Education Commons^™

English 890: Advanced Research Methods, A First Benchmark Portfolio, Janel Simons

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

In this benchmark portfolio, I reflect on course design and student learning in a course I teach for incoming Master's students in the English department, ENGL 890: Advanced Research Methods. ENGL 890 is a mini-session course intended to introduce students to various aspects of managing graduate-level research within the discipline of English studies. In this portfolio, I discuss the learning outcomes and goals for the course, highlight some of the assessments I use, reflect on student learning throughout the course, and articulate changes that might improve student learning in future iterations of the course. Given the overarching goals of this …

French 203: Grammar & Conversation: A Faculty-Led Inquiry Into Reflective & Scholarly Teaching Benchmark Portfolio, Erica Schauer

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

The following Benchmark Portfolio is the product of a full reassessment of FRENCH 203: CONVERSATION & GRAMMAR, an intermediate-level grammar course that serves as a prerequisite for students pursuing a major or a minor in French at UNL. Previously, French 203 had been a review course that covered the essential grammar structures discussed in 101, 102, 201 and 202 and invited students to practice these structures orally with peers in class. This new iteration of the course, however, seeks to broaden the reach of student comprehension of French as a functional tool of communication by requiring students to understand and …

A Peer Review Of Product Design Visualization, Ides 416|816, Aziza Cyamani

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

This portfolio explores a new course on product design visualization introduced in the product design minor program at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Due to the nature of the diverse student group pursuing the minor program, this course adapts flexible teaching and assessment methods that foster inclusivity and enrichment.

A Digital Class For An In-Person Discipline: Creating An Online Class For Introduction To Theatre, Ian Borden

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

No abstract provided.

Fren 302: Representative Authors Ii-A Peer Review Of Teaching Benchmark Portfolio, Julia Frengs

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

This portfolio traces the process of the design, teaching methods, and assessment tools I used in my first time teaching a survey of French literature course, FREN 302, or “Representative Authors II.” The primary goal of the course is to introduce students to “masterpieces” of French literature spanning from the Middle Ages to the present. The course is certified for the ACE 5 outcome, which emphasizes the use of analysis and interpretation. My own principal objective for the course, developing student autonomy and critical thinking skills, which intersects with this ACE 5 outcome, is the main focus of this study. …

Mucp 183-983: Applied Music Composition--A Course Benchmark Portfolio, Gregory Simon

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

MUCP 183-983, Applied Music Composition, is the core of the music composition course curriculum for students at all levels, from freshman to doctoral candidate. Like all applied lesson environments, it is a one-on-one, individualized study that principally involves the instructor giving students feedback on their musical works-in-progress. This time-honored paradigm for teaching composition has produced brilliant artists, but is rife with pitfalls and traps that can tarnish a student’s growth: composition pedagogues can coerce students into writing music like their teachers, or can prescribe a curriculum that makes composition accessible only to students who have already played classical music for …

Ethn 201: Introduction To Native American Studies--A Benchmark Portfolio, Margaret Huettl

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

This portfolio traces the process of the design, teaching methods, and assessment tools I used in reconfiguring ETHN 201: Introduction to Native American Studies. “Introduction to Native American Studies” (INAS) is an introductory survey course taken either as an elective or as the foundation of a Native Studies minor. The class size is relatively small, capped at twenty-four students. Students who take this course come from a broad cross-section of disciplines in the College of Arts and Sciences and beyond, although perhaps the greatest portion comes from the Humanities. The course serves as an introduction to the interdisciplinary field of …

Engl 487: English Capstone Experience—A Peer Review Of Teaching Benchmark Portfolio, Kelly Stage

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

This portfolio documents the teaching objectives, strategies, and assessments for a capstone course in the English major at UNL. As the English Studies Capstone and as an ACE (Achievement-Centered Education) 10 course at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, English 487 must help students meet key outcomes for the department and the University, but it also allows flexibility and creativity in the methods chosen to meet these requirements and structure the course. This portfolio thereby reflects on the intellectual labor of designing a particular version of these requirements and on guiding students through the design. The assessments included here are measuring traditional …

Arab 202: A Peer Review Of Teaching Project Inquiry Portfolio, Abla Hasan

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

This project examines the impact of adopting a text book of teaching Arabic for nonnative speakers that doesn’t use any English. The project targets “ARAB 202”, second year Arabic, since this course has already used a text book that uses English for instructions and grammar for 3 semesters, ARAB 101 , ARAB102, ARAB 201 and before the new curriculum was available in the market. Students of ARAB 202 will be the first to experience the switch to the new curriculum and therefore can be the best to evaluate the experience. For the project, students were asked to complete a pre-course …

Engl 254: Writing And Communities—A Peer Review Of Teaching Project Benchmark Portfolio, Rachael Wendler Shah

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

This course portfolio analyzes a section of English 254: Writing and Communities, exploring how well the course met individual teaching goals and the departmental course goals for English 254, with a particular focus on how the new English Department mission statement priorities are actualized in the class and how well the class supported learning to communicate across difference. The portfolio includes an outline of institutional context, course outcomes, and student background, as well as a backwards planning chart that demonstrates alignment between outcomes, activities, and assessment strategy. Then, the portfolio examines student data from each of the three major assignments, …

Engl 352: Intermediate Fiction Writing—A Peer Review Of Teaching Project Benchmark Portfolio, Chigozie Obioma

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

Absent the elements of effective writing, there has been a strong debate on whether or not other aspects of creative writing can be taught. Many practicing writers like myself who teach have concluded that a student writer can be guided towards fully actualizing their talent, and this “guidance” is what mostly constitutes teaching. How then do we evaluate the effectiveness of this teaching, and to what extent do students’ individual talent help or stand in the way of effective instruction? How do we plan various learning outcomes and test the success of such strategies over the duration of the ENGL …

Hist 340: American Legal History—A Peer Review Of Teaching Project Inquiry Portfolio, Katrina Jagodinsky

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

This inquiry portfolio measures the success of revisions made to HIST 340: American Legal History after a previous benchmark portfolio revealed a number of problems in communicating to students the importance and meaning of the course objectives, in correlating assessments to the final grade, and in documenting student learning and quality of instruction. The findings, outlined below, indicate that identifying a clear course theme; more strongly aligning readings, assessments, and discussions to course objectives; and restructuring the verbal and written analysis of readings dramatically improved students’ performance and satisfaction. Measures used include formal and informal student evaluations of instruction, formal …

Thea 401: Advanced Acting—Acting For Camera—A Peer Review Of Teaching Project Benchmark Portoflio, Wesley Broulik

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

In the pursuit of teaching the art of acting, and specifically acting for the camera, how do we measure growth? Additionally is there a correlation between high academic achievement and talent? In this portfolio we will examine how to evaluate acting, student growth, and examine test and paper results to see if the most “talented” performers are also the highest academic achievers.

Agro/Hort 403/803: Scientific Writing And Communication—A Peer Review Of Teaching Project Inquiry Portfolio, Brian M. Waters

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

Scientific writing is a skill that is useful for science students, since many of them will write about their research in a thesis, dissertation, or in journal articles. The goal of my course is to provide students with practice and training in scientific writing so that after they take the course they are confident and ready to write drafts independently. The class uses many learning activities, such as reading, writing, peer reviewing, revising, and class discussions. However, the first two iterations of the course did not have built-in ways to practice sentence and paragraph editing, or to gauge quality of …

Modl: 398: Women In Quran—A Peer Review Of Teaching Project Inquiry Portfolio, Abla Hasan

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

This project highlights the experience of teaching Quran as a literature through MODL 298: “Women in Quran”. This course is an attempt to read Quran as a diachronically approached literature and discover what would the analytic, linguistic as well as the critical study of both the Qur’anic text and its exegesis reveal when it comes to feminism and gender issues in Islam.

Tmfd 146: Visualization Studio—A Peer Review Of Teaching Project Benchmark Portfolio—Student Perceptions Of Learning To Draw The Human Form, Michael Burton

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

This course portfolio examines student experiences while taking Visualization Studio and illustrates the various drawing and design projects they complete. While this document illustrates the overall course experience it focuses on student perceptions of learning to draw the human form by two students. Student A, Alesha, demonstrates a high pass example and student B, Mallory, demonstrates a mid pass example.

I feel it is obvious to compare high and low pass samples but the difference between high and mid is much harder to differentiate. Key elements are highlighted to identify the differences between them. Although final course grades were close …

Hist 208: History Of World War Ii—A Peer Review Of Teaching Project Inquiry Portfolio, Thomas Berg

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

This Inquiry Portfolio explores the efficacy of the “flipped classroom” format for university-level history courses for students, the professor, and the history department. While creating a clear outline of expectations, readings, examination and quiz requirements will allow the student to better organize their study time, I wanted to know if the “flipped format” would help my students master the knowledge, develop good discussion skills, and practice critical thinking skills learned during classroom discussions. Also, not having taught any flipped courses, I needed the experience to discuss cogently with my peers the desirability and practicality of offering flipped history courses.

Mued 397b/D: Practicum (Music Teaching Field Experience)—A Peer Review Of Teaching Project Inquiry Portfolio, Dale Bazan

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

This course is taken during the spring semester of the junior year in the Bachelor of Music Education degree. The field experience places students inside schools weekday mornings over 5 weeks following Spring Break, and following core music education methods courses in instrumental and choral teaching (i.e., Instrumental Methods MUED 345 and Choral Methods MUED 346). The UNL undergraduate bulletin describes this course as simply, “Supervised teaching experiences in school.” Students are placed in school settings in the discipline opposite their applied instrument. Specifically, vocal applied students are placed in instrumental settings, and instrumental applied students are placed in vocal …

Agro/Hort403/803: Scientific Writing And Communication—A Peer Review Of Teaching Project Inquiry Portfolio, Brian M. Waters

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

Scientific writing is a skill that is useful for science students, since many of them will write about their research in theses, dissertations or journal articles. However, many students have not been trained in scientific writing, and the task seems insurmountable to some, who can develop a “fear of writing” that prevents them from finishing their program or manuscript. To effectively teach scientific writing, the instructor should devote the most effort to the most effective learning activities. Thus, this inquiry portfolio addresses two Research Questions: 1) “What is the most effective activity in my course for student learning?”, and 2) …

Arab 102: First-Year Arabic Language—A Peer Review Of Teaching Project Benchmark Portfolio, Abla Hasan

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

Goals of the class are derived from goals nationally recognized and agreed upon for low intermediate Arabic learners .This systematic consistency with the nationally recognized standards -albeit can be more challenging- insures students' ability to pursue national major programs in Arabic or their ability to compete for national grants, scholarships and study abroad programs. The standers adopted by ACTFL and STARTALK equally consider the linguistic as well as the cultural content of teaching Arabic. These standers known as the five C's are: Communication, Cultures, Connections, Comparisons, and Community. The cultural content of learning Arabic is part of the international and …

Span 202: Intermediate Spanish Ii (Focus On Literature & Culture)—A Peer Review Of Teaching Project Benchmark Portfolio, Kelly Kingsbury Brunetto

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

During Spring 2015 I undertook a curricular revision of UNL's fourth-semester Spanish course (SPAN202) with the objective of improving the materials to help the course better achieve its stated goal of moving students "away from knowledge about the language and expertise in using isolated skills into a practical and fluid use of the language in which [they] synthesize [their] isolated skills." As it existed at the time, in theory SPAN202 focuses on synthesis and helping students negotiate higher levels of discourse, but in practice it tended to get bogged down in a comprehensive grammar review. In reality, some grammar topics …

Hist 340: American Legal History: A Peer Review Of Teaching Project Benchmark Portfolio, Katrina Jagodinsky

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

Because I am teaching HIST 340: U.S. Legal History for the first time and plan to make it a signature course of mine, I am using the course portfolio and peer review teaching workshop to carefully chart effective teaching strategies for this course. My goals are threefold: 1) to more deeply consider the constituency and position of this course as an important component of the Pre-Law Program and imagine ways to strengthen the History Department’s presence in that area; 2) to ensure the efficacy of teaching strategies and assessments in giving students the opportunities they need to meet course objectives; …

Mued 403: Student Teaching Seminar—A Peer Review Of Teaching Project Inquiry Portfolio, Dale Bazan

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

This course is taken during music education undergraduate students' student teaching semester, which occurs after completion of all coursework in the Bachelor of Music Education degree. While students work full-time in elementary and secondary schools, they participate in on-campus seminars and workshops. These meetings include presentations and discussion sessions led by the instructor, area school district administrators, and UNL Career Services counselors. Sessions explore online and print resources for professional advancement in the field of music teaching. There are several assumptions made about college students, and more specifically undergraduate music education students. It is assumed, in general, that adolescents and …

Thea 474: Digital Animation—A Peer Review Of Teaching Project Benchmark Portfolio, Steve Kolbe

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

This portfolio provides an overview of student learning in my Digital Animation course - THEA 474. This report serves as documentation of my attempts to define and refine the course goals, activities, assignments, and assessment. Through this portfolio, I hope to more effectively see ways to make this course more impactful for the students, but also to lay the groundwork for additional courses within the major in order to open up a more realized and robust animation focus at the Johnny Carson School of Theatre & Film. A facet of student learning that I plan to document and improve upon …

Muop 356/856: Intermediate/Advanced Opera Techniques—A Peer Review Of Teaching Project Inquiry Portfolio, Jamie M. Reimer

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

Intermediate/Advanced Opera Techniques is a two credit elective course offered each spring at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. At its genesis, the course was primarily an opera scenes workshop, focused solely on the preparation and performance of an opera scene in a final concert. It is a cross-listed course meaning that students from the first year through advanced graduate study may enroll. Students may or may not have any experience on the music theater stage, nor have they had training in how to prepare a new role from casting to completed performance.

This course is an elective in the School of …

Thea 234: Scripts In Performance—A Peer Review Of Teaching Project Benchmark Portfolio, Ian Borden

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

This had traditionally been a theatre based course for the Johnny Carson School of Theatre and Film when I took over teaching it in the Fall semester of 2008. At that time, the course (a requirement for Theatre majors, Film and New Media majors, as well as Theatre and Musical Theatre minors) was populated almost entirely by upper level Theatre majors, particularly those in the performance stream. Over the next few years as the Film and new Media program grew, the needs of those students increased in relative importance as they comprised a larger and larger percentage of the class. …

Muop 356/856: Intermediate/Advanced Opera Techniques—A Peer Review Of Teaching Project Benchmark Portfolio, Jamie M. Reimer

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

I began the investigation of this course and subsequent course portfolio with the following objectives in mind:

1. To solidify and articulate the skills I intend students enrolled in this course to achieve by the end of the semester;
2. To think creatively about the presentation of course material to most effectively engage and empower students' success; and
3. To assess the effectiveness of the course activities in achieving course goals stated in the syllabus.

I am also excited to explore the options available for different methods of content delivery in this course, particularly the application of recorded performance for assessment. In the …

Spanish Tutoring Center—A Peer Review Of Teaching Project Inquiry Portfolio, Lola Lorenzo

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

In this Portfolio I have one assessment of the Tutoring Center in Spanish during his first year of work. This center has one on-line component that students can use and also one face to face. I provide information about the type of students that use the Tutoring Center and also the reflection of the Graduate Students working in the Tutoring Center.

Mued 345: Instrumental Music Methods, Dale Bazan

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

The course Instrumental Music Methods (MUED 345) is designed to provide a fundamental preparation for future music educators to teach instrumental music--both orchestral and band--to adolescents in schools. The description in the UNL Schedule of Classes describes this course as dealing with "administrative approaches, rehearsal techniques, and modern comprehensive teaching styles for the secondary instrumental teacher." I chose this course for my peer-review because preparing future instrumental music teachers is one of my primary responsibilities as the instrumental music education specialist at UNL, and this course is the primary course to prepare students for this outcome. It is therefore vital …

Span 300: Advanced Reading And Writing In Spanish (Special Section For Heritage Speakers)—A Peer Review Of Teaching Project Benchmark Portfolio, Isabel Velázquez

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

This is an course portfolio which inquires into an undergraduate class designed to develop the academic reading and writing skills of bilingual students who grew up in Spanish-speaking households and received all or most of their schooling in English.