I just revised my teaching page, simplifying it and adding some new resources. One of the assignments I included was a new one, which I called — for lack of a better name — a “Use of History” Essay. The assignment asked students in my introductory, general education Modern Europe survey to choose a news article or opinion piece from a mainstream magazine or newspaper and evaluate the ways it used history. I was impressed by the quality of the work even though I was concerned that I had not done enough to prepare them for the task. It’s relative success means that I might be on to something and with some greater scaffolding and revision have a nice way of introducing some more advanced concepts into this course.
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