Teaching Portfolio – Annotated Table of Contents

Still adding hyperlinks for REL 321, Religions in America.
Please check back here or write me directly if you want to see something that is not yet hyperlinked.

STUDENT COMPOSITION BY COURSE

COURSE SYNOPSES – due to overly complicated formatting issues, syllabi are available by request

  • REL 100 – Religions of the World
    Religio-cultures and their worldviews tightly inter-connect with societies’ socio-economic structures because the ways we live in the world directly impacts our experience of the world and hence our cosmologies. I convey this through a chronological historical survey of hunting-gathering, agriculture, urbanization, and globalization (foregrounding indigenous religio-cultures and decentering Abrahamic traditions). My anchor points for this framework are Lynn Kelly’s theories of memory keeping (epistemology), the concept the “axial turn” (historical pattern), and patterns of intercultural interaction (anthropology). I scaffold this heady list of concepts through core a vocabulary list that I revisit regularly throughout the course. Assignments prompt students to apply these concepts to present-day media items [see on-line Discussion prompts below] and question common categories of religion: “indigenous”, “world”, “axial”, and “hybrid/syncretic” [see Analysis assignments below].
  • REL 107 – Religion & Globalization
    This course opens with three major facets: 1) Atalia Omer’s 2013 article on just-peace and critical caretaking; 2) defining religion as religio-culture; and 3) distinguishing small g globalization (historic processes of intercultural exchange) with big G Globalization the economic-political system that replaced colonialism by the close of the twentieth century. The remainder of the first half of the course focuses on the mechanics of culture of g/Globalization. The second half of the course pulls these seemingly discrete concepts and transdisciplinary perspectives together in the study of Rastafari religio-culture, including guest speaker Dr. Shamara Al-Hassan on the history of women’s contributions to the development of Rastafarian lifeways and expansion of Rastafarian global networks. Wrapping up with the study of how Globalization (and settler colonialism has complicated identity formation) by applying psychological theories of identity formation to the film Thunderheart.
  • REL 321 – Religion in America
    This course’s framework has two layers. The chronological frame introduces religions as they appeared on this continent’s history: Native American religio-cultures, Christianity & Judaism, Islam and African indigenous traditions, followed by Asian religions, and the emergence of secularism. The second half of the course focuses on the Protestant Christian Great Awakenings and their definition of the U.S.A.’s dominant culture, adding regular check-ins to identify how Great Awakenings impacted other religio-cultural groups in the United States. My anchor points for this framework are William McLoughlin’s Revivals, Awakenings and Reform and Robert Fogel’s Fourth Great Awakening & the Future of Egalitarianism. This course concludes with students assessing current patterns in the United States (economic, social, religious, and cultural) to argue where our society currently stands in relation to patterns of Awakenings [see analysis assignments below].

COURSE PROPOSALS

INSTRUCTIONAL DIVERSITY, EQUITY & INCLUSION STATEMENT

SKILLS DEVELOPMENT RESOURCES
All my course websites include two modules for coaching college-level reading (skimming & concept map note-taking) and writing skills: description vs analysis, thesis development, essay organization; plus a tutorial for working with a rubric including guided practice apply my course’s rubric to models essays and outlines.

ASSESSMENTS

  • Concept Mapping: prompts & examples
    Recognizing the need for regular accountability and reinforcement of the reading assignments, I replaced conventional quizzes with cognitively richer concept mapping. Mapping requires active learning and accommodates a variety of learning styles: illustrators, flow charters, list-makers and prose writers. Most students really enjoy concept mapping, some switch to mapping as their primary method of note-taking during class, and a few have mentioned that they now use mapping in other classes. Some students simply don’t work best with visual graphics and so lists and outlines are permitted. Short answer paragraphs have been accepted but often do not accomplish the goals of the mapping assignments. These maps, ideally with citations, also work as pre-writing material for their essay assignments.
  • On-line discussion prompts
    • REL 107 – Religion & Globalization
    • REL 321 – Religion in America

      I added on-line discussions via the Packback web-platform to enable students to make connections between the historical or abstract course content with current events in religion & culture today [link prompts]. I appreciate the Packback platform specifically because of the Instant Feedback that coaches both better writing skills and quality discussion. It also allows students to edit their work, reinforcing skills development and providing students significant control over their quality-based grades for these discussions.

      While online discussions build confidence and rapport over the course, they do not transfer into comfort with in-class discussion. The strongest in-class discussions have come often courtesy of junior and senior students who have already learned how to participate in discussions. I currently study Discussion as a Way of Teaching (Brookfield & Preskill, 2005) for strategies to teach discussion skills and realize this requires restructuring my classes at the syllabus level.
  • Analysis Assignments
    • REL 107 – Religion & Globalization
      For Religion & Globalization, where the majority of students expected to put course knowledge into action within their prospective careers, I required research projects either full essay for 16-week courses or as research plan with annotated bibliography for half-semester courses.
    • REL 100 – Religions of the World
    • REL 321 – Religion in America
      For Religions of the World and Religion in America, short, end-of-unit essays remains primary summative assessment . The only adjustment I have made to this is to substitute outlines instead of full essays. Outlines enable weaker writers to focus on thesis development, cohesiveness of their arguments, and matching course reference to claims. Outlines are also quicker to grade while still retaining a high bar as both a learning tool and assessment, especially helpful for large enrollments. The goal is to get all students to at least solid B quality full essays by the end of the course.

RUBRICS

REVIEWS & EVALUATIONS