College Teaching
Material Samples

Since 2011, I have taught 90+ sections of college composition and literature--both face-to-face and online--to 2500+ students, providing students the communication skills they need to not only graduate, but to thrive in their future careers and lives. This has included devoting 4,000+ hours to meticulously planning and writing multiple innovative courses, consulting 10+ SMEs, learning to simplify complex rhetorical concepts, developing 1,200+ pages of course content, and quickly mastering multiple LMSs. Below I provide an example syllabus from one of my courses, four sample paper assignments, student-teacher evaluations, and a collection of comments I have received over the years from students, colleagues, and supervisors on the quality of my teaching.

Todd Mueskes Porfolio Extended Version 2_Page_49.tiff

"English 105: Literature and Human Experience" Syllabus

This is the syllabus for an introductory literature course that I teach at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls focused around the themes of love and hate, life and death, good and evil, and the American Dream.

English 200 A1 Paper

This is the first paper I assign in English 200, a required sophomore writing course, where I ask students to visually analyze a music video and to determine what it says or reveals about society at large.

Todd Mueskes Porfolio Extended Version 2_Page_43.tiff

Todd Mueskes Porfolio Extended Version 2_Page_45.tiff

English 200 A2 Paper

This is the second paper I assign in English 200 where I ask students to explore the scientific research surrounding happiness. In particular, they are required to choose a question such as "Does money lead to happiness?" or "Does marriage lead to happiness?" and to find an answer to that question via research. They are then asked to write an argumentative paper laying out that research.

English 200 A4 Paper

This is the fourth paper I have students write in English 200. It requires them to summarize and rhetorically analyze a satirical segment, i.e. to analyze its audience, purpose, and whether the comedian achieved their purpose with their intended audience through the use of the three appeals of logos, ethos, and pathos.

Todd Mueskes Porfolio Extended Version 2_Page_47.tiff

Todd Mueskes Porfolio Extended Version 2_Page_57.tiff

English 105 Final Paper

This is the final paper I assign in my introductory literature course where I ask students to choose a poet, to become well-read on that poet, and to identify a consistent theme that runs through a handful of that poet's works. They are then asked to write a paper explaining how that theme is dealt with and portrayed by the poet.