Week 2: Gregory of Tours

This week we are reading about the origin story of the Merovingian dynasty and it's founder, Clovis. Pay very close attention to everything that has to do with Clovis (his parents, his marriage, his religion, how he interacts with other rulers, how he unites the Franks, etc.). We are also still reading to get a sense of how Germanic society was organized and what values and attitudes people held, so you also need to pay attention to things like government, religion, women, inheritance, feuds, and authorial bias (Gregory is VERY biased). You may find it helpful to highlight these components when you find them, like we did last week, or you can make notes in the margins identifying passages that contain information on these topics. Whichever method you choose, you should track these themes each week and you should always be marking up the reading so you can easily find passages related to these topics. Taking marginal notes or highlighting the reading every week will help you in the long run because you'll be able to quickly find the information that you'll need for discussion section, papers, and exams.

Writing Assignment:

There are two parts to this week’s assignment. Make sure to complete and submit both of them.

First, read the sample A paper and highlight the following components:

• thesis statement in yellow
• framing/historical context in red
• topic sentences in green
• evidence in blue
• analysis in purple

If highlighting is problematic for you, you can label the parts of the paper. You will peer review these in section, so bring it to class with you on Friday, in addition to submitting it online.

For the writing assignment proper, write 250-300 words on the following: Give two specific examples of how Gregory of Tours portrays the Arian Christians. Why does Gregory portray them this way? In other words, which aspects of Gregory’s background might have influenced his portrayal of the Arian Christians? 

Answers should be 250-300 words and include specific details and page numbers from the reading.

Grading:

The purpose of these assignments is to demonstrate that you've done the reading and learned something from it. You should make sure to address all parts of the question and provide specifics like names, places, context, and page numbers in your answers.

For example, if you say that someone gave a speech before a battle, I'm going to want to know who gave the speech (names), which battle it was (context), and where it was (places). I also want to know what page(s) this material is on. Although these are short writing assignments, you still want to provide details (history is all about the details).

100% - addresses all parts of the question and provides details like names, places, context, and page numbers.

90% - addresses all parts of the question, but may lack some detail -OR- provides great detail but does not answer part of the question.

80% - answer is correct, but vague, one or more parts of the question may be unanswered.

70% - answer is very vague and multiple parts of the question are unanswered.

50% - I suspect that you read the source, but your answer totally lacks detail and doesn't demonstrate that you learned anything from the reading.

0% - It's clear that you didn't read the source, or you didn't turn in a writing assignment.