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Written Assignments | Class Schedule | USEFUL LINKS

I. Description

The mounted warriors of the Middle Ages and their fortified residences inspire awe, romance, and power even today.  Students will learn how knights became a major element in European warfare; how they lived and fought; how they created a governing class and an elite social rank; how they fashioned an ideology of chivalry in art and literature; and finally, how they declined.

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II. Purpose

This is a History Major, European Sequence course.

Goal 1: Student will develop familiarity with major historical subjects, themes, and concepts.
Objectives: Students will

• Understand change and continuity over time.
• Recognize causality, complexity, contingency and conflict.
• Understand the possibilities and limits of historical agency,
• Identify and interrogate chronological and geographical distinctions in history.
• Identify and understand major events, persons, and ideas that have changed or reflected the history of humanity.

Goal 2: Students will engage, investigate and appreciate history as a conversation about how we make sense of the past.Objectives: Students will

• Learn to read critically.
• Locate sources using various search strategies.
• Evaluate and place primary and secondary sources in context.
• Identify historical arguments.

Goal 3: Students will join these historical conversations and produce original scholarship.Objectives: Students will

• Develop the ability to conduct research, analyze and assess evidence, and articulate informed conclusions (effective writing, critical reading, oral communication).
• Acquire a process model of historical writing and thinking through which they: identify a historical problem, ask questions of the problem, develop a thesis in response to the problem, and defend their thesis with evidence.
• Understand and contribute to historiographical debates.
• Clearly communicate their ideas through writing and formal presentations.

Goal 4: Students will apply their understanding of history in appreciation of the liberal arts.
Objectives: Students will

• Develop connections among their courses in history and the college’s core and major curricula.
• Understand history as an integral component of the Catholic intellectual tradition.
• Appreciate the historical dimensions of human cultural expressions in art, music, and literature.
  

Goal 5: Students will translate their experience in the history major into their local and global communities.
Objectives: Students will

• Understand how and why history affects the contemporary world.
• Draw on the skills gained through their study of history to their post-King’s professional life.
• Understand history as a meaningful and indispensable component in developing the full self.

General Learning Outcomes for the student:

In addition to the more content related objectives described above, this course has some general liberal learning goals. Successful completion of this course is expected to help improve your ability

1. To manage information, which involves sorting data, ranking data for significance, synthesizing facts, concepts and principles.
2. To understand and use organizing principles or key concepts against which miscellaneous data can be evaluated.
3. To differentiate between facts, opinions and inferences.
4. To frame questions in order to more clearly clarify a problem, topic or issue.
5. To compare and contrast the relative merits of opposing arguments and interpretations, moving between the main points of each position.
6. To organize your thoughts and communicate them clearly and concisely in a written form and oral presentations.
7. To obtain practice in selecting and presenting information and arguments within a restricted environment, especially the limitations of time in exams.

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III. General Requirements

A. Academic Standards (click here for more information).

Be aware of the Academic Standards Policy (sometimes called Academic Honest or Integrity) concerning cheating and plagiarism, and your moral, ethical and legal obligation only to submit work completed by you yourself. Also see <Help stop Plagiarism!>.  

Similar to the college's policy in your Student Handbook <https://www.kings.edu/life_at_kings/dean_of_students/student_handbook>, as determined by the professor, instances will be reported to the Academic Integrity Officer, and

• a low-level violation may lower the grade on your assigment,
• a mid-level violation may reduce credit for your assignment to zero,
• a high-level violation or multiple violations at any levels may result in your failing the course.

Also see <Help stop Plagiarism!>.

B. Reading:

Reading is still the best way to learn history.  We will read both broad surveys of history and specific sources in order to better understand the past.
Purchase clean, unmarked-up copies.

• Froissart, Sir John. Chronicles. Translated by Geoffrey Brereton. Harmondsworth, UK: Penguin Books, 1983.
• Gies, Joseph & Frances. Life in a Medieval Castle. NY: Perennial Library, 1979.
• Gies, Joseph. The Knight in History. New York: Perennial Library, 1984.
• Balderich. A Warrior Bishop of the Twelfth Century: The Deeds of Albero of Trier. Translated by Brian A. Pavlac, Medieval Sources in Translation Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Medieval Studies, 2008.

The required readings are intended both to provide you with important factual and background information before class and to be used as review and reference works afterwards. Before class, you will read the chapters or pages assigned according to the class schedule.   In all your classes, you should prudently mark up, underline, and otherwise annotate your texts as you study.  For this class you are required to do so.  Several times and notably at the two exams, the instructor will check your books so that classs text readings and evaluate the quality of your note taking or highlighting.  You are to turn in your textbook at the exams, when the instructor will evaluate how well you have marked it up (15 points each text).

Bring the books to class that are listed for that day's readings.  During each class the instructor will select at random students to present part of that day's reading and show how it integrates with the other material. Not all topics in the books will be covered in class, but you are responsible for them on the exam and in class discussion. 

If necessary, the instructor may give quizzes to test your reading and comprehension of the texts, or evaluate your texts for a quiz grade on your preparation.   For the Froissart text, you will have a study guide to complete (40 points). 

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C. Class Participation & Attendance:

Participation and attendance are necessary because lecture and discussion provide the essentials for achieving class goals and objectives. Thus a portion of your grade (about 20%) will depend on your in-class performance and presence, aside from graded quizzes, exams, and papers.  You are required to attend each class, arrive on time, remain attentive, maintain proper classroom decorum, respond to questions, and participate in discussion, presentation of the reading, and in-class projects. You are encouraged to take notes and ask questions.   Since mature engagement with our society's past and present and controversies requires knowledge of current events, students are expected to be informed about significant news stories. 

During class electronic devices may only be used for tasks and information relevant to the classroom activity and may not distract you or other students. Only with the instructor's permission may class be recorded, only to be used for your own study, and the recordings must be erased after the final exam.

Disabilities, Accessibility, and Inclusive Learning: King’s College is committed to ensuring that all students can participate fully in the King’s experience, and therefore to creating an inclusive learning environment for all students. King’s views disability as an aspect of human diversity, and continually works with students, faculty, and staff to identify environmental and attitudinal barriers and to improve accessibility on campus and in our online platforms. Therefore, if you have physical, sensory, psychological, or learning disabilities, we would like to support your access to course materials through reasonable accommodations. Please contact the Disability Services Coordinator, in the Academic Skills Center, at the beginning of the semester regarding King’s policies and procedures for documenting and accommodating differing abilities (see Services for Student with Disabilities in the Student Handbook or the King’s College Academic Skills Center website, <https://www.kings.edu/academics/support/skills_center>, for more information). King’s respects your right to keep disabilities confidential and requires faculty to maintain confidentiality while they work with you and other offices to ensure these accommodations.

Any student who has any possible impediment to class participation and requirements should meet with the instructor within the first two weeks of classes to establish available accommodations. 

If at some point during the semester you must discontinue the course, whether due to poor performance, illness, or some other cause, be sure to follow proper procedures for withdrawal. 

This class's absence policy requires students who miss a class to fill out an Absentee Assignment (see below).  

If you arrive at class late, after attendance is taken, you must personally request that the absence be turned into a tardy mark; otherwise an Absentee Assignment may be required (see below).  Students who need to leave a class early, except for an emergency, should notify the instructor before class begins.

D. Absence Policy and Absentee Assignment:

Since participation and class attendance are necessary, if you miss a class you must complete an Absentee Assignment in order for the instructor to know that some learning has taken place.  For an Absentee Assignment, you are to write a one-page essay (in proper presentation format) reviewing the topic for the day based on required readings.  These papers are ungraded, without points, and not returned; yet failure to complete Absentee Assignments will significantly lower your grade.  
Deadlines: The assignment(s) should be turned in to the instructor at the beginning of the next class after you return.

This absence policy requires Absentee Assignments whether absences are excused or not.  Excused absences due to college activities or extended illness must be authorized in writing by the appropriate college official. You should consult with the professor about making up/turning in missed work in advance or as soon as possible after your return. 
All other absences are unexcused and do not require any written documentation. 

If you miss an exam, contact the instructor as soon as possible. You may take a missed exam only at the discretion of the instructor.  The make-up exam takes the place of an Absentee Assignment. 
If you miss any quizzes and/or class projects due to an excused absence, you may make them up with the explicit permission of the instructor, who may require any equivalent assignment, due at the beginning of the next class period. 
After any absence, you are responsible for requesting from the professor hand-outs and already-returned assignments, or borrowing notes from other students. 

More than a few unexcused absences will start to lower the class participation portions of your grade, despite turning in the mandatory Absentee Assignments.  Whether absences are excused or not, you may not get a higher grade than the percentage of classes attended. 
Nevertheless, a few absences will not significantly affect your grade.  Always, your health is your first priority.  If you are sick, stay home and recover. 

D. In-class Projects:

1.  Regularly through the semester we will have in-class discussions and projects. You are required to have read before class the appropriate material (as listed on the class schedule or otherwise assigned by the instructors) or view material in class and be prepared to discuss and write about it with the instructors or in small groups.

You will be evaluated by short quizzes or written reports done in-class or after class, worth between 10 and 20 points each.

2.  FEUDAL LORDS AND LADIES SIMULATION:

At the end of the semester, you will participate in a simulation of medieval courts and combat.

Purpose: This exercise will summarize what you have learned for the class, showing your understanding of feudal relationships through the acting out of medieval political and social life.

Procedure: More information will be provided in a handout. If any student feels uncomfortable with role-playing, contact the instructor for an alternate assignment.

For Documents related to the simulation from the last time the course was taught, click here.

The Maps for the previous game are available here.

After the end of the game sessions, on the due date assigned, submit a two page reflection paper in (in proper presentation format), describing your perceptions of the process. Questions you might consider: How did you prepare for your role? At what were you able to succeed? Where did you fail? What mistakes did you make? How did the other characters and/or the rules help or hinder the pursuit of goals? (50 points)

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E. Exams

You will take one mid-term exam on the assigned date in the class schedule and a final exam as assigned during finals week. The exams are comprehensive: each exam may cover material since the beginning of the course. Both exams consist of short identifications quizzing knowledge of detail and significance, and longer essays demanding your understanding of the course material through logical presentation of facts and explanation of historical trends.   During the exams the instructor will grade your marking up of your textbooks, for the mid-term Life in a Medieval Castle and A Warrior Bishop, for the final The Knight in History and Froissart.

To study for the exams you should regularly, at least once a week, review your class notes. You should also compare and contrast these notes with your textbook and with the issues and trends emphasized in the class description.

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F. Written Assignments:

1. Presentation:

Both for practice in following guidelines and to facilitate consistency in grading, papers should be uniform in appearance.  For more information, see the proper presentation format page. Every assignment you turn in should have a cover page with your name, but your name should not appear on subsequent pages. For more information, especially about quotations and citations see click here.  For more on ways to improve writing essays, see <http://staff.kings.edu/bapavlac/grading.html#howto>.

2.  WARRIOR BISHOP PAPER:

You will write three-to-five page reflection paper on A Warrior Bishop of the Twelfth Century: The Deeds of Albero of Trier (40 points).

Purpose: This exercise will build your skills in reading texts in-depth, doing research, and organizing your findings in a clear, coherent and interesting narrative

Procedure:

1. Read A Warrior Bishop of the Twelfth Century: The Deeds of Albero of Trier.
2. Write, re-write, polish and proofread your drafts. Your thesis should argue the source’s usefulness in understanding medieval society and war. Only briefly (no more than one paragraph), summarize the plot or subject. More important, use specific examples from the source to explain feudal politics. You should put it in historical/intellectual context. Compare and contrast your subject with what we have learned and read about nobility, honor, religion, training, courtly love, lifestyle, warfare, tournaments, virtues and vices. Be sure to analyze social codes of behavior and examples of combat in the context of fact vs. fantasy.
   Citations may be made using the chapter number at the end of the sentence, before the period, e.g. (Chap. 21).
3. Turn in the final draft of your report in proper presentation format to the instructor on the due date. Be prepared to discuss the book in class.
   

3. CHIVALRY IN HISTORY SOURCE PAPER AND REPORT:

You are to write a five-to-six page analysis of knighthood and chivalry based on a primary source.

Purpose: This exercise will build your skills in reading texts in-depth, doing research, and organizing your findings in a clear, coherent and interesting narrative (100 points).

Procedure:

1. Choose a work from the list on this page, then sign your name on the list posted on the instructor’s door by September 30.  You should do some research on the work and obtain a copy before you sign up for it. 
2. Read the work and do research on the author and text. Consult at least five printed secondary scholarly books and three scholarly articles.
3. Write, re-write, polish and proofread your drafts. Your thesis should argue the source’s usefulness in understanding medieval knights. Only briefly (no more than one page), summarize the plot or subject. More important, use specific examples from the author’s life and work to explain knighthood. You should put it in historical/intellectual context. Compare and contrast your subject with what we have learned and read about nobility, honor, religion, training, courtly love, lifestyle, warfare, tournaments, virtues and vices. Be sure to analyze social codes of behavior and examples of combat in the context of fact vs. fantasy.
4. Turn in the final draft of your report in proper presentation format to the instructor on the due date (75 points).
5. You will present a seven-to-eight-minute oral report to the class on your subject on the days listed on the course schedule. Be sure to go beyond the textbook presentation, connecting your figure to other issues under discussion, and examining historians’ controversies.
   You must prepare a handout for the class which sums up the key aspects of your paper.  No slide presentations are allowed.  You must use notes (not full sentences or text copied from your written report) printed on 5x8 inch notecards or half sheets or standard 8½ inch paper (neatness and clarity count). Your assignment will be evaluated on the appropriateness of your choice of artwork, the thoroughness of your answers, quality of your notes, your use of sources, the clarity of your oral presentation, and your response to questions. For a similar evaluation form which will be used, click here. Your report will be evaluated on your clarity of presentation, the use of details, and the quality of your analysis. (25 points).

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IV. Grades:

You earn your grade through work done for this course. It is your responsibility to understand why you have achieved a certain grade, and what steps you can take to maintain or improve your grade.  You are encouraged to consult with the professor during office hours or by appointment both before and after exams and written assignments.  Click here for parameters of evaluation and grading.

Your final grade will be based on a percentage (above 90%=A, 80-90%=B, etc., with borderline grades earning "+" or "-") of the sum of the assignments. Different assignments will be worth certain point values.

For your protection, in case of errors of recording, you should keep copies of all exams and assignments until you have received official notice of your final grade.  Any and all materials done for this course may become the property of the professor, who may use them for assessment, evaluative, scholarly, or research purposes. 

Although the syllabus presents the basic content and requirements of the course the professor reserves the right to change anything (e.g. assignments, and topics, due dates), anytime, at his discretion.  

Should the College cancel classes, still work according to the schedule below, until otherwise instructed by the instructor.  Class meeting time under the Compressed Schedule is the same as the regular schedule.

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V. Class Schedule:

date	topic	readings and other assignments due:
Aug 27	Orientation	USEFUL LINKS
Aug 29	The End of Rome and the Beginning of the Middle Ages
Sep 3	The Beginnings of Knights & Castles	Life in a Medieval Castle, pp. 1-146
Sep 5	Embroidery	Knight in History, Chap. 1, 2
Sep 10	Life of Knights	Life in a Medieval Castle, pp. 147-231
Sep12	Heraldry
Sep 17	Life of Castles
Sep 19	Chivalry & Romance	Knight in History, Chap. 4
Sep 24	Tournaments	Knight in History, Chap. 5
Sep 26	Crusades	Knight in History, Chap. 3
Oct 1	More Crusades	Knight in History, Chap. 6
Oct 3	Territorial Politics	A Warrior Bishop of the Twelfth Century: The Deeds of Albero of Trier; Warrior Bishop Paper Due
Oct 8	Exam	MIDTERM EXAM
	Break
Oct 15	The Hundred Years War	Froissart, Book One pp. 1-198; Study Guide Part One Due
Oct 17	The Hundred Years War	Froissart, Book One, again
Oct 22	The Hundred Years War	Froissart, Book Two pp, 198-259; Study Guide Part Two Due
Oct 24	The Hundred Years War	Froissart, Book Three pp. 263-348; Knight in History, Chap. 7; Study Guide Part Three Due
Oct 29	The Hundred Years War	Froissart, Book Four pp. 351-471;  Knight in History, Chap. 8; Study Guide Part Four Due
Oct 31	Castles in Countries
Nov 5	The end of Knights & Castles	Knight in History, Chap. 9
Nov 7	tba
Nov 12	tba	Chivalry in History Source Paper Due
Nov 14	Source Reports
Nov 19	Source Reports
Nov 21	Simulation	Feudal Lords and Ladies
Nov 26	Simulation	Feudal Lords and Ladies
	Break
Dec 3	Simulation	Feudal Lords and Ladies
Dec 5	Last Class	Review;  Feudal Lords and Ladies Reflection paper due
Fri Dec 13, 1pm	FINAL EXAM	FINAL EXAM

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URL: http://brianpavlac.org/teach/HIST325.html Site built, maintained & Copyright © MMXXII by Brian A. Pavlac Last Revision: 2022 February 1