Wikipedia:Wiki Ed/Brigham Young University/The United States Since 1877 (Fall 2019)

This Course Wikipedia Resources Connect
Questions? Ask us:

contact@wikiedu.org

Course name
The United States Since 1877
Institution
Brigham Young University
Instructor
David-James Gonzales
Wikipedia Expert
Shalor (Wiki Ed)
Subject
History
Course dates
2019-09-04 00:00:00 UTC – 2019-12-17 23:59:59 UTC
Approximate number of student editors
40


This course surveys the history of the United States from the end of Reconstruction to the present day paying particular attention to the following themes:

  1. The power of historical narrative and memory (i.e., why we tell the stories we tell about the past).
  2. The origins and legacies of social inequality (particularly in regards to race, class, and gender).
  3. The role of migration (both domestic and international) in the development of the U.S. economy, politics, and culture.
  4. The process of urbanization (i.e., how and why cities develop the way they have).
  5. The origins and evolution of social movements for racial, gender, and economic justice.
Student Assigned Reviewing
Janessa C User:Dallenthomas/sandbox
Dallenthomas User:BCDayley/sandbox
Bducky5 User:Berth.j/sandbox
Erickc26 User:Gabomb98/sandbox
Emilyannmcdonald User:Jmjosh90/sandbox
VanessaLoveless User:Mayabrimhall/National Council of American Indians
Mayabrimhall National Council of American Indians User:Emilyrs3/sandbox
BCDayley The History of Education in Utah User:Dallenthomas/sandbox
Jmjosh90 Rio Grande Valley User:Gabomb98/sandbox
Tannerp10 Scandinavian immigration to the Americas User:Spencerwitt/sandbox
Samuelcollier99 User:Tannerp10/sandbox
Gabomb98 User:Jmjosh90/sandbox
Natjadesho User:Samczar09/sandbox
Tweber9 National Council of American Indians User:Emilyrs3/sandbox
Emilyrs3 User:Mayabrimhall/National Council of American Indians
Jewon420 User:CathrynGuzzwell/sandbox
Jamieswappy Utah Women's Political Organizations
Spencerwitt User:Tannerp10/sandbox
CathrynGuzzwell User:Jewon420/sandbox
Krummens User:Berth.j/sandbox
McKenna Stagg User:Jewon420/sandbox
Carson Biddulph Provo Canyon User:CathrynGuzzwell/sandbox
Samczar09 Hiawatha User:Jamieswappy/sandbox
Jonmike19 User:BCDayley/sandbox
Nsanchez18 User:Jmjosh90/sandbox
Berth.j User:Krummens/sandbox
Jesicam96 User:Spencerwitt/sandbox
Kydcoop User:Krummens/sandbox
Paperboy1555 User:Jamieswappy/sandbox

Timeline

Week 1

Course meetings
Wednesday, 4 September 2019   |   Friday, 6 September 2019
Milestones

Welcome to your Wikipedia assignment's course timeline. This page guides you through the steps you'll need to complete for your Wikipedia assignment, with links to training modules and your classmates' work spaces. 

IT IS IMPERATIVE THAT YOU CHECK THIS PAGE REGULARLY TO STAY ON TOP OF YOUR WIKIPEDIA TRAININGS AND ASSIGNMENTS. 

Your course has been assigned a Wikipedia Expert. You can reach them through the Get Helpbutton at the top of this page.

Create an account and join this course page, using the enrollment link your instructor sent you. (Because of Wikipedia's technical restraints, you may receive a message that you cannot create an account. To resolve this, please try again off campus or the next day.)

Resources:

Week 2

Course meetings
Monday, 9 September 2019   |   Wednesday, 11 September 2019   |   Friday, 13 September 2019
Assignment - Get started on Wikipedia Training Modules & Choose a Partner

Create an account and join this course page, using the enrollment link your instructor sent you. (Because of Wikipedia's technical restraints, you may receive a message that you cannot create an account. To resolve this, please try again off campus or the next day.)

Milestones

This week, everyone should have a Wikipedia account.

Week 3

Course meetings
Monday, 16 September 2019   |   Wednesday, 18 September 2019   |   Friday, 20 September 2019
Assignment - Evaluate Wikipedia & brainstorm topics w/ partner

Exercise

[[../../../training/students/evaluate-wikipedia-exercise|Evaluate an article]]

After completing the training, be sure to spend time browsing our course textbook These United States while also searching topics and articles on Wikipedia. Take note of topics you are interested in that have little or no coverage on Wikipedia. 

Acceptable topics include any personethnic/cultural groupeventplacedevelopmentartistic or cultural production (food, music, dance, artwork, film, stage play, etc.)theory (educational, political, social, etc.) that relates to the history of the United States from 1877 to the present day

Be sure to look at the existing articles (see below) created by my former students on Wikipedia. These provide good models of the type of article you are expected to create: 

African and African American Women in Christianity

Alpha Suffrage Club

History of African Americans in Utah

Women in United States juries

Utah English

Mexican Cuisine in the United States

Moses Austin

Josephine Beall Willson Bruce

Sovereignty (play)

La Memoria De Nuestra Tierra (Calif._1996)

Hip hop and Social Injustice

Women in the United States Prohibition Movement

Chumash traditional medicine

Karankawa people

Nisenan

American Ghettos

20th Century Women's Fitness Culture

Week 4

Course meetings
Monday, 23 September 2019   |   Wednesday, 25 September 2019   |   Friday, 27 September 2019
Assignment - Choose possible topics

Exercise

Choose a topic

Resource: Editing Wikipedia, page 6

Week 5

Course meetings
Monday, 30 September 2019   |   Wednesday, 2 October 2019   |   Friday, 4 October 2019
Assignment - Add to an article

Exercise

Add a citation


Week 6

Course meetings
Monday, 7 October 2019   |   Wednesday, 9 October 2019   |   Friday, 11 October 2019
Assignment - Annotated Bibliography

FRIDAY Oct. 11 - DUE IN CLASS (printed & stapled - 1 copy per group) and also uploaded to Learning Suite 

 

Guidelines for Annotated Bibliography for Wikipedia 

 

Objective: This is an opportunity to begin significant research on your Wikipedia interventions by finding those sources and material that will help you build the citations that will provide the documentation for your article. 


Annotated Bibliography: In preparation for their Wikipedia contributions, students will present an annotated bibliography that includes at least 12 verifiable sources related to their topic. These can include journal articles, book chapters, newspaper accounts, magazine articles, and documentaries. A minimum of half your sources must come from academic journal articles, book chapters, or anthologies accessed via the university library. Your annotations should include both broad general texts that provide the historical, geographic, or contextual framing for your Wiki article and more specific articles that focus directly on your topic.

 

  • Each entry in the Annotated Bibliography must be 3-4 sentences long and include descriptions of the source, and most importantly, how you are going to use it in the Wikipedia article you will write. The assignment will be graded based on the range and quality of the sources cited, the strength and clarity of the writing, and the creativity and resourcefulness used to track down pertinent citations. Each topic will be different, but here are some things to consider:  



Quality of Sources: The better your sources, the more credible your Wikipedia article. The highest quality sources are those that come from academic books and academic journals—academic books are published by University Presses, and academic articles are peer-reviewed. The next level would be popular books, magazines, and newspapers, and finally, the least reliable are web pages and blogs. Even here there are differences—the Human Rights Watch is a much better source for Human Rights than a random page by an unknown author. Always aim to use the highest quality of sources you can find.


Context: In considering what sort of things to include, think about the larger historical, cultural, or geographic context of your topic, these might not specifically mention your subject but can help provide the background to establish their significance or importance. For general context, academic books and academic journal articles are best to establish the grounding and significance of your topic. Sources will generally come from databases like J-Stor, Project MUSE, LexisNexis (for Law), and google scholar. But you will also need to seek out sources that directly speak about your topic, and for these, you may need to look harder, including in local newspapers, independent films, and other more obscure sources.


Grading Criteria for Annotated Bibliography 

Things I will look for in sources:


·           A wide range of appropriate sources: a mix of books, articles, newspapers


·           The scholarly value of the sources used


·           Sources that suggest that you have considered several aspects of the topic


·           Extra consideration will be given to sources that are particularly unusual, creative, or difficult to find.

 

Things I will look for in annotations:       


·           How focused are they relative to your project?


·           How well are you able to describe the relevance of the source to your project?


·           How insightful is your understanding of the ideas presented?


·           How effectively are the annotations written in terms of style and grammar?


Grading Grid

A (90-100)      An excellent range of substantive and high-quality sources that work well together to illuminate a topic in compelling ways. The sources demonstrate advanced research skills, tenacity in seeking out obscure sources, and familiarity with assessing the value of diverse sources. The annotations are well written and illustrate an understanding of the significance of the relevant issues and how they might be applied to the final Wikipedia entry. 


B (80-89)     A good range of sources that work together to construct a solid research foundation for a topic.  Overall the annotations demonstrate a clear understanding of the issues involved. This assignment may have benefited from one or more of the following: greater use of high quality sources; more specific and targeted sources that directly address your topic; more creativity or perseverance seeking out useful sources; greater clarity in presenting the larger relevant issues; greater attention to existing Wikipedia sources to avoid duplication; greater attention to grammar, punctuation and proofreading.


C (70-79)        The assignment has an identifiable topic and demonstrates evidence of some independent research. This assignment would have benefited from one or more of the following: more high quality sources; more specific and targeted sources that directly address your topic; clearer focus on the larger context and relevance of your topic; more attention to connecting your annotations to your project; greater analysis or thought in terms of understanding the larger context; more attention to existing Wikipedia sources to avoid duplication; considerably greater attention to writing, grammar and proofreading. 


D (60-70)        The assignment does not evidence meaningful research or consideration of the issues. This assignment is lacking in several significant areas including quality of research; clarity of annotations; focus; grammar and proofreading.


F (59 or less)   The minimum requirements of the assignment were not met.

Week 7

Course meetings
Monday, 14 October 2019   |   Wednesday, 16 October 2019   |   Friday, 18 October 2019
Milestones

At this point you should create an outline that organizes the approach you will take to writing your Wikipedia article. The annotated bibliography (and whatever additional sources you've added or will continue to add) should serve as your guide to the type of content you will cover.

By outlining effectively, you will be able to adequately assess what you are qualified to write about (again, this is based on your sources). Your outline will help you identify gaps or holes in the subject you are covering and should prompt additional research. It should also help you to determine what to title your article. 

Be sure to look at "Featured" Wikipedia articles as well as those written by students in my previous classes (see week 3) as these provide good models of the type of article you want to create.


Week 8

Course meetings
Monday, 21 October 2019   |   Wednesday, 23 October 2019   |   Friday, 25 October 2019
Milestones
Milestones

Everyone has begun writing their article drafts.

Week 9

Course meetings
Monday, 28 October 2019   |   Wednesday, 30 October 2019   |   Friday, 1 November 2019
Milestones

Week 10

Course meetings
Monday, 4 November 2019   |   Wednesday, 6 November 2019   |   Friday, 8 November 2019
Assignment - 1st Draft of Wikipedia article due

Must be posted to the Sandbox of 1 group member and uploaded to Learning Suite by midnight Saturday, Nov. 9.

This does not have to be a full and complete draft, but it should consist of at least 750 words. Additionally, your initial draft should be well organized and divided into sections (whether fully written out or not) that show what will be covered in your article. The draft should include citations and be free of major grammatical and syntax errors. 

The draft must be moved to the SAND BOX section of one group member, so that it can be read by me and your classmates. If you are unsure of what this is, then see the training module that covers this. 

The draft should also contain images you are planning to include in your final article. Images must adhere to Wikipedia's image copyright policy (see training). Wikicommons and other Wikipedia articles are great sources for images that meet this policy. Other "open source" or "common source" images meet this standard as well.

 

Week 11

Course meetings
Monday, 11 November 2019   |   Wednesday, 13 November 2019   |   Friday, 15 November 2019
Assignment - Peer review an article

[[../../../training/students/peer-review|Guiding framework]]The professor will assign you to review a student peer's article. Please keep your comments polite and constructive. Feedback should focus on the principles covered in Wikipedia trainings for evaluating articles and sources. Limit your comments to 3 complete sentances. Be sure to provide feedback on what you like about the draft and what can be improved. 

Also, be sure to schedule a time to meet with me as a group in my office to discuss revisions to your article.  

Milestones

Exercise

Add links to your article

Now's the time to revisit your text and refine your work. You may do more research and find missing information; rewrite the lead section to represent all major points; reorganize the text to communicate the information better; or add images and other media.

Milestones

Every student has finished reviewing their assigned articles, making sure that every article has been reviewed.

Week 12

Course meetings
Monday, 18 November 2019   |   Wednesday, 20 November 2019   |   Friday, 22 November 2019
Milestones

Now that you've improved your draft based on others' feedback, it's time to move your work live - to the "mainspace."

Resource: Editing Wikipedia, page 13

Week 13

Course meetings
Monday, 25 November 2019
Assignment - Final article Due (all edits finalized and complete)

Final Wikipedia Article Due SATURDAY, Nov 30

 

All edits must be complete and your article must be moved to a live Wikipedia page. In addition to publishing the article on Wikipedia, you must upload the text of your article (only your group's contributions) to Learning Suite by 11:59 PM on Monday, Nov. 25. Please format and print this as a PDF from your Sandbox (see option on left-side of the Sandbox page menu.

 

The Wikipedia portion of your grade will be graded as follows:

 

Your article should present a substantial and thoughtful contribution to the Wikipedia community by using a wide range of sources effectively either introduce new or expand on existing information and knowledge. 

 

The article must contain a minimum of 1500 words and demonstrate understanding of different kinds of sources, as well as an appreciation of their strengths and utility to document the topic. 

 

Sources (minimum of 12 for groups of 2) can include scholarly books and articles; national, international and community newspapers; films, television, and videos; musical recordings, government, organizational, and community websites and reports. At least half of your sources must come from academic pressesin the form of journal articles, books, magazines, or other serial publications. The university library system should be the primary mode of accessing your sources. 

 

The article should display a sophisticated understanding of the topic, careful and precise editing, and a clear understanding of Wikipedia standards. 

 

The article represents significant research into the academic literature surrounding the topic and places the topic within a larger socio-historical context. It also evidences a thorough interrogation of existing Wikipedia pages that address the issue. 

 

The article contains a minimum of 3 images (photographs, artwork, graphs, charts, or other related pieces). Note, wikicommons and other wikipedia articles are great sources for images that coincide with Wikipedia's copyright policy. 

 

Things that detract from this excellence and will result in deductions:

·       Insufficient attention to the larger historical, cultural, or geographic context

·       Focusing on a small aspect of a topic without making important connection to related topics and Wikipedia entries

·       Insufficient attention to other related Wikipedia pages

·       Lack of organization and structure in your contributions 

·       Biased language & lack of attention to grammar and style—remember clear, accessible, and impartial language is the goal!

·       Insufficient research to support your points

·       Over-reliance on poor quality sources 

Things that merit extra points:

·       An article/page that includes visual material—remember this must conform to WikiCommons standards of use!

·       An article/page that is well organized into topics and sections with headings and subheadings that flow logically and are easy to follow

·       Research that evidences extra effort to track down sources

·       Inclusion of primary sources from news and magazines

·       Linking to related Wikipedia articles/pages and external websites

Week 14

Course meetings
Monday, 2 December 2019   |   Wednesday, 4 December 2019   |   Friday, 6 December 2019
In class - In-class presentations

Each group will have 10 minutes  to present their Wikipedia article to the class. Be sure to split your time equally among yourselves (5 min. each). Due to time constraints and the number of presentations, there will not be time for Q&A. 

Be sure to explain the following in your presentation: 

  1. What is your topic and why did you choose it?
  2. What specific contributions did you make to your article (text and images)?
  3. How does your article/contributions relate to the history of the U.S. since 1877?
  4. What did you learn from this project? 

Week 15

Course meetings
Monday, 9 December 2019   |   Wednesday, 11 December 2019   |   Friday, 13 December 2019
In class - In-class presentations

Each group will have 10 minutes  to present their Wikipedia article to the class. Be sure to split your time equally among yourselves (5 min. each). Due to time constraints and the number of presentations, there will not be time for Q&A. 

Be sure to explain the following in your presentation: 

  1. What is your topic and why did you choose it?
  2. What specific contributions did you make to your article (text and images)?
  3. How does your article/contributions relate to the history of the U.S. since 1877?
  4. What did you learn from this project? 

Week 16

Course meetings
Monday, 16 December 2019
Assignment - Reflective essay

Wikipedia Reflection Paper Instructions

(4-5 double-spaced pages, 12pt. font, 1-inch margins)

 

Due Tuesday, Dec. 17 uploaded to Learning Suite by 11:59 PM

 

Please create a heading for each of the 3 following sections and answer the questions in full sentance and paragraph form. 

 

I. Individual Contributions & Learning Goals (3-4 pages):

Please describe your contribution to Wikipedia in detail. Specifically, explain how your article (new or addition to existing) contributes to the collective knowledge of the public via the Wikipedia community. Also, describe how your article relates to one or more of the following course themes: (1) the legacies of European colonialism and slavery on U.S. political economy and race relations; (2) the impact of global and domestic migrations on notions of U.S. national beloning and citizenship; (3) the power of historical memory and narrative. 

 

Also discuss, what obstacles and challenges did this project present, and how did you go about addressing them? This is a place to outline any particular efforts that you made to research your topic, track down material, engage with other Wikipedia editors, etc.

 

What insights did you gain about Wikipedia, yourself, or the research process?

 

II. Collaboration, Self-Assessment (1/2 to 1 page):

 

Collaborating with others is an important aspect of this project. Please think about and rate your own contributions to collaboration, using a scale of 1-5 where 5 indicates exceptional contributions, and 1 indicates insufficient contributions.

 

Attendance and participation in group meetings:

Follow-through on tasks:

Contributing to collective ideas on group presentation (be specific):

Contributing to execution of group presentation, this can include preparing PowerPoint, compiling handouts, writing outline, etc.: Rate yourself and detail your contribution:

Additional contributions to others in or out of your group (editing, proofreading, translation, sharing materials, etc):

Contributing to collective ideas on Wikipedia article(s)(If you were the sole author of a page write N/A but mention any edits you might have made to the pages of other students if applicable):

Contributions to research efforts (be specific about any extra efforts in research):

 

III. Collaboration, Assessing Others (1/2 to 1 page): 

Name your project partner/collaborator and rank his/her/their contributions. Assign each fellow student a number 1-5 for each area and explain your reasoning. These are confidential assessments.

 

Name of Group Member:

Attendance and participation in group meetings:

Follow-through on tasks:

Contributing to collective ideas on group presentation (be specific):

Contributing to collective ideas on Wikipedia article(s) (be specific): (Write N/A if not applicable)

Contributions to research efforts (be specific about any extra efforts in research):

Contributing to execution of group presentation, this can include preparing PowerPoint, compiling handouts, writing outline, etc.: Rate each group member and detail their contribution:

Did you receive any assistance from another class member that you want to recognize?:

Milestones

Everyone should have finished all of the work they'll do on Wikipedia, and be ready for grading.