Teaching Portfolio
Reading and Writing Curriculum
This teaching portfolio was compiled for the purpose of instructing an entry-level English Composition and Rhetoric course in a university setting. The portfolio consists of a memorandum; teaching philosophy; a curriculum cover memo; a backwards planning document, the major assignment sheet and rubric for the unit; and the daily lesson schedule.
The majority of students who enroll in this course are native speakers; however, there are frequently non-native speakers with high advanced to distinguished proficiency levels (based on the ACTFL 2012 guidelines) who enroll in the course, as well. In addition, the content in this portfolio relates heavily to creating meaningful and relevant content for students which promotes them to not solely become more adept readers and writers but to also learn how to explore their own individuality, as well as to understand their role as socially-situated writers.
The curriculum contains the content for the first unit in the semester whose major assignment involves composing an opinion editorial. This assignment asks students to analyze their own perspectives and opinions on a topic/article they choose and asks them to not only summarize their chosen article but additionally to articulate their opinions concerning the content of their chosen piece. This is not only important for native or highly proficient speakers of English but additionally for lower level learners, as well. The content in this curriculum could be easily adapted to suit a variety of learner levels by simplifying the production tasks and reading content but maintaining the practiced skills: summarizing and expressing opinion.
Example Lesson Slides
These slides represent one of the lessons taught in the curriculum that focuses on integrating quotes and paraphrases. According to the curriculum, this lesson occurs on the eighth day of class, or the eighth lesson of the unit. This lesson was taught during the first unit of a semester in which three non-native speakers were enrolled in the Composition and Rhetoric course taught at CSU in the Spring of 2021.