512 Oak Street

Fargo, ND 58102
June 29, 2014
Assessment Committee
318 Minard Hall
Fargo, 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 Thinking
Title: Pairing Graphic Novels With Young Adult Texts to Increase Visual Literacy and Teach A More
Complex Understanding of Historical Events in a Multicultural World
Course: ENGL 467: English Studies Capstone Experience
Term: Spring 2014
My 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 Robbs 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: Myrtles Attempt at Upward Mobility in The Great Gatsby
Course: ENGL 472: 20th Century American Writers
Term: Spring 2013
I 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 Myrtles
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 Thinking
Title: I Am Brave. I Am Strong.
Course: ENGL 458: Advanced Writing Workshop
Term: Fall 2013
I 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 Approach
Course: ENGL 435: Young Adult Literature in a Multicultural World
Term: Fall 2013
Although 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 Kaywells idea of pairing YAL with
class texts to pairing The Great Gatsby with Bruce Brooks 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 Kaywells idea of pairing YAL with classics
along with Janet Alsups 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 Solving
Title: Genderlects: From Birth to Adulthood
Course: ENGL 209: Introduction to Linguistics
Term: Fall 2011
The 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 everyones 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 Workshop
Term: Spring 2013
This 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 communitys 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 Teachers 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, its 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
facultys willingness to go above and beyond to help their students.
Sincerely,
Maddie McClellan
Maddie McClellan