512 Oak StreetFargo, ND 58102

June 29, 2014

Assessment Committee318 Minard HallFargo, ND 58102

Dear Assessment Committee:

I have just finished my fourth year of college as a double-major in English and English Education, and am currently preparing myself for student teaching. While my education courses have prepared me for the methods of teaching I will employ in my classroom, my English courses have advanced my content knowledge as well as writing, reading, and critical thinking skills. Compiling this portfolio for my Capstone English Studies course allowed me to revisit my past English courses that have shaped my intellectual abilities and molded my writing and thinking skills. In the following, I explain why I have chosen the works that I include in my online portfolio. This portfolio, created for my Capstone English course in the Spring 2014 semester, includes my final Capstone project, proposal, presentation, and several works from other upper level English courses that demonstrate my abilities to use critical thinking, creative thinking, and problem solving.

Critical ThinkingTitle: Pairing Graphic Novels With Young Adult Texts to Increase Visual Literacy and Teach A More Complex Understanding of Historical Events in a Multicultural WorldCourse: ENGL 467: English Studies Capstone ExperienceTerm: Spring 2014My final project for my Capstone English course is my best example of critical thinking and is one of my greatest accomplishments as an English major, thus far. Throughout the semester, I prepared to create this project successfully by planning extra time to research, constructing a detailed annotated bibliography that drew solid connections between my sources, and met with my mentor, Dr. Emily Wicktor, almost every week to get constructive feedback. Originally, I was going to create a unit plan, but found out that I could not have too much crossover between Capstone and my teaching methods course, so I had to redefine my proposal. I had to use problem solving skills to shift the focus of my project from a unit plan to a pedagogical research paper that would inform future unit plans.

In order to create a well-rounded pedagogical research paper, I drew from several different kinds of sources. I prepared myself to write about the benefits of using graphic novels in the classroom and pair them with Young Adult texts by reading three different graphic novel and Young Adult pairings that I would like to use in a unit someday. I drew from the Common Core State Standards Initiative, Laura Robb’s Differentiating Reading Instruction, and several educators such as Maureen Bakis, Ryan J. Novak, and James Bucky Carter that are already using graphic novels in their classrooms. I used critical thinking by sifting through all these sources, relating them to one another, and adding to the conversation by combining or extending their ideas to give examples of how a literature unit that includes Young Adult texts paired with graphic novels could be constructed.

Title: Material Culture as a Way of Life: Myrtle’s Attempt at Upward Mobility in The Great GatsbyCourse: ENGL 472: 20th Century American WritersTerm: Spring 2013I chose to analyze Myrtle's “participation in popular culture and the influence it has on her” in The Great Gatsby. I discovered that “in the 1920s, America shifted from a need-based to desire-based consumer culture,” which coincided with advertising that increased “name brand identification.” In

this project, I had to focus in on small, seemingly meaningless details in Gatsby, such as Myrtle’s reading materials, purchases, and dress, to make an argument that Myrtle was attempting to appear as the “Real Thing,” or upper-class woman, by creating a new “self” through the right purchases and display. I analyzed how the differences between upper and lower class culture were revealed by material items. I concluded that while Myrtle made valiant attempts to appear upper-class, her efforts actually revealed her misconceptions about the upper class--in the end, she dies at the hand of the woman she aspired to be like.

Creative ThinkingTitle: I Am Brave. I Am Strong. Course: ENGL 458: Advanced Writing WorkshopTerm: Fall 2013I have not had a ton of opportunity to write creatively in my courses, but I really enjoyed this project. Dr. Brooks had us write three literacy narratives throughout the semester, and the first literacy narrative was supposed to be a personal story of growth in reading or writing. This project was especially meaningful for me, because I was able to connect two of the things that have impacted my life more than most: reading and running. Making this unique connection was a creative move, as reading and running are not clearly related. I explained how I had always been a voracious reader, and academic success in school came naturally to me. I was not, however, confident in my social or athletic abilities. In this project, I allowed myself to be vulnerable in my writing by exposing my adolescent insecurities, and then expanded my experiences to send a message to all adolescents who may feel less than confident in themselves. After writing this, I translated it into an audio essay. I had never created an audio essay before, but I enjoyed finding the right tone, pace, and word emphasis to create the feeling I was trying to convey in my message.

Title: Pairing With the Classics: A YAL Teaching ApproachCourse: ENGL 435: Young Adult Literature in a Multicultural World Term: Fall 2013Although Young Adult Literature in a Multicultural World was an English course, it was mostly focused on how to teach Young Adult literature. My final project for this class was an outline and rationale for a Young Adult Literature unit plan that applied Joan Kaywell’s idea of pairing YAL with class texts to pairing The Great Gatsby with Bruce Brook’s The Moves Make the Man. My rationale and schedule were accompanied with a final assessment, four complete lesson plans and a number of lesson materials. Creating a unit plan requires a balance of critical thinking and creativity. Writing a rationale for a unit plan is similar to writing a proposal for a research paper, which requires critical thinking in order to analyze and make sense of multiple sources to create an argument and add to the current conversation. I used critical thinking to apply Kaywell’s idea of pairing YAL with classics along with Janet Alsup’s argument that classics are often inaccessible to adolescents, while YAL provides opportunity for students to create connections with characters similar to themselves. If students read YAL first, they may be able to engage in classics with similar themes more readily.

While daily instruction and unit plans are guided by Common Core State Standards, I needed to use creativity to come up with engaging daily lessons and activities that both meet the standards and align with the assessment. My favorite material that I used was the Facebook Template to help students keep track of the Gatsby characters. I also liked the enrichment section of day five, which suggested that tech savvy students could create a Pinterest or Twitter page for one or more of the characters. When teachers use social media in the classroom for a literature unit, they are staying relevant with the students, giving students practice using social media appropriately and allowing unique opportunities for students to engage in the text in a new way.

Problem SolvingTitle: Genderlects: From Birth to AdulthoodCourse: ENGL 209: Introduction to Linguistics

Term: Fall 2011The final project for Introduction to Linguistics was a group research project on anything linguistics related. My group chose to focus on language differences between genders. We were interested in discovering when language differences begin and how they are reinforced as children grow up. This project was completed by a team of four people, but I ended up writing 1,930 words out of the 3,050 words in the project, as well as organizing the team's writing, editing the entire project, and completing all in-text citations and the works cited.

Throughout the project, I was the only one to reach out to team members in order to work on the project. One member met with me one time to research. The only other contributions made were emails with short additions from my three team members. I tried to contact all members to work on the project, and stressed the importance of everyone’s contributions. I attempted to send drafts for others to add to or help with, but received little response. In the end, I completed the majority of the paper on my own the night before it was due. This project demonstrated problem solving because I tried all avenues of working as a team before emailing my professor and explaining that I was completing the project on my own and would turn in what I had at midnight. I worked my hardest and kept a positive attitude as I completed our group project with little assistance.

Title: Steps to (Possible) Success if You (Kind of) Want to be a Teacher Course: ENGL 458: Advanced Writing WorkshopTerm: Spring 2013This paper was my second literacy narrative in Dr. Brooks Advanced Writing Workshop, and I tried to be creative by using a different format than the normal essay. I created seven steps for those who might want to pursue a teaching career, as well as a “checklist for future teachers.” I had a lot of fun with this piece, and I tried to give some meaningful advice while also keeping the tone light, humorous, and slightly sarcastic. While this paper definitely stretched my creativity, I also had to use problem solving between my first draft and revised draft for this project. When I wrote my first draft, I had a hard time finding direction between the steps, and they were not all consistent with one another. I originally included a step called “Survival of the Fittest: Budget Cuts” that commented on my high school community’s failure to pass the levy and the impending budget cuts. This section had a different tone than the rest of the piece, so I ended up taking cutting it out, expanding a few of the other steps, and adding the “Future Teacher’s Checklist” at the end. It was a hard decision to get rid of such a large part of my paper, but it ended up creating a more consistent tone and better flow. If there is one thing I learned from Dr. Brooks, it’s that revision is a necessity. Sometimes, revision only requires a few changes, and other time, revision means starting from scratch.

I hope the works I have chosen for my portfolio are sufficient in demonstrating my abilities in the areas of critical thinking, creative thinking, and problem solving. I know that I have grown immensely as a writer, teacher, and learner throughout my experience at North Dakota State University, and I want to thank the English faculty for always being so helpful, challenging, and continually passionate about English. I would not have excelled as much as I did without the faculty’s willingness to go above and beyond to help their students.

Sincerely,

Maddie McClellan

Maddie McClellan