TEACHING PORTFOLIO

REBECCA ANDERSON

Description Page Nos.
Overview A. Teaching Experience 1-3
B. Statement of Teaching Philosophy 4-5
C. Student Comments About My Teaching 6-8
D. Student Evaluations of Teaching Effectiveness
1. PSU Rhetoric and Composition World
Campus (online course). Summer 2014
2. PSU Rhetoric and Composition. Spring 2014
3. ISU Literary Narrative. Spring 2013
4. ISU Composition as Critical Inquiry. Fall 2012
5. ISU Foundations in Literature for Children. Fall
2008
Attachment
Teaching
Artifacts
A. Syllabus: Foundations in Literature for Children
1. Sample Presentation and Writing Assignments
Attachment
B. Syllabus: Honors Composition for Global Citizens
1. Sample Writing Assignments
Attachment
C. Syllabus: Literary Narrative Attachment
Proposed
Course
A. Victorian Literature (syllabus in development) Attachment

TEACHING APPOINTMENTS
Pennsylvania State University, English Department, University Park, PA
Lecturer, Fall 2013 Present.

Courses designed and taught at PSU:
Current
Rhetoric and Composition for Global Citizens. (1 section). Introductory course focusing on writing as
a process. In this multimodal course that emphasizes dialogic engagement practices, students study and
practice implementing rhetorical strategies, as well as exploring connections between these strategies
and global citizenship meanings and perspectives. Students produce a series of writing assignments that
support their ability to (1) develop rhetorical skills they will use throughout their academic and
professional careers, (2) influence the global community, and (3) achieve new perspectives about
themselves and their learning processes.

Honors Freshman Composition for Global Citizens. (1 section). Intensive introductory writing-as-a-
process course for qualified students. Like Rhetoric and Composition for Global Citizens, this is a
multimodal course that emphasizes dialogic engagement practices. This course, however, incorporates a
literature component; students read a series of articles about global citizenship issues, about which they
produce reflective writings and participate in discussion activities. Students literature engagement
enriches their study and practice implementing rhetorical strategies, as well as their exploration of
connections between these strategies and global citizenship meanings and perspectives. Students
produce a series of writing assignments that support their ability to (1) develop rhetorical skills they will
use throughout their academic and professional careers, (2) influence the global community, and (3)
achieve new perspectives about themselves and their learning processes.

Courses taught at PSU:
Current
World Campus: Rhetoric and Composition. (1 section). Online introductory course focusing on
writing as a process. I create a learning environment that facilitates whole-class discussions,
collaborative engagement for peer review sessions, and timely communications between students and
instructor.
Completed
World Campus: Rhetoric and Composition (2 sections): Summer 2014. Online introductory course
focusing on writing as a process. I create a learning environment that facilitates whole-class discussions,
collaborative engagement for peer review sessions, and timely communications between students and
instructor.
Rhetoric and Composition (7 sections): Fall 2013, Spring 2014. Introductory course focusing on
writing as a process. I use multimodal approaches to engage students with the study and implementation
of rhetorical strategies in a series of writing assignments.

Illinois State University, English Studies Department, Normal, IL
Graduate Teaching Assistant, Fall 2007 Summer 2009; Fall 2010 Spring 2013

Courses designed and taught at ISU:
Literary Narrative (3 sections). A reading-intensive multimodal literature course for non-majors;
twentieth- and twenty-first century cross-cultural texts; theme: global citizenship identity.
Foundations in Literature for Children (4 sections). Introductory course for childrens literature
sequence; theme: global citizenship identity. I engaged students with the study of texts using theory
and analysis to explore the ways that classics and multicultural childrens books tell children how to see
who they are in relation to. -In relation to: their friends, their families, their local community, their
global community, the past, the present, the future.
Advanced Composition (1 section). Theme: global citizenship identity. Writing course for students
seeking to hone their research and writing skills through the development of essays focusing on complex
and sophisticated subject topics.
Composition for Presidential Scholars (1 section). Researched-based writing course for Honors
Program students. Focused on writing across the academic disciplines.
Writing in the Academic Disciplines (1 section). Researched-based writing course focusing on writing
across the academic disciplines.
Composition as Critical Inquiry (7 sections). Introductory writing course. Taught rhetorical writing
approaches for assignments focusing on the theme of global citizenship identity.

Illinois State University, English Language Institute, Normal, IL
Graduate Teaching Assistant, Summer 2008 Summer 2009

Courses taught at ELI:
Lexicon (4 sections), Lexical Practice (6 sections), Current Events (4 sections), and Academic
Lectures (1 section). Taught intensive ESL courses to students with varying levels of English
language competence. I used multimodal instructional approaches to promote accessibility of
instruction.

Pamukkale University, English Language Teaching and Hazrlk Programs, Denizli, Turkey
Fulbright English Teaching Fellow, Fall 2009 Spring 2010.

Courses and instructional presentation series designed and taught at PAU:
Listening and Speaking Skills (2 sections). English language course for students preparing for careers
as English teachers. I used multimodal instruction, such as songs, movies, commercials, and other texts,
to support students listening and speaking skills development.
Speaking Skills (2 sections). English language course focusing on speaking skills for students preparing
for careers in the sciences. I promoted students confidence and fluency through their participation in a
variety of discussions and multimodal activities.
Discourse Analysis (1 section). Designed and taught advanced elective course in applied linguistics to
English language education students. Developed multimodal lecture format incorporating a variety of
images, films, recordings, and written texts to support students wide range of English language ability,
preparation, and background. I engaged students with cross-cultural ideas and themes through traditional
and contemporary texts, such as Turkish Nasreddin Hodja tales and U.S. folk tales.

Cultural Presentation Series. (30 sections). Designed and presented department-wide multimodal
instructional program about U.S. culture. I incorporated significant modifications to presentations for
each course section in order to accommodate significant variations in English language competence.

Teaching Philosophy

A monk said to Nasreddin: I am so detached that I never think of myself, only of others.
Nasreddin answered: I am so objective that I can look at myself as if I were another person; so I
can afford to think of myself. (Shah 54)

In this anecdote deriving from a body of Turkish folklore on which my dissertation research focuses,
Nasreddin Hodja humorously challenges assumptions about an individuals relationships with self and
community. As a teacher of literature and writing courses, I similarly encourage my students to explore new
perspectives regarding identity and citizenship. To achieve this outcome, my students engage extensively with
activities supporting their ability to recognize patterns of ambiguity, as well as rhetorical strategies, in the texts
they read and produce. As this work prompts classroom discussions about power, justice, identity, citizenship,
and belonging, I seek to encourage students understanding that these exchanges are part of an ongoing
conversation across disciplines and the various domains of their lives. My students develop the perspectives and
skills to understand and influence the future directions of these conversations.

Three basic objectives influence my teaching approach in all of my courses, from literature to rhetoric
and composition to discourse analysis: the development of students collaborative meaning-making and critical
thinking skills, as they achieve an understanding of course content grounded in the perspectives of the courses
disciplinary affiliation and beyond. In order to achieve these objectives, I create a learning community where
students experience the study and production of texts as empowering, inspiring, and relevant to their
membership in communities within and beyond our classroom. Through individual study and collaborative
activities, they engage with normative, empirical, theoretical, imaginative, concrete, and comparative analysis
that facilitates their ability to interrogate course topics from a range of disciplinary perspectives and traditions.
In addition to assessing students factual grasp of the course material, by inviting, for instance, the comparative
analysis of characters featured in two novels, I evaluate their ability to develop a persuasive argument that is not
tied to a single correct conclusion through open-ended exams, essay topics, and research projects.

To create a dynamic classroom community that encourages participatory learning, I engage students
with a variety of experiences, from debates to collaborative presentations to asynchronous online discussions to
interviews. In my Foundations in Literature for Children course, for instance, I invite students to work in small
groups to collaboratively create visuals of selected scenes that picture books describe but do not visually depict.
Two books that students use for this activity are James Rumfords Silent Music: A Story of Baghdad and
Patricia McKissacks Flossie and the Fox. This project requires careful close reading of the texts. To develop
and explain their work product, students draw on their previous studies of multicultural literature scholarship
and principles of picture book analysis, such as Dan Hades Reading Multiculturally, Perry Nodelmans
Decoding the Images and Molly Bangs Picture This. Following their presentations, students comparatively
interrogate their work product alongside the picture books images through classroom and online conversations.
I participate in these synchronous and asynchronous discussions for the purpose of modeling constructive
intellectual engagement, as well as entering into students conversations rather than moderating them from a
distance. The online environment provides active participation opportunities for students who are less
temperamentally inclined to contribute to traditional classroom discussions. Students multi-layered analysis
facilitates the discovery of gender and power dynamics that support their complex understanding of how
illustrations and text work together to articulate meaning and influence perspectives.

I invite you is how my revision suggestions noted on student essays often begin, reflecting my second
pedagogical objective of making my courses welcoming and personally relevant to each student. At the
beginning of the semester, I establish clear guidelines that promote a lively and respectful classroom community
where students feel encouraged to critically engage with each other and with me. To ensure that the course
material is accessible to students with various needs, I develop extensive online resources. I individually
personalize students learning experiences by quickly learning their names, and inviting them to share
background information relating to study and career interests, as well as preferences for assessment
commentary. Required office conferences add an important dimension to student learning, providing the
opportunity for in-depth conversations focusing on students progress, questions, and concerns. Many students
go beyond the minimum office conference requirements for reasons alluded to by the following Spring 2014
rhetoric and composition student evaluation comments. Conferences helped because she has good ideas and
she helps to get your brain thinking of alternative viewpoints on the assignment, one student writes, while
another notes that the one-on-one conferences were very helpful. Dr. Anderson did a great job in leading a
meaningful discussion.

The global citizenship pedagogy component of my interdisciplinary dissertation influences my third
teaching objective focusing on encouraging students to make connections between their course work and other
disciplines, as well as the various personal and professional domains of their lives. Global citizenship scholars
such as Robert Rhoads and Katalin Szelnyi advocate new ways of thinking about citizenship for the purpose of
complicating the us-versus-them ways of thinking that have historically influenced educational approaches
and created artificial barriers inhibiting students growth as scholars and citizens of the world. I increasingly
incorporate experiential learning projects that facilitate students ability to uncover the assumptions that
influence their ideas about citizenship rights and responsibilities. For instance, an interview project requiring
students to meet with a local assisted-living facility resident for the purpose of exploring new perspectives
regarding identity and citizenship represents the culminating assignment for many of my composition courses.
Discussions about their interview findings are lively, as students share, question, debate, and theorize, and then
relate their findings back to the major themes developed in the course. Students almost invariably express
surprise at the extent to which these exchanges undermine their preconceived ideas about their interviewees,
and report an enhanced awareness of their assumptions regarding notions of identity.

I seek to empower students to develop as critically-informed and active citizens of their local and global
communities. When pedagogical structures allow students to develop ways of seeing and understanding the
world that extend beyond their own responses, they achieve the ability to form a constructive learning
community. As they participate in conversations with each other, I hope to support their realization that, by
making choices and contributing to the exchange of ideas and perspectives, they have invested in their
development as skilled and committed members of the larger community.

Sources Cited:
Shah, Idries, ed. The Subtleties of the Inimitable Mulla Nasrudin. London: Octagon, 1983.


Overview of Student Evaluations
These comments are drawn from literature and writing courses I have taught at Illinois State University and
Pennsylvania State University. Comments are representative of my students positive feedback. Comment
categories are based in part on the Characteristics of Effective Teachers, as set forth in Stanford Universitys
Teaching Commons website. Students most often note my ability to engage them with the course material in
ways that support their investment in learning, as well as my investment in their success.
Organization and Clarity
The instruction was great. Everything the professor talked about was clear and I always felt like I
understood what was going on.
Professor Anderson is a thoughtful teacher that presented material in a great way.
Good class that provided lots of interesting ideas. I liked how she explains things that she was doing,
even if it took a little extra time. It helped in the long run.
During the revision in-class sessions, having Dr. Anderson walk around and help was beneficial. The
power points in class neatly organized her expectations and how we could go about writing the
assignment.
Dr. Anderson is an extremely qualified teacher and the way she presents herself and explains the various
projects is both helpful and engaging.
This is definitely the highest-quality instruction Ive received all year. Its a lot easier for there to be
sloppy instruction in a lecture hall, but with a small class like this, its important to have thorough
instruction on all the class assignments. Dr. Anderson definitely stood out through all of my other
teachers.
My instructor was very good at giving directions, so that the expectations were clear.
I think the powerpoints and the syllabus being exactly matching every day was definitely a good thing as
far as learning and knowing what will be going on with the day.

Analytic/Synthetic Approach
Enjoyed this class. She brought cultural aspects to literature that I have never learned before.
Instructor was very knowledgeable, kind and thoughtful. I could tell she knew a lot about subject
matter, cared about the class and her students.
The quality of instruction in this class was very good. It is clear that my professor has a deep interest and
knowledge in the subject and does the best that she can to share this knowledge with her students.
I REALLY enjoyed this course! It has been one of my favorite classes to have taken here at ISU. The
instructor was well-informed on the subjects addressed throughout the semester & made each class an
enjoyable one through her lectures, activities, & assignments!
The instructor was always prepared! She always had thought provoking questions, and the videos were
very relatable. I feel like I really learned a lot and really enjoyed the books. Great job!
Dynamism and Enthusiasm
You did a great job teaching this course! And I really enjoyed it because your passion for the topic
showed through your teaching.
The teacher was extremely invested in her students. She really cared what we got out of the class.
Dr. Anderson is the most caring professor in the campus. She always listens to her students concerns
and does her best to help them.
Dr. Anderson was very passionate about each assignment and was always willing to help with any
problems I had.
This is one of my absolute favorite classes Ive had at ISU! Professor Anderson has a passion for this
class that makes it enjoyable day after day. I loved that we could turn our papers in early for comments.
It was extremely helpful!
Dr. Rebecca Anderson is an extremely qualified teacher and the way she presents herself and explains
the various projects is both helpful and engaging.

Instructor-Group Interaction (Note: Departmental evaluation questions were not designed to elicit student
feedback regarding group dynamics. These responses thus represent student responses that attest to the general
class dynamics.)
Very interactive classroom, provides real-life examples.
The instruction in this course was better explained in this course. If there was any issues the instructor
always allowed students to ask questions.
Since the class is very involved, it gets students thinking about how to write and develop a work.
Wonderful! She (instructor) was wanting to see us succeed which made us all feel more confident.
[What helped me learn in this course was] easy communication with the instructor and clear lectures.
The teacher was extremely invested in her students. She really cared what we got out of the class.
I really enjoyed taking this class. She made it very fun to learn the material. I would recommend not
only this class to others but also this teacher.

Instructor-Individual Student Interaction (Emphasis on Office Conferences)
I went to three office conferences, all of which were extremely helpful. Dr. Anderson is patient and very
willing to help students learn to their full potential and I really appreciate that. I was able to sort out all
of my questions about my papers, and even took away extra than what I came for at every office
conference.
She was very helpful because she took great interest into our work and would give a lot of advice.
Dr. Anderson helped me learn. She is an outstanding professor.
Dr. Anderson was very knowledgeable and approachable. She kept good office hours and was always
willing to help and was readily available via email to help students.
[Office conferences were] very helpful. She made me think deeply on ideas which enhanced my paper.
Very willing to make time for students out of class which is much appreciated with our busy schedules
as well.

Rhetoric and Composition (English 015): Outside Applications of Ideas and Skills
I have realized that we use our skills of rhetoric in our everyday lives. I have come to analyze worldly
situations quite well.
I have used the techniques to help my friends in other English 015 classes to write their papers and Ive
even used the ideas to write papers for my first year seminar class.
I am still in the process of applying to outside scholarships and luckily, still on the receiving end, and
had to write essays and thank you letters. I used the knowledge from the course about knowing your
audience and tailoring your response to what they are interested in while writing these letters and
responses. Also, how to address others in daily conversation, I am mindful of this.
I have used my ability to engage with the audience in other papers that I have written this semester and
even in casual arguments with friends. I am able to evaluate the concerns of the person I am arguing
with and shift my argument to address those points instead of others which may not concern that person.
Rhetorical opportunities are everywhere. This class has taught me to recognize them as well as how to
respond properly to them when you are put in a rhetorical situation.

World Campus Rhetoric and Composition (English 015): Online Learning Environment
The instruction in this course was very clear and helpful. Despite being a large online class, Dr.
Anderson was very approachable and meticulous when she offered guidance. I really appreciated this
and it made my contributions feel valued.
When questions were asked a timely response was provided by the instructor that always contained
helpful advice in improving the overall quality of my writing, not just for one assignment.
The teacher was very encouraging and informative with guidance and assistance.
Well-designed course. Instructor easily accessible, she responded to any questions quickly (usually
within a day). If there was an issue, she would bring it up to get it solved.
Concurrently with this class, I took a science and thesis class. The writing skills I gained from ENGL
015 definitely assisted me in these other classes.
The knowledge gained from this course will help me considerably with my job. It involves creating a
variety of reports that require a great amount of clarity and detail.