Goals of this assignment: 1. To give you opportunities to practice your writing and analytical skills independently of our class time and before you embark on your final research essay. 2. To practice reading critically not only for information but for the authors historical argument, and to generate your own thoughts and reactions to those arguments. 3. To provide a venue for you to interact with other students and their ideas as you shape your own thoughts. 4. To allow students who might be shy about sharing their thoughts in class a forum for expression. General Instructions Go to our class cuLearn site and find the link to the Discussion Board on the main course page. Click on the link to the Discussion Board for that week. In that forum, you will find that I have provided some opening questions for you to consider in your posts. Use my questions as inspiration or a springboard for your ideas on that general theme; you do not need to answer or address every issue I bring up. You may also write about your own idea or question if it is something I did not address. You can post in one of two ways: create your own thread, or reply to someone elses. To create your own, hit the Add a new discussion topic button. To reply to another students post, hit the Reply button at the bottom of that persons post. (Obviously, at least a few of you will have to start your own threads before anyone can reply to them). What should you write about? There is no official rubric or criteria, but full points will go to thoughtful, detailed responses that demonstrate your engagement with the reading(s). What does that mean? At minimum, show me you did in fact read the article(s). Provide details and specific points instead of broad generalities. Go beyond simply summarizing the reading, though. If you need to summarize a point or section, keep it to 1-2 sentences. 2 Go beyond simply agreeing or disagreeing with the author. That can certainly be part of your post, but I think the author did a good job describing the hockey game doesnt tell me very much about your analysis. Your analysis of the topic is what Im interested in. See the course outline regarding the So what? test: I just read this chapter, but so what? What did I learn from it? Why was figure skating banned from Mordor even though it had the highest per capita number of competitive figure skaters in Middle-earth? So what? Ask yourself WHY or HOW questions: Why is this chapter significant to the history of sport? How does the author prove their points? Posting Guidelines Your post must be at least 750 words long (ie: 2-3 substantial paragraphs) You may write about one of the readings or combine more than one. You may write somewhat informally, using first person if you like. Consider this like a reading response, or a reading journal. You should still check your grammar and spelling, however, and take care in your writing; this is still an academic assignment. I recommend composing your post in Word first and checking it over before pasting it into the Discussion Board. Please post directly to the Discussion Board, ie: do not attach a Word document with your reply. You do not need to cite the readings officially, although direct quotations should include page numbers in brackets (Katzer, 56). like so If you read another students post and are influenced by their ideas, it is a welcome courtesy for you to briefly name them and their idea in your post. (And please do read others replies! This is a nice opportunity for you to engage with your classmates ideas). If you are responding to other students posts, be respectful of their opinions (even if you disagree with them which is fine!) If another student responds to your post to engage with what you wrote, you may reply again if you wish, but you are not obligated to do so. Once you have posted, you may go back and edit it as much as youd like before the deadline. I will not grade them until after the deadline has passed

Goals of this assignment: 1. To give you opportunities to practice your writing and analytical skills independently of our class time and before you embark on your final research essay. 2. To practice reading critically not only for information but for the authors historical argument, and to generate your own thoughts and reactions to those arguments. 3. To provide a venue for you to interact with other students and their ideas as you shape your own thoughts. 4. To allow students who might be shy about sharing their thoughts in class a forum for expression. General Instructions Go to our class cuLearn site and find the link to the Discussion Board on the main course page. Click on the link to the Discussion Board for that week. In that forum, you will find that I have provided some opening questions for you to consider in your posts. Use my questions as inspiration or a springboard for your ideas on that general theme; you do not need to answer or address every issue I bring up. You may also write about your own idea or question if it is something I did not address. You can post in one of two ways: create your own thread, or reply to someone elses. To create your own, hit the Add a new discussion topic button. To reply to another students post, hit the Reply button at the bottom of that persons post. (Obviously, at least a few of you will have to start your own threads before anyone can reply to them). What should you write about? There is no official rubric or criteria, but full points will go to thoughtful, detailed responses that demonstrate your engagement with the reading(s). What does that mean? At minimum, show me you did in fact read the article(s). Provide details and specific points instead of broad generalities. Go beyond simply summarizing the reading, though. If you need to summarize a point or section, keep it to 1-2 sentences. 2 Go beyond simply agreeing or disagreeing with the author. That can certainly be part of your post, but I think the author did a good job describing the hockey game doesnt tell me very much about your analysis. Your analysis of the topic is what Im interested in. See the course outline regarding the So what? test: I just read this chapter, but so what? What did I learn from it? Why was figure skating banned from Mordor even though it had the highest per capita number of competitive figure skaters in Middle-earth? So what? Ask yourself WHY or HOW questions: Why is this chapter significant to the history of sport? How does the author prove their points? Posting Guidelines Your post must be at least 750 words long (ie: 2-3 substantial paragraphs) You may write about one of the readings or combine more than one. You may write somewhat informally, using first person if you like. Consider this like a reading response, or a reading journal. You should still check your grammar and spelling, however, and take care in your writing; this is still an academic assignment. I recommend composing your post in Word first and checking it over before pasting it into the Discussion Board. Please post directly to the Discussion Board, ie: do not attach a Word document with your reply. You do not need to cite the readings officially, although direct quotations should include page numbers in brackets (Katzer, 56). like so If you read another students post and are influenced by their ideas, it is a welcome courtesy for you to briefly name them and their idea in your post. (And please do read others replies! This is a nice opportunity for you to engage with your classmates ideas). If you are responding to other students posts, be respectful of their opinions (even if you disagree with them which is fine!) If another student responds to your post to engage with what you wrote, you may reply again if you wish, but you are not obligated to do so. Once you have posted, you may go back and edit it as much as youd like before the deadline. I will not grade them until after the deadline has passed