The Junto is happy to present the third episode of “The JuntoCast.” In case you missed our first two episodes, “The JuntoCast” is a monthly podcast in which members of The Junto discuss issues of both academic and general interest related to early American history, pedagogy, and public history.
In the third episode, Juntoists Kenneth Owen, Michael Hattem, Roy Rogers, and Joseph Adelman discuss their approaches and various issues regarding teaching the first half of the U.S. history survey, including where to begin, where to end, what primary and secondary sources work well, and what are the survey’s biggest challenges.
As always, we encourage our readers and listeners to share their thoughts on teaching the survey, classroom exercises, and first-half of the survey syllabi.
You can click here to listen to the mp3 in a new window or right-click to download and save for later. You can also subscribe to the podcast in iTunes.
The Junto 
I and a few others are relaunching a blog that focuses on this very issue. If you are interested in continuing the conversation on this topic, please bookmark us–or better yet, contact me about how you can participate. http://teachingunitedstateshistory.blogspot.com/.
In the interest of sharing further, I offer links to my most recent syllabus for the survey course.
And if readers are interested, I’ve also developed an assignment we didn’t get to discuss that invites students to visit historic sites in eastern New England as part of the course.
UPDATED (5:00 pm): To reflect Roy’s comment below, you can find all of my syllabi and teaching materials here.
In the spirit of Joe’s comment you can find the syllabus from the last time I offered the first half of the survey on my website: http://royrrogers.com/1919/01/21/his-243-h301-spring-2013/
The syllabus from when I offered the second half (Fall 2012) is here: http://royrrogers.com/1919/01/24/history-244-i-fall-2012-syllabus/
The syllabi for all of the courses I’ve offered can be found here: http://royrrogers.com/teaching/