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The class meets on campus on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. Students are also required to complete online homework, which will be due on Fridays.

COURSE DESCRIPTION:

What is history? And why bother to study it?

History is an academic discipline that examines how our world has changed over time and seeks to explain why these changes occur and how they have influenced us. History helps us understand ourselves, our world, and why it is in the state it is in.

The study of history involves both process and content. As part of this class we will learn the process of history, how to be historians and what it is that historians do. This will involve working with primary sources, the tools that historians use to understand the past, such as letters, diaries, journals, government documents, newspaper and magazine articles, photos, to name just a few. We will also explore how historians construct interpretations and analyses of the past. We will learn to think critically about both these sources and what they can tell us about the past and about the explanations that historians produce. It is important that we understand that interpretations of the past are not static. Professional historians expect that newly discovered sources of evidence and new ways of interpreting that evidence will change and alter our perceptions of the past.

We will also be concerned with content. Over the course of the quarter we will explore the History of the Pacific Northwest from the time just before contact between native peoples and Euro Americans in the late 18th century, to the end of the 20th century. For the purposes of the class we will focus largely on what are now the states of Washington and Oregon. Of course, the history of the Pacific Northwest has also been influenced by developments in places far outside the region, such as London, San Francisco, Washington D.C., China, Japan, Mexico and Scandinavia, and we will investigate the links between some of these places and the region. By examining the history of the region, we will also hopefully develop a greater understanding of how the Northwest came to be the way it is today and the issues it faces in the 21st century.

Your responsibility over the quarter is to complete all readings and assignments on time and become familiar with the narrative of Pacific Northwest History as presented in the readings and class lessons. You will also be asked to develop skills in historical thinking, to learn how to analyze primary sources, to make arguments and interpretations from them, and to critically evaluate the interpretations that other historians have made.

LEARNING OUTCOMES:

Students who successfully complete the class should meet the following general education outcomes:

Outcome 1. Think critically in reading and writing. This will be assessed through student performance on papers and exams, weekly discussions, and homework.

Outcome 4. Access, evaluate and apply information from a variety of sources. Papers, discussion and homework will form the basis of assessing this outcome.

Outcome 8. Understand major ideas, values, beliefs, and experiences that have shaped human history and cultures. Student performance on exams, papers, homework and discussions will be used to assess how well this outcome has been met.

Outcome 12. Understand the U.S. as a multicultural society. Exams, papers and discussion will be the basis of assessing this outcome.

COURSE OBJECTIVES:

Students who successfully complete this course should:

Have acquired a general understanding of historical developments, issues and people in the Pacific Northwest, from before Euro American arrival to the end of the 20th century.

Have developed new skills of critical thinking in reading and examining the past using a variety of primary and secondary print and non-print resources in the history of the Pacific Northwest.

Have used documents, texts, media, databases, and electronic resources to examine and evaluate past events and issues.

Have developed sufficient map skills to know where events in Pacific Northwest history took place and how physical geography affected political, social, economic and cultural developments in the region.

Be able to write clear, comprehensive well-supported historical essays and reviews.

Understand and appreciate the diversity of Americans’ experience and the complexities of issues they encountered in the Pacific Northwest.

ASSIGNMENTS AND GRADING:

To be successful in this course you will need to master the narrative of Pacific Northwest history as presented in class and in the readings. In addition, you will be asked to think like historians and evaluate material critically so that you can make informed and intelligent interpretations and analyses. My job is to help you acquire these skills and those you will need to write effective essays and exams. I am available to meet with you individually during my office hours to discuss any questions or problems you may have about any aspect of the course.

Your grades for the class will be determined by your performance on the various assignments for the class. The weighting of the grades will be distributed as follows:

Paper One	15% of your total grade for the class
Midterm Exam	15%
Homework	30%
In-class Participation	15%
Paper Two/Final Exam Part I	20%
Final Exam Part II	5%

Further details of the assignments can be found on the class assignments page. The grading scale I use is available here.

READINGS:

The following books are required for the class:

Jay Miller, ed., Mourning Dove: A Salishan Autobiography (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1990).
Monica Sone, Nisei Daughter (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1984).
You will also be expected to read extensive selections from specific history-related websites that I have provided links to on the weekly schedule.

The books can be purchased at the college bookstore. New and used copies are also available from a variety of online booksellers. I have also placed copies of the books on reserve at the college library. To help guide your reading, I will provide study questions for most of the reading assignments. These questions may also form the basis of the weekly homework assignments and the discussions on the discussion forum.

For those students who would like to have a textbook to accompany the class I recommend Carlos Schwantes, The Pacific Northwest: An Interpretative History (Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 1996). However, it is not required.

To maximize the quality of discussions and the grades you get for class participation and the weekly homework assignments it is important that you complete all the readings that have been assigned for that week.

HOW TO SUCCEED IN HIST 214:

Be Prepared. Complete all readings and assignments on time. Think about the readings and the discussion questions I will distribute before you complete assignments. Take notes as you do your readings.
Participate in discussion. Active participation in discussions will help you to maximize your participation grade. Everyone should show respect and courtesy to others during discussions.
Be constructively critical. I encourage you to challenge the ideas you hear in lecture, in the readings, from me, and from other students during discussions. When challenging others’ ideas please do so in a respectful manner without attacking anyone personally.
Follow my Guidelines to Writing Papers for all of the papers and homework that you complete for the class.
Proofread your work. Take the time to proofread your written work for clarity of thought, effective use of evidence, grammar and spelling. I am willing to read drafts of papers, provided you get them to me at least several days before the due date. You can discuss papers or class material with me anytime via e-mail.
Complete assignments and submit them on time. Assignments and their due dates are noted in the course schedule. Late assignments will be penalized.
Keep copies of all graded work returned to you.
Take your exams at the appointed time. There will be no make-up exams except in cases of documented emergency.
Hand in your own work. Academic dishonesty will not be tolerated. This includes cheating, copying & plagiarism (see below).
Don't count on extra credit assignments to pull up grades. There are none in this class.
You must complete and receive a passing grade on all assignments (including class participation) to receive an overall passing grade for the class.

PLAGIARISM AND ACADEMIC DISHONESTY:

Plagiarism is the use of ideas or material that are not your own without giving credit to the original author. In effect, you are saying that these ideas are yours when you got them someplace else. Examples include: cutting and pasting from an online source without placing the copied material in quotation marks and without providing a reference to the original author, copying material directly from a book without citing the source, putting an author's ideas into your own words and failing to provide a citation indicating who the author is, etc. All ideas and material that are not your own should be cited using a consistent citation format. Other examples of academic dishonesty include the use of surrogate paper writers or exam takers. I will not tolerate plagiarism or other forms of academic dishonesty and in the event that I find instances of it I will report the student to the college authorities for disciplinary action. At minimum, the student will receive a failing grade on the assignment. If you have concerns or questions about what constitutes academic dishonesty, please contact me.

DISABILITY ACCOMMODATIONS:

If any student needs to have a disability accommodation for this class please contact me as soon as possible. You will need to complete the relevant college forms and present them to me within the first two weeks of the quarter.

CLASS CANCELLATION:

Class will meet at all scheduled times unless otherwise noted. In the unlikely event that the college is closed due to inclement weather and/or other emergency situations, classes will not meet and arrangements will be made to adjust the course schedule accordingly. If you believe the college may be closed because of emergency conditions, you should check your North Seattle email account for an all-campus email announcing a closure, check the college homepage for a posted announcement, or call the campus switchboard at (206) 527-3600 for a recorded message announcing a closure. Details of school closures should also be available on local TV stations.

I reserve the right to make changes to this website or any aspect of the course as I may see fit over the course of the quarter. It is each student's responsibility to regularly check e-mail and the schedule and assignments pages for possible changes.

Dr. Casserly's Home Page	Assignments	North Seattle Home Page
Syllabus	Reading for History	NSCC Library
Schedule	Preparation for Success	Class Library Page
Northwest History Links	Links for Research & Writing	Exam Review