Classroom Materials: Rubrics and Syllabi

• Sample Course Syllabus for Recent American History, Delta College

• Saint Vincent College History Department Goals and Assessment, Timothy Kelly, Department Chair

• History Rubric, Regis University

• Student Progress Evaluation Worksheet, New College of Florida

• Sample Rubric, New College of Florida

• Lecture Topics for First Half of American History Survey

  Brittany Adams focuses on incorporating more regional history into the early survey. She also emphasizes the importance of de-centering the British colonial narrative when teaching students who identify more with western US history, as do many of her students at UC Irvine.

• Honors 2111 US History Survey Course Description and Syllabus

  Shannon Bontrager not only incorporated global contexts into his survey, but he also used non-traditional and digital pedagogical tools to engage his students.

• US Environmental History Course Topics through the Civil War (Santa Monica Coll.)

• Foundations of American History Syllabus

  Sarah Grunder offers a detailed syllabus and two sample assignments, in which students use primary and secondary sources to connect American history with the Atlantic and Pacific worlds and write a paper that focuses on the circulation of commodities, peoples, and ideas throughout those worlds.

• Themes in the Social History of the United States: Migration and American Civilization, 1830s to 1960s

  Syllabus for a survey of social history, focusing upon the American experience. The course explores changes in the family, work, sex roles, mobility, migration, urbanization, and industrialization.

• United States History I: US History to the Civil War

  An introduction to the methods of historical inquiry focusing on the study of American history from the beginnings through the American Civil War.

• Ethnicity and American Cultures Topics Through the 19th Century

  A syllabus by Leslie Kawaguchi that begins with the peopling of North America and ends with the establishment of the U.S. and the 1790 immigration policy that provided naturalization to “free white persons” despite the cultural, racial, and ethnic diversity of the colonial period.

• Resources for Teaching American and Hawaiian History

  This course revises traditional understandings of American history and examines issues of race, gender, and class in understanding the histories and contemporary experiences of Native Hawaiians, Asians, and Pacific Islanders to foster greater multi-cultural respect and understanding.

• Introduction to Ethnic Studies: Lecture and Assignment Schedule

  Details about the readings and lectures included in an Introduction to Ethnic Studies class taught by Kelli Nakamura at Kapi'olani Community College. The course revises traditional understandings of American history and examines issues of race, gender, and class in understanding the histories and contemporary experiences of Native Hawaiians, Asians, and Pacific Islanders to foster greater multi-cultural respect and understanding.

• Discovering American Social History on the Web

  Dan Kallgren developed several sample assignments for use in his undergraduate survey course "United States History Since the Civil War," in the spring of 2000. Assignments can be used inidividually or in series, as each is accompanied by suggested reading and primary sources.

• Social Science Laboratories via the Web: Active Learning with Data

  To encourage the use of social science data in history, Russel Van Wyk has compiled a useful guide that shows how to use quantitative analysis of texts, demographic data, an interactive historical atlas module, and Geographic Information Services (GIS) to teach undergraduate students.

• World Civilizations: The Ancient Period to 500 CE

  In David Smith's project, students use world history methods (Big Picture, Diffusion, Syncretism, Comparison, and Common Phenomena) to interpret secondary and primary materials. Primary material is handled through directed reading questions that focus on three classics: the Odyssey, the Ramayana and the Analects.

• Syllabus: United States History Since the Civil War

  Syllabus from Dan Kallgren's survey of American history since the end of the Civil War. The syllabus includes several digital primary source projects, all of which are hosted on separate pages as part of Kallgren's "Discovering America Social History on the Web" module.

• Introduction to Ethnic Studies: Course Description and Syllabus

  A course description and syllabus for an Intro to Ethnic Studies course taught by Kelli Nakamura at Kapi'olani Community Coll. that explores basic concepts and theories for analyzing dynamics of ethnic group experiences, particularly those represented in Hawai‘i, and their relation to colonization, immigration, gender, problems of identity, racism, and social class.

• Teaching Difficult Legal or Political Concepts: Using Online Primary Sources in Writing Assignments

  Sue C. Patrick's shares syllabi from her United States History and Western Civilization courses, which include assignments and links to digital primary sources. She also reviews a number of digital primary sources for the benefit of other instructors interested in using them in the classroom.

• United States History through the Civil War Syllabus

  Sue C. Patrick's syllabus for a United States History through the Civil War course. The syllabus includes assignments and links to digital primary sources.

• United States History from the Civil War to the Present Syllabus

  Sue C. Patrick's syllabus for her United States History from the Civil War to the Present course, which includes assignments and links to digital primary sources.

• Resources for Tuning the History Discipline

  Since the first phase of the AHA's Tuning project began in 2012, faculty participants from history departments around the country have reviewed many aspects of their home-department curricula. As a result of their efforts, the AHA is now able to offer examples of revised curricular materials from a broad range of institutions.

  Here you will find different sorts of documents produced by faculty for their local needs. Resources include rubrics, assignments, statements of course outcomes and degree requirements, survey questions for history majors or alumni, and other types of materials. The most common format for these resources is the degree specification, a detailed statement about the history degree program at a particular institution.

  For questions and feedback, please contact AHA Special Projects Coordinator Julia Brookins by email at jbrookins@historians.org. For a broader discussion of these and other teaching and learning issues in history, please join the Teaching and Learning community on communities.historians.org.

• The National History Center’s New Teaching Decolonization Resource Collection

  The National History Center's new Teaching Decolonization Resource Collection provides resources for instructors at any level to teach about decolonization.

• Evaluating without Grading

  In this version of a specifications grading system, each individual assignment is evaluated on a pass/fail basis. This creates multiple pathways for students to move through the assignments and earn a final grade by “unlocking” different levels of various assignments. Assignment by Luke Clossey and Esther Souman.

• Unessay Assignment Sheet