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U.S. Politics U.S. PoliticsThis course will introduce you to American government and politics. This is an historic moment for the country; full of both significant opportunities and intractable problems. Our military is directly involved in at least 2 wars at the moment. The economy is in free fall. International crises loom in the Middle East, Pakistan/India, North Korea, Somalia, Congo, Rwanda, Uganda, and more. In short, this is an excellent time to be taking this course. For the next 5 weeks we will focus primarily on the structure, processes, and par-ticipants of the national government, although we will spend some time on state and local issues as well (New Jersey is one of only two states that hold elections for state offices this November). Throughout our investigation of these elements of political life we’ll also em-phasize ways in which we can interact and participate in American political life. Democracy is not a spectator sport; you need to be involved and know how to get involved. It’s your country. Contact InformationProf. Fran MoranOffice: K-636Office Hours: MW, 7:30-8:30 am and after class; TR by appointmentPhone: 201-200-3259Email: [email protected]: http://faculty.njcu.edu/fmoran/uspolhome.htm Class Meeting Hours/Location: 8:30 am - 12:30 pm; K-347Final Exam: Take home exam due Monday, 29 JuneMaterialsWe have one (1) required textbook for the course:Harrison, Harris, and Tolchin. 2009. American Democracy Now. McGraw-Hill (ISBN: 9780073526270; the paperback ISBN is 9780073298481). I also recommend that you become fairly regular consumers of the news in a variety of outlets. The textbook is quite current (indeed, it’s brand spanking new!) but politics moves quickly. I would particularly recommend that you become regular readers of the New York Times. You can also read it for free on-line at: http://www.nytimes.comWhen you first visit the Times site you will be asked to register a username and password. It can be a pain to do (finding a user name that hasn’t already been taken in particular; try to use your email ad-dress as the username and save the hassle of trying to think up a fresh name), but the service itself is free.US Politics POLI 102, sec 8312 Summer I 2009! 1ObjectivesThis course fits within the University’s General Studies Curriculum (GSC). All courses in the GSC are required to address reading and writing skills and at least two of skills from a subset that includes: information literacy, critical thinking/creative expression, oral communication, and quantitative literacy/computer literacy. Accordingly, in addition to developing a deeper understanding of American politics, the objectives of this course include enhanced reading, writing, critical thinking and oral communication skills. AssessmentThe guidelines for GSC courses stipulate that the reading and writing components must involve sig-nificant work beyond the classroom. We will assess each of the objectives described above in three main areas: writing assignments, exams, class discussion Grading rubrics for each are available on the course website (http://faculty.njcu.edu/fmoran/poli102/rubrics09.pdf.The basic requirements for the grade in this course fall into three broad areas: written work, debates, and class participation. To do well in each of these aspects of the course, you are asked and ex-pected to complete a fair amount of reading (usually between 25 and 50 pages a week; excluding the newspaper) and to attend class on a regular basis. This latter point is particularly important for the short-ened summer session. A. Midterm Exam (30%)We will have one take home essay exam requiring about 4 – 6 pages of writing that will be due in the 2nd week of June.B. Final Exam (30%)The final exam will be a take home essay exam requiring about 4-6 pages of writing that will be due on 29 June.C. Debates (30%)At our first session we’ll divide the class into 4 teams, randomly selected, and the teams will work col-laboratively to develop opening arguments, closing statements, and strategies for questioning the op-posing side. We’ll have a debate per week then for the rest of the term. Assessment for this part of the grade will be a combination of faculty and student evaluation; that is, the teams not actively participat-ing in a debate will grade those that are and I’ll average the class grade with my grade to determine a final grade for the group. Rubrics and instructions will be furnished prior to the debates and be made available on the course website.Introduction to Conversational FrenchUS Politics POLI 102, section 8312 Summer I 2009 ! 2D. Class Participation (10%)Class participation will be based on both the quality and the quantity of your participation in class discussions. Obviously, coming up with a brilliant bon mot in May and then sitting mute for the rest of the semester is as unrewarding as speaking constantly but off topic. Participation comes in various forms and the grading will reflect the fact that not everybody is comfortable speaking in a large class. To that end, we will have numerous small group exercises that should allow each of you to speak and express your views. Generally I use the following as a rough guide for determining this part of the grade:Participation in the form of regular attentive atten-dance to class is generally good for a “B” for this por-tion of the grade. I don’t have a hard mathematical formula for determining “regular attendance” – i.e., I don’t take attendance and you don’t have a set num-ber of classes that you can miss before a penalty kicks in. You’re all adults and you should want to come to class rather than being coerced into doing so. Please note the “attentive” part of the criteria. Stopping by regularly but then spending the class time dozing, dining, twittering, texting, or engaging in other disrup-tive behaviors will adversely affect the grade. The same general rules apply in the discussions (both full class and small group). As a rule, it’s better to speak more rather than less, but the discussion has to be on topic. Screaming in order to browbeat your peers into submission, for instance, will adversely af-fect the grade. Occasional pop quizzes (see “Caveats” below) will be factored into this portion of the grade as well.Introduction to Conversational FrenchUS Politics POLI 102, section 8312 Summer I 2009 ! 3Meeting ScheduleFoundations May 27


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NJCU POLI 102 - Syllabus

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