HS1MH: Making History and You: Practices and Possibilities

Module code: HS1MH

Module provider: History; School of Humanities

Credits: 20

Level: 4

When you'll be taught: Semester 1

Module convenor: Dr Dina Rezk, email: d.rezk@reading.ac.uk

Pre-requisite module(s):

Co-requisite module(s):

Pre-requisite or Co-requisite module(s):

Module(s) excluded:

Placement information: NA

Academic year: 2024/5

Available to visiting students: No

Talis reading list: Yes

Last updated: 17 December 2024

Overview

Module aims and purpose

This module provides you with the opportunity to develop and hone your skills as a scholar and historian. It will:

• provide important learning practices that will prepare you for your academic journey with us in History;
• support you in planning and completing a research project on a subject chosen by you;
• encourage reflection on your personal interests, individual learning processes and general wellbeing, therefore facilitating the transition from school to university.   

Thus, this module will enable you to think consciously about, and practice the essential skills required for studying, and producing, history at university level and the applicability of these skills beyond your degree. This is an intensive course, and is central to your first year of work in History.  For that reason, the module is compulsory for all Part 1 students, taking both single and joint honours programmes in History.

Lecturers will deliver a series of lectures/workshops and seminars which will guide students through the processes of reading effectively, understanding historiographical debate and writing clearly and convincingly with a focus on the practical application of these skills alongside a broader consideration of how to live and study well. The module will help students transition from school to university level learning and encourage them to feel comfortable with, and confident in, the core skills that historians use when ‘making history’ whilst also encouraging them to reflect on their personal journeys as students and scholars. The module will explicitly highlight the transferable nature of these skills and self-reflexivity, thereby making a significant contribution to future employability and career possibilities.  

Module learning outcomes

By the end of the module, it is expected that students will be able to:

1. Develop the essential research skills required for the study of History at degree level, including reading academic texts effectively, asking good questions and writing clearly;
2. Apply these skills in practice within their individual research and writing;
3. Gain familiarity with referencing and bibliographical conventions and understand their importance: thereby avoiding plagiarism and poor academic practice;
4. Reflect on their learning and wellbeing, what works best for them and areas for further development; and the transferable skills they have developed.

Module content

In the first half of the semester weekly teaching will consist of three hours of whole-group, in-person, lecture/workshop time and two hours of seminar time; in the latter students will work and discuss in smaller groups. These weeks will explain and demonstrate the core skills required in ‘making history’ at university level.

In the second half of the semester students will work intensively in their seminar groups for two hours per week. Within these weeks, students will develop their own independent research projects, each on a topic agreed with the seminar convenor.

During the time between seminar meetings students will identify, evaluate and write brief reports on potential research materials and bibliographic materials. These will be discussed in seminars.

Structure

Teaching and learning methods

The module will be taught in semester 1 and will provide the groundwork for the skills required in the students’ other History modules (Perspectives in History, Exploring Evidence, History Now, and Option modules – depending on the degree programme). The central teaching mode will be in-person lectures/workshops and seminars. Lectures/workshops will be concentrated in the first half of the semester and will provide an essential overview and preliminary discussion, while seminars throughout the semester will allow these skills to be discussed and to be put into practice in small groups.

This scheduled teaching time will be supported by individual study time each week, in which students can begin exploring their own research projects, engaging with reading and practising key skills.  The combination of lectures and supportive study will be drawn upon in a two-part assessment with one submission point: the first (due mid-semester) being a short piece focused on referencing and bibliographic skills with a discussion of why this is important; the second an independent, supervised essay and reflective report (due in the first semester’s assessment period).

Study hours

At least 44 hours of scheduled teaching and learning activities will be delivered in person, with the remaining hours for scheduled and self-scheduled teaching and learning activities delivered either in person or online. You will receive further details about how these hours will be delivered before the start of the module.

Please note the independent study hours above are notional numbers of hours; each student will approach studying in different ways. We would advise you to reflect on your learning and the number of hours you are allocating to these tasks.

Semester 1 The hours in this column may include hours during the Christmas holiday period.

Semester 2 The hours in this column may include hours during the Easter holiday period.

Summer The hours in this column will take place during the summer holidays and may be at the start and/or end of the module.

Assessment

Requirements for a pass

Students need to achieve an overall module mark of 40% to pass this module.

Summative assessment

Penalties for late submission of summative assessment

The Support Centres will apply the following penalties for work submitted late:

Assessments with numerical marks

• where the piece of work is submitted after the original deadline (or any formally agreed extension to the deadline): 10% of the total marks available for that piece of work will be deducted from the mark for each working day (or part thereof) following the deadline up to a total of three working days;
• the mark awarded due to the imposition of the penalty shall not fall below the threshold pass mark, namely 40% in the case of modules at Levels 4-6 (i.e. undergraduate modules for Parts 1-3) and 50% in the case of Level 7 modules offered as part of an Integrated Masters or taught postgraduate degree programme;
• where the piece of work is awarded a mark below the threshold pass mark prior to any penalty being imposed, and is submitted up to three working days after the original deadline (or any formally agreed extension to the deadline), no penalty shall be imposed;
• where the piece of work is submitted more than three working days after the original deadline (or any formally agreed extension to the deadline): a mark of zero will be recorded.

Assessments marked Pass/Fail

• where the piece of work is submitted within three working days of the deadline (or any formally agreed extension of the deadline): no penalty will be applied;
• where the piece of work is submitted more than three working days after the original deadline (or any formally agreed extension of the deadline): a grade of Fail will be awarded.

The University policy statement on penalties for late submission can be found at: /cqsd/-/media/project/functions/cqsd/documents/qap/penaltiesforlatesubmission.pdf

You are strongly advised to ensure that coursework is submitted by the relevant deadline. You should note that it is advisable to submit work in an unfinished state rather than to fail to submit any work.

Formative assessment

Formative assessment is any task or activity which creates feedback (or feedforward) for you about your learning, but which does not contribute towards your overall module mark.

Historiography  (referencing, bibliographic and writing skills) c.750 words, submitted Friday Week 5. 

Submission of independent research project area (midway through the semester) via MS Forms.

Reassessment

Additional costs