Syllabus for HIST4366: Latin America Origins through Independence on-line class

1. Students will be be able to accurately describe interpretations of specific aspects of the history of colonial Latin America as expressed in class readings and lectures. (assessed in on-line quizzes and country projects)
2. Students will demonstrate critical thinking in the interpretation of primary source images and texts from Latin American history (assessed in weekly discussion board postings)
3. Students will be able to research and write original essays connecting class lectures and readings with events in the colonial history of a specific Latin American country (assessed in country projects)

We’ll start this course with a multiple-choice quiz over the course syllabus documents and policies. Like all our quizzes, you can take it twice and keep the highest score.

On a weekly basis, you’ll read one of our four books and watch on-line lectures in screencast format. Some of the lectures will review important or difficult elements of the reading, and others will go deeper into historical topics. The lectures are NOT substitutes for reading the books, but are designed to help you get more out of them. You’ll have about 30 minutes of screencast lectures to watch every week, with a weekly multiple-choice quizzes on the content. You’ll be able to take each quiz twice within a 9-day window. Your highest score will count.

For four weeks during the semester, you will be assigned to read the materials and do the exercises on a website called World History: Unpacking the Evidence. [http://chnm.gmu.edu/worldhistorysources/whmunpacking.html] One week, for example, we will do a unit on using images (paintings, photographs) as primary sources. Another week the unit will be about using official documents. “Unpacking the Sources” will train you in the historical skills you need for your Show-N-Tell assignment. There will be a five-question multiple-choice quiz on these materials during each of these four weeks. And for each of those four weeks the Unpacking the Evidence site will be the basis of our weekly discussion.

In week one you will pick one of the four types of primary sources [images, maps, official documents, and personal accounts] we will cover in “Unpacking the Evidence.” Then you will sign up to do an SNT, analyzing an example of that type of primary source, using the skills we will learn from “Unpacking the Evidence”. The course schedule shows when each of the different primary sources has its SNT week on the discussion board. You will choose your specific primary source from a list I will provide. For example, if you choose to do your SNT on an image, you would select an image from among those I supply on Blackboard. Then on the Monday that begins Week 3, all the image people will post their image on the discussion board, along with a critical analysis of that material. I will supply you will a detailed template for this analysis. During week 3, all the other students in the class will review and critique the image analyses posted for these SNTs. Part of your SNT grade is based on how active and responsive you are in the class discussion of your post during that week.

During each of the 9 weeks when you aren’t doing an SNT, you’ll be making two discussion posts about the “Unpacking” website, or the SNTs posted that week. I’ll assign you a discussion grade of 1 to 10 for each of those 9 weeks.

• In week one you’ll choose one Latin American country. During the semester you will write three five-page papers about that country. These “Country Projects” will ask you to explain and illustrate how themes from our assigned book can [or cannot] be seen in the history and culture of your country. Some countries cannot be chosen for a Country Project because they are too difficult to research. These are Belize, El Salvador, the Caribbean islands, Costa Rica, and Panama.
• Country Project #1 is due [2018-09-14 Fri] 5pm
• Country Project #2 is due [2018-10-05 Fri] 5pm
• Country Project #3 is due [2018-11-09 Fri] 5pm

• At the end of the semester you’ll use a template I provide to combine your three country project assignments, plus a fourth segment written about independence, into a single larger paper about the country you picked.
• Final Country Project is due 11:59pm, [2018-12-05 Wed]

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• Print out the syllabus and read it carefully
• Buy the 4 books, if you haven’t already
• Write the due dates for Country Projects, quizzes and discussions in your calendar
• Research which Latin American country you want for your Country Project

• Take syllabus quiz
• Sign up for Show-N-Tell
• Watch approx. 27 minutes of on-line lectures; take quiz
• Email Dr. G. about your country project choice
• Read Mann, ix-xii, Chasteen, Preface; Mann, Ch1 (3-30)
• Make 2 discussion postings about the reading and your country choice

• Approx. 25 minutes of on-line lectures plus quiz
• Go to Using Images As Primary Sources; read “Getting Started,” “Questions to Ask,” “Sample Analysis”
• Complete “You Be the Historian” exercise; take “Unpacking” quiz;
• Make 2 discussion posts on “Using Images”
• Read Mann, Ch2 (33-67), Ch3 (68-106) and Ch4 (107-150)

• Image Show-N-Tell postings due Monday 8am
• Approx. 33 Minutes of on-line lectures plus quiz
• Read Mann, Ch 6 (194-227), Ch7 (228-270)and Ch9 (315-349)
• Make 2 discussion postings about the SNTs on images

• CP1 due at 5pm Friday
• Approx. 27 minutes of on-line lectures plus quiz
• Restall, xiii-xix & Ch1 (1-27); Restall, Ch2 (24-43)
• Make 2 discussion postings

• Go to Using Maps as Primary Sources; read “Getting Started,” “Questions to Ask,” “Sample Analysis”
• Complete “You Be the Historian” exercise; take “Unpacking” quiz;
• Approx. 20 minutes of on-line lectures plus quiz
• Make 2 discussion postings about “Using Maps”
• Restall Ch3 (44-63); Restall Ch4 (64-76) & Ch5 (77-99)

• Maps SNT postings due Monday 8am
• Approx. 18 minutes of on-line lectures plus quiz
• Restall, Ch6 (100-130); Restall Ch7 (131-145) & Epilogue (147-157)

• CP2 due Friday at 5pm
• Approx. 23 minutes of on-line lectures plus quiz
• No discussion this week [changed on [2018-09-14 Fri]]
• Furtado, preface (xvii-xxv); Introduction (1-19); Furtado, Ch1 (20-39)

• Go to Using Official Documents as Primary Sources; read “Getting Started,” “Questions to Ask,” “Sample Analysis”
• Complete “You Be the Historian” exercise; take “Unpacking” quiz;
• Approx. 20 minutes of on-line lectures plus quiz
• Make 2 discussion postings about “Using Official Documents”

• Approx. 30 minutes of on-line lectures plus quiz
• Furtado, Ch2 (40-68), Furtado, Ch3 (69-103)
• Make 2 discussion postings

• Official documents SNTs due Monday 8am
• Approx. 33 minutes of on-line lectures plus quiz
• Make 2 discussion postings about the SNTs on official documents
• Furtado, Ch4 (104-129); Furtado, Ch5 (130-161)

• Approx. 26 minutes of on-line lectures plus quiz
• Furtado, Ch6 (162-192); Furtado, Ch7 & Ch8 (193-238)
• Make 2 discussion postings

• CP3 due Friday at 5pm
• Go to Using Personal Accounts as Primary Sources; read “Getting Started,” “Questions to Ask,” “Sample Analysis”
• Complete “You Be the Historian” exercise; take “Unpacking” quiz;
• Approx. 25 minutes of on-line lectures plus quiz
• Make 2 discussion postings about “Using Personal Accounts”
• Approx. 9 minutes of on-line lectures plus quiz
• Read Furtado, Ch9 (239-258), Furtado, Ch11 (284-304)

• Personal accounts SNTs due Monday 8am
• Approx. 26 minutes of on-line lectures plus quiz
• Make 2 discussion postings about the SNTs on personal accounts
• Read Chasteen, 6-34; Chasteen, 35-65

• Approx. 30 minutes of on-line lectures plus quiz
• Read Chasteen, 66-105; 105-158
• Make 2 discussion posts

• Approx. 11 minutes of on-line lecture and quiz
• 2 discussion postings
• Chasteen, 159-181; 182-192

• Final project due on Blackboard by 11:59pm [2018-12-05 Wed]

As the instructor for this course, I reserve the right to adjust this schedule in any way that serves the educational needs of the students enrolled in this course. John Garrigus