Tues & Thurs 9:55–11:40 am, Lo
Schiavo Science 303
Professor David Silver
(dmsilver [ at ] usfca [ dot ] edu)
Office / hours: Kalmanovitz 141, Tues
& Thurs 1–2 pm & by appointment
Golden Gate Park is a First-Year
Seminar that explores the history, built environment, mixed uses, and popular
narratives of San Francisco's Golden Gate Park. As part of an accelerated
writing seminar, students will read, research, write, and edit their ways
through the park – with formal essays, informal reading responses, and
significant contributions to Wikipedia. Through readings, class discussions,
walks-in-the-park, and field trips, students will develop a broad and keen
appreciation of Golden Gate Park.
Student
Learning Outcomes
This course fulfills USF’s A2 Core
requirement. As such, over the course of the term, you will develop capability
in the following areas:
1.
Critical analysis of academic
discourse: Students critically analyze linguistic and rhetorical strategies
used in long and complex texts from a variety of genres, subjects, and fields.
[Met primarily in essays 1 & 2 and in reading responses]
2.
Integrating multiple academic sources:
Students incorporate multiple texts of length and complexity within a unified
argumentative essay, addressing connections and differences among them. [Met primarily
in essays 2 & 3]
3.
Academic research: Students develop
sophisticated research questions and compose substantial arguments in response
to those questions, incorporating extensive independent library research and
demonstrating mastery of standard academic documentation modes. [Met primarily
in essay 3 and Wikipedia project]
4.
Style: Students edit their own prose to
achieve a clear and mature writing style in keeping with the conventions of
academic and/or professional discourse. [Met in all three essays, in reading
responses, and in in-class exercises]
5.
Revision: Students develop their own
revision strategies for extending and enriching early drafts and for producing
polished advanced academic writing. [Met in essays 2 & 3 and in Wikipedia
project]
Course
Texts and Costs
You are required to purchase Philip J.
Dreyfus's Our Better Nature: Environment
and the Making of San Francisco. We will begin reading it second week, so
please purchase it immediately. All other readings are either free online or
emailed PDFs. All field trip costs are covered by USF’s First Year Seminar
Program.
Calendar
Week 1
Tuesday,
8/22: Introductions and expectations.
Thursday,
8/24: Read Chris Walker, “The public value of urban parks,” The Urban Institute
(2004).
Week 2
Tuesday,
8/29: Read Philip J. Dreyfus, “Coyote’s Children,” from Our Better Nature: Environment and the Making of San Francisco, pp.
11-31.
Thursday,
8/31: Field trip to Golden Gate Park.
Week 3
Tuesday,
9/5: Read Dreyfus, “Urban Genesis,” Our
Better Nature, pp. 32-49.
Thursday,
9/7: Read Dreyfus, “Urban Genesis,” Our
Better Nature, pp. 50-66.
Week 4
Tuesday,
9/12: Read Dreyfus, “Greening the City,” Our
Better Nature, pp. 67-86.
Thursday,
9/14: Read Dreyfus, “Greening the City,” Our
Better Nature, pp. 86-101.
Week 5
Tuesday, 9/19: Essay 1 workshop.
Thursday, 9/21: Essay 1 due in class.
Week 6
Tuesday,
9/26: Prior to class, listen/read/walk with Marina McDougall, Alison Sant,
Richard Johnson, and Kirstin Bach, “An Unnatural History of Golden Gate Park,”
a 7-part guided podcast (Studio for Urban Projects, 2008).
Thursday, 9/28: No class.
Week 7
Tuesday,
10/3: Field trip to Golden Gate Park: In search for hidden water with guest
lecturer/tour guide Joel Pomerantz, writer, natural history educator, and
founder of Thinkwalks.
Thursday,
10/5: Read James R. Smith, “California Midwinter International Exposition –
1894,” from San Francisco’s Lost
Landmarks (Word Dancer Press, 2005): pp. 111-126.
Week 8
Tuesday,
10/10: Read Barbara Berglund, “The Days of Old, the Days of Gold, the Days of
‘49”: Identity, History, and Memory at the California Midwinter International
Exposition, 1894,” The Public Historian
(Fall 2003): pp. 25-49.
Thursday,
10/12: Field/research trip to San Francisco History Center, San Francisco Main
Public Library.
Week 9
Tuesday, 10/17: No class: Fall break.
Thursday, 10/19: Essay Two due in
class.
Week 10
Tuesday,
10/24: Read Ray Oldenburg, “The Character of Third Places,” from The Great Good Place: Cafes, coffee shops,
community centers, beauty parlors, general stores, bars, hangouts, and how they
get you through the day (1989), pp. 20-42.
Thursday,
10/26: Read Robert C. Cottrell, "From the human be-in to the summer of
love," in Sex, Drugs, and Rock 'n'
Roll: The Rise of America's 1960s Counterculture (2015): pp. 195-216.
Week 11
Tuesday,
10/31: Field trip to Golden Gate Park.
Thursday,
11/2: Topic selection workshop.
Week 12
Tuesday, 11/7: Field trip to Golden
Gate Park
Thursday, 11/9: Essay Three due in
class.
Week 13
Tuesday,
11/14: Read “Golden Gate Park” entry on Wikipedia at least 2-3 times. Read and
be ready to discuss both its content (the information it contains) and
structure (its outline, components, links, sources, and style).
Thursday,
11/16: Read/complete Wiki Education Foundation, “Online Training for Students.”
This includes creating a Wikipedia account and a user page.
Week 14
Tuesday,
11/21: Read “Evaluating Wikipedia,” “Editing Wikipedia,” “Using Talk Pages,”
“Citing sources on Wikipedia,” “Avoiding plagiarism on Wikipedia,” and “Illustrating
Wikipedia.”
Thursday,
11/23: No class: Thanksgiving
Week 15
Tuesday, 11/28: Wikipedia workday
Thursday, 11/30: Final Wikipedia contributions
due in class.
Week 16
Tuesday, 12/5: Pizza party in the park.
This class has no final.
Grading
Essay 1 15
Essay 2 20
Essay 3 25
Wikipedia Project 20
Reading Responses 10
Class Participation 10
Attendance
Policy
Attendance is crucial. Missing class
(or attending class unprepared) will significantly affect your final grade. If
you do miss class, contact a classmate to find out what you missed and ask to
borrow her or his notes. Then, do it again with a different classmate. After
doing this, if you have questions email me.
Academic
Integrity
Plagiarism is using another person’s
words, works, and/or ideas without giving appropriate credit. Plagiarism is a
serious violation of academic honor and personal integrity and can result in
failing an assignment, being removed from this course, or even being asked to
leave USF. Plus, it’s just lazy.
Rules
1. No late work accepted.
2. In class and on field trips, no drinking out of non-reusable containers.
2. In class and on field trips, no drinking out of non-reusable containers.
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