Assignments

Your grade will be broken down in the follwing ways... scroll down for brief descriptions of each.

Please come to class prepared to participate in class activities. Participation will be recorded at random on 30 of our 35 class meetings. In addition, your 10 worst daily participation grades will be dropped. This means that you need to participate every day because you never know when Dr. Berry is recording! The best way to prepare and participate is to read and take notes on the daily assigned readings from the required books and to prepare ahead of time questions or analytical comments about the reading. Our learning community is a safe place and no one should feel intimidated. At the same time, we all must remember that an important part of learning is listening and respectful listening and quiet engagement will also be rewarded in our class. Should you be curious at any point about what your participation/attendance grade is, feel free to ask! Your participation will be based on the following rubric.

In each Big Era, we will complete a project. Some of these will be individual and some collaborative. Below is a list of the types of projects you will complete. Most projects will be centered around an essential question and you will receive more information about each project as we approach each Big Era.

Big Era 1 Project: Your class has been asked to write a 5 act skit for performance at the World's Fair to be held in the summer of 2015 in Milan, Italy. Your skit will open the Fair's exhibit on Ancient and Classifcal World History. The fair's Theme is "Feeding the Planet -- Justice for Life." The Fair's Organizers would like for your skit to put the theme in world historical context for the period 10,000 BCE-500 CE. As a group we need to figure out how to approach to the Fair's theme with the content we have learned. The fair anticipates 8 million visitors from around the world.

Big Era 2: We have been asked by the Journal on World History to write an article for their issue on Power Over Time in World History. You will work in pairs to write a 1200 word contributions to the article and create your own glogster presentation about your contribution. We will decide on the sections of our article as a class. You will be submitting this collaborative project to the Journal on World History which means you might want to Google what this journal is about. The article should, in short, address the essential question of "What Did it Mean to have power from 500 CE- 1492 CE?"

Big Era 3: Prezi Presentation on the Big Era (created in pairs) and formal Paper 5-7 pages using documents to address the question: "What is the most significant aspect of this era and why?"

Big Era 4: You will create a Podcast and written transcript about the Big Era.

Big Era 5: Formal Paper 5-7 pages using documents to create your OWN argument driven analysis of the Era.

Each day we have reading (which will be most days), you will be required to write and submit via Google Docs or Glogster, Bubbl, or our discussion blog, a reading check. These checks will be graded randomly (so sometimes you may only receive credit for having done it, but not the quality of it)...but please always do your best.

We have a World History Blog site. CLICK HERE! Once in the semester, you will be required to find an article from a reliable news source (you have some options on our wiki site) that addresses one of our Themes -- humans interacting with environment (energy and aethestics), humans interacting with each other (trade/labor, social systems, disease, communication), humans interacting with ideas (politics and governance, religion, science, technology). Your task is to link the article so we can all read it, summarize the article (in 1 paragraph), and create a debate question that we will all engage in in a chat room and/or in class (depending on time).

December Review: You will be creating review sheets and review quiz games, etc. More on this soon!

Academic Integrity !
At St. Gregory, we have an Honor System that is in effect at all times and for all assignments. When you agree to participate in this class, you pledge to do your own work, to be honest in all of your assignments, and, when borrowing materials from other sources, to give them due credit. Please sign each written assignment pledging that you have upheld the Honor System. Plagiarism is the act of using another person’s ideas or words without giving that person proper credit. Your work should be original, but if you do use someone else’s idea(s), you MUST cite that person. When in doubt, CITE IT!

Please refer to your hard copy of our syllabus for the St. Gregory Faculty Handbook definition of academic integrity.

We will discuss what plagiarism is. I will know it when I see it and you will know it when you do it. There are a number of great sites to help you get a handle on the definition. Most importantly, just cite any original thought (that isn't yours) and do your own work. Never submit something you've taken from someone (including the Internet) else. For more info refer to the following sites:

If you need an extension for any of the written assignments, you must ask Dr. Berry at least 24 hours in advance for that extension. We will both decide on a reasonable date and then the assignment must be turned in (each student is eligible for only one extension). Late work without an official extension will not be accepted without penalty. For each day the assignment is late, your grade will be decreased by 1/3 of a letter grade. For example, if an assignment is 2 days late, your grade automatically will drop from an A to a B+.

If you have been absent, see me the day you return, and we will discuss any missed in-class assignments. Please hand in late homework as soon as possible (the above late work policy will, of course, apply to ALL absences, including excused absences). Make-up final exams will NOT be given.

Tardy Policy
The policy is: Do NOT Be Late to Class. When the bell rings you should be in your seats ready to begin the class. Walking in late is disruptive and disrespectful and will result in a 10% loss of your participation grade for the day (or a one point deduction).

Each assignment will have its own grading rubric. Each rubric will be posted on-line. All point totals are then based on the following scale.

You may inquire about your grade at any time during the year, and I encourage you to come talk with me if you have any concerns about your progress in the course.

A student who earns9-10 points for the day will:	A student who earns 8-9 points for the day will:	A student who earns 7-8 points for the day will:	A student who earns 6 or fewer points for the day will:
Demonstrate a sophisticated understanding of the subject	Demonstrate a solid understanding of the subjects	Demonstrate a somewhat limited understanding of the subjects	Demonstrate a quite limited understanding of the subjects
Stimulate others to address and engage in the important points and issues for the day	Be uncertain about his/her own analysis of the day’s subject	Be uncertain about his/her own analysis of the day’s subject	Have no analysis of the day’s subject
Add important ideas to the discussion	Add some ideas to the discussion	Add very few ideas to the discussion	Add no ideas to the discussion
Directly address specific content from the readings at least once during discussion	Generally, not specifically, refer to the readings	Not demonstrate their close reading	Demonstrate they have not read for the day
Show respect for colleagues and Dr. Berry at all times (this includes NOT talking when someone else is talking)	Show respect for colleagues and Dr. Berry at all times (this includes NOT talking when someone else is talking)	Sometimes talk while others are talking, but generally show respect	Constantly talk while others are talking
Have thoroughly familiarized self with topic	Have familiarized him/herself with the topics, but will be a bit uncertain on some details	Be a bit uncertain on some details for the course material for the day	Will be rather clueless
Offer clear, accurate answers for questions	Offer clear, accurate answers for questions	Attempt to answer for questions but may offer searching or imprecise answers	Will demonstrate they have not read for the day
Try to help others clarify difficult concepts	Try to help others clarify difficult concepts	Not try to help others clarify difficult concepts	Will not be willing to help others
Perform brilliantly on the day’s in-class and/or homework assignments	Perform highly on the day’s in-class and/or homework assignments	Complete in-class and/or homework assignments, but work is sloppy/poor	Not complete in-class and/or homework assignments,
Listen intently and come to learn and have fun	Listen intently and come to learn and have fun	Listen intently and come to learn and have fun	Generally not want to be in class

World History Assignments and Grade Breakdown