Teacher Resources: Sample Sequences

We encourage teachers to sequence their assignments, with each successive assignment building upon prior assignments. There are many ways to go about this process: you might want to start with a reading that you found particularly engaging and then work out from there or you might want to begin with a theme that interests you and select the readings accordingly. By arranging the essays in the NHR alphabetically, we have meant to provide you with the greatest flexibility in designing your sequences, so that you can start with a reading or theme that seems promising and then construct your own connections to other readings in the book as you see fit.

To help you get started, we offer you the following resources:

• A thematically-organized table of contents, which suggests readings in the NHR on topics ranging from "Making Sense of Violence" to "The Environment" to "Medicine and the Arts of Healing."
  
  
• "Designing a Successful Assignment Sequence," an essay for teachers new to the NHR on how to put together a sequence that makes room for the students to work productively on a challenging, open-ended question.
  
  
• Examples, listed below, of different ways of sequencing assignments (linear, dialectical, exploratory) and different ways of providing students with the guidance required to generate compelling prose about compelling problems.

We invite you to submit your own assignment sequences to be considered for publication on this site. If you're interested in sharing yours, please send it as an attachment to us at NHR Sample Sequences.

1. Culture, Evolution, and the Problem of a Global Morality
by Kurt Spellmeyer, Fall 2002

2. Tradition, Modernity, and Change: Assessing the Value of Re-thinking in an Evolving World
by Piper Kendrix Williams, Rutgers University, Spring 2002

3. Learning, Altruism, and Violence
by Megan Heller, Rutgers University, Summer 2002

4. Power, Knowledge, and Education
by Michael Goeller, Rutgers University, Fall 2000

5. War and Global Change
by Barclay Barrios, Rutgers University, Fall 2002

6. Putting Science in Context
by Kurt Spellmeyer, Spring 2003

7. Universal Human Rights, Globalization, and Social Change
by Kurt Spellmeyer, Spring 2003

8. Contemporary Visions of the Self, Character, and Tradition
by Paul Benzon, Fall 2002

9. Re-Vision, Tradition, & Public Life
by Carrie Preston, Spring 2003