I have taught a broad range of courses about the American political system. My teaching philosophy focuses on developing critical thinking skills in my students but understanding that students are different today than they were when I entered the profession more than 10 years ago. I want students to leave each of my classes knowing a great deal more about the content but also to have a greater interest in the study of politics. To see all of my electronically available teaching evaluations, please click here.
Every course I teach has a different assignment and discussion structure. I have been implementing contract grading in recent years. I regularly use simulations in my courses to get students to have hands on learning opportunities. Recently, I have been leaning into team teaching courses with colleagues from different departments so students can see how each discipline asks and answers questions. Fundamentally, I see my goal is to make students curious about the world around them and to not be content with simple answers.
An example of interesting projects that challenge students to do something different is my campaign advertisement project. The idea comes from Tim Groeling who is the head of the Communications department at UCLA. I had students build a commercial about the 2016 presidential election and then required students to write a paper highlighting how they used what we know about advertisement effectiveness in their ads.
In 2015, I had students make advertisements on Hillary Clinton v. Jeb Bush. Below are some examples of student work on the campaign advertisements from spring 2015.
In the spring 2016 semester, we chose to do advertisements on Hillary Clinton v. Donald Trump. To see what the 9 groups from my class came up with, see the playlist here.
I have continued this assignment in other classes throughout the years. But, lately I have been leaning into more semester-length simulations as I do in my Congress class, and Presidency class. In my Intro classes I spend 2 days a week on lecture and 1 day a week is a hands on skill building day connected to the material from the week. I have also been experimenting with contract based grading over the last two years.
Benjamin Toll 