I hope the material on this page demonstrates what kind of educator I am and how I instruct students. I further hope that it shows the passion and energy I put into making my classes successful and for the topics I teach. The below material is drawn from a variety of the courses I have taught for as an instructor or teaching assistant.
Sample Assignments and Assessments
When creating assignment and assessment material I try to force students to engage with the course content from a variety of perspectives and methods. For written assignments I encourage students to turn in draft material as a way of giving them intensified feedback before final grading. While this works well for short assignments, I wanted to go further than encouraging drafts for longer assignments. I found that doing longer assignments in steps results in my ability to give every student multiple points of feedback over the course of a semester and to avoid students completing the writing assignment at the last minute or from making serious mistakes. Below you will see my research paper assignment instructions for HST 214 (African History since 1800) and how I require students to complete it in four stages throughout the semester. Also included in the Research paper assignment instructions is material to help the student select a topic that is appropriate and of interest to them.
Additionally, I have attached the final exam that I used for HST 214. In it, I utilized multiple forms of examination to attempt to prevent students weak in one area of assessment from struggling throughout the exam.
Lesson Plans and PowerPoint
Below are some varied examples of how I teach different material. The first material is a lesson plan and associated PowerPoint for a fifty minute discussion section focused on reviewing lecture material and examining three primary sources centered on Mongol expansion across Eurasia. This material is from Syracuse University’s World History to 1750 survey course (HST 121).
Following that, is material from my History of Africa since 1800 (HST 214) course. I have included a PowerPoint for an eighty-minute lecture on Africa and World War II. The PowerPoint shows how I re-frame student understandings of WWII by exposing them to the Africanist argument that from an African perspective WWII began with the fascist aggression and invasion of Ethiopia in 1935. Slide _X_ of the PowerPoint features a video which I use to break up lecture and have a brief discussion on. I recognize that eighty minutes is a long time for students to be lectured at, so my lectures generally feature some kind of mid-point discussion to reenergize and engage them with. The last slide is also a primer for a primary source that class ends with a discussion of. [Explanation of primary source].
Also attached from my History of Africa since 1800 course is a lesson plan on a discussion for the book Mistaking Africa by Curtis Keim. The class read the entirety of the book and wrote response papers on it. This was done toward the end of the course and served as a moment of reflection for how their understanding and attitudes toward African history changed over the course of the semester
HST 121 Material
HST 214 Material
Preparatory Materials
Below is a selection of some of the kinds of preparatory materials I have used in my teaching. The first document is a handout that I prepared and give to students in courses that require the use of Chicago Style citations. The second document is a worksheet done in groups during discussion sections for HST 121. Students in that class have to complete a 1200-1500 word paper. The paper assignment required them to put three or four grouped primary sources that they read for class in conversation with each other and make an argument from them. This worksheet and the activities done with it in discussion section get them actively thinking about their paper well in advance of it being due.
Graded Papers
Below are two examples of student material that I have graded. The first is a research paper completed for my Modern African History course (HST 214). The second document is a short essay assignment for a course Syracuse University’s World History to 1750 survey course. In that assignment students have to select a group of primary sources they read for class and make an argument on the theme of those documents using them as evidence. I have provided the assignment instructions in the document above the student paper.
Thomas Bouril 