Writing Course Review Form (9/10)
I. General Education Review – Writing Course
Dept/Program
Course # (i.e. ENEX
History
Subject
200)
Course Title
Urban Environmental History
II. Endorsement/Approvals
Complete the form and obtain signatures before submitting to Faculty Senate Office.
Please type / print name Signature
Instructor
Jonathan Hall
Phone / Email
Date
4/24/11
jonathan.hall@umontana.
edu
Program Chair
John Eglin
Dean
III. Type of request
New
One-time Only X
Reason for new course, change or deletion
Change
Remove
IV Overview of the Course Purpose/ Description: Provides an introduction to the subject
matter and explains course content and learning goals.
The field of environmental history—the relationship between humans and their surroundings—
has grown up around concerns of wilderness. And rightly so—when asked to contemplate
nature, most of us will conjure up images of waterfalls, snow-capped peaks, or forests thick
with wildlife. However, nature in cities, from urban parks to thriving populations of rats or
coyotes, offers environmental historians an equally fertile ground for exploration. While many
perceive cities to be devoid of nature, they, in fact, vary from more “natural” settings only in
the degree of human manipulation of the environment. This course seeks to explore the
connections between cities and their surroundings. We will proceed topically rather than
through a strict chronology and investigate a variety of issues including:




How has society drawn upon nature to build and sustain urban growth?
How has the rise of cities transformed both local and remote ecosystems, often in
unintended ways?
How have environments influenced urban growth and how have residents responded to
environmental threats to their way of life?
What role have gender, race, and class played in articulating environmental issues in
urban settings?
V Learning Outcomes: Explain how each of the following learning outcomes will be achieved.
Students will write a research paper where they
will synthesize material from both primary and
secondary sources.
Students will engage in the process of choosing
a topic to write about, in consultation with the
instructor and library staff. They will engage in
preliminary research, formulate research
questions, and construct a working thesis
statement to structure further investigations on
their topic.
Students will become accustomed to the
Compose written documents that are
expectations of writing for an academic
appropriate for a given audience or purpose
audience. They will adopt a formal writing
style where they support a thesis with evidence
gleaned from their research. In addition, they
will gain experience learning to cite evidence.
Students will receive feedback from both the
Revise written work based on constructive
instructor as well as least one other student.
comments from the instructor
They will be required to submit a revision of
their paper on the final day of class.
Find, evaluate, and use information effectively Students will learn to evaluate and critically
(see http://www.lib.umt.edu/informationliteracy/) interrogate both primary and secondary
sources. Early in the semester, the class will
meet with a reference librarian and they will
be introduced to a variety of historical
databases and other resources. Students will
learn to conduct keyword searches and to
refine those searches to achieve the desired
results. In addition, they will learn to assess
the value of a variety of sources and discover
the necessity of utilizing several sources to
bolster their thesis. The instructor will also
spend class time modeling critical reading
strategies and ask students to examine
authors’ claims, methodological approaches,
and intended audience. In addition, students
will create a Primary Documents Portfolio
where they will closely examine some of the
sources they have chosen for their project
and evaluate their usefulness for their
project.
Students will not only examine published
Begin to use discipline-specific writing
historical writing to evaluate their arguments,
conventions
but also use these works as models for the
students’ own papers.
Student learning outcomes :
Use writing to learn and synthesize new
concepts
Formulate and express opinions and ideas in
writing
Demonstrate appropriate English language
usage
Students will be evaluated in part based on the
clarity, formality, and conciseness of their
prose. More effective expression of their ideas
will be one goal for revision.
VI. Writing Course Requirements Check list
Is enrollment capped at 25 students?
If not, list maximum course enrollment.
Explain how outcomes will be adequately met
for this number of students. Justify the request
for variance.
Are outcomes listed in the course syllabus? If
not, how will students be informed of course
expectations?
x Yes  No
Are expectations for Information Literacy listed in
the course syllabus? If not, how will students be
informed of course expectations?
Are detailed requirements for all written
assignments included in the course syllabus? If not
how and when will students be informed of written
assignments? Please attach one example of
instructions for written assignment.
What instructional methods will be used to teach
students to write for specific audiences, purposes,
and genres?
x Yes  No
Informal Ungraded Assignments
Exercises involving: composing thesis
statements, integrating quotes and other
source material, and summarizing
arguments.
x Yes  No
x Yes  No
The instructor will provide models of
exemplary academic writing. In addition,
students will engage in a variety of inclass exercises to craft thesis
statements, integrate source material,
and practice other crucial components in
the writing process.
Which written assignments will include revision in Students will get initial feedback on their
response to instructor’s feedback?
proposal, which they hopefully will take
into account in composing their rough
draft of their 7-10 page paper on a topic
in urban environmental history. The
instructor will evaluate student’s rough
drafts and provide feedback for them to
consider in writing the final draft of their
paper.
VII. Writing Assignments: Please describe course assignments. Students should be required to
individually compose at least 16 pages of writing for assessment. At least 50% of the course grade
should be based on students’ performance on writing assignments. Clear expression, quality, and
accuracy of content are considered an integral part of the grade on any writing assignment.
Formal Graded Assignments
Proposal, Rough Draft, Final Draft
VIII. Syllabus: Paste syllabus below or attach and send digital copy with form.  The syllabus
should clearly describe how the above criteria are satisfied. For assistance on syllabus preparation
see: http://teaching.berkeley.edu/bgd/syllabus.html
Paste syllabus here.
Jonathan Hall
Office: 351 Corbin Hall
Office hours:
Email: jonathan.hall@umontana.edu
Urban Environmental History
History 2XX
University of Montana—Missoula
Winter Session 2012
Course Description:
The field of environmental history—the relationship between humans and their surroundings—
has grown up around concerns of wilderness. And rightly so—when asked to contemplate
nature, most of us will conjure up images of waterfalls, snow-capped peaks, or forests thick with
wildlife. However, nature in cities, from urban parks to thriving populations of rats or coyotes,
offers environmental historians an equally fertile ground for exploration. While many perceive
cities to be devoid of nature, they, in fact, vary from more “natural” settings only in the degree of
human manipulation of the environment. This course seeks to explore the connections between
cities and their surroundings. We will proceed topically rather than through a strict chronology
and investigate a variety of issues including:




How has society drawn upon nature to build and sustain urban growth?
How has the rise of cities transformed both local and remote ecosystems, often in
unintended ways?
How have environments influenced urban growth and how have residents responded to
environmental threats to their way of life?
What role have gender, race, and class played in articulating environmental issues in
urban settings?
As a lower division writing course, this class also has been designed to meet a series of
outcomes that will serve students well not only in future history courses, but also in any
upper division course that requires students to think critically and write effectively.
Through a series of assignments, students will gain experience with the research process.
They will formulate research questions, and become acquainted with a variety of research
tools and utilize them to locate resources. In addition, once students have discovered
possible sources for their project, they will closely scrutinize and evaluate them and later
incorporate them into their essays with proper citations.
Learning Outcomes
By the end of this course, students should be able to:






Compose drafts that synthesize multiple sources and concepts.
Formulate opinions about historical events or concepts and effectively express those
ideas in writing.
Compose historical research projects targeted toward an academic audience.
Revise these projects based on feedback from peers and the instructor.
Critically evaluate both primary and secondary sources. For more information on
Montana’s standards of information literacy, please consult the website,
http://www.lib.umt.edu/informationliteracytables/
Competently employ the language, conventions, and style of academic discourse,
specifically that of historians.
Course Requirements and Grading:
Your final grade will be calculated as follows:
Quizzes & Participation: 10%
Proposal and Primary Documents Portfolio: 20% (due 1-9-12)
Paper Rough Draft: 10% (due 1-13-12)
Paper Final Draft: 30% (due 1-20-12)
Final Exam: 30% (Essay exam, 1-20-12; bring a blue book to class).
Class Format: This three-week class will consist primarily of a combination of lecture and
discussion. Some classes will include two lectures; others will involve a single lecture followed
by an in-depth discussion of readings or a film screening. In addition, we will spend significant
time on the writing process and preparation for writing a paper on a topic related to urban
environmental history.
Proposal and Primary Documents Portfolio: After a few introductory discussions, you will
submit a two-page proposal where you summarize your research and present the
question(s) you hope to answer. In addition, you will create a Primary Documents
Portfolio that collects ten to twelve of the best primary sources you have located. For each
source, you will write a paragraph that briefly addresses the following questions: What
does each source say? What are its biases? Why might it be useful to your project? How
can it be reconciled with the other sources you’ve collected?
Paper: Since this course fulfills one of the writing requirements for all students, this project will
comprise not only a significant portion of your final grade but also account for much of your inclass work and assignments outside of class. The paper, totaling 7-10 pages, will explore
connections between cities and nature, and should include both primary and secondary sources.
You will submit a rough draft, receive feedback, and on the final day of the course, turn in a final
draft.
Required Paper Format: Your written work must be typed, stapled and double-spaced.
Emailed papers will not be accepted.
Class Assignments and Quizzes: It is important that you complete the readings for the class
period in which they are assigned, so that we might have a productive discussion. At the
beginning of class, I will frequently ask you to summarize or write a short response to what you
read. These exercises, along with short quizzes, will be reflected in your final grade.
Class Participation: Class participation is required. Thoughtful contribution to class discussion
will be reflected in your grade. Failure to attend class or participate can result in your failing to
pass the class. I will make note of who participates in our class discussions on a daily basis.
Readings:
Optional: Dorceta Taylor, The Environment and the People in American Cities, 1600s-1900s:
Disorder, Inequality, and Social Change, (2009).
Required: Philip Dreyfus, Our Better Nature: Environment and the Making of San Francisco,
Philip Dreyfus (2009)
Other readings will be available on E-Reserve. Please print them out and bring them to class.
On the course outline below, they are denoted with an *
Academic Honesty: Plagiarism is a serious offense and infractions will be taken very seriously.
Not only will those who try to pass the ideas or work of others off as their own fail the course,
they will also be referred to the dean and subject to further disciplinary measure.
Course Schedule:
Week I:
Tuesday, January 3:
Lectures: The Nature of Cities; The Rise of Urban America
Film for discussion: The City (1939)
Wednesday January 4:
Lectures: Urban Animals; Early Suburbs
Reading: Reading: Dreyfus Intro and Ch. 1
Selected primary sources on dogs in the early 19th century*
Writing: Choosing A Topic
Thursday: January 5:
Lectures: Disease and Public Health; Engineered Landscapes
Reading: Ari Kelman, “The Necropolis of the South”*
Dreyfus, Ch. 2 & 3
Library Introduction: A Historian’s Research Tools
Friday: January 6:
Lectures: The City and Its Hinterlands; Garbage: What To Do with City Waste?
Reading: William Cronon, “Booster Dreams”*
Writing: Writing a Proposal
Week II:
Monday January 9:
Lectures: Women’s Work: Urban Lives; Noise and Air Pollution
Reading: Douglas Sackman, “Putting Gender on the Table: Food and the Family Life of Nature”
Writing: Formulating a Thesis
Proposal and Primary Documents Portfolio Due
Tuesday January 10:
Lectures: Industrialization; Water and the Urban West
Reading: Dreyfus Ch. 4
Chad Montrie, “‘I Think Less of the the Factory than of My Native Dell’: Labor Nature, and the
“Lowell Mill Girls’”*
Writing: Citing Sources
Wednesday January 11:
Lectures: The Rise of Hygiene
Reading: Nancy Tomes, “The Private Side of Public Health: Sanitary Science, Domestic
Hygiene and the Germ Theory, 1870-1990”*
Thursday January 12:
Lecture: Natural Disaster in an Unnatural Metropolis: San Francisco, 1906 and New Orleans,
2005
Film: When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts (2006)
Friday: January 13:
Lecture: Environmental Justice
Film: When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts (continued).
Reading: Ellen Stroud, “Dead Bodies in Harlem: Environmental History and the Geography of
Death;”*
Rough Draft Due
Week III:
Monday January 16:
Martin Luther King Day, No Class.
Tuesday January 17:
Lectures: Suburbia and Urban Sprawl
Reading: Adam Rome, “Building on the Land: Toward an Environmental History of Residential
Development In American Cities and Suburbs, 1870-1990.”*
Jennifer Price, “Thirteen Ways of Seeing Nature in L.A.” 220-244. *
Writing: Peer Review
Wednesday, January 18:
Lecture: Urban Ecosystems and Green Cities
Reading: Dreyfus Ch. 5
Film: The 11th Hour (2007) (excerpts)
Thursday, January 19:
Lecture: Planet of Slums: The Rise of Mega-Cities in the Developing World
Reading: George Packer, “The Megacity: Decoding the Chaos of Lagos”*
Review
Friday, January 20:
Final Examination (Bring a blue book to class!)
Paper Revision Due
Research Paper Assignment.
Rough Draft Due: 1-13-12
Final Draft Due: 1-20-12
Choose a topic for research that explores some connection between cities and nature. You may
choose something akin to one of the following, but are not limited to these options.

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
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

An environmental history of a specific city
The impact of malaria on urban growth in the 19th century South
Green Building
How urban pollution has impacted the environmental movement
Environmental racism in a particular urban community
The impact of highway construction on suburban life
Love Canal
In any case, your paper should be thesis-driven and make an argument that your research
supports.
Paper Guidelines:




Length: 7-10 pages, be sure to include page numbers in the lower right corner.
Double-spaced, Times New Roman font, 1 inch margins
Your paper should include incorporate at least three secondary and three primary sources.
Be sure to footnote these sources in Chicago style.
Be sure to proofread and edit your work!