Class Notes Blog Post Guidelines
Class notes blog posts serve as a place for you all to synthesize the work of our intellectual community. These entries reflect students’ interpretations of the central idea of each class session, presenting your assessment of primary sources, historiographical debates, major historical figures, and how a day’s discussions fit into the larger course themes. A blog is an excellent format for this type of reflection because of the interactive nature of tool. You are all authors building a common understanding of our class work.
Each student will be responsible for composing a thoughtful, well-supported analysis of each class session’s discussion. This will be not just a summary of what I’ve written on the board, but your reflection and analysis of the key themes of the course. You will sign up for your blog post responsibilities during the first week of class.
Each class session’s blog post should include the following elements:
- A one or two paragraph summary of the day’s activities. What historical questions did we discuss in class? How did the assigned readings for that day hold together?
- Transcribe at least one passage that we talked about in class, and explain how it related to the main point.
- Key terms that came up in class, plus a definition.
- Three (or more!) links to reputable websites or scholarly sources that, in some way, clarify, extend, or correct something that was said in class.
- Three or more potential examination questions. These questions should encourage analysis, synthesis, and interpretation (not just asking for the repetition of facts).
You should post your blog entry as soon as possible after class, and no later than 72 hours after your assigned session. Posts written after 72 hours will receive 1/2 credit, and posts more than one week late will note be accepted. Please assign your post the category “Class Notes.”
For more tips on writing a good blog post, see here. Here are some examples of successful Class Notes blog posts from my History of Brazil course. Note: I got this idea from Jason Jones’s Professor Hacker entry.
List of meetings days and student responsible for the notes:
- Monday, 28 August: Julia
- Wednesday, 30 August: Chris
- Monday, 4 September:
- Wednesday, 6 September: William
- Monday, 11 September: Alberto
- Wednesday, 13 September: Catalina
- Monday, 18 September: Tristan
- Wednesday, 20 September: Jacob
- Monday, 25 September: Yeeun
- Wednesday, 27 September: Emily
- Monday, 2 October: Ben
Fall Break
- Monday, 16 October: Sofia
- Wednesday, 18 October: Rhys
- Monday, 23 October: Nikki
- Wednesday, 25 October: Jack
- Monday, 30 October: Carlos
- Wednesday, 1 November: David
- Monday, 6 November: Fred
- Wednesday, 8 November: Kate
- Monday, 13 November: Trevin
- Wednesday, 15 November: Ray
- Monday, 20 November: Tyler
Thanksgiving
- Monday, 27 November
- Wednesday, 29 November
- Monday, 4 December