Past of the Present Assignment
You will submit this assignment via the Turnitin assignment area on MyHills. The
assignment should be 300-400 words, typed and double-spaced.
Due dates
See the course schedule.
Submit via MyHills in the Past of the Present area of the course menu. You are
welcome to submit them early.
Purpose:
One of the things I would like you to get out of this class is a sense of historical context
and how that context shapes the world in which we live. Think about it as “the past of
the present.”
Directions:
1. Choose a news article about a current event. The article should be no more than 2
months old. Provide the title and a link to the article you’ve chosen at the top of the
page.
2. Summarize the article in a few sentences.
3. For the majority of the assignment, explain how what you’ve learned in class or in
the textbook helped you to better understand the article. In other words, connect it
to the class with specific examples and citations from the course materials. If it’s
from the textbook, include a page number. If it’s from the learning units, give the
name of the video, mini-lecture, audio, or handout.