You can bump up your grade (and even better, learn more!) by doing extra credit work. Due to the switch to Synergy, I have to figure a new way to calculate extra credit, but it helps your grade up to about three points (i.e. an 87 could go up to a maximum of 90). . I won't grade it until the end of each grading period. You need to do it on a topic that is relevant to the historical period that we are studying at the time. When you have completed your extra credit (it is due the last day of the grading period) submit it via Classroom by finding the extra credit assignment.
Read articles: write up here This link is to the original, so you can only view it. Make your own copy, then you can edit it.
I have articles relevant to what we are studying on the class website and will regularly add others. Three regular length articles or one very long article are worth one point of extra credit. If there are articles you want to read that aren't on my website, check with me by sending me an email with a link to the article.
Read books: write up here This link is to the original, so you can only view it. Make your own copy, then you can edit it.
I know you don't have much time, but perhaps you can listen to an audio book during your commute or during exercise or you are superhuman. I don't have a list of recommendations, so come up with something and check with me before you start.
Watch films: write up here. This link is to the original, so you can only view it. Make your own copy, then you can edit it.
The most popular way to earn extra credit is to watch and write about films relevant to the topics that we are studying. I feel that films help students to visualize the past and different cultures and thereby help students to contextualize and make a personal connection with history. Below is a list of recommended films.
In order to get extra credit for a film, you must complete a write up (on the back) explaining the film and its relevance to topics discussed in our class. While watching the film, take some notes. Then afterwards complete the write up with the link above.
There are many more possible films that could help you learn about this time period. If you have an idea, please send me an email, ideally with a link to information about the film.
Films Fourth Six Weeks: 1932–1950
Warm Springs (2005) FDR’s recovery from polio.
Hyde Park on Hudson (2012) FDR has the King & Queen of Britain for a visit
The Grapes of Wrath (1940) Poor farmers fleeing the Oklahoma Dust Bowl head to California
The Great Dictator (1940 B&W) Charlie Chaplin makes fun of Hitler and Mussolini
We will probably do a project on films covering WWII, so I haven't included those.
Fifth Six Weeks: 1950–1970
The Manchurian Candidate: 1962 (not 2004 one) movie about communist secret agents in the US.
Guilty By Suspicion (1991) – McCarthyism. A Hollywood director is pushed to report on friends.
Good Night, and Good Luck (2005) – McCarthyism. TV reporter Murrow goes after Senator McArthy.
Dr. Strangelove (1964) – Cold War This is a slow farce about Cold War paranoia and military craziness. It is black & white and not for everyone, but people with a particular sense of humor love it.
Thirteen Days (2000) – Cold War. A thriller on the Cuban Missile Crisis.
The Good Shepard (2006) Cold War. The birth of the CIA starring Matt Damon & Angelina Jolie.
JFK (1991) - famous Oliver Stone movie arguing that there was a conspiracy to kill the president.
The Help (2011) Oscar winning drama on life on both sides of the segregated South in the 1950s.
The Butler (2013) an African-American butler in the White House in the mid 20th century.
Marshall (2017) Civil Rights Movement. Thurgood Marshall the lawyer for the NAACP and later first African-American Supreme Court judge.
Selma (2014) Civil Rights Movement. The story of MLK's march from Selma Alabama to Montgomery.
Thirteen Days about the Cuban Missile Crisis
Marshall Hollywoodized story of a Thurgood Marshall case.
Hidden Figures: African-American women who worked at NASA.
The Help: how African-American servants were treated in the Deep South in the 1950s.
X: the story of Malcolm X by the director Spike Lee
Trial of the Chicago Seven (2020) about the seven people tried after the 1968 demonstrations at the Democratic Convention in Chicago or The Chicago Ten, documentary of the same topic, partly animated.
Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution on Amazon, a documentary .
Berkeley in the Sixties, documentary
Sixth Six Weeks: 1970-present
Forrest Gump (1994) Classic film of an unusual man at the center of tumultuous times.
Berkeley in the Sixties (1990) documentary on that era.
Hair (1979) classic musical about hippies in NYC in the late 1960s.
Across the Universe (2007) a musical about a Brit who comes to the US and gets caught up in the 1960s
Good Morning Vietnam (1987) Robin Williams plays an American disc jockey in Vietnam
Malcolm X (1992) – The life of Black Nationalist Malcolm X.
Detroit (2017) - a disturbing minute by minute portrayal of police brutality in the Detroit riot of 1967.
The Trial of the Chicago Ten (2020) – Prosecution of leaders of the anti-war demonstrations during the National Democratic Convention of 1968. Great actors.
Platoon (1986) Classic Vietnam war movie.
All the President’s Men (1976) Journalists breaking the Watergate scandal of President Nixon.
Milk (2008) – An excellent film on the life of Harvey Milk, the first openly gay politician in SF and the US.
13th (2016) An in-depth look at the prison system in the United States and how it reveals the nation's history of racial inequality. On Netflix.