U.S. History to 1877

This course meets the following General Education Requirements:

Arts and Humanities
1.  Courses must be offered at the 100/200 level in an arts and humanities discipline including but not limited to English, History, Philosophy, Art History, Music History, Religious Studies, or Modern Languages.  Courses offered in other disciplines may be approved if they meet the other conditions indicated below.
2.  Courses must provide students with background knowledge and analytical skills that will allow them to:
a.  Demonstrate understanding of how human beings interpret, translate, and represent diverse experiences of the world through language, literature, the historical record, philosophical systems, images, sounds, and performances.
b.  Apply that understanding to the study of the human condition, cultural heritage, cultural artifacts, creativity, and history.

**Additional criterion for courses NOT specifically focused on Asia, Latin America, Africa or the Middle East:

Courses must be survey courses that provide an overview of a broad topic or field of knowledge.

Writing
To qualify in the skill area of writing a course must:

1.  Designate that at least 15% of the student’s grade in the course is based on an evaluation of writing.
2.  Include writing assignments that directly relate to the course goals.
3.  Include instruction in writing-to-learn and/or writing-to-communicate.  While writing-to-learn emphasizes the student’s experience, writing-to-communicate highlights the reader’s experience.  Both are necessary to produce a thoughtful text that observes academic writing’s conventions.
4.  Require that students write a total of 2,000 words (8 pages, double-spaced, in 12-point font, with 1” margins) in multiple assignments.
5.  Assign writing throughout the semester.

Critical Thinking
To qualify in the skill area of critical thinking a course must:

1.  Designate that at least 15% of the student’s grade in the course is based on an evaluation of critical thinking.
2.  Require students to attain skills beyond lower-level knowledge, thereby requiring:
a.  higher-order thinking (analysis, synthesis, evaluation); OR
b.  skills that involve the use of content knowledge (e.g. finding information to solve a problem); OR
c.  the recognition of the importance and usefulness of knowledge and skills gained in the course (e.g. recognize the ability to and importance of working with others to solve intellectual problems).