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Tobin
To Think On Paper: Using Writing Assignments
in the World History Survey
Kathleen A. Tobin
Purdue University Calumet
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AFTER SEVEN YEARS of teaching United States history survey courses,
my department chair offered me the opportunity to teach "Introduction
to the Modern World." Some of my colleagues immediately began providing
unsolicited warnings regarding the difficulty of engaging students
in world history and the impossibility of covering "500 years of
the whole world" in sixteen weeks. However, I mustered up my courage
and took on the task. I must admit that since that time not a semester
has begun when I was confident my students would learn everything
that I wanted them to know about the world, but the world history
survey has become perhaps my favorite to teach. I found that one
of the most effective means in facilitating my transition was to
adapt writing assignments that I had used in United States history
for the world history course. Extending the parameters in subject
matter proved fulfilling for me, as it gave me a chance to broaden
my own perspective and it set the stage for broadening those of
my students. I had designed assignments in American history requiring
students to examine primary sources, books, websites and periodicals
in an effort to have them recognize various materials and sources
that were valuable to historians and history scholars. I now saw
an important opportunity to see them tackle the world by using these
tools. |
1
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| Though
the challenges have been many, perhaps the one I that initially
concerned me most was that of "connecting" my students to the world.
In retrospect, I realize that this is probably a challenge for more
professors than I had thought. However, I felt especially challenged
by my campus demographics. I teach at a commuter extension of a
state university, our campus is located in what is referred to as
the Calumet Region, about halfway between South Chicago and Gary,
Indiana. Many of the students are first generation college students,
with intentions to earn "sensible" degrees and stay in the area
after graduation. Few have had the opportunity to travel, and fewer
than I would like to admit seem to have any strong urges to travel
outside the United States in the future (except perhaps to the Caribbean,
after they begin "making decent money.") Both practical and skeptical,
they often resist learning a foreign language and do not embrace
literature with a level of enthusiasm that I would like to see.
But I take these as additional challenges, and have come to appreciate
the qualities that they do bring to the study of history. I try
to teach them that history is anything but abstract, removed or
meaningless. And I often find that they, in turn, come to appreciate
the practicality of examining evidence and of looking at subjects
from different angles, including that of a different time period.
I also teach them to value their own skepticism—a concept taught
to me by one of my own professors, Arthur Mann—in seeking the
truth of history. |
2 |
| I
wish I could say that I have invented some new catchy and marketable
method of getting students connected, but I haven't. Instead, I
have chosen to apply the tradition of reading, writing and "thinking
on paper" in order to keep my students engaged. I also wish I could
say that I have developed an efficient, timesaving formula for evaluating
their understanding and performance, but I haven't. Because I have
no teaching assistants, and as many as 120 students per semester,
I grade hundreds of essays, in addition to essay exams. Of course
it would make my life easier to assign one standard text, no writing
assignments, and give only multiple-choice exams. Though it is my
policy never to say "never," I have not yet conducted any of my
courses in that manner. I found from the beginning that I had certain
expectations of reading and writing at the college level, and rather
than complain that today's students lack in reading comprehension,
and analytical and writing ability, I make them practice. I may
not have adequate time to provide detailed feedback, correcting
their grammar, etc., but am able to remind them that the campus
writing center run by the English department is available for obtaining
feedback on early drafts. To the benefit of all of us, the center's
staff strongly supports "writing across the curriculum," and is
eager to see history students come in for advice. This allows me
increased freedom to fine-tune the assignments to meet the demands
of history scholars, and to grade with more general criteria of
analysis, argument and evidence. |
3 |
| I
find that practice results in substantial improvement in students'
writing, and that requiring students to think on paper through a
variety of assignments keeps them engaged in the class and connected
to the world. The four major assignments that I have found most
valuable in helping them to become aware of and to utilize history
research tools, and to involve students in the course, are what
I call: 1) A Primary Source Essay and Presentation, 2) A Book Review,
3) A Website Review, and 4) A Periodical Articles Essay. For the
most part, I had used these (or something similar) in my United
States history surveys in order to "connect" students to the past.
In order to "connect" them to the world, I found that I simply had
to shift their focus outside the United States. |
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Primary
Source Essay and Presentation
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| Of
course, historians know the value of examining primary source documents
as valuable pieces to the historical puzzle, and I wanted to convey
this notion to students. I begin with the primary source essay because
I believe it is necessary to teach students how scholars depend
on documents to provide contemporary insight into any particular
historical episode. In my youthful passion for teaching (not all
of which I have lost), I preached to my early students the glories
of getting to know better the human beings who have gone before
us, through reading their own words rather than by relying on historians'
interpretations. This assignment improves student involvement in
the course by helping them to develop their historical imaginations.
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| Specific
instructions, which I distribute in written form and which differ
very little from those I used in my first semester teaching, are
rather detailed. I feel that any such instructions must guarantee
that the student begins to develop a sense for how historians examine
documents, and for what purpose they serve in the process of gathering
research and developing arguments. In their essays, I have the students
provide significant background information for their sources. This
is an exercise in itself, as it forces the student to be neither
too broad nor too narrow in providing context, and aids them in
understanding how historical context can never be ignored when looking
at a comparatively small piece of the puzzle. As analysis is more
important than a simple summary, I have the students provide information
on the speakers/writers of the documents, reminding them that those
who are presenting works of more "obscure" historical players may
have difficulty in finding information. However, they find that
those who are discussing the works of well-known players may have
difficulty in presenting only what is relevant to the source. I
also have them attempt to determine the intention and the impact
of the source. This is not always easy, but it is important for
them to make the attempt. Finally, students must reflect on how
the selection serves history scholars in learning history. Above
all, they are to remember that the source itself is the focus of
the essay and presentation. |
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| Initially,
in teaching the U.S. survey course, I had students seek out their
own primary sources through library research, which I saw as a means
by which they could satisfy their own personal curiosity. I was
often pleasantly surprised at what they found and what they presented
to the class. But this method proved to have both advantages and
disadvantages. On the positive side, I had the opportunity to witness
some unforgettable and moving interpretations of everything from
slave spirituals to immigrants' letters home. However, I also found
myself sitting through more than one Gettysburg Address each semester,
not because the students wanted to re-examine the speech with new
insight, but because they felt comfortable with it. In addition,
because I never knew what the students would bring to class, and
because my best attempts at scheduling could provide only an inadequate
timeframe for the assignments, I was never sure how the selection
presented might relate to the subject of the lectures in any particular
week. Consequently, when I began using this assignment in the world
history survey, I found that not only would I have to enlarge the
timeframe, I would have to be open to possibilities from all continents.
And for as much as I loved witnessing the student-directed gathering
of sources, I therefore found that I had to modify the assignment. |
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| I
decided to require a book of readings which supplemented the text.
There are a number of good ones, including Houghton Mifflin's The
Human Record: Sources of Global History, Volume II, edited by
Alfred J. Andrea and James H. Overfield, and Wadsworth's Sources
of World History: Readings for World Civilization, Volume II,
edited by Mark A. Kishlansky. These examples show that editors and
publishers are now taking greater care to include a real global
perspective in their selections of readings, adding greater diversity,
depth and breadth to their coverage of the modern world. They continue
to include passages from more traditional works, such as Montesquieu's
Spirit of the Laws and Woodrow Wilson's Fourteen Points,
found in Kishlansky, and Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations and
V. I. Lenin's What Is To Be Done?, found in Andrea and Overfield.
However, they also include such writings as Muhammad Ali Jinnah's
Two Nations, Lin Tse Hsü's Letter of Advice to Queen
Victoria, Lázaro Cárdenas' Speech to the Nation
and Nelson Mandela's The Rivonia Trial Speech to the Court.
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| Effective
use of such selections takes some effort, and as world history becomes
increasingly globalized, additional planning is necessary. Of course
I wish I could expect my students to come to the university prepared
to discuss even the traditional selections with some "college-level"
understanding, and that I was able to assume that they have developed
at least some core of knowledge about the Enlightenment, World War
I, Western capitalism, and the Russian Revolution, knowledge that
would provide context for reading documents. Still, the rather standard
old selections can be introduced with at least some degree of comfort.
However, to lay the groundwork for examining the partitioning of
India and Pakistan from a Muslim perspective, the Opium Wars from
a Chinese perspective, the nationalization of oil from a Mexican
perspective, and the justification of violence against apartheid
from a black African perspective is somewhat more difficult. In
fulfilling the assignment using these documents and presenting their
analyses to the class, students invariably appear more unsure of
themselves because this material is clearly new to them. Indeed,
because I do my best to develop an atmosphere of congeniality, students
often willingly confess that they don't even know how to pronounce
the names of the authors of the documents. |
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| For
a few semesters, I decided to use only primary source documents
included in the assigned text of readings. This facilitated planning,
as the students all had access to the source, and they could readily
see where the source fitted into the larger context of history.
However, the selections often proved to be too brief. Sometimes
the students could find the complete document from another printed
source, especially if they were assigned something like Luther's
95 Theses. But finding the full document often proved to
be more difficult: some of the "non-Western" documents have not
yet appeared in common documentary collections, while almost all
printed sources were limited in scope. We discovered that one of
the best sources for substantial primary documents was an online
textbook on Western Civilization produced by Digitlearn, which I
tested in two of my classes. Due to seemingly limitless room in
cyberspace, the students using the online text could easily examine
massive documents that could not otherwise be provided for them
by traditional means. |
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| I
have found that there is a benefit in seeing that all of the students
have access to the document being presented, giving them the opportunity
to further examine it on their own. Assigned documents are clearly
indicated in the course syllabus; a class meeting on western intellectual
developments includes documents from Descartes, Diderot, and Wollstonecraft.
This also allows me to schedule, from day one, documents that support
or illuminate the subject of any particular lecture. Though this
assignment may have lost something in its modification, I assure
students that they are still connecting directly with human beings
of the past by reading and interpreting their words for his or her
own benefit and for the benefit of the class. In addition to handing
in a 600-800 word essay, I require students to stand in front of
the class to make the presentation, quoting from the document if
possible. While I know that this makes most of them nervous, I also
know that practice will help them become less nervous in the future.
And I remind them that they need not be self conscious, as they
are not being graded on their gestures or their inflection as they
might be in a speech class. Rather, they are to explain to the class
what they have come to learn about their source. When they quote
from the source, I ask the class to listen for nuances in word choice
and language, while I gain the satisfaction of hearing important
words emanate from the mouths of 19-year-olds, transcending centuries
and continents. |
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The Book
Review
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| When
I first began teaching, I required three or four books on various
subjects in addition to the survey text. Frankly, after years of
bending over backwards trying to get my students to read and appreciate
my assigned books, I abandoned the requirement. However, no matter
how much they resist, students will not complete my survey course
without having read a book and having written a review of it. Though
this assignment is far more standard than the one I developed for
the examination of primary sources, I have found that I have had
to develop a set of detailed instructions, primarily to prevent
them from writing little more than a simple summary. Some of the
instructions I give include: |
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| 1)
Choosing a book from the suggested readings at the end of any
chapter in the text. This insures that the book has some value,
and excuses me from having to approve books on an individual basis.
It also allows them some freedom in following their own curiosity
by finding a book on a subject in which they're interested. Or,
as I suggest, it allows them to find a respected book on a subject
which they know nothing about, giving them the opportunity to learn
something that is brand new to them. |
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| I
encountered some problems with this assignment, finding that I had
to pay closer attention than I had predicted to exactly what books
were listed. First, I rarely saw any duplicate books being reviewed,
as there were hundreds incorporated in the lists from which to choose,
but one semester I noticed that a number of students had reviewed
Elie Wiesel's Night. Evidently, word got around that it was
a captivating read, and short. This did not pose a serious problem,
as I considered it a piece of work definitely worthy of examination
and review by college students in a world history class. However,
I soon noticed, after having assigned a new text, that more than
a dozen students (out of a total of 100 or so) chose to review The
Diary of Anne Frank. One student even chose the work as the
subject of her book review and her primary source. I realized
that many of my students had read the book in middle school or high
school, and feeling overwhelmed at the thought of reading and reviewing
a book, chose to write about a book they had already read. At the
risk of appearing heartless, I banned the book from the list of
acceptable works for review, in order to better guarantee that my
students were reading something new to them. |
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| Much
to my dismay, upon experimenting with a new text a year later, I
found that I had to ban Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities. Though
the work allows for meaningful discussion of history, many of the
twenty or more reviews handed in read like essays written for an
English class. |
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| Surprisingly,
I have also had to discourage students from trying to impress me
by taking on too much, a three volume work on Chinese history, for
example. Of course, I want them to see this as an opportunity to
learn more about a particular subject, but I'd rather see them choose
a work that has a more narrow focus. They generally have not been
exposed to monographs, and I want them to see that their survey
texts cannot possibly begin to address any one subject in depth.
While some may have begun to notice more popular history works in
the café/bookstores they frequent, there is still something
valuable in tracking down a respected work that is listed among
the suggested readings of a text. And they often find that those
lists contain not only works of political or military history, but
many on social history and intellectual history. Those who had failed
to connect with history before, now find themselves draw into the
subject by reading more on women, the family, art or popular culture,
laying a foundation for interest and further study. |
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| 2)
Providing some summary—as readers of book reviews want to
know something of the subject addressed by the author—but examining
it from the outside. In other words, students should be able
to observe this as a piece of work, including some information about
the author and his or her research, the author's focus, the author's
intention, an analysis of whether the author successfully carries
out what he or she attempts to do, etc. Students are generally hesitant
to place themselves in the role of critic, particularly at the survey
level, because they lack confidence in their knowledge of history.
But this helps them begin to see history as something that is researched
and written, and to see books as pieces of work that are constructed
by human beings. |
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| 3)
Reading book reviews in various publications for ideas on writing
a book review. Not only does this help them learn what a book
review is and how they are written, it introduces them briefly to
whatever books happen to be reviewed in their selected publication,
and helps them to see that book reviews do exist and are valued
in the real world and that this is not merely some irrelevant assignment.
After reading other book reviews, some students have brought to
my attention the fact that not all reviews are 600-800 words, like
the one I assign. I assure them, however, that they will need 600-800
words to execute this assignment with the detail that I expect—again,
not only with summary, but with analysis. |
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| The
quality of the reviews that students hand in vary, as some work
diligently to complete all of the tasks I assign (examining the
author's intention, research, construction, etc.), making for somewhat
stilted writing, and others awkwardly work to copy the style of
more seasoned book reviewers. Still this assignment succeeds in
getting them to look at the book as a piece of work. And, if they
do seize the opportunity to look for examples of book reviews in
various publications, I find that they begin reading the Chicago
Tribune, the New York Times, and even history journals
when they might not have done so otherwise. |
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| To
be honest, even some of my best students complain about this assignment.
But it offers them something on so many levels. First, they will
learn more of a particular subject than is possible from the text
or my lectures, and they are given time to share what they have
learned in an informal "book discussion" on an assigned day. Second,
they learn something about the process of research in simply finding
a book. Our campus library is limited and very few of the books
listed in the text's suggested readings can be found there. My students
have the benefit of living in the larger Chicago metropolitan area,
where they can experiment in using many other libraries, but they
should also learn how to use our inter-library loan system, which
the best of us continue to use in conducting our own research. Furthermore,
this assignment provides students with the priceless experience
of holding books in their hands, carrying them to class, to the
lounge, to bed or wherever, in order to pick up where they left
off. As they struggle with this assignment, they can't help but
develop some kind of relationship with the book itself. |
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The Website
Review
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| Of
course in some students' minds, nothing can compare with the internet,
and rather than resist it or attempt to discourage students from
using it, I embraced it. In fact, I specifically developed an internet
assignment in my first world history survey, for I saw this as an
unprecedented opportunity to connect my students with the world.
That first class began in the fall of 1996, and I had never been
on the internet, nor (I found out) had the majority of my students.
In fact, I had to schedule class time in a computer classroom in
order to familiarize all of us with the process. At that time, the
assignment I developed simply asked students to search for information
on a world history topic of their choice from 4-5 different sources
and write a 3-4 page essay summarizing and analyzing the information,
and describing their internet experience. I knew at that point,
that both the assignment and the internet were in their infancy,
so I wanted feedback on what students were experiencing and thinking.
I also wanted them to recognize that they were acting as players
in an important historic development, and the ways in which they
were accepting and adjusting to this new research tool would be
the subject of future historians. Further, students needed to understand
that website designers can benefit from serious examination and
review by users. |
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| That
semester laid the groundwork for a wonderfully experimental process
in examining the potential of the internet in a survey course, but
I soon found that I could modify that assignment. In recent semesters,
I have required my students to find a substantive history website
(not simply a historical summary and/or pictures of a subject within
a larger website) and review it, much in the same way they would
review a book. This serves a number of purposes. First, it gives
them practice on the internet, particularly in seeking out what
kinds of historical information are available from sources ranging
from high school curriculum suggestions (appropriate for social
studies teaching majors), to graduate students' debates, to virtual
museums. In doing so, students see better possibilities for themselves
in using the internet for various purposes, depending on their majors
or future work. |
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| Second,
the website review assignment gives students an opportunity to learn
something regarding a subject about which they are curious, or about
which they know nothing. It is here that I am most satisfied in
watching them follow their own curiosity, while developing a sense
of how to address historical topics based on information and methods
to which they have been introduced thus far. For example, one student
who was fascinated with military weaponry found a website that examined
battleships used during World War II. Though we had not yet covered
that war, he knew enough about the development of navies from the
15th century on, to place his new knowledge into contexts
of cost, power and maneuverability. Another student, who I believe
began the assignment thinking his topic would prove somewhat shocking
and entertaining, found a website on the history and use of the
guillotine. Both he and the class came away from his work not only
with some laughs, but with a more vivid understanding of capital
punishment than could have been presented in the text. Even the
student who found a remarkable website on the history of chocolate
was able to examine it in terms of cross-cultural relationships
and the global economy. And third, as I insist that they address
a subject outside of U.S. history (unless it is somehow related
to a global topic), they often find themselves entering into websites
originating from other countries, literally connecting them to other
parts of the world. |
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| Fourth,
as I require them to write a review, they further see that they
should not blindly accept information that appears before them.
Rather, they should view websites from the outside, as pieces of
work constructed by human beings. Not surprisingly, the students
appear more confident in critiquing websites than they do when critiquing
books, and the level of understanding of computer technology and
design demonstrated by some students when looking at sites through
"historians' eyes," is remarkable. I ask students to describe the
sites viewed, summarize and analyze the material presented, provide
some thought about the target audience (college students, general
public, researchers), and offer their own conclusions about the
value of the sites. When I set aside class time to informally discuss
their findings, I take the opportunity to remind students that academics
with no computer design skills and computer designers with no liberal
arts background will never be able to compete with those who have
a demonstrated understanding of both. |
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The Periodical
Articles Assignment
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| For
some reason, moreso than with U.S. history survey students, I have
felt it important to have world history students connect the past
with the present, so I developed an assignment due on the last day
of classes, which requires them to research a contemporary issue.
I think that young adults have the ability to recognize themselves
more readily as having a connection to American history and in some
ways as beneficiaries of that history. But because they continue
to view themselves as removed from world events, they have a more
difficult time seeing a relationship between the world's past and
the world's present. Though we live in an age of access to information
like never before, news from the world rarely reaches America's
young adults. When it does, it is often distorted and almost never
adequately contextualized, making it nearly impossible for many
college students to make sense of it. Of course, the students themselves
are partly to blame for being ill-prepared to analyze contemporary
global developments. But rather than condemn their ignorance, I
use the world history survey to help establish a foundation for
learning and understanding what is happening around the world. |
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| Clearly
the opportunity exists for examining cause and consequence when
it comes to current events. But I also see the survey as an opportunity
to urge students to recognize how only certain individuals, events
and developments had enough impact on the world to make the history
books, and often what the popular media suggests is important today
will have little consequence in the future. This assignment serves
to teach my students that to find out what is really important today
may take some digging, and they have the sources available to them
if they demonstrate some imagination and some effort. Specifically,
students must choose a topic in world history that has demonstrated
some relevance during the semester. They must find 5-6 periodical–principally
newspaper and magazine–articles on the subject, and write an
essay which summarizes the articles, provides some historical background
on the subject, and analyzes the articles with an eye to explaining
their different intentions and points of view, when evident. A common
problem with this assignment is the tendency of some students to
develop the subject of their paper around some news that hits the
headlines sometime around the time when the assignment is due. I
realize that a student may have taken a major step in the acquisition
of knowledge by even going into a news site on the internet and
looking at any kind of event from another part of the world. Sometimes,
though, a few students will decide to examine a story that I believe
has little potential historical impact. |
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| For
example, the semester that Princess Diana died in an automobile
accident, more than one student attempted to convince me that the
episode was indeed historically significant and potentially posed
major ramifications for the future of the British monarchy. I was
not convinced. Again, at the risk of appearing heartless, I knew
that if the students had gone beyond the headlines, they would have
found that there was a great deal more going on in the world that
week. Knowing that students will often choose a natural disaster
of some kind—an earthquake in India or a hurricane in the Caribbean,
for example—I make sure that they examine the tragedy in terms
of what the long-term social, political or economic consequences
might be of the disaster. I am unable to predict natural disasters,
but throughout the semester attempt to lay the groundwork necessary
for understanding the larger consequences that might eventually
be involved. One of the clearest examples is seen in the aftermath
of the 1972 earthquake which hit Managua, which not only caused
severe suffering to the Nicarauguan people, but also intensified
anger toward the corrupt Somoza family which misspent and pocketed
a huge portion of aid sent from other countries. This episode, in
turn, helped to set the stage for the rise of the Sandinistas. Neither
students, nor I, can predict the consequences of any one natural
disaster, but it is important that they come to recognize the possibilities. |
27 |
| In
the process of this assignment, students become acquainted with
the variety of periodicals available which present differing perspectives,
and I remind them that learning a foreign language will often aid
them in gaining a more valuable perspective than can be found in
English. In their 600-800 word essays, I have them demonstrate that
they have the ability to recognize differing perspectives, as subtle
as they may be, knowing that through analyzing the articles by "thinking
on paper," they are improving their ability to become more critical
readers. I also know that by scheduling the due date for this assignment
at the end of the semester, they have had the opportunity to establish
in their minds some historical background that will allow them to
connect for example the difficult peace process in Ireland with
colonization, labor issues in Indonesia with union movements of
a century ago, and demands for human rights throughout the world
with Enlightenment Era revolutionary philosophy. There is little
attention devoted to the Irish revolutionary process of the early
20th century in most survey texts, but knowing that I
might well have a number of students of Irish ancestry and that
there might well be some peace developments (or lack thereof) during
the semester, I attempt to lay some groundwork at least by including
that process among other nationalist/revolutionary movements when
lecturing on the early 20th century. Furthermore, workers'
rights issues and demands for human rights in general throughout
the world can be understood in terms of a continuation of the same
struggle that emerged among the most powerful of societies in the
late 18th century, in the context of democratic philosophy
and the humane treatment of all individuals. By introducing students
to the condemnation of child labor in 19th century England,
students can better understand similar conditions that exist today,
and interestingly, vice versa. And when I tell them that I had the
opportunity to meet with members of the Zapatista movement who can
quote the Declaration of Independence better than most U.S. citizens
can, they better understand human rights—inalienable rights—as
something truly universal, transcending centuries and borders. With
a little effort, students can find a tremendous amount of information
on meaningful global issues that can be traced into history. |
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| Of
course, many of the objectives of these assignments can be achieved
to some degree through simply reading and listening to lectures.
But until students are required to prove that they have gathered
some kind of knowledge by writing about it, it is difficult to know
just what they have learned. In a survey class of 35 students, there
may be comparatively little time for discussion, and little desire
on the part of the students to participate in discussion, making
other means of evaluation necessary. If the objectives are simple
ones requiring a quantifiable acquisition of information, simple
exams may suffice. But if the objectives are such that require a
demonstration of historical knowledge, understanding, and the ability
to analyze and argue, all while using the tools of historians, nothing
can compare to the demand of "thinking on paper." |
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