JOURNAL
ASSIGNMENTS
The following series
of specific assignments is to be completed in journal form and submitted
for instructor evaluation at those points designated in the syllabus.
NO LATE ASSIGNMENTS WILL BE ACCEPTED BY THE INSTRUCTOR AFTER THE LISTED
DUE DATE HAS PASSED.
Your completed journal will be reviewed with the following criteria
in mind:
- the intelligence with which the topics covered are addressed;
- the thoroughness with which the assignments are completed;
- the depth of insight expressed in your confrontation with the subjects considered;
- the thoughtfulness with which the assignments are approached.
The result of this series of assignments is meant to be an informal JOURNAL, not a classroom exercise nor a series of answers to the specific questions posed below. Therefore do not merely "answer the questions" or "follow the directions" indicated; do not number your responses as if completing a "fill-in-the-blanks" exercise; do not try to complete the entire series of assignments at one sitting -- instead tell me (in entries spaced over several sessions) about what peaks your interest about Japan and Japanese history as you examine the material assigned for the course and as you listen to the opening series of lectures.
Then continue through the semester to keep me informed about your mastery of the material covered in your quest for answers to the questions raised by your interest. Your goal throughout the coming semester is to convince the instructor that you have completed the assigned reading for the course, that you have mastered the content of the course lectures and that you have taken the initiative to follow up on your identified personal interests in the subject matter of the course.
In essence the assignments posed below are meant to focus your attention on a particular stimulus, a topic for your consideration; in each instance, I am more interested in how that particular stimulus excites your interest in the broader subject matter, the history of Japan. The directions given and the questions asked, then, are merely meant to stimulate your thoughts about the topic or information source raised in the assignment. Your may choose to ignore these questions or directions entirely (in many cases they are very repetitious anyway!), as long as you write about what the assignment asks you to consider.
This overall journal assignment grows out of a conviction that learning is an active (not a passive) process; that learning is remembering what interests you; and that learning is both goal oriented and concept centered. Therefore, to enable learning to occur, you, the student, must start with what you know, admit ignorance about what you don't know, identify interests growing out of that ignorance, then ask questions and seek to establish connections, building on current knowledge to achieve a new level of understanding.
This series of assignments, then, is designed to give you the opportunity to describe your interests, to relate what you don't know to what you know already, to expand your interests, to refine and reinterpret them and ultimately to restate and formulate them into appropriate inquiry questions to guide your study of Japanese history. Approach the writing of your journal with these criteria in mind and you should find the experience serves both to enlarge your interest in Japan and to focus your attention on specific topics and questions you would like to delve into in greater detail over the weeks ahead.