Thanks to everybody who came to class today to join in a game of Jeopardy; hopefully it was fun! If you want to go through it again, click here to access the game. I should have probably prepared two games considering how quickly you went through this one! Keep in mind that some of the answers need some fleshing out but it’s a good start for reviewing. The game allows only a maximum of 25 terms, so you won’t find all 30 terms you are expected to know for the exam.
March 31 2010 | Uncategorized | No Comments »
What makes a good essay answer
- same as a regular essay:
- thesis stated clearly in the first paragraph
- several paragraphs in which you provide evidence for your thesis
- conclusion tying everything together
Approach
- take time to plan your answer; make sure you read the questions closely and you understand what is being asked.
- begin by stating your thesis – do not waste time restating the question; make sure your thesis is not a simple statement of fact but rather an answer to a why question. In the exam from last term, for example, saying that Jews fared better under Islam was correct but you only got full marks if you made it clear why
- Cite the evidence – stronger answers use specific points to make their case and shows an understanding of historical context. Using primary sources add particular weight to any historical essay so don’t leave out the material covered in tutorial! Weaker answers are based on vague generalizations or assumptions.
- The greatest single problem in essay answers is the lack of supporting examples.Remember that Jews were not expelled from England, France, or Spain in the middle ages because Christians hated the Jews but because of specific political, social, and cultural changes in those societies. Although the results were the same, the reasons were different in Spain, France or England.
- As in any essay, make sure to acknowledge any counter evidence. If you discount counter evidence, you need to make sure you explain why.
- Stick to the point
- Tie your essay together by stating your conclusions in the end
March 30 2010 | Uncategorized | No Comments »
Structure
- part 1 – Identification questions. Students will be given 10 terms and will need to identify 5. The 10 terms will be taken out of a list of 30 posted on Blackboard. Worth 30%
- part 2 – Students will write one of two essays. In this essay, both choices involve making comparisons between content from the first term and the second term. Worth 35%
- part 3 – Students will write another essay, again choosing from two possibilities. In this case, both choices focus exclusively on content from the second term. Worth 35%
Approach
- As Prof. Hollander highlighted during the review session last week, your job as a historian is to pay attention to patterns (how things continue over time; how are they similar in different places) as well as differences (how they change over time, how the same things take different shape in different places)
Some of what we’ve studied this term
- the impact of modernity from the 18th to the 20th c
- emancipation – the ways emancipation was experienced differently
- spiritual reactions to emancipation- Jewish Reformation
- other reactions to emancipation - antisemitism
- different and new paths Jews took in reacting to those difficulties in the old world
- Zionism, socialism as a reaction
- context of WWI produced an opportunity for Zionism to be put in practice
- change in character of british mandate
- Jews of Arab lands gave you an idea of differences in Arab lands
- differences between those and European experiences
- The Holocausto is this a continuation of past antisemitsm?
o a break from old patterns? something new?
- Israel, Zionism
o same questions can be asked about those two – something new? a break? or continuation?
- in gathering of exiles -> are we talking about a conclusion? or is it a break from the past
- assimilation in the US -> in what ways is it new? or is it a logical continuation from the past?
Main tip – remember to back up your points with examples. If you argue that the state of Israel represents a break, make sure to explain why, citing evidence from the course. Be careful not to overgeneralize.
March 26 2010 | Uncategorized | No Comments »
Some interesting links I came across dealing with this week’s theme [I'll be adding a few more later]
The Jacob Rader Marcus Center of the American Jewish Archives’ online exhibit, Significant Documents Illuminating the American Jewish Experience.
Katie Adleman, “Birthright” in Walrus Magazine, December 2009. Very interesting discussion of Jewish identity in North America and the threat that increased acceptance of Jews might have on Jewish identity.
March 23 2010 | Links | No Comments »
I’ve been asked how to craft a thesis statement. Here are some point to think about when considering your thesis statement:
- a thesis is not a statement of fact
- a thesis is not a description of the topic
- a thesis is not an opinion
What a thesis is
- a statement that reflects the conclusions the author has reached about the topic under consideration in the paper
- an arguable/debatable point
- the central point of the paper
Consider the following examples, taken from Mary Rampolla’s The Pocket Guide to Writing in History:
A student is asked to write a paper on Samuel George Morton, a nineteenth-century physician and scientist who specialized on the human skull and wrote several treatises on craniometry. In his first draft he has the following thesis statement:
Morton measured the size and shape of human skulls from various racial and ethnic groups, concluding that Caucasians had the largest skulls and where therefore superior to all other races.
The sentence above is not a thesis since it merely describes Morton’s work. Notice the difference:
Morton and his contemporaries used his skull studies, which he said were objective and quantitative, to justify their belief in the superiority of the Caucasian race; however, a close examination of Morton’s work reveals, as Stephen Jay Gould has suggested, that his supposedly scientific data were created by his own prejudices and racism.
This statement, as you can see, not only indicates what Morton and his contemporaries claimed but also what the writer of the paper has concluded after careful investigation.
Consider, also, that a thesis should be arguable. This means that two people could look at the same source and come up with very different arguments about it. For example, when asked to compare the views of the late-medieval philosopher Nicole Oresme and Galileo Galilei on the whole of religion in their views of the natural work, one student might want to focus on the similarities of their ideas, arguing that:
Popular descriptions of Galileo imply that he believed science and religion were incompatible, but a comparison of his ideas with those of Nicole Oresme suggests that Galileo’s ideas about God and nature were similar to the beliefs held by medieval natural philosophers.
While another student might want to focus on the distinctions:
Both Galileo and Oresme believe in God, but the similarities end there: While Oresme sees Scripture as the ultimate font of all knowledge, Galileo dismisses it as irrelevant to the issues explored by scientists.
Both theses are equally valid as long as they are well demonstrated in the essay.
But don’t fret too much about trying to come up with the perfect thesis statement. Consider first what your want your essay to be able and what is the main point of it. Once you figure out your main point, the thesis will be there.
March 04 2010 | assignments | No Comments »
As you know, this week we’ll be discussing Hitler’s policies towards Jews in the years prior to the Second World War. Considering the current Olympic fever in Canada, I thought you might be interested in the US Holocaust Memorial Museum’s exhibit on the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. Click on the picture below to see the exhibit:
The last of 3,000 runners who carried the Olympic torch from Olympia, Greece, arrives in the Lustgarten in Berlin to light the Olympic Flame and start the 11th Summer Olympic Games. —USHMM #21674/Bettmann/CORBIS
March 01 2010 | Links | No Comments »
Stage 1. – think about themes we studied in the course such as
- divisions among East European Jews
- Zionism
- relations between Jews and their non-Jewish environments, acculturation/assimilation
- anti-Semitism
- the first Aliyyot
- political responses among Jews
- Mandate Palestine and the growth of the Jewish community
- the different experiences and cultures of European Jews and Jews from the Arab or Muslim world
- the Holocaust
- Messianism
Stage 2 – read through the chapters highlighted in the book with those themes in mind
Stage 3 – Take notes of every time one of these themes emerge, paying particular attention on how they are remembered /understood. You won’t need to talk about *every* theme in your essay but you’ll need to draw from more than one as your examples.
Stage 4 - Ask yourself: how do these different voices view and understand the past (the past being all those events, ideologies, processes mentioned in stage 1)? What are the similarities and differences in the way they understand the past? How is Israeli society shaped by these differences? Are there aspects of the past that are left out?
Stage 5 – Your answers to stage 4 will form the focus of your essay.
February 28 2010 | assignments | No Comments »
As promised, here’s the lowdown of the changes for the new term:
- tutorials resume on the second week of classes; that means Jan 12 and 13.
- lectures resume on Jan 6th at a new classroom: SS 1085
I’ll be posting the exam marks on Blackboard in the first week of classes and handing back the exams in the first tutorial. Enjoy the break and I’m looking forward to seeing you in January.
December 23 2009 | Uncategorized | No Comments »
For those of you who missed tutorial this week, I distributed a handout with tips on how to prepare for history exams. As mentioned both in lecture and tutorial for the past couple of weeks, the test will be one hour long and you will be required to identify five key persons/movements/concepts out of a list of ten and write one essay out of a choice of two. The essay questions will be quite broad and it will require you to draw from material from the whole semester. Just think about some of main themes we looked at this term.
Download the handout distributed in class here.
Check the exam date/time here.
December 04 2009 | Uncategorized | No Comments »
I have posted the readings for next week above. As you know, next week is the final tutorial for the semester – we will be going over some of the main themes discussed in the course so far as well as some strategies for preparing for the test.
November 25 2009 | Uncategorized | No Comments »
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