Welcome

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Bard High School Early College – Bronx

Course Syllabus

 

Dr. Rosie Jayde Uyola

Assistant Professor, History and Seminar  

ruyola@bard.edu 

 

Course objectives

• Identify and analyze the main ideas and arguments of each text within the historical and cultural contexts in which they were written.

• Assess the validity and reliability of different kinds of primary texts from a variety of disciplines and genres.

• Participate fully in discussions by asking relevant questions, presenting one’s own ideas, and listening thoughtfully to the questions and ideas of others.

• Articulate and evaluate rigorous arguments in support of clear positions, both written and orally.

• Engage with perspectives beyond one’s own, including those beyond one’s cultural and historical circumstances.

 

Course Logistics, Accessibility and Content Warning

Students are the co-leaders of this course. We all share the responsibility of making sure that everyone in the classroom can understand what we are each sharing. We will have a dialogue on the first day of class about effective communication protocol and expectations. Thereafter, we will discuss periodically whether classroom communication strategies are working and make adjustments as needed. A great deal of content from this course is particularly graphic. During our sessions, we will take breaks as necessary. Relatedly, we will discuss vicarious trauma, compassion fatigue, disability, burnout and self-care. 

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Evaluation of Students 

Seminar is a writing intensive course which will teach students how to write at the college level. A large part of this process is learning how to seek feedback, draft, revise, and critique your writing and others. In addition to homework and in-class activities and short writings students will expect to turn in the following: 

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Grading

Students are given multiple ways to succeed in this course which draw on the many skills needed in college and career. 

 

Homework 20%

In-Class Writing and Activities 15%

Class Participation 20%

Major Writings and Projects 35%

Revision and Peer Critique 10%

 

Class Participation

All students are expected to contribute to discussion consistently. Please carefully review class participation guidelines at the end of this syllabus.

 

This is not a passive lecture class; instead, it is one in which learning is constructed by the conversation that students create and drive for themselves. In order to help them become confident, independent seminar participants, the instructor will provide students with seminar prompts and opportunities to serve as “discussion leaders” and to present their ideas, both formally and informally.

 

Academic Integrity

Plagiarism, copying, or otherwise cheating on exams, quizzes, or written work is a grave offense. In most college courses, the attempt to take credit for work that is not one’s own would result in an automatic “Failing” grade in the course, and students could risk further university discipline, including expulsion. Because this course is intended to prepare students for college success, any instances of academic dishonesty are taken very seriously, but we also strive to provide students with a chance to restore their good standing in the course through renewed academic honesty. PLEASE DO NOT USE AI (Chat GBT, etc) to write for you.

 

If I detect plagiarism in your assignment (plagiarism means to steal others' work and pass it off as your own—for example, by copying what a website says, particularly wikipedia) you will get an automatic 0 for the assignment. You will have the chance to rewrite the assignment and resubmit it. 

 

UNITS AND TEXTS: Units may be rearranged or additional texts substituted according to the instructor’s discretion and with student input.

 

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READING TIPS 

 

1.  You do not have to have profound thoughts right away: Everyone reads and digests at a different pace. Take your time in understanding the text but you do not need to dissect it immediately. Make a note of any points that are significant to you and move on. 

 

2.  Set aside 15-20 mins a day to read: Much like power nap — a power read — can energize your reading and help you focus.  You do not need large chunks of time. Make sure you have no distractions during this reading time and set aside 15-20 minutes to read a day. This is built-in to our class time together. If absent, read at home.

 

3.  Reflect on what you read: a) What were the themes and/or major events that had taken place in your selected readings? 

 

4.  Take notes in your notebook: Write down phrases, quotes etc that may immediately grab your attention. 

 

5.  Build a personal glossary: If you don’t know a word, write it down in the back of your notebook, google the definition and reread the section in context. This is required for our class and will receive an assessment grade. 

 

6.  Discuss the book: Healthy discussion can entice you to read more. We will have table reads + discussions.

 

7.  Author Background: When approaching a text that you’re unfamiliar, it may be beneficial to do some quick background research on the author, as it can help provide insight on what the text may be discussing. 

 

8.  Be Critical: You looove Beyonce? Rihanna? Me, too. But in this class, we need to be both open-minded AND be able to critique a work and its intentions, as well as the diverse ways it may be interpreted by audiences.

 

9. Reading is re-reading and good writing is re-writing. While reading, try focusing on themes that you may have grazed over the first time around and choose a few sections to lean into at a time. Do not submit a first draft of any writing as your final draft. Keep working to make it a true reflection of your thoughts.

 

10. The best writers are excellent readers. No exceptions. Please do not miss our reading time together.

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PARTICIPATION + ATTENDANCE  

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One of the reasons for having a lengthy set of guidelines such as this is that students often equate participation with attendance. Some students who may have attended every class during the course of a term, may be confused as to why their participation mark at the end of the term was not quite what they expected.

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Attendance and participation are related but, nevertheless, quite different. Attendance is required, of course. At the same time one’s contributions to the course are never based on sheer presence or merely “showing up” regularly. “Showing up” is your attendance. What you do when you show up is your participation: it is the measure of your engagement in the readings/discussions/lectures of the course. “Participation” is not just a measure of the quality and quantity of your exchanges with your instructor but also with your peers in the class, especially those you might find who will critique, question, or simply seek clarification about your own stances taken or interpretations offered about the readings in our class.

 

GUIDELINES FOR CLASS PARTICIPATION

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This course is based on the assumption that students take part not as passive consumers of knowledge but as active participants in the exchange, production, and critique of ideas—their own ideas and the ideas of others.  Therefore, students should come to class ON TIME to complete our readings and to view presented media for that day AND also ACTIVELY DISCUSS the readings and theorize the writings in relation to their own position.  (“Unless one is aware that one cannot avoid taking a stand, unwitting stands are taken.” — Gayatri Spivak).  I expect students as the course unfolds, to continually discuss and theorize the positions from which they write/speak.

 

While students may be regularly keeping up with the required readings and assignments it is also important that they come prepared to show that they are keeping up with those readings/assignments through active class participation. Your in-class participation mark is an index not just of what you do/say during class time and thoughtfulness you respond to the ideas of others within the classroom space.

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Ranges of in-class participation:

 

A 

Participation at this level is marked by its active nature, its consistency, and its quality. When A range participants read assigned readings, they take thorough notes to participate in a class discussion; they read assigned readings fully, carefully, and critically enough to be ready not just to respond to the instructor’s questions but also to initiate discussion with comments and questions of their own. Such participants will also be ready to make and argue claims about the reading and to think out loud about a text’s relation to its contexts; they will attend to the comments of others in class, agreeing, elaborating, objecting, or civilly disagreeing with them; bring our attention to passages from the reading to make their point; and at times connect such thinking with earlier readings or previous class discussions. The A range participant is not necessarily the most knowledgeable, and in fact sometimes just the opposite, since the A range participant will often remark just as much on what they have not understood (or misunderstood) about the readings as what they have understood about them. Finally, the A range participant frequently takes notes during class discussions and media viewings.

 

B 

Students who come to every class, have almost always done all the reading, and consistently respond to the questions of others and the questions of the instructor in a way that demonstrates their command of the reading will earn a B participation grade. What separates this effort from an A one is not so much quantity as the level of preparation—one’s reading and thinking—that has gone on before one gets to speak. The B grade participant comments with frequency and their comments show that they have comprehended the readings. Like the A grade participant, the B grade participant initiates comments on their own rather than waiting to be called upon. Finally, they take notes during class discussions and media viewings.

 

C 

The C participant comes to almost every class, usually has done most of the reading most of the time, but not with the energy necessary to demonstrate through participation their ongoing engagement with the material. Such a discussant contributes infrequently, maybe once every other class. They rarely or infrequently take notes during class discussions and media viewings. The main dividing line between the C range student and the A and B range student is that the C range student rarely, if ever, initiates comments in class, waiting instead to be called upon by the instructor.

 

D 

The D range participant is physically in class most, perhaps even all, of the time, and contributes a few times throughout the quarter, and generally only when called upon. When called upon this participant tends to respond with little thoughtfulness, reflection, comprehension of the readings, or willingness to take risk or engage with the ideas of others, especially those that may differ from their own. They rarely or infrequently take notes during class discussions and media viewings.

 

F 

The F range mark is the result of a combination of not coming to class, failing to take part in class discussions, not engaging with other students or with the instructor when called upon, or failing to take sufficient notes. Like the D range student the F range student, when called upon, fails to answer in part or in full, usually because they have not done the readings for the day.