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Date:         Wed, 27 Jan 1993 12:34:12 EST
From:         "James G. Carrier" <jgc5p@UVA.PCMAIL.VIRGINIA.EDU>
Subject:      Re: large lectures
Comments: To: History Discussion List <HISTORY%RUTVM1.BitNet@pucc.princeton.edu>

One of the things that got ignored in the discussion of large lectures is
teaching style. For those who have not taught large lectures, it can come as
a shock to realize how different it is from teaching smaller classes.
     It is much more theatrical, and needs to be if people 100 feet away are
to understand and be stimulated by the lecture.
     Equally, as students are reluctant to ask questions in large lectures,
the teacher (by which I mean me, of course) misses an important way of
finding out how much students are understanding and how much is going over
their heads.
     The person who raised the original question about large lectures may be
aware of all this, but perhaps not.

          Yours, theatrically,

          James G. Carrier

29, University Circle / Charlottesville, Virginia, 22903
(804) 971-2983 / jgc5p@virginia.edu
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Date:         Thu, 28 Jan 1993 13:35:39 -0700
From:         Elliot Palais <IACESP@ASUACAD.BITNET>
Subject:      SANBORN MAP

Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps show the location of individual buildings
indicate names and widths of streets, shape and construction of
buildings, property bounderies and building use. They were
originally produced to assist fire insurance agents to determine the
degree of hazard associated with a particular property. They show
this information for many cities at different periods of history.
Many libraries own a microfiche edition.

Elliot Palais, Social Sciences Coordinator
Arizona State University Libraries,
Tempe, AZ 85287; IACESP@ASUACAD; IACESP@ASUVM.INRE.ASU.EDU
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Date:         Fri, 22 Jan 1993 13:06:48 GMT
From:         George Welling <welling@FREYA.LET.RUG.NL>
Subject:      Re: Large lecture sections
              22, 93 03:03:37 am

> >
> > My school handles large lecture sections by using OMR "black-in" tests.
>                                                     ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>                                                     ???
>
>                                                     AK
Optical Machine Readable forms. One blacks in a circle which is supposed to
correspondend to the right answer. Some sort of machine readable multiple
choice.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
     George M. Welling - dep.Alfa-Informatica HCI - University of Groningen
     phone : +31 50 63 54 74  | fax : +31 50 63 49 00  | welling@let.rug.nl
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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Date:         Thu, 28 Jan 1993 12:06:00 EST
From:         DGPAZ@CLEMSON.BITNET
Subject:      Re: references on revisionism/historical method

I recommend two books that I used in a historiography seminar
last term:
_New Perspectives on Historical Writing_, ed. by. Peter Burke.
Penn State Press, 1991. I do not know the original British
publisher.

Bryan D. Palmer. _Descent into Discourse: The Reification of
Language and the Writing of Social History_. Temple U.P., 1990.

Denis Paz
Department of History
Clemson University
South Carolina, U.S.A.
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Date:         Fri, 22 Jan 1993 00:33:03 CST
From:         Brett Person <person@PLAINS.NODAK.EDU>
Subject:      Re: Large lecture sections
Comments: To: HIST-L@ukanvm.bitnet
              "mlove@UX1.CSO.UIUC.E

My school handles large lecture sections by using OMR "black-in" tests.
This avoids having to grade 600 essays.

I suppose the actual section sizes are 100-400 students.  Often a professor
will teach 2 or 3 sections of the same course.

We usually get essay quetions in the upper level courses which are
considerably smaller.

--
Brett Person
Guest Account
North Dakota State University
person@plains.nodak.edu || person@plains.bitnet
I don't do Windows, but OS/2 does.
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From: akerr@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu (Austin Kerr)
Subject: Re: I don't know much history ...
Organization: The Ohio State University
Date: Mon, 25 Jan 1993 17:03:52 GMT

My experience living and working in Germany in 1982-83: when in a country too 
small to have dubbed American TV programs (e.g., Holland or Denmark) talking to
a teenager was little different than talking to a teenager (in English, that 
is) in a suburb of the U.S.  The popular culture clearly reinforced the English
instruction given in the schools.
-- 
K. Austin Kerr                    direct line to office 614-292-2613
Professor of History              department line           292-2674
Ohio State University             fax                       292-2282
Columbus, Ohio 43210 USA          e mail           kerr.6@osu.edu
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From: crdunlea@rodan.acs.syr.EDU (Christopher R. Dunlea)
Subject: Re: Large lecture sections
Organization: Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY
Date: Sun, 24 Jan 93 03:08:44 EST

In article <4195.9301221359@clus1.ulcc.ac.uk> Christopher Currie <ccurrie@CLUS1.ULCC.AC.UK> writes:
>
>There are Right Answers in History? At undergraduate level?
>

*Sigh*...

Yes, such a beast exists, at the freshman level anyway. In other  words,
consider the question below:

"William defeated Harold at Hastings in which year: 
a) 1047
b) 1086
c) 1066
d) 1096

I posit that such tests bode ill for the teaching profession, and
for the future of humanities education in general.

Chris

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Date:         Wed, 27 Jan 1993 07:57:39 -0500
From:         "Thomas P. Bolles" <tpbolles@DG10SVARMD.ER.USGS.GOV>
Subject:      Re: Question about FTP-sites
Comments: To: History Discussion List <HISTORY%RUTVM1.BITNET@pucc.princeton.edu>

I'm new to this dicussion group and would like to know what these ftp sites
are as well...Thanks.
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Date:         Mon, 25 Jan 1993 09:29:42 CST
From:         SRIBHANA@UKANVM.BITNET
Subject:      sribhana

Please confirm Hist.l. I shall be away after May 1993, at which time
I will request suspension of the service until further notice. Thank you.
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Date:         Sat, 23 Jan 1993 22:24:21 CST
Comments:     Resent-From: Kees Gispen <HSGISPEN@UMSVM>
Comments:     Originally-From: Kees Gispen <HSGISPEN@UMSVM>
From:         Kees Gispen <HSGISPEN@UMSVM.BITNET>
Subject:      1993 GSA meeting
Comments: To: habsburg list <habsburg@purcccvm.BITNET>,
          history list <history@psuvm.BITNET>,
          social history list <sochist@ucbvm.BITNET>,
          women's studies list <wmst-L@umdd.BITNET>

----------------------------Original message----------------------------
To all readers:
The German Studies Association holds its annual meeting in Washington,
D.C. this year, from October 7-10.  Those interested in attending or
presenting papers or organizing a panel should contact the undersigned,
Program Director for this year's conference.  The deadline for submissions
is February 25, 1993.  Kees Gispen, Department of History, University
of Mississippi, University, MS 38677.  Bitnet: HSGISPEN@UMSVM.  Internet:
HSGISPEN@VM.CC.OLEMISS.EDU. Fax: 601-232-7734. Dept. Phone: 601-232-7148.
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Date:         Thu, 21 Jan 1993 23:02:07 LCL
From:         Ron Cantor <RGCANTOR@SUVM.BITNET>
Subject:      Angelou/Santayana

How many of you caught Maya Angelou's twist on Santayana's oft-quoted
(and misquoted) statement that "Those who do not remember the past are
condemned to relive it"?  In Wednesday's inaugural poem, Angelou stated:

"History, despite its wrenching pain
Cannot be unlived, but if faced
With courage, need not be lived again."

While we're on the subject, it's disturbing how many historical inaccuracies
were perpetuated by televised coverage of the inaugural week's events.  Several
commentators remarked that Angelou's inaugural poem was the first "since Robert
Frost read his poem at the Kennedy innaugural."  Of course, this is technically
innacurate.  One of the great inaugural stories of all time is about how an
aged Robert Frost, standing at the podium on that cold day in January, 1961
excused himself for not being able to focus on his copy of the poem he had
written especially for Kennedy's inaugural.  Instead, he recited another poem
by heart.

And the inaccuracies did not stop here.  A CNN reporter told of how Clinton
travelled to Washington from Monticello, following Benjamin Franklin's (sic)
route!  There were others as well, but I've already forgotten them.
From: dh3q+@andrew.cmu.edu (Daniel U. Holbrook)
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.history
Subject: Re: Large section classes
Date: 25 Jan 93 15:17:33 GMT
Organization: Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA

The Introduction to World History class here at CMU (350 students each
semester) consists of two lectures per week by the professor, and Friday
discussion sections with grad student TAs.  Quizzes and tests are put
together by the grad students, reviewed by the professor, and consist of
esays, short ID, and document analysis.  All grading is done by the TAs,
most of whom have two sections of about 25 students each. One more
advanced grad acts as the head TA,  observes the other TAs in their
sections, makes sure the test and quiz composition tasks get distributed
fairly, etc.  The TAs and the professor have weekly meetings Thursday to
go over the discussion questions for the next day, discuss problems,
etc.  All TAs are also videotaped during one of their section meetings,
the tape being viewed by the head TA, a critique then submitted to the
TA.  We also have a University Teaching Center to help any TA (or
faculty member) who wants it.  In general this system works very well.  
Dan

Carnegie Mellon University
History

dh3q@andrew.cmu.edu

"World history strides on from catastrophe to catastrophe, whether we
can comprehend and prove it or not."
               Oswald Spengler
From: Pegasus@AAA.Uoregon.EDU (Pegasus)
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.history
Subject: Re: Ftp-sites
Followup-To: bit.listserv.history
Date: 28 Jan 1993 16:30:36 GMT
Organization: The Polyhedron Group
Distribution: world
NNTP-Posting-Host: fp1-dialin-3.uoregon.edu

Looking for a list of FTP sites dealing with Medieval studies.

Pegasus
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Date:         Mon, 25 Jan 1993 12:27:38 EST
From:         Cal <PRYLUCK@VM.TEMPLE.EDU>
Subject:      I have seen the elephant??
Comments: To: HISTORY@PSUVM.BITNET, SOCHIST@USCVM.BITNET

I HAVE SEEN THE ELEPHANT

Does anyone have information about the origins of the 19th c.
catch phrase "I have seen the elephant," used to express
wonderment?

The earliest citation I know of is a 1843 diary of an itinerant
artist in Missouri, then "at the edge of civilization," in his
words.  "I have seen the elephant" was also used by people
returning from the mid-century gold rushes.  The same words were
also used by Civil War veterans when referring to their
experience in battle.

My hunch is that there should be earlier examples of the phrase,
since the first recorded exhibition of an elephant in American,
was two generations earlier, ca. 1796; elephants were a principal
menagerie exhibit from then on.  After all, an elephant really is
an improbable sight.

Cal Pryluck, Radio-Television-Film, Temple University, Philadelphia
<PRYLUCK@VM.TEMPLE.EDU>  <PRYLUCK@TEMPLEVM>
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Date:         Wed, 27 Jan 1993 15:38:22 CST
From:         Don Mabry <djm1@RA.MSSTATE.EDU>
Subject:      docs/history on ra.msstate.edu
Comments: To: history@ubvm.cc.buffalo.edu
Comments: cc: L-CHA@uqam.BITNET

        I am in the process of reorganizing the file structure of
docs/history on ra.msstate.edu. Existing filelists are inaccurate.
I will send a revised filelist when this process is completed.
Don Mabry
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Date:         Fri, 22 Jan 1993 13:59:13 -0500
From:         "Philip J. Schwarz" <pschwarz@CABELL.VCU.EDU>
Subject:      Re: i'm curious...
              93 12:13 pm

>
> On Mon, 18 Jan 1993 16:36:00 EST Tom Powers said:
> >a free black who bought his wife and kept her legally his slave because
> >she would be better protected that way than if he manumitted her from
> >a black plantation owner.
>
> There have been several messages to this effect.  Can we have a little more
> context, please?  It isn't obvious why a manumitted slave would be in more
> danger than the free black who freed him/her, even considering any "grand-
> fathering" inserted into laws of slave-holding states.
>
Limited "context"--i.e., the Virginia context.  From 1806 to 1816,
any emancipated person had 12 months to leave the state.  Even after
1816, permission had to be sought from a court to remain.  Under
those circumstances the only secure way to keep a free
African-American family together when at least one member was
already free--perhaps from birth--and another was about to be freed
was for the free person instead to purchase or accept ownership of
the slave.  Another factor: anyone who freed a slave had to accept
financial responsibility for young or elderly freedpeople.  This
responsibility could be enforced by the courts.  Free blacks were
also subjected to special taxes and apprenticeship.  Keeping a
family member enslaved could provide protection from those taxes or
penalties.  There was no complete security for free black slave
holders, though.  Thus the only decision some would accept was to
leave the state voluntarily.  But another law governed that kind of
departure: free blacks who left were not allowed to return.  The
penalty for returning was re-enslavement.  It was possible to avoid
detection during a short visit--see the article on the Dipper family
in the most recent _Virginia Magazine of History and Biography_.
But it was very risky.

I'd like to hear about similar factors in other states.

Philip J. Schwarz
Dept. of History
Virginia Commonwealth Univ.
pschwarz@cabell.vcu.edu
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Date:         Fri, 22 Jan 1993 12:29:00 CST
From:         Cindy Martin <VRCLM@TTACS.BITNET>
Subject:      Large section classes

Texas Tech University offers large sections (300) of the two basic American
history courses.  Two graduate assistants are assigned to each class for
assistance in grading, etc.  Some classes meet for three hours of lecture
per week with graduate assistants taking responsibility for non-mandatory
discussion groups.  However, most professors choose to lecture only twice
a week with--the remaining hour is made up in smaller discussion groups led
by graduate teaching assistant.  There are generally eight discussion
sections for each large class (we call them monster classes).  I'm not
currently teaching, but you may want to contact somone there.  The number
is 806-742-3744.

Dr. Ernest Wallace, a former faculty member at Tech, used to tell me
(repeatedly) of the good old days when he tried an experiment--he taught
a class of 1,000 students with I don't know how many teaching assistants.
For some reason they never tried that again.
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Date:         Thu, 21 Jan 1993 14:24:00 EDT
From:         "Donna J. Spindel" <HST001@MARSHALL.BITNET>
Subject:      Large section classes

We would appreciate having advice about the format you use for teaching large
section World Civ. classes (over 100 students). For example, do you use
graduate assistants? Do you break up into small discussion sections? What
testing method do you use. Any input would be greatly appreciated.
Donna J. Spindel
HST001@Marshall.WVNET.EDU
Dept. of History
Marshall University
Huntington, WV 25705
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Date:         Fri, 22 Jan 1993 21:47:37 -0600
From:         marvin laurence w <marvin@UXA.CSO.UIUC.EDU>
Subject:      Re: Large lecture sections
Comments: To: HISTORY@UBVM.cc.buffalo.edu

Being a grad student, I hesitate to enter the debate about how best to
conduct large survey classes.  I have been a teaching assistant at two
different institutions and have found that the TA's usually care more
about the students than the professor.  I would plead with you not to
go to omr forms--students get no writing experience out of it.  For
those who are history majors, their in-class writing experience has to
wait until they take  upper division level classes.  At that level,
the professor ends up having to grade style instead of content.  For
those who are not seeking a liberal arts degree, not having to write
essays goes along with their other classes.  In other words, they
escape into the real world with zero writing skills.  I had not
written an in-class essay until my freshman history classes, and I
knew many in the same boat.  Waiting until I was a junior to write
in-class essays would at best set me back a year or two.
    As a TA, my time is stretched between my own classes and leading
three discussion sections of 25 students each.  Usually I graded to
mid-term essays and a final, and two term papers.  It would certainly
be easier to give scan-tron tests, but this robs the students of
valuable writing experience, and only proves that they can memorize
facts.

Larry Marvin
History dept. UIUC
marvin@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.history
From: crdunlea@rodan.acs.syr.EDU (Christopher R. Dunlea)
Subject: Re: Large lecture sections
Organization: Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY
Date: Mon, 25 Jan 93 17:45:45 EST

In article <4185.9301241532@clus1.ulcc.ac.uk> Christopher Currie <ccurrie@CLUS1.ULCC.AC.UK> writes:
>>
>Especially as the question has been so phrased that none of the answers
>offered is right.
>
>As every schoolboy knows, William defeated Harold at Battle, not
>at Hastings. That the battle has been known as the 'battle of
>Hastings' since the 12th century or earlier is one of those
>nuances that multiple-choice questions can't expose. You can't call it
>the Battle of Battle without sounding silly.
>

Well, you'd be surprised what many schoolboys DON'T know. Anyway,         
Hastings is used as the modern term by historians when speaking to
non-historians. I could have called it the Battle of Senlac, but for
clarity of illustration I used a term recognizable to EVERYONE in 
this network. And remember, if a student is taking a history 
multiple choice, they are NOT in the upper division courses and 
would certainly not appreciate the nuance you cite.

(I toyed with the idea of adding "e: none of the above", but decided
against it at the last minute).

Chris
Date: Sat, 23 Jan 1993 10:36:48 EST
From: Stephen McCluskey <SCMCC@wvnvm.wvnet.edu>
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.history
Subject: Re: Large lecture sections

       The discussion so far suggests that the key to teaching history
is to have some close contact between an instructor and individual
students.
      One way to do it is the "small liberal arts college" model; where
you have classes under 50, taught by the professor.  There aren't any
grad students so there are no TA's.
      The other way is the university "monster class" of 250+.  This only
works with small discussion sections (ca. 25 students) taught by TA's who
can talk with students and (realistically most important) read their
written work.
      The compromise that seems to promise disaster is the large section
(ca. 100 students) taught by an unaided professor.  This leads to lack of
contact with students, simplistic assignments and examinations, and is
pobably a certain way to disillusion students on whatever subject is being
taught.

--  Steve McCluskey
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.history
From: akerr@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu (Austin Kerr)
Subject: multiple choice exams
Organization: The Ohio State University
Date: Sun, 24 Jan 1993 15:55:26 GMT

I am curious how many schools are forced, by virtue of class sizes, to 
administer machine-readable multiple choice examinations to history classes.

I once attended a seminar on testing, where the expert in charge observed that 
most multiple choice tests were of poor quality.  He said that multiple choice 
tests that observed higher order learning, short of "synthesis," were possible 
to write, but very time consuming to write, with intricate requirements of 
pretesting, item analysis--I forget all the jargon.  He spent 8 hours writing 
three rough draft questions; over his career he had built up a bank of 
questions to draw upon.  He did not address how he dealt with problems of 
security on tests or questions used more than one time.

Clearly multiple choice questions in history classes are appropriate for 
observing lower order learning.  I have often administered multiple choice 
quizzes that quickly give me a chance to observe if the students have 
understood major points, and give them quick feedback on their understanding of
those points.  Last term I used quizzes for those objectives, and out-of-class 
papers for the higher order objectives.  One advantage for me was reading 
printed essays instead of hastily written scrawl!




ajor points
-- 
K. Austin Kerr                    direct line to office 614-292-2613
Professor of History              department line           292-2674
Ohio State University             fax                       292-2282
Columbus, Ohio 43210 USA          e mail           kerr.6@osu.edu
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Date:         Tue, 26 Jan 1993 00:18:43 -0800
From:         Todd Carney <TCARNEY@OREGON.BITNET>
Subject:      Re: Field of Cloth of Gold

The Field of the Cloth of Gold was arranged by Cardinal Woolsey as a religious
publicity stunt.  You can find more details in any of a dozen very good books
on early Tudor church and state.  See an English history survey or the library
catalog for a bibliography.

Todd Carney, University of Oregon
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Date:         Thu, 21 Jan 1993 22:57:15 CST
From:         idiot monkey <C90071JO@WUVMD.BITNET>
Subject:      Re: Angelou/Santayana

i am afraid i stopped watching television news partly due to the examples you c
ited.
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Date:         Wed, 27 Jan 1993 08:08:31 EST
From:         Ken Koester <MAINT2@ERS.BITNET>
Subject:      Re: multiple choice exams
              27 Jan 1993 02:43:29 GMT from <akerr@MAGNUS.ACS.OH IO-STATE.EDU>

On Wed, 27 Jan 1993 02:43:29 GMT Austin Kerr said:
>
>I trust that all of those persons who disdain multiple choice exams also eschew
>their use in the form of ACT, SAT and GRE scores!

Absolutely.  I firmly believe that the only thing the SAT tests is the ability
to take the SAT test (-: