Religion in American

Am St 140Y

Life and Thought

Penn State Harrisburg

Tues/Thurs 2:30 – 3:45

123 West Olmsted

Instructor--Mary Sellers

Text or Call (814) 441-5832

Sites.psu.edu/marysellers

Office: 123 Olmsted

Office hours Tuesday 9:00 to 11:00

Thursday 4:00 to 5:00

and by appointment

Couse Website

Required Materials

Albanese, Catherine.

America: Religions and Religion (4th edition). 2006.

ISBN-10: 0534627390

Carroll, Brett E.

The Routledge Historical Atlas of Religion in America.2000.

ISBN-10: 0415921376

I-Clicker

Useful Links
Our Course Website:

The Syllabus:

Course Description

Can you name three religions that were founded in America? After this course you will be able to! Come discover the diverse world of religions in America. This class traces the historical and geographical development of various religions since the discovery of America to the present day. In addition to the two assigned texts, we will look at popular culture, media, artwork, and music to enhance our understanding of the subject. This course includes in-class discussions and student presentations, two exams, and a final research paper.

Course Objectives

By the end of the course, students will be able to

identify five religions which had their origins in the United States.
explain the major tenets and beliefs of most religions in the United States
locate wheremajor religious groups began and were concentrated
write a research paper, learn how to find credible sources, how to develop a “research question,” and how to format a paper in Chicago style.

Important Dates

First Exam—

Second Exam—

Third Exam—

Research Paper—

Teaching Philosophy

The constant happiness is curiosity. ~ Alice Munro

I am curious about everything--Why did that happen? Who were those people? What did they think? Where did they live? I see teaching as an adventure that allows both the teacher and the students to ignite their curiosity. I want students to think in new ways about the subject matter. They may come to a topic feeling as if their opinions are settled or that everything that could be said has been said. But I want them to leave with strategies and enthusiasm that allows them to approach not only the subject matter in this class—but the subject matter in all of life—with new zest.

I believe each student is different and will learn in the same way. Some students do better hearing, others with seeing, and some with doing. With these ideas in mind, I give students multiple ways to learn the core body of knowledge required for the course. Students will read texts and see images, they will hear lectures and classroom discussions, and they will write or complete projects relating to the topics at hand.

I also believe that humans are a community of learners. There are some who may have a greater knowledge of the subject matter, those who have deeper insight into human nature, those who can see connections between the subject matter and other areas, and those who don’t think they can contribute anything—but they do. All of these people working in concert can increase the knowledge and experience of each individual. Online discussion questions and debates, peer review of essays, and small group projects all contribute to the sense of community I wish to foster.

Finally, I realize that each student comes to class with a different objective for learning. Some just want to check a general education requirement from their list. Others want to explore the subject matter in great detail. I feel that each student, within reason, should be given an opportunity to explore where his or her curiosity takes them. I want to have an option for final project in this class. Some students may wish to take a traditional final exam. Others may feel more comfortable writing a documented research papers on a particular area of interest. Still other students may have learning outcomes which are unique to them. I am willing to discuss alternate avenues for proving competency in the subject.

It is curiosity that drives us forward. It is curiosity that keeps us learning. I want to make sure that the lectures and assignments I give build upon this natural curiosity we all possess.

Policies from Penn State

Penn State has lots of official policies on final exams, disability, academic integrity, etc. If you would like to read them, go HERE:

One policy I would like to highlight is the academic integrity policy.

“Penn State defines academic integrity as the pursuit of scholarly activity in an open, honest and responsible manner. All students should act with personal integrity, respect other students’ dignity, rights and property, and help create and maintain an environment in which all can succeed through the fruits of their efforts (Faculty Senate Policy 49-20).

Dishonesty of any kind will not be tolerated in this course. Dishonesty includes, but is not limited to, cheating, plagiarizing, fabricating information or citations, facilitating acts of academic dishonesty by others, having unauthorized possession of examinations, submitting work of another person or work previously used without informing the instructor, or tampering with the academic work of other students. Students who are found to be dishonest will receive academic sanctions and will be reported to the University’s Judicial Affairs office for possible further disciplinary sanction.”

Basically, if you do this, you will have consequences. Don’t do this. It’s not worth the hearing the F on your record, and the embarrassment. If you are not doing well in the course, come and see me. If you don’t know how to write a paper, come and see me. There’s always another alternative than being academically dishonest.

Another policy to note is the disability policy: Penn State welcomes students with disabilities into the University's educational programs. Every Penn State campus has an office for students with disabilities. The Office for Disability Services (ODS) Web site provides contact information for every Penn State campus: For further information, please visit the Office for Disability Services Web site:

In order to receive consideration for reasonable accommodations, you must contact the appropriate disability services office at the campus where you are officially enrolled, participate in an intake interview, and provide documentation: If the documentation supports your request for reasonable accommodations, your campus’s disability services office will provide you with an accommodation letter. Please share this letter with your instructors and discuss the accommodations with them as early in your courses as possible. You must follow this process for every semester that you request accommodations.

Assignments

This course has five types of assignments which are described below the list:

Exams
Research paper
Two Questions Assignment
Class Presentation
Attendance/Class participation

Tell me about the exams.
There will be three exams, one in Week 5, one in Week 10, and one in Week 14. The exams will be in-class exam and will be a mixture of multiple choice, fill-in-the-blank, and short essay questions. These exams will focus on the material covered since the last exam, but they may also include questions about key concepts from earlier in the semester.

What are the requirements of the paper?

The paper will be due on the day of our final exam. That does not mean you have to turn it in that day. You may turn it in much earlier in the semester. Your essay should be 1500 words. It should contain a research question and use at least two print sources and two other sources to answer your question. The paper should cover a topic that we discussed in class or be a topic inspired by our class discussions. It should not be a summary of what we have discussed.

Please use Chicago formatting for citations.

What do you mean by “a research question”?

A really great idea to get you writing is to ask a question. Why did the Puritans move to America? Why did so many new religions form in the late-1800s? Asking a question allows you to organize your paper around answering this question. You should not ask a question which you could not answer well in 1500 words. “Is there a God?” or “What year did the Pilgrims land in America?” would be questions that do not lend themselves well to a 1500-word paper. That question is a great segue into another question…

What is the “Two Questions” assignment?

By Friday at midnight each week of class, you are required to submit two questions to our class website. These questions should be actual questions you or someone else might have that would lend themselves to further research. For example, if we were studying Christmas, a bad question would be “What day is Christmas Day?” That’s not really something we could discuss in depth. However “Where did the celebration of Christmas first originate?” or “Why do people feel a need to incorporate Santa Claus into the holiday?” or “Is Jesus the original focus of Christmas?” would all be questions that would lend themselves to discussion.

What are we going to do with these questions? I will use them as a way to see if there were topics that were not explained well in class, and I can take part of the next class period to review those topics that many students did not understand. They can also be used as fodder for class discussions. When it comes time for you to choose a topic for your final essay, you’ll have a whole semester of your own and your classmates’ questions as potential research topics.

What kind of Class Presentation?

The Class Presentation is designed to help you and your fellow students better understand the material we are covering in class. Each student will do at least one presentation. You can do a skit, write a song, draw a picture, bring in a cartoon or movie clip and discuss it, give a brief speech—whatever. The presentation should be 3-5 minutes long. There will be a sign up sheet on our class website for spots for the presentations.

The presentations will be recorded and put on our class website. You will get credit for doing the assignment based on the rubric. But, as an extra bonus incentive for doing a good job, when all the presentations have been completed, we will vote as a class for winners in certain categories. These winning presentations will get 25 bonus points added to the final grades of the students at the end of the semester. Here are the categories:

The presentation that taught me the most
The presentation I remembered the most

Do I have to come to class?

Every day in class, we will have clicker questions. This is to test your knowledge of the assigned reading and to see if you are in class. If you skip class, you will lose the opportunity to answer these questions. I also have eyeballs. If I see that you aren’t in class and you answered the clicker questions, you and the friend who took your clicker to class are both going to lose the points for that day.

This class needs you and your brain and your ideas to make our class discussions really great. So show up, okay? There might be donuts.

Grading

The class has a total of 550 points.

Exam 1—100 points

Exam 2—100 points

Exam 3—100 points

Final paper—100 points

Questions—1 point per appropriate question (for a total of 60 points)

Class presentation—30 points

Attendance/Clicker questions—60 points (two per day per class)

Letter Grade / Points Needed
A / 550-512
A- / 511-495
B+ / 494-479
B / 478-457
B- / 456-440
C+ / 439-424
C / 423-385
D / 384-330
F / 329-0
XF / Academic Dishonesty

Grading Rubrics

Class Presentation (30 points)

Subject Matter—10 points

Increase Understanding of the subject—10 points

Presentation/Style/Delivery—10 points

Final Paper

Excellent / Good / Fair / Poor
Thesis / 10-8
Thesis is clear and concise and is well-supported by the rest of the paper. / 7-5
Thesis is vague or is not well-supported by the rest of the paper. / 4-2
Thesis is confusing or is not clearly related to the rest of the paper. / 0
No thesis
Structure / 10-8
The paper is organized well and flows logically. / 7-5
The paper has good organization, but transition sentences and other marks of excellent organization are missing. / 4-2
The paper makes sense, but it lacks a clear structure. / 0
The paper jumps from topic to topic with no clear structure.
Argument / 50-40
The body of the essay provides convincing support for the thesis. / 39-30
The body of the essay provides some support for the thesis. / 29-20
The body of the essay provides little support for the thesis. / 19-0
The body of the essay provides no support for the thesis.
Mechanics / 10-8
The paper is free from mechanical and grammatical errors. / 7-5
The paper has a few mechanical and grammatical errors. / 4-2
The paper has numerous mechanical and grammatical errors. / 0
The paper is rife with mechanical and grammatical errors.
Sources / 10-8
The paper properly cites sources in the body of the paper and uses them to prove the thesis of the paper. / 7-5
The paper improperly cites sources in the body of the paper, yet uses them to prove the thesis, or the paper properly cites sources and does not use them to prove the thesis. / 4-2
The paper improperly cites sources in the body of the paper and does not use them to prove the thesis of the paper. / 0
The paper does not cite any sources in the body of the paper.
Citations / 10-8
The paper lists at least 2 non-electronic sources and at least 2 other sources in Chicago formatting. / 7-5
The paper lists fewer than 2 non-electronic sources and 2 other sources or there may be minor errors in formatting. / 4-2
The paper lists fewer than 2 non-electronic sources and 2 other sources with poor formatting. / 0
The paper does not list any sources.

Late Work

Exams will be made up according to university policy for late exams.

The final essay will NOT have an extension. You are welcome to turn in the essay early, but you MAY NOT turn it in late.(Unless there is a university-approved reason to do so.)

If you are absent on the day of your scheduled class presentation, you will have to make it up. You MUST notify me in advance if you are going to be absent the day of your presentation. If you do not notify me with at least an hour’s notice, you will have a deduction in your grade for the presentation.

Late questions will not be accepted for credit.

There will be no make-up credit for missed clicker questions and attendance.

Extra Credit

Yeah, it happens. You bomb an exam. Can you get extra credit? Yes. You need to have a meeting with me, and you will have the option to write a research paper of 750 words on the topic of the types of questions you missed on the exam for up to half of the points you missed.

What does that mean? Let’s say on your exam, you got a 65/100 and missed a bunch of questions on the Transcendentalists. You would write a 750 word essay for me on the Transcendentalists for up to half the points you missed (in this case 17 points as you missed 35 points (100-65 is 35)). If you get all the points because you wrote a great essay, your grade suddenly goes from a 65 to an 82. Not a bad deal.

Schedule

(subject to change)

Week One—Introduction to Religion

This week, we will be introducing the topic of religion. How do we define religion? How can we talk about religion if we do not agree with the belief systems of a particular religion? We will also discuss “What is America?” Is it just a geographical location, or is it something else? We will also have an overview of the geography of the United States and discuss major immigrant entry points, when states were added to the United States, and how geography might affect religion. Finally, we will explore the term “critical thinking” and understand what it means. If we are to think critically about religion, it is a good idea to know how to do so.

Read prefaces and introduction in Albanese
Read introduction in Atlas

Week Two—Native American Beliefs

For our second week of class, we will begin at the beginning of America and will discuss the religious beliefs of Native Americans. Did they share a common religion? What were some of their beliefs? How did geography play into religious differences of Native Americans? How did immigration into the United States and the introduction of Christianity influence Native American religious practices?

Read Chapter 1 in Albanese
Read pages 13-25 in Atlas

Week Three--Judaiasm

This week focuses on Judaism. We will discuss some of the major holidays and beliefs of the Jewish people and their views of time and traditions. What are the major divisions of Judaism? Are there similarities between Jewish and Native American beliefs? When were major times of Jewish immigration, and where did they settle?