In this assignment, your goal is to create a public syllabus modelled on the “Trump Syllabus 2.0” discussed in class. The entirety of this project should be published and openly viewable online. Exactly where you choose to publish it–via WordPress, for instance, or Wix–is up to you.
Reflective Letter Component
You will also upload a reflective letter as part of the assignment. This letter should be typed, double-spaced, in 12-pt size font. The letter should be approximately two to three paragraphs in length. In it, I would like you to explain your use of logos and ethos.
By “logos,” I mean your rationale for why the weeks are ordered the way they are. Give me an overall sense of what the logic is behind the course’s progression from week one to its final week. For instance, do you start off with background information and a short history of your topic, and then break things down in the subsequent weeks into several issues/themes/research questions pertaining to the topic?
By “ethos,” I mean your rationale for why you’ve selected the sources you have. I don’t need you to tell me about every single source; instead, I want you to look at maybe two or three weeks as examples, and examine in those weeks how the primary source(s) for that week relate to the secondary sources for that week. Show me that you’ve put some thought into this instead of just randomly selecting sources that don’t relate to each other!
Rubric
Exigence: __/25 points
Part of the challenge here is selecting an issue or event to form the topic of your syllabus. Be sure to pick a topic that’s worth having an argument about—one that has exigence.
To this end, the syllabus should contain introductory statement that is roughly 4-6 paragraphs in length. This statement should appear somewhere so that it is one of first things a visitor to your web site sees. Its job is to offer a basic introduction to the topic of the syllabus, and to make clear what this issue’s exigence is or why this syllabus devoted to this issue needs to exist.
Logos: __/40 points
The syllabus should be divided thematically into weeks (at least 10), as exemplified by the ”Trump Syllabus 2.0.” Each week should have its own topic header and a list of secondary and primary sources relevant to that subtopic. (These sources should be listed in MLA Works Cited page format.)
The weeks and their respective themes should be sequenced in a logical way. There should be a basic logic for why one week’s theme follows the previous week’s theme. *You will explain the logic behind your ordering/sequencing in your reflective letter (see above).
I also want you to create at least two assignments that could be assigned to students in the syllabus for your hypothetical course. For each assignment, write approximately one paragraph explaining its format and purpose. Include this list of assignments at the end of your syllabus in an “Assignments” section. See the “Trump Syllabus 2.0” assignments (viewable here: http://www.aaihs.org/resources/trump-2-0-assignments/ (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.) for inspiration.
Ethos: __/25 points
You should have a good mix of secondary and primary sources—at least one primary or “multimedia” source per week, and at least three secondary sources per week. While some of your secondary sources may be op-eds and editorials, a larger percentage of them should be scholarly or peer-reviewed and found using the UM-Dearborn library. You will discuss your rationale for why you chose the sources you did in your reflective letter.
Clarity: __/10 points
Write clearly and make sure you proofread.
