Revolutions and Rebellions with Dr. Smith

This article was part of a series by the Board of Student Academic Support Services (SASS) that interviewed OHS teachers about the classes they teach. We hope these articles will be a useful resource for students who are selecting courses for following years.

SASS: What is your favorite thing about teaching Revolutions and Rebellions?

Dr. Smith: There are so many aspects of this course I enjoy! But my favorite thing by far is seeing students drive discussion of challenging texts and topics. This course is at its best when the key questions and ideas come from students who feel engaged with the material and with each other. 

SASS: What challenges students the most in Revolutions and Rebellions? How would you recommend that students overcome these challenges?

Dr. Smith: This course is not a survey that moves quickly through time from one event to the next. We stay with one general period—roughly 1770 to 1800—for most of the year, with the goal of trying to think deeply about dramatic changes that occurred in Western Europe and North America. Rather than moving rapidly through time, then, we tend to move around geographically and to examine a range of political and intellectual perspectives on major revolutions and social movements. To get the most out of the course, students need to adapt to this approach to a history course. This can actually be a challenge! Students should seek me out to talk through any difficulties they experience getting settled into the course.

Additionally, some of the documents we analyze can be quite challenging—particularly those that deal with political philosophy. We try to develop some skills for reading these documents effectively, but it’s also the case that I want students to become comfortable with almost always having a challenging document in front of them.

SASS: What types of students do well in Revolutions and Rebellions? 

Dr. Smith: I hope this course would be a good experience for any 9th or 10th grader at OHS. The course requires everyone in the classroom to think in fairly abstract, even philosophical, ways about history.  I would like to think it is a good fit for those who do not already view themselves as serious history students. But I also hope it is a good fit for those who do.   

SASS: What does the average workload for each week look like? 

Dr. Smith: The workload will vary from week to week. There is reading for almost every class meeting, which I hope is completed in under an hour. On average, my sense is that the course takes up an average of about six hours per week (including class time). Students enrolled in the course would of course have useful views here! 

SASS: How do you recommend that students prepare for exams in Revolutions and Rebellions?

Dr. Smith: For each semester, we utilize a study guide with three sections as the basis for preparation. I recommend that students keep this guide in front of them as they prepare. We also spend a good deal of time in class reviewing for the exam and discussing methods of preparation. The goal is for everyone to go into the final exam feeling as confident as possible that they are ready for each section of the exam.

SASS: How is the participation grade for Revolutions and Rebellions determined? 

Dr. Smith: More than anything, I hope to see that students are engaged in the classroom discussion. That does not mean that a student needs to talk all the time. But I do hope to see that each student is focusing on the topic at hand, listening to and thinking carefully about the comments of others, and helping the group as a whole figure out our course material.

SASS: How is a student’s overall grade in Revolutions and Rebellions determined? What percentage of a student’s overall grade is determined by exams, homework, quizzes, participation, etc.?

Dr. Smith: This can vary from year to year. This year, major writing assignments count for 30 percent of the semester grade, while smaller assignments of all kinds count as 20 percent. Participation is another 20 percent. The final semester exam counts for 30 percent.

SASS: What materials do students use in the course (textbooks, lectures, online resources, etc.)?

Dr. Smith: Next year’s required books include a narrative account of the American Revolution, the collected works of Thomas Paine (who appears multiple times in the course), a brief textbook on the French Revolution, as well as brief primary source readers on the French Revolution and the Haitian Revolution. We also draw on some online resources and document databases. Lecture requirements have been fairly limited the past few years, but lectures are likely to be more extensively used in 2017-2018.

SASS: Are students expected to be on camera for the entire class? 

Dr. Smith: At present, no. But this might change for 2017-2018.

SASS: Have you had any experiences with students in Revolutions and Rebellions that could encourage those who think they cannot learn history well to take the class? 

Dr. Smith: What a good question! I think some of us tend to think of history courses as exercises in memorizing facts and dates. I don’t think that’s true of any OHS history course. ‘Revolutions and Rebellions’ especially tries to move in another direction. You will certainly need to know historical facts and details, but the hope is that you come to know these facts and details as part of a process of thinking deeply about some interesting topics.

It’s perhaps worth noting that the course tries to intersect with other OHS courses and disciplines.  If a student is also enrolled in TAA, for example, the hope is that all sorts of interesting points of intersection will emerge between the courses.  (It’s not an accident. The TAA instructors and I try to talk as much as we can.) And if a student has taken ‘Human Nature and Society,' opportunities will emerge to reconnect with some of the material from that Core course.

SASS: What about Revolutions and Rebellions interests so many students? 

Dr. Smith: I think students would do better with this question than I can. But I hope it’s a fun course, and one that feels intellectually rewarding! 

Students should always let me know if they have questions about the course. I can be emailed at awsmith1@stanford.edu.