I’m in the process of copying class PowerPoint files to our WebCT page. You’ll see a link on the left-hand menu and will be able to download the files to your computer. Let me know if you have trouble with this!
Price, Book Guide #2 Friday, May 8 2009
Sorry not to have uploaded this sooner! Here it is, the BookGuide number 2 for Price.
Final exam announced! Wednesday, May 6 2009
announcement and download and exam and handout and instructions 4:10 pm
Final Exam preparation sheet
[see extra credit option below!] You can get all this information in a printable format in this Final Exam handout
This class has been about a subject that many people – even historians – may not think about too much: The French Atlantic. The Spanish, Dutch or Portuguese Atlantic, or especially the British Atlantic are more traditional subjects.
At the end of the semester, you should have a better idea of why the French Atlantic is an important topic in world history. So the final exam question is a big, wide one: “Why study the French Atlantic?”
Directions: you should think of this more as an essay or paper than an exam. You can use any resource you want, though the entire exam needs to be in your own words. See the syllabus to remind yourself of my stern policy about plagiarism. The essay should be about 1,500 words long, which is about 5 double-spaced pages. I’m not grading on length, but if you write less than, say 1,200 words, you probably aren’t thinking carefully about the question. It is due to me on or before noon, Friday May 15, via the WebCT dropbox. It is worth 250 points or 25 percent of the semester grade
Grading Grid – this is how I will grade your essay
- Has a thesis statement that answers the question? 10
- Describes what the French Atlantic is/was? 10
Is well organized? 10 - Uses examples from Greer’s Jesuit Relations? 10
Has a title that reflects the thesis statement? 10 - Uses examples from Greer’s The People of New France? 10
Writing is clear? 10 - Uses examples from Harms, The Diligent? 10
- Uses examples from Dubois, Avengers? 10
- Uses examples from Price, The Convict? 10
Notes:
1. A thesis statement answers the question set by the exam. For this essay, which asks “Why study the French Atlantic?” a possible thesis statement would be: “The French Atlantic reveals the true nature of Europe’s colonization of the Americas.” The following is NOT a thesis statement: “This paper will examine why the French Atlantic is important.”
2. Most of the time you do not know what your thesis statement will be when you start to write. This is because writing is a form of thinking and writing helps you answer hard questions, like this one. Often you will only realize your answer to the question as you are writing the last sentence of the exam. However DO NOT just leave that sentence there. Move it to the first paragraph and make sure that the rest of the paper supports that sentence.
3. You NEED a title. This will be the very last thing you write – after you discover your thesis, you can write a title that reflects that thesis.
Extra Credit – Map the French Atlantic Using Google Earth
Worth 50 points or a full two letter grades extra on this exam
10 placemarks/polygons/paths – your choice
10 descriptions of about 50 words each
Needs to include places in France, Africa, North American mainland, Caribbean – your choice!!
Having trouble with MavSpace? Tuesday, Apr 28 2009
download and instructions 4:57 am
MavSpace has been up and down this semester, which has been pretty frustrating for all of us.
A good alternative for our class is the “Assignment” tool on WebCT. I just set up assignment up-load boxes for the rest of our assignments, including the final exam. You upload the file there and then I upload the gradedversion is you can see my comments.
New Book Guide: Dubois Avengers, part 1 Monday, Mar 30 2009
download and handout Book Guide, Dubois 5:10 am
Here’s the Book Guide for the first part of Dubois, Avengers of the New World. Watch for the Google Earth assignment (#3) coming soon.
Handouts and download on Harms, The Diligent Friday, Mar 6 2009
download and Google Earth and handout Book Guide, Google Earth, Harms 1:42 pm
Here are the handouts: This is the Book Guide for the second part of Harms and this is 2nd Google Earth assignment sheet.
And here is the map image that I’m asking you to ‘overlay’ on Google Earth.
Click on the image to download the file.
Here, below, is a different 
map of West Africa from about the same time. You’re welcome to use this as well.
Comparing colonies Friday, Feb 13 2009
Would you like an electronic version of the colonial comparison grid that I handed out in class? Click on the link!
Here’re the 4 historical maps of Canada Monday, Feb 9 2009
download and Google Earth and instructions and Uncategorized Google Earth 4:55 am
As promised, here are the overlay maps of Canada. See the YouTube tutorial in the previous post to learn how to import them into Google Earth.
This is a pretty big file — 33Mb! So be patient downloading it if you have a slow connection. You may want to download this at school and save it to a USB drive.
PowerPoint from Monday Wednesday, Feb 4 2009
Here’s a new feature — let me know if you find it useful! I’m uploading the PowerPoint from Monday. You’ll have to download it to your machine to play it. It’s a large file!Jacques Cartier and Samuel Champlain
History of the French Atlantic 