Portfolio Introduction and How-To

Paul “Spike” Wilson II Teaching and Professional Portfolio

Contents of this Presentation Résumé and Porfolio URLs Slide 3 How To View My Portfolio Slides 3-10 Sample Teaching Exercises Slides 11-27 Teaching Philosophy Slides 28-31 Notes on Class Procedures Slides 32-33

Résumé and Portfolio URLs Résumé www.linkedin.com/in/paulspikewilson Portfolio www.slideshare.net/paulspikewilson

How To View My Portfolio Please go to www.slideshare.net/paulspikewilson Click on this presentation (Portfolio Introduction). Click on the other four portfolio presentations “Stage Lighting” (a teaching module used in my Theatre Appreciation classes) “Jack and Jill Digital Program” (a “digital show program” used for an extracurricular theatrical production) “Bridges Instead of Boundaries” (the visual component of an interactive conference presentation) “Note-Taking” (a sample teaching module for a Freshman-level Study Skills course)

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“Exploring Disability and Difference in the Classroom” Teaching Exercise in 3 Steps

Step 1: “Ice-Breaker” Option 1: Employ a variation on the common “Two Truths and a Lie” exercise used for class introductions. Option 2: Have everyone introduce themselves, using a descriptor (adjective) that starts with the same letter as the beginning of your first name. The descriptor may be true or false. Have students assess afterward whether the descriptor was true or false, using cues such as body language, facial expressions, and voice tone. Question for Students: Do any “first impressions” about the person influence whether or not you feel s/he was telling the truth? Think in terms of your own preconceived notions about others when they walk into a room.

Step 2: Assessment“Self-Aware Learning” Purpose of Step 2 (for Students) To help students determine what modes of learning they respond to best. To give students permission to partake in new modes of learning, that you will make available in the course. (Note: #1 and #2 should be part of the ongoing process of the student’s self-knowledge. If they know how they learn best, and are open to new ways of learning, they will be able to enhance their classroom education, as well as their self-education!) To introduce to the students different modes of teaching you will use in your class. To engender open communication between student and professor about enhancement and alteration of teaching styles, based upon student need.

Step 2: Assessment“Self-Aware Learning” (continued) Purpose of Step 2 (for Professors) To employ multiple stimulation (multiple modalities) as tools of assessing student learning. To make your teaching process transparent and open to modification. To generate, at the earliest stage, a high level of student participation.

Step 2: Assessment“Self-Aware Learning” (continued) Steps Take a line of text, a poem, an equation, or an excerpt from your textbook. Print several copies of it, cover two sides of one piece of paper. Brainstorm by yourself about different ways you can manipulate emphasis in various parts of the text, without changing the text itself (no editing out or rearranging words). Use the following ideas to manipulate emphasis through color, rhythm, and sonic changes. These are basically what are called learning modalities. colored highlighters to give words or section of the text different colors different font sizes changes in voice pitch when reading aloud a “map” of the text’s rhythm for reading aloud, and suggested ways for altering that rhythm Leave 2-3 of the “passages” blank, so the students can experiment on their own. You have opened doors to alternative modalities of learning – let them walk through the doors that work best for them! Wrap up by discussing the results.

Step 3: ApplicationRole Play: “I am like this. I am not this. I am this.” Purpose of Step 3 (for students and professor) To enhance speed of communication. To foreground and give permission for “differences.” To create and maintain a “safe environment,” for which both professors and students are equally accountable. Steps Have the students brainstorm about what “difference” means. Encourage them to find types of difference amongst both fellow classmates and in their non-school interactions. Have the students assume a “character,” with a history that includes a difference of their choosing. The students should not tell you or one another what the difference is! Have them tell stories about themselves of increasing length. Start with single-word descriptors, then phrases, then sentences, then anecdotes of no longer than one minute. These stories should be oriented toward “This is where I come from. Therefore, this is who I am.” The students should still keep their difference a secret!

Step 3: ApplicationRole Play: “I am like this. I am not this. I am this.”(continued) 4) Have each student reveal her/his secret difference. Do this by asking each student, in “character,” state: “I am likethis (e.g., this person/these people). I am not like (e.g., this person/these people). I amthis (revealing their difference).” 5) Discuss: Is locating the like or the not-like in the person with a difference a more enriching form of communication? 6) Discuss: How would this exercise play out with real people and their real stories?

“Folk Heroes” A Performance Learning Exercise Developed for my course “Performance and Social Action” at the University of Pittsburgh

“Folk Heroes” Learning Goals: “Discover, Detail, Determine” Discover what constitutes a “folk hero”(community role model) in terms of yourself and your larger community. Detail, in the form of a performance, why your chosen folk hero is of value to your community. Determine how and why stories about folk heroes are passed on within your community.

“Folk Heroes” (continued) Instructions Is a hero someone who continually behaves in a heroic manner? Or is a hero defined in a single heroic moment? Where is the hero located? How does someone become a hero? Why are heroes useful to ourselves and our communities? These are questions you will consider and answer through performance. A folk hero is a role model who exists in your immediate community. Your task will be to depict that folk hero, and at least one of his/her heroic acts, in a performance piece no longer than 5 minutes.

“Folk Heroes” (continued) Guidelines These are solo performances, but you may play more than one character. You may employ props, costumes, and music, although you should only use what is absolutely necessary. Your performance may be as abstract (or as realistic) as you like. However, consider abstraction as a tactic and aid for you. Ultimately, think of this as a piece of non-traditional performance. Consider intentionally violating what you consider the “traditional” expectations of the audience (e.g., the barrier between audience and performer, the logical progression of plot, an actor playing only one character).

“Folk Heroes” (continued) Additional Context Please refer to the following questions if you need a starting point, or get a little “lost” when creating your performance. What makes up a hero? Why do I consider this person heroic? How did this hero affect me? What did I learn from this person? How is this hero related to my community? How does s/he work/function within my community? What message do I want to impart to my audience vis-à-vis this hero?

“Folk Heroes” (continued) Timeframe You will have two weeks to prepare this performance. You may use an in-hand script, only if it does not hinder your ability to get your message across.

“Take the Focus” A Stage Design Exercise Developed for Theatre Appreciation courses, to teach the concepts of staging, balance, composition, and visual focus.

“Take the Focus” Learning Goals Develop an understanding of focus, balance, and composition in a stage space, using both inanimate objects and yourselves. Understand how, why, and where a Scenic Designer places objects onstage.

“Take the Focus” (continued) Steps (Instructions for Professor) 1) One by one, have each student secretlychoose an object, and, by placing all of the objects in the space, make the chosen object the focus of the space. Each student should pick an object that’s different from the last person’s. They should not tell what the object is. Make this object the focus can be worded in several ways: ,[object Object]

“Make the object you chose the dominant object in the space.”

“Make the object you chose the center of attention.”

“Make the object you chose the most important one in the space.” 2) Have each student guess which object is supposed to be the focus. (Do not let the student who chose the object reveal it yet!) If the group is not in general agreement, the student who chose the object should make small adjustments to the composition, until there is a consensus. Once there is a consensus (right or wrong), have the student reveal which object was supposed to be the focus. 3) After all of the students have volunteered, explore different ways in which an object can “take the focus” from other objects.” Suggest different compositional elements: height, depth, centrality, the suggestion of motion, etc.

“Take the Focus” (continued) Questions for Students Why should certain objects “take the focus” in a stage space? Think in terms of visual aesthetics, plot, and emotion. Can more than one object “take the focus?” For example, could there be a primary and a secondary focus? What questions would a Director and a Scenic Designer ask of each other when trying to determine which objects and people should “take the focus” in each scene of a play?

Teaching Philosophy I firmly believe that the job of the contemporary educator is to foster, in the words of Paulo Freire, “thinking that is concerned about reality.” As an educator who hopes to foster this mode of thinking, I believe that the study of one’s own field cannot occur within a self-ruminating vacuum, but through a continual discourse with other professions, and with people and events in the larger world outside of academia. My teaching must apply, therefore, not only to my reality as teacher, or the individual student’s reality as student, but to the reality of the other who is not yet recognized, so as to develop in the student learning skills utterly necessary for effective communication in a rapidly developing and expanding world. To me, good teaching is not just the conveyance of basic skills, or even the application of those skills within the recognized field of study, but also the integration of those skills in an interdisciplinary manner. My teaching is geared toward those three effects, once the following foundation has been laid.

Teaching Philosophy (continued) I always engender trust and open communication with my students as foundational values. I understand that a certain degree of learning, at least in its earliest stages, is emulation. Therefore I expect trust and open communication from my students by showing trust (in their abilities as students, in their honesty in assignments, and in the assumption that they will show up for my classes). I expect a free and diverse level of communication by expressing myself in several manners, using body language and changes in speech conscientiously, in an attempt to highlight important points, and to lay the foundation for creativity and pragmatic self-expression. I figure ultimately, the process of creation will be much easier for the student if they see me taking comparable risks. And I tell them that these are my expectations. I engage in highly practical preparation. One lesson plan for any given class is simply not enough; back-up plans must be made at almost every turn. I tend to “overplan” my classes, while inserting throughout the lesson plan…

Teaching Philosophy (continued) …(and actual class) at least three instances in which the main ideas of a class period are reiterated and built upon in the most concrete manner. In short, preparation and outlining are absolutely key to a successful class session. I know that a certain degree of improvisation is necessary in order to maintain a classroom setting, in which participation is as equal as possible. Spontaneity also aids in the learning process. As much as rhythm and repetition are helpful as mnemonic devices, they are at times a hindrance. Spontaneity helps to alleviate repetition that can, if overused, shut down the learning process. Finally, I find that good teaching involves constantly alternating from the “in-the-moment” instances of learning to the “big picture” application of materials. I temper this strategy of alternating , with multi-sensory stimulation -- which I have learned as an actor is an indispensable tool in getting a particularly hard concept across. I am not afraid to divulge personal information which gives…

Teaching Philosophy (continued) …the material in class not only an example of its application, but also a uniquely human quality, to which the students are better able to relate. The goal of these values and practices is to create a classroom that is conscious of theatre as the most interdisciplinary of the performing arts, of theatre as a necessary study and practice, not only in the liberal arts setting, but as a part of the arsenal of everyday life skills. This is, in essence, Freire’s critical consciousness, the “thinking concerned about reality” that allows students to construct, both imaginatively and concretely, their own future.

Portfolio Introduction and How-To

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