Political Science 111 American Government Spring, 2009

(Using links below to move up/down syllabus may open up a new page if in ANGEL)

Course Overview  

Overview of Student Class Work Commitments

Weekly assignments   

Chat Room/Bulletin Board   

The chat room/bulletin board functions are provided by AACC software called "ANGEL."   Chat room: We will have regular chat room sessions on most Thursday evenings from 7:30 to 8:30 p.m.   Try to arrange your work and class schedule so as to be able to attend these chat sessions at least some of the time!  Also be aware that your instructor is occasionally asked to speak at public meetings or attend special events which may cause a need to cancel or reschedule a given chat session.    Chat sessions are useful for discussing common issues.  Their success depends on two factors: attendance and willingness of students to meaningfully contribute to the discussion of that week's chapter.  A minimum of three students is necessary for a successful chat session.  If fewer than three are present by 7:45 p.m., the instructor may choose to discontinue the chat session for that night.  If you are likely to be late to a chat session, please notify the instructor ahead of time!  Also, please be aware that sometimes the chat system crashes!  When that happens, you or your instructor may be unable to continue or there may be an interruption in communications.  For example, if the instructor disappears suddenly or fails to appear at the scheduled hour, this may be due to a technical difficulty.  Under those circumstances, wait a little while to see whether the system stabilizes or the instructor appears. Bulletin Board: Two bulletin boards will be available.  One will be for the course materials, the other for 'current events.'  All students are expected to post at least once to each of these bulletin boards each week.   For those students unable to attend the chat sessions for a given week, they must post at least two comments to EACH of the bulletin boards.

Weekly Assignments   

Weekly assignments - location and grading: The links to the online lectures and quizzes are found on the "content" page of the Angel learning management system.  The quizzes are self-graded - your score will appear once you submit the quiz.  The essays are found as the last two questions within each weekly quiz.   Please make sure to save your answers prior to discontinuing a quiz.  You are allowed to take a quiz for credit only ONCE; however, you can start/stop as long as you SAVE your answers.  Once you 'submit' the quiz, it will be graded.  The short essays at the end of the quiz might take you a bit of time to compose.  If that is the case, save your answers while you research the question.  You may want to cut/paste the question and compose your essays in a word processor, pasting the essay once you are back in the Angel/quiz environment. Quizzes are mainly used to help you assess how well you have understood the material.  Their individual value for your final grade is relatively small.  The essays are not individually graded but will be part of your overall 'participation' grade.  Dr. Nataf will review the quizzes and essays and make comments as appropriate.  Do NOT expect a quiz/short essay comment on a regular basis. Essays are REQUIRED; Dr. Nataf expects them to be clearly written and free of spelling and grammatical errors.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Housekeeping   

KEEP COPIES OF EVERYTHING!  

You must always keep a copy of any documents submitted for a grade to the instructor.  Dr. Nataf is not responsible for assignments that get "lost in cyberspace."  Remember that is it far easier to keep copies of everything than to have to reproduce messages, assignments or other materials.   Cyber technology is not flawless - take precautions!

Students are expected to use email to communicate with the instructor both for any questions about the course as well as emailing assignments other than examinations, which are taken at the AACC Arnold campus unless otherwise arranged.  We will use the ANGEL mail system for communication.  This means you will need to check the system at least once a day to ensure that you are not missing an important announcement.  If you need to reach Dr. Nataf quickly, you might try sending an email to both his ddnataf@aacc.edu and ddnataf@gmail.com addresses.  He has all email that is sent through the ANGEL system forwarded to the gmail.com address.  You might want to forward messages received on ANGEL to a similar external account - this is done under "preferences."

Textbook and Readings 

There is one textbook which is required for this course: Politics in America, by Thomas Dye, Sixth edition, (NJ: Prentice Hall, 2007 or later edition if available). It is also suggested that students read a major daily newspaper (print or online versions) to keep up with national and world events.

Tests/Assignments 

Exams

All exams will have essay and objective/multiple choice components, and may include questions derived from the chat sessions, bulletin board and especially the online quizzes and essays as well as the Dye textbook and online lectures.   There are several other written assignments identified below such as a current events assignment or Internet report.  You are again forewarned: only deliver these assignments by email/attachment and always keep a backup copy for yourself.  Make sure it is in Microsoft Word or rich text format (or placed within the body of the email message written in HTML mode to preserve formatting.  YOU are responsible for providing an additional copy of an assignment should one get lost in cyberspace.

Current Event Assignments/Extra Credit Opportunities     

Current Event Assignments - Quantity: 2.   First one is mandatory for all; second is mandatory for those not participating in the CSLI survey (see below for details). (a) Two current event exercises using a topic to be sent to you via email.  You will have about five days to complete the assignment.  Please read the instructions below VERY carefully as the assignments MUST follow the format below. Assignment Goal: Apply Conservative and Liberal perspectives to the issues raised in the email assignment.  Include discussion of each student’s own position on the issue (pro, con, indifferent). These essays should demonstrate the student's understanding of the ideological perspectives, the specific issues raised as well as demonstrate the ability to develop and support an argument. Assignment Format: A well written, thorough word-processed essay about  two pages long using one inch margins and 12 point Times Roman font. Your first paragraph should summarize the main issue(s).  You should then include a couple of paragraphs each for the Liberal and Conservative "spins" on the issues.  Finally, conclude the essay with a paragraph or two summarizing your own "spin" detailing why you feel the issue should be handled a particular way.  The essay should have your name, course, section time, and a title (all at the top of the first page, not on a separate page). You may want to include in your essay specific citations from various sources. If outside references are used, please include a footnote showing sources.   Hyperlinks to sources may also be placed in the document. Use the style recommendations of the American Psychological Association - these can be found nicely summarized at http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/01/  These assignments should be emailed as attachments in Microsoft Word format (preferred), or simply cut and pasted into the body of the email message if you are unable to create a Word format attachment (or in rich text format).  Other document formats are unacceptable and will result in a "Late" penalty if a properly formatted document is not received by the due date. (b) You may substitute participation in a survey as a telephone interviewer for AACC's Center for the Study of Local Issues (CSLI), which Dr. Nataf directs, for ONE of the two current events assignments.  That will require two evening's worth of time during a week of October or March/April (depending whether you are taking this course in the fall or spring semester.)  You will receive additional notice via email as the time grows nears.  You will also receive 2 points of 'extra credit' counting towards your final grade (using a 100 point scale). Other CSLI learning opportunities: Extra credit in this course will be available to those who participate in the CSLI Student Club - http://www2.aacc.edu/csli/csliclub.htm, which sponsors lunches with politicians, journalist, community leaders, field trips and other events each semester.  Credit will be available to those who attend certain club events and provide a two-page summary of what went on and what they learned.  Ask Dr. Nataf for details. Other extra credit opportunities: These may be discussed with Dr. Nataf.  In the past these have included book reports, reports about political events attended by the student, or special topic reports.  Format and value will be determined on a case-by-case basis.

Internet Exercise (mandatory for all)   

As one of the course's learning objectives is familiarity with the Internet when conducting research, there is an assignment based on Internet research that is required of all students.  It consists of student evaluation of four web sites clearly relevant to the topics covered in this course.  Choice of which web sites to review is yours, but typical choices in the past have been candidates, political parties (Democrat, Republican, Green, Libertarian, etc.), or that of interest groups (Sierra Club, National Rifle Association, American Associate of Retired Persons, etc.), or even of sites dedicated to covering the political news such as the Washington Post's onpolitics site (see http://www.washingtonpost.com).  You must include at least one political party, interest group, or candidate site among the four you are reviewing.  For example, there are candidates running for mayor of Annapolis in 2009.  You might find candidates running for other offices in other cities or states.  It might be especially useful to compare the Web sites of two candidates for the same office, just to see who explains and presents themselves most effectively. Assignment Goal:  Review at least four appropriate Web sites and judge how well they attain these goals: Ease of Use – It is well organized, are the areas clearly set out, would a novice get lost in it? Visual Appearance – How effectively does it use graphics? Is the screen display appealing? Usefulness of Content – Could a student of American government really benefit from the material presented? Usefulness of Hyperlinks – Do the hyperlinks seem relevant? Are they current? Originality – Does it offer anything distinct or special? Overall Grade – What is your overall appraisal? Would you recommend this site to others? Each site should have a numeric grade (score) using this scale for EACH of the items above (thus, there should be six numeric grades on your paper). 1 Poor  2  Average   3 Good  4  Excellent    The rest of the report should provide justification for the numeric grade assigned.   You should also include at least one recommendation for each site (e.g., make it shorter, fewer graphics, more hyperlinks, better method of searching out information, etc.) Assignment Format: Essay, word-processed, at least four pages long single spaced (minimum one page per site).  Here are the components of each paper: (1) Each page should start with a general characterization of the site (what it is about, what it is trying to accomplish)  (2) Identify each one of the criteria (e.g., Ease of Use), followed by a scale number.  Immediately below, a paragraph or two should provide some idea about how you arrived at your numeric choice.  (3)  The end of the essay for that site should include your recommendation(s). Include each site's URL in a title for each part of the essay.  You may find a couple of examples showing how others are done this assignment here.

  Grades and Weighting of Each Assignment  

All major assignments are graded on a 0-100 point scale. For each assignment, the grade ranges are as follows:

 A = 90-100
 B = 80-89
 C = 70-79
 D = 60-69
 F = 59 or below

Be aware that the actual numeric score, rather than the letter grade is recorded and used to calculate final grades. Thus, if a student obtains a "98" on an assignment, that score rather than an "A" letter grade is recorded. The final grade will depend on the weighted total for all assignments, using the weighting system below:

Event	Value in Percent
First Mid-Term	20
Second Mid-Term	20
Final Exam	25
Two Current Event Essays or one+CSLI poll	10
Internet Exercise	10
Quizzes/Chat Participation/ Bulletin Board	15
Total	100

 Attendance, Class Decorum, Special Needs  

Participation and regular relevant communication with the instructor and other classmates is considered an integral part of the learning experience. This includes consistent participation in chat room sessions/bulletin board. (See table above for weighting). Electronic Classroom Decorum: Please be advised that it is vital that students maintain a proper class decorum that is respectful both of other students and the instructor. This includes using polite language and showing tolerance of the views of others, even when you disagree with them during chat sessions or bulletin board postings. Academic Integrity, Computer Access and Usage Policy, ADA (Special Needs) Statement, Course Withdrawal

ACADEMIC INTEGRITY POLICY	All work turned in by a student must be his/her own. Please refer to the current college catalog for a complete description of the college policy on academic integrity. Any violations of the policy will be handled as outlined in the catalog.
COMPUTER AND ELECTRONIC COMMUNICATION ACCESS AND USAGE POLICY	Access to computer and electronic communication resources, such as the Internet, e-mail, computer labs, and networks is governed by college policy as well as federal, state, and local laws. Acceptable uses of computer and electronic communication resources are those that support the purposes of teaching and learning. Individuals who inappropriately or illegally use computer and network services and resources may incur all applicable college and legal penalties for such misuse.
ADA STATEMENT	Students who have need of special accommodations due to a physical or learning disabilities should contact the Disability Student Services (DSS) Office at 410-777-2307.  Special scheduling of tests and other exercises require such contact.
WITHDRAWAL	If withdrawal from the course becomes necessary due to work, family obligations, etc., the student must file a withdrawal form in person at the Records and Registration Office before the cutoff date above in order to avoid a grade of "F" at the end of the semester.

Timetable 

Module 1: Politics Jan 21-Feb. 24

    Jan 21-23 No specific assignment - review materials for the course, ask questions via email to Dr. Nataf

    Chapter 1 - Politics: Who Gets What, When, and How - Assignments due, chat room  Jan. 29, 7:30 p.m.

    Chapter 2 - Political Culture: Ideas in Conflict - Assignments due, chat room Feb. 5, 8:00 p.m. (special time)

    Chapter 3 - The Constitution: Limiting Governmental Power- Assignments due, chat rm. Feb. 12,  7:30 p.m.

Feb. 17: 1st Current Events Assignment DUE

    Chapter 4 - Federalism: Dividing Governmental Power - Assignments due, chat room Feb. 19  

Feb. 20-24 First Mid-term Examination at Arnold AACC - email Nataf if you need to take the exam elsewhere

Module 2: Participants  Feb. 26-April 7

    Chapter 5 - Opinion and Participation: Thinking and Acting in Politics - Assignments due, chat Feb . 26, 7:30 p.m. 

    Chapter 6 - Mass Media: Setting the Political Agenda - Assignments due, chat room March 5, 7:30 p.m. 

CSLI Survey - Extra-credit: March 9-12

March 9 - Internet Assignment Due

    Chapter 7 - Political Parties: Organizing Politics  - Assignments due, chat room March 12,  7:30 p.m.

    Chapter 8 - Campaigns and Elections: Deciding Who Governs - Assignments due, chat room March 19,  7:30 p.m.  

Chapter 9 - Interest Groups: Getting Their Share and More - Assignments due, chat room  April 2, - 7:30 p.m.

April 3-7 - Second Mid-term Examination at Arnold AACC -
email Nataf if you need to take the exam elsewhere

Module 3: Institutions and Policies April 9

    Chapter 10 - Congress: Politics on Capitol Hill - Assignments due, chat room April 9,  -7:30 p.m.

    Chapter 11 - The President: White House Politics - Assignments due, chat room April 16, - 7:30 p.m.

April 21: 2nd Current Events Assignment DUE

    Chapter 12 - The Bureaucracy: Bureaucratic Politics - Assignments due, chat room April 23, 7:30 p.m.

   Chapter 13 - The Courts: Judicial Politics - Assignments due, chat room April 30,  7:30 p.m.

Module 4: Outcomes  (May 7)

    Chapter 14 - May 7

Final Examination at AACC Testing Centers -  May 8-11 (no extensions!)