TEACHING COMPANION / NO ACCOUNT NEEDED
Reply Across
Give your advice. Then find out what history did.
Nationalism, federal arrangements & comparative inference · 45–60 min · optional +10 min
Learning goals
- Compare institutional responses to national and linguistic diversity.
- Identify minorities within proposed territorial units.
- Distinguish a defensible prediction from hindsight.
Before the activity
Best after a basic introduction to nationalism.
Syllabus description
Letters arrive from Canada in 1992 and India in 1956. Recommend how to share power, predict what follows and face an objection. Only then open the historical record. Students produce addressed reply with predictions and revisions.
Discussion prompts
- Which part of your advice survives the later record?
- What travels between Canada and India, and what does not?
What to assess
Assess dated evidence, explicit predictions, objections and the scope of comparative claims.
Limitations
Historical cases are selected for comparison, not equivalent experiments. The optional Spain postscript adds a further comparison.
Credit & permissions
Created by Yoav Duman. Free educational use, sharing and hosted embedding; software rights reserved. Software, artwork, branding and third-party materials are separate; see the full reuse information.
Suggested citation: Yoav Duman, “Reply Across: Teaching companion,” Possible States, https://possiblestates.com/teaching/reply-across. Include your access date.
ASSESSMENT & SUBMISSION
Grade the explanation.
The interface has no opinion.
Set an endpoint, ask for the activity’s readable report, and use your existing LMS. Students can use Print / Save as PDF where a separate download is not offered. A progress backup is for restoring work, not grading it.
A suggested 10-point rubric
For each criterion: 0 = absent, 1 = partial, 2 = clear and supported. Adapt the weighting to your course; this is guidance, not automatic scoring.
- Concepts / 2
- Use the relevant political concept accurately.
- Evidence / 2
- Support a claim with a specific record or comparison.
- Mechanism / 2
- Explain how the rule or arrangement produces a consequence.
- Revision / 2
- Address a rival account or explain a change of mind.
- Limits / 2
- State what the model or evidence cannot establish.
Say this before they begin.
- Choose For class and follow the instructor’s endpoint.
- Save a progress backup before moving devices or changing website address.
- Open the readable report and check the required responses.
- Upload it to the course assignment. Check the LMS submission confirmation.
Switching from exploration keeps the current work, but skipped class responses may still need completing. A local report cannot establish authorship or make an activity tamper-proof.
Prepare an assignment to share.
Edit this text, then copy it into Canvas or your course website. These edits stay in this tab.
Syllabus description & discussion prompts
Syllabus description
Letters arrive from Canada in 1992 and India in 1956. Recommend how to share power, predict what follows and face an objection. Only then open the historical record. Students produce addressed reply with predictions and revisions.
Questions for a discussion board or class debrief
- Which part of your advice survives the later record?
- What travels between Canada and India, and what does not?