Announcements for December 1

1. We will be having another quiz on Friday, so don’t forget to keep up with the textbook readings.
2. Since the winter hours for the Constitution Hall site and Shawnee Mission site have kicked in, I will extend the deadline for the extra credit assignment to Friday. Your response paper will be due on December 5th (at 9am for the 9am section, or at 11am for the 11am section). There will be no other extensions for this assignment.
3. If you have not turned in a hard copy of your paper, you must bring one to the next class.

Tips for Response Papers

As stated in the previous post, you will be writing a 2-page response essay over your field trip to one of these historical sites.  Two pages means two full pages at the very least, not one page with a few lines on the second page.  If you go onto the third page that is fine.  Also remember to staple your notes to your paper when you turn it in.  Here are some more details:

- Provide an introduction that states where you went and a brief description of the site (this should be one paragraph).

- The rest of the paper should address at least some of these questions: What part of the exhibit was most interesting you and why?  Did you learn something new about a time period/event/person that made you rethink your previous interpretations?  How did the exhibits relate to what you’ve been learning in class (either in lecture or our readings)?  Was any part of the exhibit surprising to you?

- Remember to be specific in your answers; otherwise your paper will seem superficial.  I need to know that you did in fact visit the site and thought about what exhibits you were seeing.

Final Extra Credit Opportunity

The last extra credit opportunity for HIST128 is a field trip to one of our local historical sites. You will have two options to choose from.  First, the Shawnee Mission Historical Site, located about 45 minutes away in Kansas City.  This mission was built to educate Native American children who had been relocated to Kansas after the Indian Removal Act of 1830.  Click here for their hours and address.

The second option is to visit Constitution Hall in Lecompton, only a short drive to the northwest of Lawrence.  In 1857 a pro-slavery convention gathered in this building and created the Lecompton Constitution which, had it been accepted by popular vote, would have made Kansas a slave state.  Click here for their hours and the address.

For the assignment you will need to visit the museum site, take notes about what you see during your trip, and write a 2-page response paper that records your experiences (worth 50 points).  If you don’t have a car, talk to one of your classmates or myself.  And by all means, carpool with your friends.  The deadline for this assignment is Wednesday, December 3 at the beginning of class. More details will follow.

Further Instructions for Extra Credit

For the extra credit assignment, you will be required to turn in your notes from the presentation as well as a two-page response paper. The paper must follow the regular style guidelines (12 point Times font, double spaced, etc.) in addition to fulfilling the following criteria:

• Summarize in one paragraph the main point of the lecture and give the presenter’s name.
• Explain your reactions; for instance, what questions did this lecture raise?
• How does this make you rethink your preconceptions about John Brown?

For response papers, it is acceptable to use the first person (this is not the case for the other papers in our course). We have not yet discussed the Transcendentalists or John Brown, but you could also think about any of the themes that we have covered that might relate to what you hear on Sunday. How do you think this lecture fits with topics we’re covering in our course? The paper will be due on WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 29, at 9am for the 9am section, or 11am for the 11am section. Put your paper in the Blackboard dropbox as well as turning in a hard copy. For those of you who’ve had trouble uploading papers, try using Internet Explorer instead of Firefox, but if it still doesn’t work, send it as an attachment to my email address. The paper is worth 50 points. Of course, extra credit is optional, so you will not lose points if you choose not to attend.

Extra-Credit Opportunity

For those of you looking for an extra credit opportunity, here is the information on an upcoming lecture by my advisor, Jonathan Earle, on Sunday October 26th, at 2:30pm. For this assignment you will be expected to attend the lecture, take notes, and write a 2-page response paper giving your reactions to the lecture.  More specific details will be discussed in class on Friday.  If you are unable to attend, there will be another opportunity offered later in the semester.  I’ll keep you posted.

“The Emerson Society and the Unitarian Fellowship of Lawrence will host a lecture on ‘A Plea for Captain John Brown: Unitarians, Vigilantism, and the Transcendentalists: From Bleeding Kansas to Harper’s Ferry’ by Associate Professor Jonathan Earle of the Department of History of the University of Kansas on Sunday, October 26, in the Fellowship’s new meeting hall at 1263 North 1100 Road, south of Lawrence, just off Route 59.  The lecture will begin at 2:30pm and will be followed by a reception.

“Professor Earle, who also serves as Deputy Director of the Dole Institute at the University of Kansas, is a well-known scholar on anti-slavery and democratic movements in nineteenth-century America.  He is the author of Jacksonian Antislavery and the Politics of Free Soil (University of North Carolina Press, 2004).”