Unit 2: Research Strategy
by Dr. H - October 2nd, 2013
During this unit, we’ll do less as a group with content & discussion and more with working (together and individually) on beginning your research in earnest. My goal is to help you develop and carry out a coherent, conscious and successful research strategy. Use the Storey book as your constant companion; read it more than once and mine it for ideas. That doesn’t mean content goes away over the next few weeks – in particular, we’ll keep exploring aspects of family life and childhoods and what it meant to grow up or come of age in the 1950s. By the end of this unit on October 23, you should have a “skeleton draft” ready to turn in. See the new “Guidelines” tab above for all the details.
Mon 10/7 – Library Day. Meet in the Library, room 319B. That is the instructional classroom inside the University Technology Services computer cluster, just to the right of the UTS Help Desk. Bring laptops and your ideas and/or problems and questions. We’ll be working with one of our reference staff, Raven Fonfa, who is also the new reference liaison to the History department. Reading for today: Storey Ch 2-3.
Wed 10/9 – Research & Technology Day, meet in our regular classroom. Reading: Storey Ch 4. We’ll work together as a class to create the shell of your ePortfolio using your WordPress sites, so make sure you have your laptops with you.
Today’s professional tips: If you use Twitter, try following some history-related feeds. And for a one-stop professional presence, create an About.me page.
Mon 10/14 – no school. Use the extra time to make progress in your research and to begin your draft.
Wed 10/16 – The Nostalgia Trap. Reading: Stephanie Coontz, “What We Really Miss About the 1950s” and Elaine Tyler May, “Homeward Bound.” J5 is due online – describe (reflect on, comment about… etc) the sources you have been finding and plan to use in your paper.
Mon 10/21 – Two ’50s Childhoods. Reading: Storey Ch 5 PLUS two excerpts from very different autobiographies – Moody, “Coming of Age in Mississippi,” and Bryson, “Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid.”
Wed 10/23 – Film Day; we’ll watch a documentary from 1960 on poverty in America, Harvest of Shame. Due in class: Your skeleton draft!