Discipline/Program: History
Course Title: U.S. History before 1876
Course Rubric and Number: HIST 1301
Semester with Course Reference Number (CRN): 63701 2013 Fall Semester, Section: 30
Course Location/Times: Felix Morales Bldg. Tuesdays & Thursdays (5:30-7:00pm)Rm. 306 Eastside
Campus.
Course Semester Credit Hours (SCH): 3 Hours, Lecture
Course Contact Hours: 48 Contact Hours
Course Length (number of weeks): 16 weeks
Type of Instruction: Lecture
Instructor Name: Antonio Gonzalez J. D.
Phone Number (Office): 713-313-1335
Email Address: antonio.gonzalez6@hccs.edu
Office Hours: 5:00-7:30pm
Course Description: The American nation from the Age of Exploration to the Reconstruction Era.
Core Curriculum course.
Course Prerequisites: In order to register for this course, students must have successfully completed
or be co-enrolled in English 1301.
Course Goal: Students will evaluate historical developments in an essay.
Program Learning Outcomes (PLOs):
1. Students will evaluate historical development in an essay.
2. Students will be read primary source documents.
3. Students will analyze historical evidence by writing an analytical essay.
4. Students will identify proper academic, historical databases.
Student Learning Outcomes (SLOs):
1.
Discuss the Age of Exploration
2.
Explain Colonization
3.
Identify the Causes and effects of the American Revolution
4.
Explain the origins and impact of Slavery
5.
Analyze the formation of the Republic
6.
Summarize the effects of Expansion and Innovation
7.
Explain Nationalism and Sectionalism
8.
Discuss the Civil War
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9.Evaluate the effects of Reconstruction
SCANS SKILLS
Texas Colleges must demonstrate that the Basic Intellectual Core Competencies are incorporated into
all Core courses. This course addresses the competencies in the following ways:
Reading: The lecture notes, PowerPoint Presentations, Virtual Reader, the textbook, and the
monograph will provide the basis for Unit Quizzes, Class Discussion, Semester Writing Assignment,
and Midterm and Final Exams.
Writing: Students will conduct most communication with the instructor through the typewritten
word. Students will write answers to essay questions and papers.
Speaking: Students may consult the instructor for supplemental information or clarification of
assignments as needed. Students working in groups have the opportunity to develop their academic
speaking proficiency.
Listening: Students working in collaboration with other students on chapter assignments will have the
opportunity to develop and practice their listening skills. Students will also practice critical listening
from audio and video materials.
Critical Thinking: Exam essays will contain questions and problems that require higher-level, "critical"
thinking skills to solve successfully. The Midterm and Final exams, the Semester Writing Assignment,
and essay assignments will likewise contain questions and problems that will require higher-level,
"critical" thinking skills to solve successfully.
Computer Literacy: Courses such as this one require significant computer literacy from students, who
must be proficient at navigating the web, navigating academic databases, delivering PowerPoint
presentations, and word processing written work.
COURSE CALENDAR
Week 1
August 27: Introduction to the Syllabus
August29: Read: Making America Chapter 1
Official Date of Record, Thursday, August 29
Week 2
September 3:Read Making America Chapter 2
September 5: Readings: From Online Reader Ch. 1: “The Puritans and Sex”
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Week 3
September 10: Read Making America Chapter 3
September 12: Readings. From Online Reader Ch. 4: “A "Most Undisciplined, Profligate Crew": Protest
and Defiance in the Continental Ranks (1776-1783)”
Week 4
September 17: Read Making America Chapter 4
September 19: Readings. From Online Reader Ch. 4: “Shays's Rebellion (1786-1787)”
Week 5
September 24. Read Making America Chapter 5
September 26.
Week 6
October 1: Read Making America Chapter 6
October 3: Readings. From Online Reader Ch. 5: “Tecumseh Address to the Osages (1811)”
Week 7
October 8: Read Making America Chapter 7
October 10: Readings. From Online Reader Ch. 9: “Nat Turner Rebellion (1831)”
Week 8
October 15: Read Making America Chapter 8
October 17: Read. From Online Reader Ch. 6. “Black Hawk's Surrender Speech (1832)”
Week 9
October 22: Read Making America Chapter 9
October 24. Readings. From Online Reader Ch. 10: “Ain’t I a Woman? (1851)”
Week 10:
October 29: Read Making America Chapter 10
October 31: Read. From Online Reader Ch. 11: “President Lincoln's Letters to His Generals”
Week 11
November 5: Read Making America Chapter 11
November 7: From Online Reader Ch. 12: “History of the Sioux War and Massacre (1863)”
Week 12
November 12: Read Making America Chapter 12
November 14. Readings. From Online Reader Ch. 11: “Mississippi Black Codes (1865)”
Week 13
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November 19. Read Making America Chapter 13
November 21 Read Making America Chapter 14
Week 14
November 26. Read Making America Chapter 15.
November 28. Happy Thanksgiving
Week 15
December 3. Read Making America Chapter 15
December 5. Class Presentations
Week 16. Read American Passages Chapters 1- 15.
December 9. @ 5:30-7:30pm Monday
FINAL EXAM
Instructional Methods: Lecture Notes, PowerPoint Presentations, Films, Music, Major Exams,
Semester Writing Assignment.
Student Assignments: Read a variety of historical material, complete quizzes and exams, and submit a
major paper.
Student Assessments: 3 Term Exams, 1 Final Exam, 1 Presentation, 1 Semester Writing Assignment.
INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS:
All instructional materials are available at the campus bookstore.
REQUIRED:
Berkin,Miller,Cherny, Gormly et.al. Making America: A History of the United States, 6th Edition.
Boston: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning, 2013.
ISBN-13: 978-0-8400-2871-6
ISBN-10:0-8400-2874-1
Online Reader, http://www.pearsoncustom.com/tx/hcc_hist1301
eText Course ID*: Gonzy464056eb
Course Title and Section Name: History 1301 30 63701
You may purchase an access card for the online reader at the campus bookstore
Monograph: Howard Zinn, A People’s History of the United States, 1492-Present. New York: Harper
Perennial Modern Classics, 2005.
RECOMMENDED:
Making America Textbook Companion Website (no charge):
http://college.cengage.com/history/us/berkin/making_am/6e/student_home.html
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In addition, students will be required to study other online resources.
HCC Policy Statements:
ADA: DISABILITY SERVICES
Any student with a documented disability (e.g. physical, learning, psychiatric, vision, hearing, etc.)
who needs to arrange reasonable accommodations must contact the Disability Support Services
Office at the beginning of each semester. Professors are authorized to provide only the
accommodations requested by the Disability Support Services Office. The counselor for Southeast
College can be reached at 713-718-7218.
ACADEMIC HONESTY:
Academic irregularities cannot be tolerated. Attempts to compromise the integrity of this course will
result in a grade of zero for the assignment. Students must not collaborate on the exams in any way
(including the use of materials from former students) and must not copy material from any source to
use as their essay answers or discussion contributions. See the HCCS Student Handbook for further
details.
http://www.hccs.edu/hcc/images/home%20page%20images/0-20112012%20Student%20handbook.pdf
Cheating is not that hard to define and as college students, you should have a firm idea about what
cheating is. Just to be clear, here are a few simple definitions:
Cheating is: Copying from another student's exam.
Cheating is: During an exam, using materials not authorized by the person giving the exam.
Cheating is: Collaborating with another student during an exam without proper authority.
Cheating is: Knowingly using, buying, selling, stealing, transporting, or soliciting in whole or part the
contents of an exam or paper.
Cheating is: Bribing another person to obtain a copy of an exam.
Cheating is: Plagiarism which means using someone's work or someone's ideas and representing them
to be your own. That "someone" may be another student, a friend, a relative, a book author, an
author of material on a web site, etc. Do not take material from anywhere without giving proper
credit or reference. In other words, do not copy from an Internet source and paste it into your essay
answer space.
Cheating is: Collusion, which means the unauthorized collaboration with another person in preparing
written work offered for credit when you represent that work to be your own.
In this class, the standard penalty for academic dishonesty is a grade of zero in the course.
Academic dishonesty can lead to a recommendation for probation or dismissal from the College
System.
If you ever have any question about what is cheating, what is plagiarism or what is unauthorized
collusion, please contact your instructor before you do anything or submit anything. It is much better
to ask first than to get caught later.
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Program/Discipline Requirements:
A minimum of 50% of the student’s semester average must come from writing assignments.
HCC Grading Scale:
A = 90 - 100
B = 80 - 89
C = 70 - 79
D = 60 - 69
F = 59 and below
Instructor Grading Scale:
900 - 1,000 points A
800 - 899 points
B
700 - 799 points
C
600 - 699 points
D
Under 600 points F
The semester grade will be calculated by:
3 Term Exams (45%)
1 Final Exam (15%)
Power Point Presentation (15%)
1 Oral History (15%)
Attendance (10%)
Grades
The grade of A (100-90) reflects excellence. The A work offers a well-focused and organized discussion
appropriate to the instructor's assignment, reflects critical use of all relevant materials, and
demonstrates effective and formal writing requirements. Work must demonstrate outstanding efforts
to identify and use varied and pertinent evidence from all available sources, to employ those
materials critically in the text of the papers, and to provide error-free citations of those resources.
The grade of B (89-80) represents work beyond satisfactory and indicates the work was completed in
an appropriate and competent manner and, in general, demonstrates a strong attempt at original and
critical analysis, writing, and research. Work must demonstrate beyond satisfactory efforts to identify
varied and pertinent evidence from all available sources. The B paper may contain a number of minor
errors of grammar or citation, and its thesis or its conclusions may be undeveloped or too weakly
supported.
The grade of C (79-70) indicates that the work was done in a satisfactory or appropriate fashion and
represents the average work expected for university courses. In order to obtain a C grade, your work
must adhere to all of the assignment’s minimum requirements to include limited to page/word
requirements, number of sources, types of sources, and proper citation method. The work is
organized around a central idea with arguments supported by relevant examples from the available
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sources. The work is structured into correctly written paragraphs and sentences. Although fulfilling
the assignment, the C work may exhibit one or more weaknesses including, but not limited to, errors
of punctuation and grammar, imprecise or incorrect word use, inaccurate or uncritical use of
materials, occasional inconsistency of organization or development, and lack of direct relevance of
the selected research materials to the topic.
The grade of D (69-60) indicates that the work may have a poorly defined topic or thesis, lacks clear
focus or organization, and contains unsupported generalizations or conclusions. Research support
(citations) is inadequate, not clearly relevant, or improperly documented. A less-than-minimal
research effort is evident. D works fails to obtain the required page or word minimum requirement.
The work may also suffer from numerous or major formal writing errors. D work fails to adhere to any
of the assignment’s minimum requirements.
The grade of F (59-1) indicates that the work is not clearly relevant to the assignment and that its
topic and thesis are poorly focused or defined. The work may display inadequate organization or
development, unsupported generalizations, and nonstandard formal features (including language
usage, sentence structure, and paragraphing). Research support (citations) is absent, or irrelevant to
the assignment.
A Final Thought on Grades – Getting good grades is easy. All you have to do is to keep up with the
readings, attend class with a tenacity of purpose, take full and complete notes as I lecture and as you
read, review your notes on a daily basis, take advantage of my office hours, and put forth the required
effort on all class assignments. No one has more control over your grades than yourselves. You will do
well (i.e., pass) when you decide that studying is what is important and if you take the necessary steps
to do well. Ultimately, you are responsible for your success or failure.
COURSE COMPONENTS:
SYLLABUS QUIZ.
To be administered at the beginning of the third week of class. There will be no make ups of this quiz.
MIDTERMS AND FINAL EXAMS.
Each exam will count for 200 points, or 20% of your final grade. Exams are non-comprehensive. Exams
will consist of a multiple choice section (120 points) and an essay section (80 points). This and all
other assignments will be discussed in detail by the instructor during the course of the semester.
REVIEW SESSIONS AND STUDY GUIDES.
I do not give review sessions or study guides. Students are expected to study their books and notes
every day in order to prepare for examinations.
MAKE UP EXAMS.
One make up exam will only be given to students who provide documentation that they absolutely
had to miss one of the three make up exams due to extraordinary circumstances such as being
hospitalized or suffering an automobile accident the day of the test. A COMPREHENSIVE make up
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exam consisting of the material reviewed during weeks 1 and 10 will be administered the last day of
class.
SEMESTER WRITING ASSIGNMENTS.
The semester writing assignment will consist of one analytical research term based on a chapter on
Howard Zinn, A People’s History of the United States, and one additional academic journal article
accessed through Houston Community College Library Electronic Databases. More details to be given
in class.
Hard copies of student papers MUST BE SUBMITTED on the instructor’s desk by the beginning of class
on the day assigned.
Early Work is always welcome.
Late Work. Assignments are due on my desk at the beginning of class. Assignments turned after the
beginning of class will be automatically considered ONE DAY LATE. Overdue assignments will be
penalized 20 points for every day they are late.
Writing Assistance. If need help in developing your history writing skills, you can 1) take advantage of
my offer to tutor you; 2) Visit the college’s new and improved Writing Center, located in room 230 of
the Felix Morales Building, 713-718-7202, 3) email at se.writingcenter@hccs.edu, or 4) go to
http://m.se.hccs.edu/Users/se.writingcenter/web/
CLASS ATTENDANCE.
Attendance is absolutely required in this course. Attendance counts for 10% of your final grade. The
instructor will take attendance promptly at 1:00 p.m. every day. Students who are not in their seats
by 1:00 p.m. will be counted tardy. Three tardies count as an absence. Students who are 15 minutes
late or more will be counted absent. Students who leave the classroom early will be counted absent.
Having an absence excused may keep a student from being dropped from this course, but IT WILL
NOT count him as being present in class.
MISSING CLASS.
Students who miss class are responsible for keeping up with all class assignments and readings. The
instructor will not respond to absent students’ inquiries about the material covered in class. The
instructor will not give away his lecture notes nor will conduct individual lectures or individual review
sessions with students who have been absent from class.
COMMUNICATING WITH THE INSTRUCTOR.
E-mail is the most effective way of communicating with the instructor. Please allow a 24 hour frame
for the instructor to reply. Students must ALWAYS refer to the syllabus for answers to their questions
before asking the instructor. The instructor will not respond to questions that are clearly explained in
the syllabus nor will he explained what he covered in class that day.
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EXTRA CREDIT.
Students may earn no more than 50 points, or 5% of their final grade, as extra credit. The only source
of extra credit consists of being in your seats 5 minutes prior to class and staying in the classroom the
whole session.
CLASSROOM CONDUCT.
This class a certain degree of classroom civility – translated; this means you are to conduct yourself
appropriately. As such, the following is prohibited: talking in a disruptive manner, dipping, smoking,
sleeping, reading the newspaper, studying for other classes, fighting, wearing sun glasses or shades,
or any similar behavior that is deemed disruptive or inappropriate by the instructor. Disruptive
students who refuse to listen to the instructor will be removed from the classroom by campus
police and will be dropped from this course. Please refer to the 2011-2012 Student Handbook
available through the link below.
http://www.hccs.edu/hcc/images/home%20page%20images/0-20112012%20Student%20handbook.pdf
CAMPUS SECURITY.
Should there ever be a disruption in class, I will contact HCC Police at 713-718-8888 (8888 from a
campus phone).
ELECTRONIC DEVICES.
This class offers you a zero tolerance policy on cell phones, iPhones, iPods, MP3s, PSPs and other
similar devices. Make sure they are turned off and put away during class time. Laptops are not
allowed in this class. Recording lectures is not allowed in this class. If you absolutely have to answer
your cell phone due to an extremely serious situation, please notify the instructor in advance, sit close
to the door, put your phone on vibrate, and exit quietly.
This syllabus is meant as a guide and is subject to change at the discretion
of the instructor. If there are any changes made, students will be notified
in a timely manner.
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