Problem Sets & Forum Posts
These short assignments are designed to give you practice applying the quantitative historical methods we discuss in class as well as critiquing the work of other historians.
Theses assignments are worth 15 points each: all are due before class starts on the date indicated in the syllabus.
At the end of the semester, I’ll drop your two lowest homework grades.
Forum Post Learning Goals
Through these short homework writing assignments, students will:
- Organize their ideas in advance so they can be active participants in class discussion and activities.
- Discuss key people, historical events, institutions, and global networks that shape Latino immigration.
- Critically evaluate qualitative and quantitative sources.
- Explain how and why government sources for immigration history are created, organized, and maintained, and how institutional repositories shape the information available to historians.
Forum Post Specifications
- Before you start your homework, read the day’s questions carefully. What am I asking you to focus on as you take notes on the day’s readings?
- Compose a forum post that specifically engages with the prompt.
- Make sure that you have a clear argument, and that you support it with specific examples from the day’s materials.
- Clearly state how all of your examples relate to your argument.
- Make sure to distinguish your own ideas from those of other authors: “Rodriguez argues…. To me, this means…”
- Indicate the source for all quotes and paraphrases.
- For forum posts, you can just include the author’s name and the page number in parenthesis if that is easier – like this (Hahner 17).
- Make your analysis of primary sources show that you’re thinking like a historian: considering the point of view in each source, who/what is represented, and how this shapes the depiction of Latinx peoples.
- Forum posts are 3-4 paragraphs. They can be less formal than academic papers, but should be clear, well-organized, and free of grammatical errors.
- All Forum posts are due before class on the date indicated. I won’t accept late submissions without a token (unless you have an excused absence).