Important Documents in US History Zoom Class

[vcczar]

I’m considering a 16 week summer class that I’ll conduct over Zoom. This one is sort of going to be a “playtest” version of one I’ll do when AMPU is out. This class will be free. The formal version will not be. 

This class will be called Important Documents in US History. The documents will be used to discuss and ruminate about historical events, elections, people, parties, ideas, etc during the time of those documents. Many of the documents will actually be speeches and excerpts of larger works. 

I expect the 16 weeks broken up like this:

1. Pre-Federal Era

2. Washington and Adams presidencies 

3. Jefferson through JQ Adams

4. Jackson through Polk

5. Taylor through Buchanan

6. Lincoln through Hayes

7. Garfield through Cleveland’s 2nd

8. McKinley through Wilson

9. Harding though Hoover

10. FDR

11. Truman through Kennedy

12. LB Johnson through Ford

13. Carter through Bush I

14. Clinton through Obama

15. Trump, Biden, and 2024

16. Students present their own written “important document,” using the examples from class, class discussions, and reflections as their influences. 

The only HW is the class 16 projects and the reading of the assignments. I’m not going to cover the documents as the class will be discussion-based and not lecture based. So students will have to come into class having read the documents and ready to discuss them. 

I’ll likely include Art, architecture, music, etc as flavor for each week, although one isn’t required to look or listen to these. 

I’m not sure what the class length will be but it will meet only once a week, and via Zoom. 

[themiddlepolitical]

3 hours ago, vcczar said:

I’m considering a 16 week summer class that I’ll conduct over Zoom. This one is sort of going to be a “playtest” version of one I’ll do when AMPU is out. This class will be free. The formal version will not be. 

This class will be called Important Documents in US History. The documents will be used to discuss and ruminate about historical events, elections, people, parties, ideas, etc during the time of those documents. Many of the documents will actually be speeches and excerpts of larger works. 

I expect the 16 weeks broken up like this:

1. Pre-Federal Era

2. Washington and Adams presidencies 

3. Jefferson through JQ Adams

4. Jackson through Polk

5. Taylor through Buchanan

6. Lincoln through Hayes

7. Garfield through Cleveland’s 2nd

8. McKinley through Wilson

9. Harding though Hoover

10. FDR

11. Truman through Kennedy

12. LB Johnson through Ford

13. Carter through Bush I

14. Clinton through Obama

15. Trump, Biden, and 2024

16. Students present their own written “important document,” using the examples from class, class discussions, and reflections as their influences. 

The only HW is the class 16 projects and the reading of the assignments. I’m not going to cover the documents as the class will be discussion-based and not lecture based. So students will have to come into class having read the documents and ready to discuss them. 

I’ll likely include Art, architecture, music, etc as flavor for each week, although one isn’t required to look or listen to these. 

I’m not sure what the class length will be but it will meet only once a week, and via Zoom. 

This sounds awesome!

[vcczar]

3 hours ago, themiddlepolitical said:

This sounds awesome!

Yeah, I'm more likely to do it if I get a lot of other people as excited as you. I won't put it together officially until I get a committment of 12 people from the forum. I'll do a poll at some point and be more specific in that poll. 

[MrPotatoTed]

I definitely wish I could, but I'm still in grad school until December.  

My deepest educational regret is that despite loving American history, that love didn't develop until after I'd finished taking it in high school and undergrad.   I tried to find more classes for it as I finished my undergrad and again now as a grad student, but it didn't fit my major's requirements.  It wouldn't help my career at all, it's just something I love learning about.

[Bushwa777]

Im interested. Free is good

[vcczar]

Since I am tying it to AMPU. I might break the class portions based on the Eras used in the game. I think that makes the most sense. I think the class will use important documents, speeches, etc. However, I might make the focus more on what do these documents mean for their time and what do these documents and the time they come from mean for the 2020s and the future. Somethine a long those lines. I think the final product will still be creating your own important document, but I'll have a variety of ways you can do it.