Ashley’s Honors Humanities * Fall Semester, 2017
Overview
Honors Humanities is designed to provide an opportunity for students who want to take the content deeper and engage in a more robust college-preparatory reading and writing curriculum.  This will entail significant independent reading and research, extra process assignments, and four additional polished pieces of writing over the course of the year.  We will emphasize the critical reading of complex texts, effective argumentation, rhetorical and historical thinking and analysis, and literary. The writing you will do in the Honors option is equivalent to the work you would do in a college-level freshman composition course.  
Honors is a year-long commitment.  You may give it a trial run through the first essay assignment to decide if it is something you want to take on, but in order to earn the “H” on your transcript, you must complete the whole year.  As well, the first essay assignment serves as an “application” of sorts.  If you do not write a passing essay, you and I will have a serious conversation about if Honors is the right decision for you.  

The Honors curriculum will be closely tied to the work we are doing as a whole class but with added depth and workload.  As an Honors student, you will be expected to do the great majority of the work for Honors independently; except for the occasional seminar, we will not use a great deal of class time for Honors.  We will instead have lunch meetings to clarify assignments and discuss our learning.  
A Note on Deadlines
Deadlines are fixed.  To better prepare you for college-level expectations, I will not accept late work.  You may ask for ONE extension on an honors assignment at least 24 hours in advance of the deadline.  However, a missed deadline will result in a grade reduction.
Objectives
  • Sharpen your Historical Thinking Skills to describe, analyze, evaluate, and create diverse interpretations of the past and present— as revealed through primary and secondary sources — by analyzing evidence, reasoning, contexts, points of view, and frames of reference
  • ​Engage thoughtfully and intertextually with literature, recognizing its role in recording and shaping the human experience
  • Plan, write, and revise college level composition for a variety of purposes and audiences
  • Apply research methodologies, including integrating print and digital sources
  • Develop critical/logical thinking and reading skills involving evaluation, analysis, synthesis, and criticism
  • Build competency in MLA style of documentation
​
1st semester:  Political Ideology and Historical Thinking
“The history of any country, presented as the history of a family, conceals fierce conflicts of interest (sometimes exploding, most often repressed) between conquerors and conquered, masters and slaves, capitalists and workers, dominators and dominated in race and sex.”
    -Howard Zinn, A People’s History of the United States

Essential Questions:

  • What is the relationship between ideology and rhetorical discourse?
  • How is the study of history an ideological act?
  • How can rhetorical awareness and historical thinking aid our understanding of America’s past and present?  

Texts:
  • Selections from A People’s History of the United States, by Howard Zinn
  • Primary and secondary historical documents
  • Student-selected research sources

ESSAYS:
Essay #1: Rhetorical Analysis Essay of American Political Discourse (approx 1000 words)
You will develop a claim about the purpose, impact, and/or artistry of a piece of American political discourse, analyzing it for the characteristics of rhetorical discourse we study in our Rhetoric and Ideology project.  The discourse can come from history or contemporary times, can be spoken or written, and should address an ideologically-charged topic in American political life.
RESOURCES
Essay #2: Document-Based Historical Analysis Essay
You will defend a claim about American history with research using primary and secondary sources.  You may use any chapter from Zinn as one of your secondary sources or you may develop your own question independent of his text.  Feel free to use this assignment to push back on Howard Zinn and offer a different bias on the historical themes he addresses
RESOURCES
  1. GUIDELINES for Historical Analysis Essay (with rubric)
  2. Deciding on a topic and writing a research question
  3. Summary of Historical Thinking Skills
  4. Historical Thinking Skills Chart
  5. Blank HT Chart for optional note-taking on research sources
  6. Link to folder of Student Models

Due Dates
  • Essay #1: Rhetorical Analysis  due Monday, October 16
  • Essay #2:  DB Historical Analysis due Friday, December 8
*****For each of these essays, I will give you a round of feedback via writing conference ONLY IF you make the arrangements a week before the final due date and submit your draft to me at least 2 days before the writing conference.
Zinn readings and chapter questions 
DEADLINES
  1. Zinn, Chapter 2+ questions (8.29) (Slavery)
  2. Zinn, Chapter 5 + questions (9.5) (American Revolution)
  3. Zinn, Chapter 17+ questions (9.12) (Civil Rights era)
  4. Zinn, Chapter 1 + questions (9.19) (Columbus)
  5. Zinn, Chapter 7 + questions (9.26) (Native American resistance)
  6. Select your piece of rhetorical discourse by 9.29
  7. Mexican American War primary source documents and Manifest Destiny- readings to be provided in hard-copy form (10.3)
  8. NO READING  Analyze discourse, write/submit thesis (10.6), draft essay
  9. NO READING, revise Essay #1,  GET FEEDBACK FROM A PEER!
  10. Conference with Ashley? (Submit draft 2 days before conference!)
  11. Essay #1 due 10.16;  Choose topic and write research Q for Essay #2 by (10.31)
  12. Gather primary and secondary sources, read and analyze sources, develop thesis
  13. Submit a working bibliography by (11.6)
  14. Research on your topic/RQ, write thesis (by 11.10), draft essay
  15. Draft Essay #2, GET FEEDBACK FROM A PEER! conference with Ashley before 11.17 (Submit draft 2 days before conference!)
  16. Finalize Essay #2 (due 12.8)