The prompts for you to consider in your reading journal for each class session will be listed below. Keep in mind that you should bring your journal with you to class.
| Date | Topic | Question(s) |
|---|---|---|
| Mon., Jan. 27 | How do historians work? | In the episode, each historian offers his or her explanation for how and why they study the past. Which of these explanations did you find most intriguing, and why? |
| Weds., Jan. 29 | What is an autobiography? | According to Bjorklund, in what ways do autobiographers craft their narratives to respond to their audience? |
| Mon., Feb. 3 | Telling the Story of One’s Life | Based on your prior knowledge and on reading Samson Occom’s account, what do you think are the most important elements that make a piece of writing an “autobiography?” |
| Weds., Feb. 5 | Terms for Life Stories | Select two of the “tools” that Smith and Watson describe for reading autobiographies. How do you think you can use them in class as we read additional autobiographies? |
| Mon., Feb. 10 | Evaluating different perspectives | What role does childhood play in the accounts of Antin and Addams? |
| Weds., Feb. 12 | Autobiographies and the Historical Record | How do you think Franklin uses the “autobiographical ‘I'” in the excerpt of his autobiography? |
| Weds., Feb. 19 | The Segregated Society of Jim Crow America | What was your experience of learning about the civil rights movement before this course (for example, in high school or through movies/TV)? |
| Mon., Feb. 24 | The Long Battle for Civil Rights | How did Beals describe her experience of Jim Crow as a child? |
| Weds., Feb. 26 | Brown v. Board of Education and the Fight for Schools | Why do you think the white students felt so threatened by the presence of the African-American students at Central High School? |
| Mon., Mar. 2 | Civil Rights and the Cold War | Why do you think Beals included so many newspaper headlines in her narrative of the school year? |
| Weds., Mar. 4 | Other Perspectives on Little Rock | What seems different to you about the desegregation of Central High School when we explore it from the perspective of national media and politics? |
| Mon., Mar. 9 | Laboratory Day: Little Rock and Civil Rights | No journal entry |
| Weds., Mar. 11 | Honors Project: Reading an Autobiography | What led you to select the autobiographical account you picked? | Mon., Mar. 23 | Slavery and Freedom in Antebellum America | Based on your reading in American Yawp, what impact did slavery have on the economy and society of the southern United States? |
| Weds., Mar. 25 | The Abolition Movement | Why do you think the other issues that the chapter discusses affected and hurt the abolition movement so much? |
| Mon., Mar. 30 | Honors Project: Research Day | What have you found most interesting about the autobiography you’re reading? |
| Weds., Apr. 1 | Frederick Douglass and a Life in Slavery | Analyze the first half of Douglass’s Narrative using one of the tools from Smith and Watson. |
