Statement of Teaching Philosophy
In my courses and during tutoring sessions, students practice writing, reading, and discussing their ideas in increments. Incremental learning prepares them to develop informed arguments and to take action even when every step is not outlined. I construct situations in which learners can practice both gathering information and using their curiosity to improvise new ways to approach ideas. Students intentionally build the skills that they need to approach writing, discussion, and reading with self-sufficiency.
After a semester of writing analytical essays that practice close reading, learning about genre tropes, and thinking through a course concept, students spend the last few weeks of the semester creating their own literary work in my general education literature class. For a class focused on the idea of “witnessing,” for example, students read and analyze a variety of documentary poetry for class. Then, they work in small groups to decide what issue they believe needs more attention, and have to choose documents (videos, images, news articles, government reports, etc.) that they will then turn into poems. I serve as interlocutor, asking questions that help them think through and justify their decisions. The project culminates in a showcase of their documentary poetry, followed by a lively Q & A that allows students to demonstrate their knowledge of the issue, and to practice presenting arguments extemporaneously—in other words, to navigate without a compass. I provide a similar project in composition and public speaking courses: students research an area of the university’s city, looking at archaic maps and reading newspapers from the past two centuries to get a sense of for what that space has been used in the past. Then, they spend time observing how that space is now used—who seems welcome there? What argument does the space seem to make about how it should be employed? Students write a report that blends research with observation to make an argument about how the space could better serve the community, and why. Both assignments send students off to become experts in an area and to wrestle with thorny questions that bear weight on the community in which they live.
To arrive at this juncture where students lead the way, I build in opportunities for students to practice giving and receiving generative feedback throughout the semester. In evaluations, students have noted that they find learning how to respond with an eye toward constructive change both to criticism of their own work and to that of others a useful skill outside the classroom. They cite class discussions when we sit in a circle facing one another as useful foundation for this practice. To scaffold this at the start of the term, students reflect on their best and worst experiences in previous discussion-based courses. Inevitably some admit that they are afraid of saying something obvious or wrong. I write down the list of their responses on the board, take a picture, and post it to the course website for us to revisit throughout the semester. I stop the discussion if a moment becomes heated or seems about to derail, narrate what I saw occur, and ask students to reflect on it through writing. When discussions are particularly generative and collaborative, at the end of class I give examples of what I saw work well, and ask them to share examples, too.
This reflective, agential environment extends to writing in my courses. Many students have been told that their writing is “wrong” or “bad” because of grammatical errors or syntactic muddiness. To make writing a less anxiety-ridden task, students practice each week by creating a short reading journal entry in response to a prompt. Unlike major essays, I look at the journal only four times throughout the semester to grade for completion. Process pedagogy shows that regular writing practice without the anxiety of a grade allows students to try out ideas they otherwise wouldn’t for fear of failure. Students can choose to develop an idea from an entry into a larger project. Each major essay assignment is constructed to incrementally assemble an argument out of evidence, from an outline of quotes that interest them to a polished draft to which their peers respond with their biggest questions as readers. I offer feedback during office hours throughout the writing process, along with detailed comments about specific elements of writing and argumentation that I notice changing in a student’s work throughout the semester. This regular expression of ideas in a variety of situations prepares students to apply the skills they practiced with their peers in the class on their own, and to approach others’ ideas with informed, generous, curiosity.
After a semester of writing analytical essays that practice close reading, learning about genre tropes, and thinking through a course concept, students spend the last few weeks of the semester creating their own literary work in my general education literature class. For a class focused on the idea of “witnessing,” for example, students read and analyze a variety of documentary poetry for class. Then, they work in small groups to decide what issue they believe needs more attention, and have to choose documents (videos, images, news articles, government reports, etc.) that they will then turn into poems. I serve as interlocutor, asking questions that help them think through and justify their decisions. The project culminates in a showcase of their documentary poetry, followed by a lively Q & A that allows students to demonstrate their knowledge of the issue, and to practice presenting arguments extemporaneously—in other words, to navigate without a compass. I provide a similar project in composition and public speaking courses: students research an area of the university’s city, looking at archaic maps and reading newspapers from the past two centuries to get a sense of for what that space has been used in the past. Then, they spend time observing how that space is now used—who seems welcome there? What argument does the space seem to make about how it should be employed? Students write a report that blends research with observation to make an argument about how the space could better serve the community, and why. Both assignments send students off to become experts in an area and to wrestle with thorny questions that bear weight on the community in which they live.
To arrive at this juncture where students lead the way, I build in opportunities for students to practice giving and receiving generative feedback throughout the semester. In evaluations, students have noted that they find learning how to respond with an eye toward constructive change both to criticism of their own work and to that of others a useful skill outside the classroom. They cite class discussions when we sit in a circle facing one another as useful foundation for this practice. To scaffold this at the start of the term, students reflect on their best and worst experiences in previous discussion-based courses. Inevitably some admit that they are afraid of saying something obvious or wrong. I write down the list of their responses on the board, take a picture, and post it to the course website for us to revisit throughout the semester. I stop the discussion if a moment becomes heated or seems about to derail, narrate what I saw occur, and ask students to reflect on it through writing. When discussions are particularly generative and collaborative, at the end of class I give examples of what I saw work well, and ask them to share examples, too.
This reflective, agential environment extends to writing in my courses. Many students have been told that their writing is “wrong” or “bad” because of grammatical errors or syntactic muddiness. To make writing a less anxiety-ridden task, students practice each week by creating a short reading journal entry in response to a prompt. Unlike major essays, I look at the journal only four times throughout the semester to grade for completion. Process pedagogy shows that regular writing practice without the anxiety of a grade allows students to try out ideas they otherwise wouldn’t for fear of failure. Students can choose to develop an idea from an entry into a larger project. Each major essay assignment is constructed to incrementally assemble an argument out of evidence, from an outline of quotes that interest them to a polished draft to which their peers respond with their biggest questions as readers. I offer feedback during office hours throughout the writing process, along with detailed comments about specific elements of writing and argumentation that I notice changing in a student’s work throughout the semester. This regular expression of ideas in a variety of situations prepares students to apply the skills they practiced with their peers in the class on their own, and to approach others’ ideas with informed, generous, curiosity.
