Syllabi+until+French+Revolution

Here are some old syllabi from an Honors Euro class.

Mrs. Krasemann
 * Honors Modern European History: A Content Overview**

“All human beings are practicing historians. “ Gerda Lerner “History is a dialogue between the past and the present.” E.H. Carr

Content overview

Medieval and Renaissance: September and early October • Excerpts from our text, Sophie’s World, Sources of the Western Tradition, The Physician, and primary sources from Petrarch, Machievelli, etc. • Extensive discussion on the art and architecture of the period • Final assessment: a Renaissance art gallery. Each student owns a piece from the period and writes the wall text to the image.

The Reformation: mid-October • Excerpts from our text, Sophie’s World, Sources of the Western Tradition, Luther’s 95 Theses and other primary documents • We will discuss modern day religious sects and trace back to 1517 • Final assessment: a debate. Were the generating forces of the Protestant Reformation primarily economic and political OR religious?

British Civil War and Louis XIV: late-October, early November • Excerpts from our text, Sophie’s World, Sources of the Western Tradition,, Louis’ personal diaries and other primary documents • We will discuss the differences in development of early parliamentary democracy and absolutism in France. • Final assessment: Louis XIV on trial for crimes against humanity.

Scientific Revolution and Enlightenment: November • Excerpts from our text, Sophie’s World, Sources of the Western Tradition,Galileo’s diaries and other primary documents • We will discuss the implications of the scientific revolution today and what today’s great ideas are that shape our understanding of the world • Final assessments: Nominating a scientist from the Scientific Revolution for a Nobel prize and an Enlightenment Salon, a gathering of intellectual minds.

Fall Term Exam: the construction of dialogues between historical characters from the Renaissance through the Enlightenment.

French Revolution: December • Excerpts from our text, Sophie’s World, Sources of the Western Tradition,, Last Letters, and first hand accounts of the Revolution • We will unpack the term revolution and examine whether the events in France from 1789-1815 were in fact revolutionary. We will discuss the nature of power and government • Final assessment: a critical essay on the film “Danton” and two debates on the efficacy of the revolution and Napoleon’s impact

The Industrial Revolution: January • Excerpts from our text, Sophie’s World, Sources of the Western Tradition,, and primary sources • We will analyze the IR from a variety of different perspectives and discuss today’s technological revolution • Final assessment: The production of a pamphlet on the IR, from at least three different perspectives.

19th century culture and society: February • Excerpts from our text, Sophie’s World, Sources of the Western Tradition, • Extensive discussion on the different artistic movements of the century and the movement towards a more urban society • Final assessment: a paper selecting the most important ism impacting society in the 19th century: nationalism, liberalism, socialism, etc.

Imperialism and World War I: March-April • Excerpts from our text, Sophie’s World, Sources of the Western Tradition, and primary documents from the Western Front and Africa, Asia. • We will discuss imperialism and the “Great War” from all different sides, assessing the impact on individual lives. • Final assessment: a re-enactment of the Versailles Treaty.

Winter Term Assessment: Production of an historical short story on the topic of your choice.

World War II: April-early May • Excerpts from our text, Sophie’s World, Sources of the Western Tradition,and primary documents • We will discuss the events of the 1920 and 1930s that shaped Hitler’s rise to power. We will unpack the war from three distinct perspectives: a German Jew, a Soviet soldier, and a member of the French resistance. • Final assessment: Three extensive journal entries from the three perspectives above processing events.

Cold War and the Euro: May • Excerpts from our text, Sophie’s World, Sources of the Western Tradition, and contemporary newspaper accounts • We will discuss the Iron Curtain, the Berlin Wall, NATO, and the Euro, along with contemporary events that shape Europe. • Assessments: Debate on the future of European military, economic, and political relations

Spring Term exam: A list and accompanying explanation of the “shoe box” that tells the story of Modern Europe.


 * Honors Modern European History: Another overview**

“All human beings are practicing historians. “ Gerda Lerner “History is a dialogue between the past and the present.” E.H. Carr

Overview Goals • Students will continually revisit the concept “history is a choice.” We will examine how we chose to know about the past and examine how understanding history is a subjective, deliberate choice. • Students will take intellectual risks in class every day. The ability to empathize with and trust one another is essential components of the course. One must also learn to empathize with past events. • Students will understand what it means to be an historian by discovering that “the window of truth has many panes.”

Specific Course Objectives:

Content/ knowledge: • Draw connections between current events and the recent and ancient past. • Understand that history is in a process of becoming and how knowing the context of a document or event is crucial to really understanding it • Identify the major themes in the development of and relationship between Government, Religion, Economy, Art and Architecture, Social and Intellectual, Education, and Science and Technology. GREASES

Skills • Present and defend a focused thesis in class discussions and writing assignments. • Reflect at the end of every class and synthesize one essential point to be recorded in journal entries. • Construct and defend a compelling thesis statement, drawing from a variety of sources, both secondary and political. • Discern the differences between primary and secondary sources

Values/ attitudes

• Respect different perspectives, not judge them. Through frequent exposure to different interpretations and perspectives, students will be able to articulate differences not judge. • Intellectual restlessness: A need to learn and respect for learning from others. • Empathize. Through the constant source of primary sources, art, and literature, students will ask to empathize with Europeans throughout their history. • Self-awareness. Know yourself as a learner and constantly question how you are learning and understanding what you do and do not know.

Essential Questions • Is history always biased? • Is history a history of progress? • How does knowing who writes history skew our understanding of it?

Ideally in every class, student will learn to ask and to answer these questions: (taken from Central Park East Secondary School) • From whose viewpoint are we seeing or reading or hearing? From what angle or perspective? • How do we know when we know? What’s the evidence, and how reliable is it? • How are things, events, or people connected to each other? • What’s new and what’s old? Have we run across this idea before? • So what? Why does it matter? What does it all mean?

What will we be doing?

Writing

You will be asked to write a tremendous amount in this course. Yes, you will write some critical essays, analyzing the reasons for the decline of papal authority in Italy but you will also write informally in journals that will remain in the classroom. Some of your writings will be ‘published,’ in the form of a class magazine or newspaper and or writings will be presented to the class. You will write newspaper editorials, letters between individuals, or journal entries assuming different voices from the past. You will be assessed on the clarity of writing, use of evidence, persuasiveness: depending on the nature of the assignment.

Reading

You will be asked to read a lot this course. We will use a variety of sources throughout the year. The text we have is O.K. not great but the source book accompanying it is fabulous. So you will read a variety of primary sources from that text and from ones that I photocopy. I will also post reading assignments on Tigernet and you can chose whether to print out the sources or not. We will also read current newspapers and magazines to keep informed on what is happening now so we remind ourselves of why we are studying history.

Talking

The bulk of class time will be dominated by your voices. Lecturing in history is roughly as effective as running in four feet of deep, heavy snow. The responsibility falls on you for preparing well for class so we can do the following: conduct mock trials (put Louis XIV on trial for serving as a tyrant), an Oprah Winfrey talk show on the subject of sexism in European literature, take part in a round table discussion on the future of Germany after World War I, participate in Socratic Seminars on controversial subjects like child labor in the Industrial Revolution.

Assessments

You will be asked to demonstrate you understanding of the material in a variety of ways throughout the year. You will be assessed informally in class and outside of class with larger projects. I ask that you take risks in my assessments and also examine your own levels of understanding. Hopefully, you will learn how you learn so you can do it well throughout your life.

Current event presentations

To help us lift our heads up and see beyond the Suffield bubble, you each will be responsible for presenting a 5-minute current event topic. You will need to read from at least four different sources about a current topic in Europe and take the time to present your ideas to the class. You will do this once each trimester. We will have one or two current event presentations each Friday during our longer block. You will discuss the current topic and offer the relevant historical context.

Texts needed: • A History of Western Society, McKay and others • Sources of the Western Tradition, ed. By Perry • Sophie’s World by Jostein


 * The Renaissance**

The Renaissance created one of the most dynamic artistic and cultural periods the world has ever seen in such a short period. We will take a look at this dynamic period, and examine the new view of the world.

Essential questions • What is the Renaissance? Was there a renaissance for all? • Would a person living in 1500 know is she were in the Medieval or Renaissance period?

Tuesday, Sept. 25 Politics • Read packet p. 415-419 and Perry, p. 1-5 and p. 12-15 “The Prince” • We will discuss the political situation in Italy that allowed it to be the first spot of the Renaissance and debate: do the ends justify the means? In all cases?

Thursday, Sept. 27: Intellectual • Read packet, pgs. 420-422, Perry, p. 5-9, “Humanists Fascination…” by Petrach and Bruni, and Sophie’s World, pgs. 197-214 • We will discuss the intellectual hallmarks of the Renaissance, in particular the humanism, individualism, and secularism. Read with an eye towards analyzing how each ism would interpret the society at large.

Friday, Sept. 28: The Arts • Read packet, 422-428 and WRITE (eg HW assignment) the defining characteristics of Renaissance art. • Current event presentations: Ty and Chris • We will discuss the incredible art to emerge from the period and how it is a reflection of the new spirit of the Renaissance… and perhaps watch a video by Sister Wendy.

Monday, Oct 1: The Arts • Write a response to the video. What purpose does art serve? Who is it for? What are the Renaissance standards of beauty? • We will analyze the different art forms and listen to some Renaissance music.

Tuesday, Oct. 2: The Social • Read McKay, 428-437 and handout on women in the era. • We will take a look at the life of the people… and the role those women played in this time period.

Thursday, Oct. 4: Review • Re-read Sophie’s World, pgs. 197-214 and highlight THREE quotes that capture the period. • And you may have time to work on your work for Friday…

Friday, Oct 5: The Renaissance Art Gallery!