of text written by each 10^th grade student
• Each member of the team will look at :
• At least 3 appropriate secondary sources
• Only ONE of these may be an encyclopedia (and NOT Wikipedia; you may, however, use Wikipedia to find other sources);
• At least ONE of these must be a printed source;
• At least 3 primary sources contemporary to the people and events on which you focus  (newspapers, magazines, letters, flyers—this does NOT include your photos or oral histories) .
• Each team will conduct at least 2oral histories

• YOU as the college students will be responsible for obtaining a signed permission for each oral history;
• YOU as the college students will be responsible for including a brief summary of the tape with your final project submission;
• YOU as the college students  will be responsible for submitting appropriate permissions with the final project.
• Each team should locate at least four photos or graphics;
  • each high school student must submit at least one graphic.  Please have your high school students submit  a written explanation (1-2 paragraphs)  of why this visual is relevant to the project.
  • At the end of the term, each team will  make a 10-minute PowerPoint presentation in which every high school student takes a part in the presentation (you can coach or take a small part in the presentation itself).  The PowerPoint slides will be submitted along with other materials.

 

FOUR HOUR COLLEGE STUDENT FINAL SUBMISSIONS MUST INCLUDE:

• Project completed by High School Students—as above, including graphics;
• Oral history materials (tapes/files, permissions, summaries of oral histories)
• A file including your email correspondence with your high school student partners and their responses (both sides!)
• Your individual self-evaluation, 3-6 pages in length, in which you discuss your participation in the project, your own individual strengths and weaknesses, your particular satisfactions and challenges, and what you learned.

 

History 268: Oberlin History as American History

Spring 2012  Schedule of Meetings for Four Hour Students

Working with 10^th Grade American History Class of Mr. Kurt Russell

Tuesday	Thursday
April 3: Getting Started on Research At this session, you will brainstorm your topic, think about sources, think about how to assign responsibilities, and  think about your timetable for research GOAL: Get each high school student to develop at least 3 questions related your the topic that can help them get started with research.  Work together to identify several sources. College students should undertake “pre-search” so that they have accessible materials with which to begin.	April 5: Secondary Sources Bring selections from secondary sources to work on together with your team. Ask high school students to paraphrase what they are reading to get a sense of level of materials you will be using.  Begin to assign responsibilities, and  think further about your timetable for research. College Students: Submit  your research outline to me by Sunday April 8 at noon (A research outline describes what you will do and when. This outline should carefully consider how you will use each of the  sessions you have with your high school partners.  The schedule and goals below may help.
April 10: Mudd Research GOAL : College students should “pre-search” before class. You may want to use more selections of secondary materials, or you may want to move to primary materials.  If college students want to use newspapers or magazines, for example, find examples of relevant materials BEFORE class.  If you want to use Archival materials, you may have to get and photocopy these materials IN ADVANCE since the Archives does not open until 10 am.	April 12: Mudd Research GOAL : College students should “pre-search” before class. You may want to use more selections of secondary materials, or you may want to move to primary materials.  If college students want to use newspapers or magazines, for example, find examples of relevant materials BEFORE class.  If you want to use Archival materials, you may have to get and photocopy these materials IN ADVANCE since the Archives does not open until 10 am.
April 17: Prepare for Oral History   College Students: make sure you have contacted your oral history interviewees and prepared for your interviews.  Share with your students some relevant background materials.  Brainstorm questions with your team. Each student should have at least one good question to ask.	April 19: Oral History Session at the High School College Students: come prepared with recording devices, and the knowledge of how to use them.  Be ready to help your students.   Think about how you want your oral history to proceed; what are you trying to learn? GOAL: use your oral history informant to help you better understand some aspect of celebrations and public culture in Oberlin
April 24: Oral History Session at the High School College Students: come prepared with recording devices, and the knowledge of how to use them.  Be ready to help your students.   Think about how you want your oral history to proceed; what are you trying to learn? GOAL: use your oral history informant to help you better understand some aspect of celebrations and public culture in Oberlin College Students Follow-up: Listen to interviews and think about most relevant information. Transcribe 4-6 paragraphs, and  to be ready to share with your students at the next Mudd Research meeting, that  is, Tuesday, May 1.	April 26: Mudd Research College Students: prepare for this class by reviewing the components necessary for the final project.   Submit a progress report by 5 pm on Friday, April 27 .
May 1: Blocking out the writing take stock of what you, as a team,  know, and outline your group’s paper.  Assign particular 2 page sections to each student. GOAL: identify the “big news” from your project—the most important or exciting thing(s) your group has learned.  Set out the overall shape of your project and make sure everyone is clear about their contribution and responsibilities	May 3: Getting it down on paper Work with students to make sure they have the sources they need to write their pages.  If you have time, you might work with them on their writing.  Give them a clear assignment for bringing 2 pages with them to the next class, that is Tuesday, May 8
May 8:Work with students to revise their writing.   If time,  groups review their projects and add the visuals.  Assignments for revision as needed.   GOAL:  polish the coherence of your project and help fit the pieces together; Help your students understand what revisions they need to make.	May 10: Crafting the presentation Draft slides for your final presentation.  Add visuals.
Between May 10 and May 16, you may wish to schedule a meeting of your team GOAL: put together a final version of the written project for submission and put together (and practice) your PowerPoint. Time your presentation; it should take no longer than 10 minutes!	May 17 at 9am: Team Presentations College Student Final Project due.

 

 

CHECKLIST OF MATERIALS FOR FOUR HOUR PARTNERSHIP PROJECTS

Submit this checklist with your final project

 

Your Name:

2 pages of text by each student	Student names:
3 secondary sources (No more than one encyclopedia; no more than two online sources	Source #1     Source #2     Source #3
3 primary sources	Source #1     Source #2     Source #3
2 oral histories	Name of informant : (attach summary)     Name of informant: (attach summary)
1 photo/graphic from each student (with explanation of relevance)	Student names:
Team Paper
Team PowerPoint

 

 

In addition to submitting the materials above College Students need to submit:

Oral History Permissions
Oral History materials
Email between you and your high school students
Your self-evaluation