Orientation
The orientation is online. The Midterm and Final are also online as is the entire course. The course begins on august 14, 2013, and ends on December 19, 2013.
City College of San Francisco uses Insight for online delivery of this course.
Login information is provided on the home page of Insight.

Course Objectives
1. Study of the concept of the American dream and how it has impacted the major American cultural groups.
2. Commonalities and differences in the patterns of challenges faced by each group and their coping mechanisms and achievements.
3. Search for those desirable qualities and conduct that could be regarded as the defining attributes of an ideal American.

Course Organization
The course reader covers most of the course content. It is organized around the following seven units:
Unit 1. Introduction to the American Cultural Mosaic
Unit 2. Colonization of America and of American Pacific Islands
Unit 3. Immigrants: Connections and Disconnects
Unit 4. Prejudice and Fences
Unit 5. Racial Stereotypes
Unit 6. Intersecting Identities
Unit 7. Struggle for reconciliation and embracing diversity

Course Requirements

Importance of keeping up with the assignments

The quality of your completed weekly assignments will determine, to a large extent, your Midterm and Final grades because almost 80% of those exams will consist of submitting your written work, completed for weekly assignments. The remaining 20% of your score will be based on assigned readings/viewings. Thus, to aim for 100% score, you will need to complete all assignments carefully, including those that are just for reading and viewing and are not writing assignments. You will be asked to post some of your answers on the discussion board. You will also be invited to respond to some of your classmates' answers.

If you have the time and interest, you will find the recommended book (Ronald Takaki's A Larger Memory) enriching.

Timed Midterm and Final Exams
You will be allowed 3 hours for the Midterm and 3 hours for the Final exam. The Midterm questions will be released at 9 a.m. on Sunday, October 13. They should be answered within a 3-hour continuous time slot by the deadline of 11:55 p.m. on the same day.   
The Final exam questions will be released at 9 a.m. on Sunday, Dec. 15 and should be answered within a 3-hour continuous time slot before the deadline of 11:55 p.m. on the same day.
Keep these two dates free for the exams.

Weekly Assignments (for the online section)
In an on-line course, it is crucial to stay abreast of the assignments. Don't let yourself fall too far behind the instructional calendar. Each week's objectives and tasks should be completed in a timely manner, that is, within the week of the assignments.

Quizzes and Tests
There will be timed, periodic quizzes on assigned readings and viewings on specific dates. Please make a note of those dates at the start of the semester so that you don't miss them.

Journal Notes on Topics and themes
Whenever you read poems and fiction, they require, like plays and feature films, the skill of interpretation with the help of analytic and critical thinking to grasp the themes being presented. Learning this interpretation skill is valuable not only for this course but also for accessing deeper meanings of any literary or cinematic work that uses fictional characters and situations. A clear understanding of the concepts of topic and theme is an essential requirement for interpretation, analysis, and critical thinking.

Topic
Stated simply, a topic is an open-ended concept or feeling, such as jealousy, fear, love, etc.

Theme
The position that an author takes on a topic is considered its theme. On the topic of jealousy, for example, a theme could be that even though jealousy is a common human feeling, people afflicted with it often deny being jealous. Another theme on the topic of jealousy could be that the feeling of jealousy stems from insecurity. Yet another theme on the same topic could be that jealousy sometimes acts as a necessary spark to rekindle a dying relationship. Arriving at a theme from a topic thus involves narrowing down the topic and bringing it to a closure.

Statements of themes versus supporting details (plot summaries)
Themes are not the same thing as supporting details or plot summaries with which they are sometimes confused. A theme is an idea that is embedded in a work's physical details, such as setting, imagery, symbol, events, actions, etc. It is often implied, seldom stated overtly, and is validated by many concrete details throughout the work. When you make a statement of theme, keep it general, free of specific details, such as names of characters, examples, etc. However, when you give supporting details, make them specific by using characters' names, actions, events, examples, events, etc.

Strengthening supporting details

You can strengthen your supporting details by adding some analytic comments and interpretations that bear on your statements of topic and theme. Doing so will prevent your essay from sounding like a plot summary.

Example of supporting details for the theme that jealousy sometimes acts as a necessary spark to rekindle a dying relationship.

Supporting details: In F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel The Great Gatsby, the sudden appearance of Daisy's former lover Gatsby makes Daisy's philandering husband Tom Buchanan feel insecure at first, but jealousy ends up drawing the estranged couple together and cements their bond.

Note Taking for your journals

For works of nonfiction and documentaries
For works of nonfiction, such as essays and articles, note down briefly (in one or two sentences) the author's central point. Then copy two or three outstanding topic sentences that develop the central point. Completing the same steps will ensure your understanding of a documentary film.

For short stories, poems, feature films, and excerpts from novels and plays

Complete the following two-step exercise.

1. In one sentence, identify the topic that the work is about.

2. In a sentence or two, state the work's theme, which should be a supportable generalization, free of examples and specific details.

3. In two or three sentences, give specific supporting details from the work to validate the claim that you made in stating the theme. Unlike the statement of theme (that is of a general nature), supporting details are specific, as in the above examples.

Course grade
Your work throughout the semester, including your participation in discussions, will be assessed to determine your grade for the course.

Standard gradidng key: 91-100% = A; 81-90 = B; 71-80 = C; 61-70 = D