Teaching Philosophy
Writing is inherently rhetorical. I find myself not only teaching writing, but helping students develop a critical consciousness of the rhetorical situations they engage in. I promote a curriculum that helps students develop a meta-awareness of the strategies and choices they make as writers grappling in various local and global contact zones. Writing far extends beyond the confines of any classroom, and beyond traditional alphanumeric composition. My pedagogy aims to help students perform successfully in and outside of the academy, and can be distilled into three principles that are derived extensively from my background in Rhetoric and Composition. The following principles guide my teaching:
1.) Composition continues to evolve with the integration of technologies. New media technologies should be thoughtfully incorporated into the writing curriculum to promote students’ communication within local and global contact zones. I believe in the importance of incorporating new media platforms into the writing classroom to promote student use of technologies prevalent outside of the classroom. I have incorporated blog sites in order to re-introduce a contact zone that students may be already familiar with: the internet. Working with blogs in the classroom allowed students to envision their writing as reciprocal and for a global audience. For example, one group of students wrote about the problems of mass food production—particularly focusing on the technologies involved in preserving and producing food in different countries. Collaboratively, students developed robust blog sites with not only visual and textual postings, but with postings that hyper-linked to other internet sources.
2.) Writing is collaborative: an act done by and for a discourse community. Peer revision, audience awareness, and rhetorical situations governing the act of writing are fundamental elements of the writing process.Writing is purpose driven, and results from a rhetorical situation beckoning the need for action. I believe in the importance of conveying writing as a social act to inform or move persons to action; in other words, I encourage writing where students are not solely writing for the teacher, but instead for a community. For example, I have taught a unit focusing on the prevalence and ubiquity of a certain technology: smart device applications or “apps.” Each student chose an app and began analyzing their chosen app as a social artifact—ideological entities steeped in the communities that use them. Students were encouraged to reveal the impacts their app had on various communities—including the college student community. Through this essay assignment, students seemed to develop a better understand of their chosen app in relationship to the community it (dis)serves.
3.) The writing skills developed during the writing course should be used beyond the English classroom, across the curriculum, and ultimately into students’ professional and personal lives. As students develop their understanding of writing fundamentals, they should engage in reflection activities to cultivate a meta-awareness of the strategies and choices they make as writers. I value the development of both student writer and “performer.” Throughout the semester, I build in reflection activities for students (and myself) to develop an awareness of “how” and “why” we write in terms of the decisions and strategies we make as writers. Beyond the writing itself, is the student's ability to analyze rhetorical situations and to envision the ways they would negotiate with their audience to achieve their purpose. I have taught a unit on rhetoric that focuses primarily on rhetorical strategies within a literary text. After students turn in their final draft of their rhetorical analyses, I assign a handful of hypothetical rhetorical situations as a reflection activity. From that activity, students are asked to both respond and to think critically in terms of why they chose specific rhetorical strategies over other ones.
Photo credit: Arizpe Ellinwood
1.) Composition continues to evolve with the integration of technologies. New media technologies should be thoughtfully incorporated into the writing curriculum to promote students’ communication within local and global contact zones. I believe in the importance of incorporating new media platforms into the writing classroom to promote student use of technologies prevalent outside of the classroom. I have incorporated blog sites in order to re-introduce a contact zone that students may be already familiar with: the internet. Working with blogs in the classroom allowed students to envision their writing as reciprocal and for a global audience. For example, one group of students wrote about the problems of mass food production—particularly focusing on the technologies involved in preserving and producing food in different countries. Collaboratively, students developed robust blog sites with not only visual and textual postings, but with postings that hyper-linked to other internet sources.
2.) Writing is collaborative: an act done by and for a discourse community. Peer revision, audience awareness, and rhetorical situations governing the act of writing are fundamental elements of the writing process.Writing is purpose driven, and results from a rhetorical situation beckoning the need for action. I believe in the importance of conveying writing as a social act to inform or move persons to action; in other words, I encourage writing where students are not solely writing for the teacher, but instead for a community. For example, I have taught a unit focusing on the prevalence and ubiquity of a certain technology: smart device applications or “apps.” Each student chose an app and began analyzing their chosen app as a social artifact—ideological entities steeped in the communities that use them. Students were encouraged to reveal the impacts their app had on various communities—including the college student community. Through this essay assignment, students seemed to develop a better understand of their chosen app in relationship to the community it (dis)serves.
3.) The writing skills developed during the writing course should be used beyond the English classroom, across the curriculum, and ultimately into students’ professional and personal lives. As students develop their understanding of writing fundamentals, they should engage in reflection activities to cultivate a meta-awareness of the strategies and choices they make as writers. I value the development of both student writer and “performer.” Throughout the semester, I build in reflection activities for students (and myself) to develop an awareness of “how” and “why” we write in terms of the decisions and strategies we make as writers. Beyond the writing itself, is the student's ability to analyze rhetorical situations and to envision the ways they would negotiate with their audience to achieve their purpose. I have taught a unit on rhetoric that focuses primarily on rhetorical strategies within a literary text. After students turn in their final draft of their rhetorical analyses, I assign a handful of hypothetical rhetorical situations as a reflection activity. From that activity, students are asked to both respond and to think critically in terms of why they chose specific rhetorical strategies over other ones.
Photo credit: Arizpe Ellinwood