Experiential Learning Culminating Semester Project 

• Experiential Learning Culminating Project (click link to view assignment)
• Synthesize field and investigative research that culminates into a final video presentation.
• Engage in experiential learning opportunities to enhance cognition by completing each of the four stages of the experiential learning cycle.

Twinkie Deconstructed (mini-project)

• Twinkie Deconstructed (click link to view assignment)
• In Steve Ettlinger’s book, Twinkie, Deconstructed: My Journey to Discover How the Ingredients Found in Processed Foods Are Grown, Mined (Yes, Mined), and Manipulated into What America Eats, the author explores the many processed ingredients in the Twinkie. For this (fun) project and presentation, students read their assigned chapters and further research the specified ingredients; the link above includes the details of the assignment. At the end of the presentations I have Twinkies for everyone; however, nearly no one wants one after they have learned about the ingredients.

Multiculturalism Artifact Assignment

• 97 Orchard Street  (click link to view assignment)
• This is a fun, multicultural and interactive assignment that allows students to incorporate their knowledge from the book they had just finished, 97 Orchard: An Edible History of Five Immigrant Families in One New York Tenement, by Jane Ziegelman. The artifacts are simplistic, random things that students connect to the family identified, and as they have read the family’s stories, they can make unique connections. This assignment allows students to explore the multicultural connections and impact that immigrants have had on American culture.

Multiculturalism assignment 

• The linked AMST summer-version of this multiculturalism assignment requires students to analyze the immigrant experiences in a novel, film and numerous actual experiences as articulated by immigrants in America.
• Multiculturalism Assignment (click link to view assignment)

Oral Communication goal met in online classes:

• Animation in America is a course I teach 100% online that meets the UNCC’s Oral Communication goal for the General Education Program. To meet this goal, below I have attached the links for the presentation assignment guidelines, the rubric and two student examples:
• Oral presentation guidelines  (click link)    
• Rubric for oral presentation (click link)
• Student example 1 (click link)
• Student example 2 (click link)
• In addition to providing the students the guidelines, rubric and (previous) student examples, I also link numerous links offering presentation suggestions and several links on how-tos for creating the videos, saving them to Kaltura and uploading them to the class Canvas site.

Diversity of Body Image Assignment:

• This assignment is an opportunity for students to create a collage of their personal interpretation of what body image means to them. I am always so impressed with many of the insightful interpretations submitted, and this (portion of the assignment) opens up discussion for how people are viewed physically, and how society and social media view and affects us:
  • Compile a collection of various examples that defines the idea of “body image” to you: this is YOUR interpretation, so express your thoughts here, not someone else’s interpretation.  You can create it digitally, using glue and paper, etc. You must incorporate at least 5 different examples that define this concept. Whatever you decide to use, it will ultimately need to be scanned/uploaded and posted on the following link, so keep that in mind when creating this representation.

Online-formatted Socratic Seminar – (African-American focus of study)

• For this summer session version of this assignment, to better engage students in the online classroom, I created a multi-tiered assignment that involves students using their critical thinking skills to create high-level questions for a quasi-Socratic Seminar discussion.
• Online formatted Socratic Seminar (click link to view assignment)

Native American Assimilation Assignment

• Native American Assimilation Analysis (click link to view assignment)
• The Native Americans are a continuously overlooked culture. I created this assignment for students to learn about and see the various perspectives of the forced assimilation of the Native Americans into the White culture of the 19th and 20th centuries.

Toys and Children’s Magazine Projects 

• Toys and Children’s Magazine Projects (click link to view assignments)
• This is a project that teaches students about the challenges of creating toys without the modern resources of today. They were assigned to create a toy using only resources available in Colonial America. In reflection, students frequently indicated how they went into the project thinking how easy it would be to create a simplistic toy, but they quickly learned how challenging the experience was. Their created toys were… interesting,…and I loved how students took such pride in their creations.

Slave Narratives Assignment 

• Slave Narratives Assignment (click link to view assignment)
• Following a reading and analysis of various slave narratives, students discussed their interpretations and prepared discussions with the attached questions.

E-Portfolios with student examples 

• For this assignment, students created an E-portfolio of their semester’s work that:
  • included multiple samples of writing from a number of writing occasions
  • provided opportunities for revision and (often) documented the revision process
  • included multiple reflections
  • offered significant choices for the writer
  • invited students to engage in dialogue about their work and development
• Assignment specifics:
  • Portfolio: Your portfolio will contain five folders:
  • Folder 1 Writing Notebook: At the end of the semester, you will choose ten entries from your writer’s notebook that best illustrate your daily writing work in the class.
  • Folder 2: Process Work: This folder will contain working drafts of the four major projects. It will include workshop drafts as well as the drafts to which I have responded. It might also include the written responses of your classmates.
  • Folder 3: Peer Responses This folder will contain your three typed responses to peers’ work.
  • Folder 4: Polished Work: This folder will contain your most polished version of the four drafts you completed for the class.
  • Folder 5: Reflective Letters: This folder will contain your midterm and end of term reflective letters.
  • Portfolios will be evaluated according to the engagement they demonstrate in all aspects of the class—daily writing, process work, reflection, etc.—not just the polished drafts. We will discuss the evaluation with more detail in class. It is important that you start collecting materials in the portfolio from the first week of class.
• Student examples from past semesters – Food in America:
  • Student example 1  (click link to view example)
  • Student example 2 (click link to view example)
  • Student example 3 (click link to view example)