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Humanities 1110 with Richard Jewell - Inver Hills Community College
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Office: Business 136 |
Home Page - Syllabus |
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Summary of the Course (Course Syllabus) |
For larger or smaller print, click on "View" and "Text Size."
This Web page is a traditional syllabus. It summarizes the course. Please use this page primarily for checking out the course beforehand. Once you start the course, please rely on the other pages of this web site for fuller, more detailed information about assignments, grading, points, etc. To see more information about the author, including contact information, go to http://Richard.Jewell.net.
Welcome to "HUM 1110—The Ancient World to the Renaissance" as taught by me--Richard Jewell, your instructor. This four-credit course has an assumed workload of about twelve hours per week: approximately eight hours for homework and four hours for classtime activities. The Inver Hills Community College Web Site describes this course as follows:
“Hum 1110 The Ancient World to the Renaissance”: 4 credits; 4 classroom hours/week…. Examines written works, art, architecture and music from Greece, Rome, the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, e.g. Plato, Greek drama, the Acropolis, Roman satire, Etruscan art, Dante, the Mediaeval Cathedral, Shakespeare, Michelangelo, Machiavelli.
I offer both face-to-face (physical classroom) or fully-online (Internet) sections. For the four classroom hours per week, the face-to-face ("F2F") section takes place in a physical classroom about 2/3rds of the time and in an online environment (a Web discussion board) about 1/3 of the time. The fully-online ("FOL") section is a Web and Internet class that can be taken by anybody in the world with regular access to email and the Web. Both sections also involve some individual travel to several arts events and activities such as local plays and/or museums.
I'd like to make this course not only interesting and helpful to you, but also enjoyable. I would like you to participate as actively in the class as possible, whether you are taking the face-to-face ("F2F") or fully-online ("FOL") section. In fact, part of your grade is based on your active participation, so have fun, talk out and up about class subjects in class and/or online, ask questions, and offer your input, especially when you are engaged in interaction with other students in the class. The more you put into this class, the more you'll enjoy it and the more rewarding you'll find it.
I also would like to make sure that all the materials, discussions and activities that are part of this course are accessible to you. If you would like to request accommodations or other services, please contact me as soon as possible. It is also possible to contact the Disability Services Office, L-224; phone, 651/450-8628; TTY, 651/450-8369.
The humanities are a wonderful and exciting field of study. They ask--and sometimes answer--questions about what the meaning is of culture, society, the arts, and life itself. This field covers a number of disciplines--literature, philosophy, the arts, architecture, religion, and other disciplines all are part of it. There are two courses introducing the humanities at Inver Hills--this one is the first of the two--that offer an historical approach. Thus we will use the process of history as a background to explore the existence and meaning of the humanities. We also will limit ourselves to a Western perspective: in this course, we will discuss, primarily, European and to some extent Middle Eastern roots of our culture, society, and arts. We will cover early civilization, Greece, Rome, Judaism and early Christianity, the medieval ages, and the renaissance.
I will keep you busy with plenty of reading and writing this term. However, most of the reading should be interesting, and most of the writing will just be rough-draft, quickly-written writing for which you simply receive a checkmark of credit if you do it. There are no objective tests, and there is one graded written project at the end of the course.
Will the grading be tough? If you're willing to put in the time and do all the assignments, the grading won't be particularly difficult. My assumption is that most of you will work hard and earn an average or above-average grade. There also will be a lot of group work. Why use it? It's a highly efficient method for many people in exploring more deeply and meaningfully their connections to the subject matter. (It also is good training for your future professional jobs, where group work has become a predominant way of working.)
Here are the kinds of class activities you can expect to be doing from week to week for your attendance grade:
F2F (Face-to-Face)
Section
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FOL
(Fully Online) Section
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Your online portion of the class breaks down something like this:
F2F (Face-to-Face)
Section
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FOL
(Fully Online) Section
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(1) Required: Jewell, Experiencing the Humanities free on the Web (you may read it on the Web or print it from the Web): just click on "Humanities Textbook: Experiencing the Humanities" in the buttons above.
(2) Required: Internet email account and access to the course Web site (start at http://Richard.Jewell.net, click on "Course Web Site," and then click on "Humanities 1110."
(3) Required--Choose either "Set A" or "Set B" from the bookstore--do not buy both--as follows:
Set A
For more details, see "Homework." |
Set B
For more details, see "Homework." |
How much work is a typical college class? 3 cr. = 9 hrs./wk.; 4 cr. = 12 hrs./wk. That includes both class and homework. I'd like to ask you for your commitment this semester to the expected amount of time for work. The Inver Hills (and national) standard is three hours of work (two of homework and one of class time) per week for every college credit, to receive an average grade. This class is a four-credit class, so please plan on spending at least twelve hours per week on class and homework: four on class and eight on homework.
How many assignments are there? A lot. However, most of them are short and relatively easy. I'm asking for just one graded paper--at the end of the semester. Almost all the other assignments are weekly, and they include a number of short, rough-draft, quickly and even sloppily written papers done either by pen or by computer printout: just neat enough for me to read them, not revised, and written as quickly as you can. You'll get a check mark for doing them and receive a grade at the end of the term for how many check marks you've received. These papers are lab practice in a biology course: they will show me you've done the readings and help you practice the humanities and think about them more. I am doing these kinds of assignments instead of having several objective tests or several graded papers because I believe that in the long run, you'll learn more from writing on a weekly basis about what you've read.
All papers must be on time. Late papers are not accepted because most of them help you prepare for class discussions and activities. Most assigned papers for any given week always will be due on Wednesday of that week, online or on campus (for night classes, papers will be due at the time you show up for class).
Please remember that you may write these as "lab" papers--in very rough-draft form--without worrying about grammatical usage, spelling, or punctuation:
Class Journals: your letters to me, in effect, about
yourself and the course, 300 w. each. Due at beginning, middle, &
end of term.
Comments
on course book readings: your responses to the assigned textbook readings,
150 w. each, with at least 50+ w. on each chapter or literary reading.
Due every week, Weeks 2-14.
Practice Activities: your rough-draft, academic practice of the humanities (e.g., writing a paper) about one of the subjects and times discussed in Lamm’s or Fiero's book (but you must do the actual reading itself, or other activities, from outside the required Lamm or Fiero readings). Due all but one week in Weeks 3-14.
You may make up missed attendance by doing extra writing. No makeup is allowed of missed writing assignments. However, you may complete extra-credit writing for a higher attendance grade to help counterbalance a lower weekly-papers grade (or simply to raise your overall grade).
DETAILS ABOUT GRADED TERM PAPER (The Final Project)
To see specific instructions about the term paper requirements, please click here: Final Project. This final project may be a continuation or revision of one or more of your weekly papers, or something new. It will consist of three drafts. You may use any appropriately academic sources you choose to develop the final project, as long as you choose a subject and time period that was covered in the Lamm and/or Fiero historical textbooks (i.e., you must choose an historical subject as covered in Lamm/Fiero).
35%: attendance or equivalent
20%: Final Project Paper
45%: weekly rough-draft papers
plus or minus up to 1-2 letter grades from the above for participation, attitude, attention, hard work
WEEKLY PAPERS
This portion of your grade will be determined by how many of your weekly, rough-draft, non-graded assignments you turn in. Each assignment will be worth one or more check marks or "X's" of credit. If, by the end of the semester, you have 90-100% of your possible X's of credit, you'll receive an "A" for weeklies; 80-90%, a "B"; etc. (+'s and -'s will be used). See "Attendance" below for more details.
Attendance in is very important. Why? Much of what you learn will be developed through your interactions with others. That is what much of our online classes is about: expressing your ideas, giving feedback to others, and getting it from them. In addition, four weeks (or the equivalent) of our classes will be spent in hands-on, practical application of the humanities: actually going to humanities places and events such as museums, theaters, and/or architectural sites to see, hear, and sometimes even touch cultural/social events. I ask that you attend online class regularly (or do substitute work when you miss), and that you try to attend the cultural events with the class or on your own. However, if you are willing to do extra work outside of class, you can also treat this course as a sort of semi-independent study by regularly doing "makeup" work. Attendance is developed from how many times you participate, and for how long, in the discussion boards, in on-campus meetings or museum or play visits, or equivalent make ups of those. You also can earn extra credit.
Grading system: Grading for the semester is based on 100 X's (100 points or 100%) being equal to an A+. The X's you can earn are divided as follows:
45 X's (or points): weekly homework papers
35 X's (or more): attendance and/or extra credit
20 X's: final paper (up to 20)
Participation, attitude, attention, hard work--can slightly lower or raise final letter grade
You earn X's by completing the work. In attendance, an "X" (or a "V") is about 70 min. of work. The same is true for extra credit - about 70 min. of work per X. In weekly homework, most assignments are worth 1 X each, with a few being equal to 2 X's. By the end of the term, your total X's will determine your grade as follows:
100 (or more) X's = A+
90-99 X's = A
80-89 X's = B
70-79 X's = C
60-69 X's = D
0-59 X's = F
Basically, you can determine your grade by how many X's you earn. The method of doing well in this class is to earn as many X's as you can, depending on what grade you want.
Lateness/Leaving Early: If you are 15 min. late to arrive or early to leave a physical-classroom class, you'll lose half a credit for that class hr.
Make up: You may make up 1 missed class hr. by doing 1 hr. of extra Practice Activities, or 1 hr. of combined reading and Comments on a directly related reading that is not in Lamm (or that we skipped in Lamm). You also can make up 1 missed class hr. by watching 2 hrs. of directly related videos, plays, movies, and TV; by listening intensively to music (not while doing something else) of the periods we're covering; looking at art books; etc.--I'm open to suggestions--and then summarizing/explaining/commenting on what you've read, seen, or done for 100+ words per 2 hrs.
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I hope you enjoy the class. If there's anything I can do to help you enjoy it more--alternatives, help with understanding something, etc.--come see me, email me anytime, or call me from 9 am-9 pm. My phone number, email address, and other info are at the beginning of this syllabus.
On-Campus, Face-to-Face Section: Return to Home Page.
Fully-Online Section Only: See How To Start Online.
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Most recent update of this page:
11 Sept. 2009
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Contents and page design: Copyright (©) 2001-2008 by Richard Jewell. Images courtesy of Barry's Clip Art, Clip Art Warehouse, The Clip Art Universe, Clipart Collection, Microsoft Clip Art Gallery and Design Gallery Live, School Discovery, and/or Web Clip Art First
date of publication: August 21, 2001 |
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