Formal writing assignment: 25% of grade;
“Choose” One of the following, all 8-10 pages –see each of these options for various deadlines
2) Teaching Unit – using course materials and additional research
3) A historically contextualized “memoir”—your own, your family’s, or this can be based on a series of
interviews that are logically connected.
· Do not delay exploring topics. Instead, there are numerous ways to ensure that your research proposal is viable and will result in a good paper.
§ Discuss ideas with me during office hours or with an appointment. I will announce extended office hours during class, and I would prefer that you try to see me during these times, but do not hesitate to schedule an appointment with me if you cannot make those hours
§ Browse through www.laborhistorylinks.niu.edu for additional ideas. I have the largest collection of subject links on the web for this topic. Some of the readings might spur you to consider the topic in depth.
§ See Paper topic ideas/sources to consider for paper Here I have listed both topic ideas without readily available sources, as well as some sources available in Founders library that might make a good start.
I will encourage joint projects for a research proposal as long as it indicates a carefully considered proposal that will be potentially placed on the Illinois Labor History Society website. The terrific Seattle General Strike website is a model for what I have in mind (see Research Reports on that page).
· Consult the manual to History 491 that is posted on my website at http://www3.niu.edu/~td0raf1/history491/index.htm. Here you will find suggestions for good historical questions, how to find sources, etc. There is also a checklist of sources for History papers in Founders that will be available on-line (you need adobe, however)
· Another helpful guide is from the Purdue University site for writing research papers
· Follow Turabian guidelines, either by getting the book, or using the Turabian on-line source and Style Guide caution: this on-line source is not comprehensive, just the basics. For example, microfilm collections and manuscript collections are not documented there.)
· For help with grammar, punctuation, style and other writing issues, see the Purdue University grammar site.
This option will require you to conduct research into a topic and develop a lesson plan for high school level classes. There are a number of lesson plans available at the “teachers corner” my website, www.laborhistorylinks.niu.edu , so you can get an idea of what is possible and what has already been done. The Illinois Labor History Society also has a curriculum for high school labor history. Use these as models to conceptualize your projects, although you have specific guidelines for your teaching unit, as outlined below.
Deadline for initial proposal Feb 10; This means that you will turn in a few sentences describing what subject you are interested in and why, showing me that you have explored some ideas.
Deadline for Sources: Feb 24
Your assignment will require”
1. At least 4 primary documents (not included in total required page length)
For the primary documents, you can use documents, graphs, oral histories, photos, music, literature excerpts, video excerpts, or other primary source materials; in fact, a range of materials is preferred.
2. one page guide for the teacher that explains the overall goals of the assignment
3. a page on procedures, estimated length of time, and specific lesson objectives for each activity
4. one page of activities and questions to ask the students
5. A guide for teachers will be between 4-5 pages of historical background on the issue that is covered. It will review the historical literature on the subject, cite evidence and bibliography that the teacher can draw upon to introduce the subject to students, and introduce the primary documents. You must cite at least 2 secondary sources (other than History 471 class readings, which if relevant, need to be cited) in this section. If there are primary documents from the History 471 required readings that are helpful, you will should cite these as well. This will be a footnoted (or endnoted) section so that I can see exactly where you drew these primary sources and secondary sources. You need to have a procedure for the teacher to follow, and a section on what concepts you are trying to teach with each procedure or section. You need to have questions for the teacher to ask the student for each primary document. For more on methods, see Lesson Plans from Library of Congress website.
Note: I have an agreement with the The Illinois Labor History Society to post any outstanding Illinois labor history curriculum unit on their webpage. In this respect, your efforts can contribute to a better high school treatment of issues. I encourage you to consider Illinois history subjects as the basis for you teaching unit, casting these local/regional conflicts within the “big” picture of workers history. Please see me for ideas.
Please inform me as early as possible about which subject you would like to address in your unit
Deadline for the unit: April 29.
—Deadline for initial proposal: Feb 10; Tell me in a few short sentences what you are interested in exploring and why. You must show that you have considered the instructions below. I would also suggest looking at my website www.laborhistorylinks.niu.edu for ideas on how to approach this topic. There are oral histories there, discussion of workplace perspectives, etc.
Deadline for sources: Feb 24;
This is your own, your family’s, your workplace experience, or this can be based on a series of interviews that are logically connected. 8-10 pages. Primarily you will use course readings and additional research using suggested websites or suggested extra readings to place a workplace or event into historical context. There are numerous possibilities to explore. You could do some oral histories with a group of workers to try to understand managerial and worker strategies in historical context, to understand your family’s understanding of class and work issues, to understand the history behind the gendered structure of your workplace, etc. You must cite all relevant course materials in this paper. So, for example, if you are exploring the issue of workplace culture and resistance to managerial control at your workplace, you need to analyze it, compare and contrast it to the forms of workplace culture and resistance you read about for class in mind as you develop your thesis. In other words, this is a HISTORY paper and not a sociology paper that you are writing. In the case of most topics, this paper will require you to conduct some additional research beyond what is required course reading, and sometimes beyond what is available on the History 471 site. In most cases, this will require you to trace change over time, and so it is to your benefit to alert me to what you are considering, or for us to brainstorm, so that you will be better-equipped to deal with the issue in advance of reading, rather than after you have completed specific readings. In other words, don’t wait to talk to me if this is your choice. There are numerous approaches that are dependent on your own experiences, and we can go over these in detail. Going over them when most of the course is finished is much less effective that beginning a dialog earlier.