Assignment: United States History

Discussion 1

*Note: Remember that a primary source is an artifact or document created at the time of an event or by someone who personally witnessed the event. Please review the handouts, Types of Sources and Primary Sources.

Reflect: Think about the changes and conflicts which defined the 1920s through the early 1940s. Consider the social changes that occurred in the 1920s, and how those changes affected the group that you chose for your Final Project. Consider the changes that the United States went through from the Great Depression through World War II. Reflect on the causes of the Great Depression and the New Deal programs of the Roosevelt Administration. Identify the event represented in your primary source. Think about what your source tells you about the event, and what it does not tell you. Think about how that event relates to your group, and to the larger transformations going on.
Consult The Anatomy of a Discussion Board as well as Critical Thinking: A Guide to Skillful Reasoning as you formulate your response.

Write: Based on information from your textbook and your analysis of the primary source you chose, answer the following:

• What primary source did you choose and what event does it focus on?

• Why was this event important, and how does it fit into the conflicts and changes of the 1920s?

• What does your primary source tell you about the event? And what does it not tell you?

• How does the event you chose relate to your Final Project topic?

• The 1920s were a time of much prosperity for some groups in American Society until the Depression. How was your chosen group impacted by the Great Depression?

• Provide an APA citation for your primary source. Here are some examples of APA citations.

Your initial post should be at least 250 words in length. Your post should make reference to the required materials with in-text citations. Your references and citations must be formatted according to APA style as outlined by the Ashford Writing Center. You may use additional scholarly sources to support your points if you choose.

Discussion 2

Prepare: Take a few minutes to think about the material that we've covered in this course so far.

Reflect: Reflect on what you found interesting, surprising, or confusing in this past week. Did anything that you learned cause you to understand an issue and event differently? Have you discovered any habits or tips that help you to complete your course work more effectively or efficiently?

Consult The Anatomy of a Discussion Board as well as Critical Thinking: A Guide to Skillful Reasoning as you formulate your response.

Write: This discussion forum is an opportunity for you to explore topics that interest you, share critical insights and questions that you are working with, share your struggles and triumphs, and discuss difficulties that may have arisen this week, hopefully finding solutions. Your initial post should describe your experiences in the course this past week, prompting further discussion. You should address at least two of the following questions:

• What struck you in particular as you explored the course materials this week?
• What insights have you had?
• What have you been struggling with?
• What questions have come up for you at this point?
• Do you have any helpful tips that you've picked up in this course or in a past course?
• Do you have questions about the assignment that your classmates might be able to help with? (If you have a question for the instructor, be sure to contact your instructor through email or in the Ask Your Instructor Forum).

You are required to post at least 100 total words in this forum this week. You can post one time or ten times, the only requirements are that you post at least 100 words total and that you engage in conversation related to course content. Ask questions, answer questions, provide extra resources you found that are interesting, or engage in a debate about something you learned this week. The only requirement is that your comments have to relate to the course content.

Provide a full explanation of the issues that you discuss in your posts. For example, if you write that you had difficulty finding sources for your Final Project, explain where in the process of finding sources you had difficulty. Was it choosing a database to search? Thinking of search terms? Did your search return too many sources that were not relevant to your topic? Did your search return too few results?

Respond to Peers: Similarly, when responding to your classmates, be sure to elaborate. For example, if you write that you also found a specific topic interesting, explain what about that topic you found interesting and why. Is it the same aspects of the topic that your classmate found interesting? Were you unaware that events associated with the topic took place? Did the information that you learned change your understanding of those events?