FACULTY LEARNING COMMUNITY

TEACHING PORTFOLIO

KATHLEEN SYDNOR

SPRING 2007

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 3

Course Description ............................................................................................................. 4

Course Calendar .................................................................................................................. 7

Critical Thinking/Active Learning Practice 1 And 2: Inferences ....................................... 9

Critical Thinking/Active Learning Practice 3— Explaining Concepts With Clarity,

Accuracy, And Precision .................................................................................................. 12

Critical Thinking/Active Learning Practice 4—Double-Entry Notebook and Paper

Assignment ....................................................................................................................... 14

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Introduction

My ideas about CT have been shaped the Foundation for Critical Thinking and

my week-long conference at Berkeley. I adopted a substantive concept of critical

thinking, which included the following ideas as integral to: 1) the foundations of critical

thinking (including the elements of thought, the intellectual virtues, and the intellectual

standards; 2) close reading and substantive writing; 3) course content as a mode of

thinking; 4) reasoning across the disciplines; and 5) student self-assessment of reasoning.

I considered specific student learning outcomes, including the following: students

will 1) “self-assess their reasoning”; 2) “become more proficient in using and assessing

goals and purposes, questions and problems, information and data, conclusions and

interpretations, concepts and theoretical constructs, assumptions and presuppositions,

implications and consequences, and points of view and frames of reference (in the posing

and solving of problems, as well as in the asking and answering of questions and the

resolving of issues”; 3) “achieve higher levels in the mastery of language and

communication”; 4) “think more clearly, more accurately, more precisely, more

relevantly, more deeply, more broadly, and more logically”; 5) “become better readers,

writers, speakers, and listeners” (adapted from Foundation for Critical Thinking, 1999, p.

viii).

I recognized the following pedagogies as supporting the development of students’

critical thinking skills: 1) providing students with a critical thinking vocabulary, so they

may evaluate their own reasoning; 2) modeling skilled thinking for students; 3) engaging

students in active and collaborative learning; 4) using inquiry-based learning methods;

and 5) requiring an intellectual journal, specifically the double-entry notebook.

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Humanities 1301

Spring 07

_________________________

Ms. Sydnor

Office: Social Science 103

Phone: 281-425-6356

Email: ksydnor@lee.edu

Office Hours: 8:25-9:25 MW; 7:00-8:00 TTH

Division Chair: Dr. Gordon Lee, BH 246, 425-6417

Division Secretary: Ms. Susan Keith, BH 245, 425-6503

Division Fax Number: 281-425-6228

Course Description

Purpose:

The purpose of the course is to think critically about the Humanities.

Key Question:

What constitutes the Humanities and how do we make meaning of the humanities?

Information:

Students will work with film, music, literature, and art.

Skills of Interpretation:

Students will observe their responses to the humanities and examine the means by which the artist

evokes those responses.

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Essential Concepts:

Interpretation itself becomes the key concept. Students will have to understand interpretation as a

concept and a skill.

Implications:

Education in the arts permits students to observe more closely and thereby respond more

intensely to the content of the work.

Point of View:

Students will have to learn to reason from various points of view, and they will learn how point of

view is influenced by context.

General Plan for the Course

Humanities 1301 is a multicultural, interdisciplinary seminar designed to encourage students’

investigations into the arts. Readings and group discussion of the humanities from at least four

disciplines and from various cultural viewpoints form the basis of the course. You will learn

critical thinking and basic skills of interpretation. You’ll analyze others texts, as well as your

own, argue and reflect and do research. We will spend time discussing representations of the

humanities in large and small groups in collaboration with others to help us analyze our own

reactions and insights. We will consider the purpose of our thinking and will consider ideas from

various points-of-view.

Required texts & supplies

Janaro and Altschuler, The Art of Being Human, 8th Ed.

Course Requirements

Portfolio

Three essays

You must take the CCTST and the Nelson-Denny test at the beginning and end of the semester.

Class time will be provided so that you can take these tests. If you fail to show up on the day the

test is scheduled in class, you will have to make arrangements with the Counseling Center to take

the test. Note: In order to receive a grade in the class, you must take these tests.

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Course Policies

Attendance

Your essays will be based on your skills of interpretation. You will examine texts--cinematic,

visual, literary, and musical. Your skills of interpretation will develop as you are exposed to the

humanities. Thus, you cannot miss class and receive a good grade. If you miss more than three

classes, I will drop you from the course.

Late Arrivals

Students who are chronically late are disruptive to class. Attend another section if you cannot

meet the class on time or enroll in the on-line class. If you’re late more than three classes, I will

drop you from the course.

Late Papers: I do not accept later papers, but I do allow you to drop one essay grade. The

portfolio must be turned in on time.

Plagiarism Policy: The College’s published and distributed policies on student dishonesty

(including plagiarism) will be followed in this class. See the current Lee College Catalog.

Cell Phones

Cell phones must be turned off prior to entry into class.

Course Evaluation

60% Portfolio

40% Three essays

This course is based on the precept that students will have to spend a minimum of two hours

studying (reading, writing, researching, etc.) outside of class for each hour in class.

Please let me know if you are a student with a disability and need special accommodations for

this class.

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COURSE CALENDAR

HUMANITIES COURSE OUTLINE

Week Tuesday Thursday

1 Syllabus

Introductions

CCTST & Nelson Denny

2 Critical Thinking Model

Immersion and Perspective: From

Postcards to Picasso

3 Inference and My Cousin Vinny Double-entry Notebook

4 Art and the Humanities: History of the

Female Form

History of the Female Form

5 Picasso’s Guernica

Group Discussion

Film and the Humanities, Billy Elliot

6 Film, Billy Elliot Film, Billy Elliot

Discussion, Assumptions

7 David Ordan, “Any Minute Mom

Should Come Blasting Through the

Door”

Discuss, Implications &

Consequences

Library Research @ Library

Purpose, Essential Question,

Information

8 Context: Political and Cultural Context

of Guernica

Discussion: Assumption in Naïve

Interpretation and new Concepts

Context: Political and Cultural Context

of Guernica

Discussion: Implications and

Consequences for Interpretation

9 Explanation Exercise Myth and the Humanities: Joseph

Campbell and the Hero’s Journey;

Myth and Native American Tradition

10 Film, Smoke Signals Film, Smoke Signals

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Film, Smoke Signals

Discussion, Author’s Purpose, Points

of View

Music and the Humanities: Jazz

12 Music and the Humanities: Jazz Film, Birdy

13 Film, Birdy Discuss Birdy, Interpretation and

Inferences

14 Aristotelian Triad, Purpose, Point-of-

view

O’Brien, “How to Tell a True War

Story”

Discuss, Points of View, Purpose

15 O’Brien, “On the Way to Rainy River”

Assumptions, Points of View

CCTST & Nelson Denny

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Critical Thinking/Active Learning Practice 1 and 2: INFERENCES

Description of Practice

The following active learning classroom exercises are designed to teach students how to

make sound inferences and how to evaluate their inferences. Students will be given a

postcard and will view a film clip. In activity #1, students will make inferences about the

scene depicted in a postcard. In activity #2, students will evaluate the inferences made by

a character in a film clip.

Preparation

Prior lecture will define inference as a statement or belief about the unknown, made on

the basis of the known. Inferences have 2 parts: 1) the basis—that which is known,

readily verifiable, objective; 2) the conclusion—that which is surmised, assumed but not

absolutely known (the “educated guess”).

Objectives

Objectives include, among other things, 1) defining the word inference, so that students

may begin to develop a critical thinking vocabulary that will enable them to analyze their

own thinking, 2) involving students in an active learning assignment designed to teach

them how to draw inferences, 3) training students to uncover the basis for their

inferences, 4) teaching students how to evaluate the soundness of their inferences.

Procedure

After the word inference has been defined, students break into groups for activity 1.

Groups consist of three or four students. Following a pattern of reasonable inferences,

they invent a short narrative about the characters in the photograph). Where are these

people? Who are they? What are they doing? Why? What is the time frame? They

must establish a clear basis for any of the inferences they make. That is, they must be

able to point to specific details in the photograph that serve as the logical basis for their

inferences. For example, students notice such details as the PVC piping under the sink,

which helps to date the photograph.

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In activity 2, students watch a clip from the movie, My Cousin Vinny. In the clip, Mona

Lisa Vito, the defense attorney’s fiancé testifies as an automotive expert. Drawing

inferences based on the evidence she discerns in a photograph, she confirms Vinny’s

theory that the car at the crime scene was definitely not the defendant’s 1969 Buick

Skylark. As students watch, they make careful notes. They consider the following

questions: 1) What inferences does Mona Lisa draw? 2) What evidence does she use to

support those inferences? 3) Based on the evidence at her disposal, are her inferences

sound? What makes them sound? After students have seen the clip, they meet in small

groups and discuss their conclusions in order to make a brief presentation to the class.

Students often make the point that the soundness of Mona Lisa’s inferences result from

the reasonable chain of evidence that she discerns in the photograph.

Justification

The Critical Thinking Model, which Lee has adopted for the QEP from the Foundation

for Critical Thinking, stresses the importance of inferences to critical thinking. The

California Critical Thinking Test, which Lee has selected as its assessment instrument,

measures students’ ability to draw inferences. Students often do not understand that an

inference is an educated guess with a logical basis. Rather, they assume that any guess

will do and that one does not have to have a basis for one’s inferences. How many times

has a student said: “Can’t this painting (text, etc.) mean anything I want?” And, “Why

can’t it?” These critical thinking practices serve to answer those student questions in a

meaningful way that satisfies them and provides them with an understanding of the

importance of sound inferences and of the process by which one makes them. Teaching

student to draw inferences across the curriculum is an important way to develop and to

strengthen students’ critical thinking skills.

Moreover, the work of the assignment is based on collaborative learning. Research

suggests that collaborative learning is an active learning strategy that promotes critical

thinking. Rubin and Herbert (1999) maintain that active and collaborative learning—

“characterized by interaction and cooperation” (p. 2)—is an effective model to promote

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student learning. Gerlach (1994) suggests, “collaborative learning environments have

many advantages for students’ intellectual and social development. . .” (Rubin and

Hebert, 1998, p. 2). Smith (1977) asserts that peer collaboration promotes critical

thinking (Burbach, Matkin, and Fritz, 2004). Rubin and Herbert (1998) further maintain

that several theoretical perspectives support collaborative learning, including cognitive

theory, motivational theory, and social context theory (2).

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Critical Thinking/Active Learning Practice 3— EXPLAINING

CONCEPTS WITH CLARITY, ACCURACY, AND PRECISION

Description of Practice

This active learning activity takes place in class. The activity teaches students the

importance of explaining concepts with clarity, accuracy, and precision. A moderately

complex diagram is the focus of the activity. The teacher provides the students with oral

and written directions for the activity.

Preliminary Preparation

In prior lecture, teacher discusses the intellectual standards—clarity, accuracy, and

precision.

Objectives

Objectives of this practice include 1) requiring student to focus on these critical thinking

cognitive skills and standards, and 2) teaching students the importance of explaining

concepts with clarity, accuracy, and precision.

Procedure

For this group exercise, students will work in pairs: student A and B. Student A will

leave the class. The teacher will provide student B with a copy of the diagram. Student

B will write clear, accurate, and precise directions that will enable student A to draw the

diagram without seeing the diagram. After student B has written the directions, student A

will return to class and will attempt to draw the diagram. At the end of the exercise, the

two students will compare student A’s diagram with the original diagram.

Justification for the Assignment

In Critical Thinking Basic Theory and Instructional Structures (ver. 1999), standards for

evaluating student’s reasoning are identified as follows: clarity, accuracy, precision,

relevancy, depth, and breadth (3-5). The explanation exercise emphasizes three of these:

clarity, accuracy, and precision. Freshman and sophomore students generally have

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difficulty with clarity, accuracy, and precision. They experience this exercise as fun but

challenging. Their attempt to draw the diagram from written instructions illustrates the

importance of clarity, accuracy, and precision in a tangible way that they can appreciate.

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Critical Thinking/Active Learning Practice 4—DOUBLE-ENTRY

NOTEBOOK

Description of Practice

In the this assignment, students will analyze Picasso’s Guernica, concentrating not

simply on mastering course content but also on mastering critical thinking skills.

Students will participate in a series of active learning activities. Some of these exercises

take place in class, and some take place outside of class. Students not only execute the

assignments, but also keep a metacognitive journal in which they analyze their thinking.

According to Elder and Paul (2002), “To be skilled in critical thinking is to be able to

take one’s thinking apart systematically, to analyze each part, assess it for quality and

then improve it” (p. 34).

Preliminary Preparation

Students are provided with written instruction regarding the double-entry notebook, a two

column table. Prior lecture discusses the objective of the assignment (to observe

Picasso’s Guernica) as well as the double-entry procedure, answering any questions

students might have about the double-entry notebook. They are shown a model of a

double-entry notebook. The teacher emphasizes the importance of immersion and

distance in respect to observation. Students learn that they must look and look again.

They must immerse themselves in the painting in order to see essential details, but they

must also give themselves the distance of the passage of time so that they might see

details they have missed. Students learn what sort of entries appear in the left column

(details they have observed) versus those that appear in the right column (observations

about those details). Finally, students are made aware that this is the key assignment of

the semester, and students should, therefore, regard it as such. Inference, interpretation,

and explanation will have been explored in earlier assignments. Analysis, evaluation,

and utilization of data are not discussed until students complete specific assignments in

the double-entry notebook that are related to each. Once students have completed their

double-entry notebook assignment, they are given their formal paper assignment.

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Objectives

This assignment helps develop the following critical thinking skills: 1) inference, 2)

interpretation, 3) analysis, 4) explanation, 5) evaluation, 6) utilization of data, and 7)

metacognition.

Procedure for Double-entry Notebook

Bean (1996) most succinctly describes the process of the double-entry notebook:

On right-hand pages of a two column table, students are asked to

make copious lecture and reading notes on the theory that putting course

material into one’s own words enhances learning. Then, on the left-hand

pages, students are to create an interactive commentary on the material—

posing questions, raising doubts, making connections, seeing opposing

views, linking course material with personal experience, expressing

confusion, and so forth. In a variation on the double-entry notebook,

students use the right-hand pages to respond to course material in the

manner of open-ended journals. Several days later, however, they are to

reread their journals and on the left-hand pages comment on their previous

comments. Students often find themselves in dialogue with their own

ideas, amazed on a Friday how they could have felt a certain way the

previous Monday. (p. 108)

Specific Directions to Students for Double-entry Notebook

For this assignment, you will keep a double-entry notebook to help you become more

critically aware. Critical awareness requires that you become “conscious of

consciousness,” that you “think about your thinking.” Critical awareness is a critical

thinking skill essential to invention as well as to interpretation. Not only will you acquire

critical awareness through keeping a double-entry notebook, but you will also learn to

draw inferences (conclusions) with a solid basis, to interpret (clarify meaning), to analyze

(examine yours and others’ ideas), to explain (state your results), and to evaluate (assess

yours and others’ arguments), as well as to utilize data to support your analysis.

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You will be required to write in your notebook once a week for 5 weeks, starting at week

1.

Wk 1 Entry 1-2

This entry is based on your own observations of the painting (Do not read about the

painting or discuss the painting with anyone else). On the left side of the page, you will

record what you see. On the right side of the page, you will record notes about what you

see, summaries, formulations, revisions, questions, and comments about the process (For

example, you should note when you feel stuck; and once you’re no longer stuck, you

should note what helped you get unstuck. You should also note when a particular

strategy--free association, making a list, etc.--proves useful in helping you formulate your

interpretation.). You will observe the painting on two separate occasions. You must

have two separate entries for your observations.

Wk 2 Entry 3

This entry is based on your own observations of the painting (Do not read about the

painting or discuss the painting with anyone else). You are to draw inferences based

solely on your own observations about the painting and to note the basis for those

inferences, just as you did in the group postcard exercise. On the left side of the page,

you will record your inferences and the basis of those inferences; on the right side, you

will record notes about your notes, summaries, formulations, revisions, questions, and

comments about the process (For example, you should note when you feel stuck; and

once you’re no longer stuck, you should note what helped you get unstuck. You should

also note when a particular strategy--free association, making a list, etc.--proves useful in

helping you formulate your interpretation.).

Wk 3 Entry 4

This entry is based on your discussion with a small group. After your first three entries,

you will meet in a small group to discuss your findings. You will examine your ideas, as

well as the ideas of other members of the group. On the left side of the page, you will

record what you learned from the group; on the right side, you will record notes about

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your notes, summaries, formulations, revisions, questions, and comments about the

process (For example, you should note when you feel stuck; and once you’re no longer

stuck, you should note what helped you get unstuck. You should also note when a

particular strategy--free association, making a list, talking to others, etc.--proves useful in

helping you formulate your interpretation.). Based on your small observations,

inferences, and group discussion, you will begin to formulate a preliminary interpretation

of the painting.

Wk 4 Entry 5

This entry is based on your group research. You should find the answers to the following

questions: Where was Picasso born? How old was Picasso when he painted Guernica?

Where was he living at the time? What event prompted him to create this painting? How

did he feel about this event? What was his intention in painting Guernica? How did

people initially react to the painting? Find statements he made in reference to the

painting. Find statements art historians made in reference to the painting and to images

in the painting. Where is the painting housed? Where was it housed before? Why? On

the left side of the page, you will make notes about your research; on the right side, you

will record notes about your notes, summaries, formulations, revisions, questions, and

comments about the process (For example, you should note when you feel stuck; and

once you’re no longer stuck, you should note what helped you get unstuck. You should

also note when a particular strategy--free association, making a list, talking to others,

reading, etc.--proves useful in helping you formulate your interpretation.).

Justification

According to Bean (1996), “The double-entry notebook, popularized by Berthoff (1987)

and widely adopted across the curriculum, requires students first to reflect on course

material and then later to reflect on their own reflections” (p. 108) i.e., metacognition.

The double-entry notebook assignment is an active learning assignment, which teaches

students, among other things, to observe. According to Berthoff (1981), students “who

do a lot of looking will learn that perspective and context are essential to interpretation”

(p. 37). Thus, “they will learn habits of mind essential to critical and creative thinking”

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(Berthoff, 1981, p. 37). Metacognition, or as some refer to it, self-regulation is a

continual audit of meaning that, I. A. Richards argues, is essential for learning to take

place (Berthoff, 1981, p. 42). The nature of meaning is “dynamic and dialectical” and

“depends on context and perspective, the setting in which it is seen and the angle from

which it is seen” (Berthoff, 1981, p. 43). The two-sided double-entry notebook, which

the Guernica assignment requires, provides students with the opportunity to conduct

Richards’ audit of meaning (Berthoff, 1981, p. 45). Through teaching students to look

and look again, we also teach them critical thinking

Research indicates that journaling promotes critical thinking by developing students’

metacognitive abilities. Experts in critical thinking, such as Maslow (1979), Connor-

Greene, (2000), Mayo, (2003a; 2003b), Seshachari, (1994), Hettich (2990), de Acosta,

(1995) and Tsui (2002)—all argue that reflective journaling promotes metacognitive

development (Burbach, Matkin, and Fritz, 2004). Metacognitive development in students

is essential to the development of their critical thinking skills. According to Ilene Rutan

(2002), “As problem solvers students need to employ their reasoning skills and become

aware of how they solve problems rather than just arrive at the correct answer. They

need to keep track of the steps they take to solve problems, and they need to be able to

explain these steps in writing” (p. 9). In short, they need to be able to reflect upon their

own cognitive process.

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Critical Thinking/Active Learning Practice 4—FORMAL PAPER

ASSIGNMENT

Description of Assignment

Students will write a five page paper, explaining the evolution of their interpretation of

Picasso’s Guernica.

Preparation

The double-entry notebook which includes numerous active learning practices prepares

students to write the paper.

Objectives

Objectives include, among other things, 1) involving students in a formal articulation of

their process of interpretation, 2) helping students develop critical awareness through

examining their own thinking, 3) enabling students to explain key concepts with clarity,

accuracy, and precision, and 4) making students more conscious of the importance of

audience, purpose and context when they are presenting ideas.

Procedure

Specific Directions to Students for Formal Paper Assignment

This semester, we’ve been thinking about the role of chaos, of audience and of self, of

immersion and of perspective in the creative acts of invention and interpretation. With

this paper, I’d like you to become critically aware of your own process of interpretation,

as you analyze Picasso’s Guernica. In order to meet the requirements of this assignment,

you will draw inferences, interpret, analyze, explain, evaluate, utilize data, and exercise

critical awareness through examining your own thinking. You have already worked

through a series of exercises designed to help you develop these essential critical thinking

skills.

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This seminar paper is not a report. I do not want biographical sketches or the history of

art or the history of anything else, for that matter. Rather, I want an analysis of your own

process of interpretation, which you will derive largely from the double-entry notebook

and from an analysis of the painting itself. How did you get ideas about the painting?

How did talking to others help inform those ideas? How did research help you to

formulate your analysis? You must document information from secondary sources in

your paper (whether you paraphrase or quote directly). In addition, you must turn in

photocopies of all passages from books and articles (the entire article) that you ultimately

cite in your paper.

Form

Your paper should be in the form of a narrative. You will write the paper from your own

point-of-view. In short, you will tell the story of how your interpretation of the painting

evolved

Manuscript Form

The paper should follow MLA-format guidelines. You do not need a cover sheet, but the

first page should include in the upper-left corner your name, my name, the course name

and number, and the date the paper is due. Below this information and centered, you

should have the title of your paper. In the upper-right corner, you should run a header

consisting of your last name and the page number. The paper should be five pages,

double-spaced, and machine processed. You should document your sources

parenthetically in the text of the paper (no footnotes or endnotes), and you should include

a Works Cited page at the end of your paper, which alphabetizes your sources by authors’

last names and includes the necessary bibliographic information in the requisite

arrangement. Please place the paper and your double-entry notebook in a plain letter-size

manila folder with your name printed on the tab.

Justification

Many students say that this paper was the first formal paper that they have enjoyed

writing. They are surprised. They would not, on their own, have chosen Picasso’s

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Guernica as a paper topic, and yet, through the process of keeping their double-entry

notebook, they made this topic their own. They are able to draw inferences of their own,

however naïve, and to test them in the discourse community of their peers. In short they

learn that they have a voice. They learn how to strengthen their arguments by revealing

the basis for their inferences. They learn the importance of considering audience and

purpose and context. And, perhaps most importantly, they learn that it’s okay—good in

fact—if they must revise their original idea, that critical thinking is the willingness of one

to reflect upon one’s thinking and to revise it.

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