FYC…What types of assignments would I consider implementing, based on my philosophy of teaching?

As I mentioned, my philosophy is enhanced by three thoughts: (1) Effective teaching involves reflection and action, (2) The learning environment should be collaborative and, (3) Learning styles are diverse and should be recognized and nurtured. Although, I’ve never taught FYC, I believe these thoughts, while representative of my teaching philosophy, can be used within a first-year composition course. In addition, I reviewed and took to heart the outcomes set forth by the WPA ((http://wpacouncil.org/positions/outcomes.html/).

Reflection and action can be conducive for students in a FYC course. This can be in the form of a journal assignment where each student receives a prompt each week and writes in response to the prompt, utilizing reflection in their responses. In addition, I would likely be inclined to assign various writing practices to reflect understanding of different modes of discourse such as argumentation, narration, description, and expository. Through these assignments, students can utilize their reflective skills into their writings when providing arguments for/against a situation, a narrative about a past event, description of a task that is important to complete, and providing information about a subject close to their heart. In addition, this would meet one of the WPA outcomes of critical thinking, reading, and writing where students should “use writing and reading for inquiry, learning, thinking, and communicating." In addition, WPA notes that for the rhetorical knowledge aspect of writing, students should “respond to the needs of different audiences” and “respond appropriately to different kinds of rhetorical situations… understand[ing] how genres shape reading and writing.” Of course, a knowledge of conventions where students “learn common formats for different kinds of text” and use proper “syntax, grammar, punctuation, and spelling” is very important in the development of the writer.

I believe the learning environment should be collaborative. Teaming students to work together on a given assignment and present to the class is an excellent way to promote teamwork or collaboration. Such assignments would be researching a problem, finding solutions, presenting these solutions to an audience (classmates) that is persuasive in nature. Another assignment could be working together to sell a product/services and present to the class. When implementing these assignments, I would be promoting collaborative learning – working together, learning individually…in other words, as I mentioned in my philosophy, bringing about the healthy exchange of ideas, experiences, and opinions can nurture these different styles. This teaming method would utilize one of the WPA outcomes where students integrate their ideas with those of others.”  

I feel that all of these are reflective of my philosophy of teaching. Several aspects of the WPA outcomes seem to fit within this philosophy and these are some good examples of assignments I would implement in my FYC course.

My Philosophy of Teaching

The following is my philosophy of teaching that I created several years ago during my first MA studies. I, over time, would reflect on it, and then revised it considerably last semester here at Texas Tech. While this is primarily a philosophy of teaching, parts are supplemented with some references to Fulkerson’s article “Four Philosophies of Composition.”

As an adult educator, my philosophy of teaching has evolved through my experiences with students in the classroom as well as outside the classroom. My philosophy is enhanced by three thoughts that I carry with me.

1. Effective teaching involves reflection and action.
2. The learning environment should be collaborative.
3. Learning styles are diverse and should be recognized and nurtured.

In order for me to determine if my teaching is effective, I employ two of the four modes of reflection when teaching and put reflection into action. Lana Danielson, in her article “Fostering Reflection” (Educational Leadership 66.5), lists the modes of reflection as technological, situational, deliberate, and dialectical. My reflections tend to fall under the deliberate and dialectical modes, depending on the teaching situation. In terms of deliberate reflection, I take the time to seek out more information about the effectiveness of my teaching by reviewing material presented to the students, talking with other subject matter experts, obtaining feedback from students and colleagues, and review student performance on work to seek out patters, if any. The results I glean from this type of reflection would be used to improve or enhance my future teaching. The dialectical mode of reflection is a more enhanced method of deliberate thinking where I take the results of my reflection and implement them as solutions, often changing methods of teaching to effect change in student learning outcomes. While I may employ two specific modes of thinking, my reflective time is ongoing and as a result, I am striving to constantly learn what “clicks” for the student, and how I can best be an effective educator.

The learning environment should be collaborative. Adult learners are a different group from traditional K-12 students in such they have life experiences or prior knowledge and skills that can be beneficial to a collaborative situation such as a group project. As an adult educator, my goal is to empower students to strive to enhance that knowledge and the skills they have attained and to carry them through life and work experiences. By implementing a collaborative learning environment, I promote working together toward a common goal, learning from one another, sharing knowledge, and enhancing critical thinking skills. The collaborative environment also brings outs the different learning styles that can be challenging.

In addition to promoting a collaborative learning environment, I lean toward the formalist philosophy of teaching where, as Fulkerson shares in his article, I tend to “judge a paper a failure if it contains on comma splice or five spelling errors.” The one comma splice is a little extreme, but it is my opinion that a good paper should not have many spelling errors. Fulkerson quotes Janet Emig’s (The Composing Processes of Twelfth Graders) conclusion “most of the criteria by which students’ school-sponsored writing is evaluated concern the accidents rather than the essences of discourse – that is, spelling, punctuation, penmanship, and length” which are the four formalists criteria. For most, this may seem a little harsh for a teaching philosophy, but as society continues to change in terms of the digital media, it is of utmost importance for each student to possess good basic writing skills.

Learning styles are diverse and should be recognized and nurtured. As an adult educator, I am aware that there are diverse learning styles and as I teach, I am cognizant of each student’s knowledge, skills, and abilities, and try to enhance the desire to learn through recognition of these differences. Differences in learning may be auditory, visual, or kinesthetic. It is important to keep these three styles in mind when observing each student. The recognition and nurturing of diverse learning styles is also representative of what Fulkerson calls “Expressionism” as a philosophy. My formalist philosophy is peppered with expressionism where I strive to encourage students to learn about themselves, how they best learn. Fulkerson shares that expressionists strive for “interesting, credible, honest, and personal voice” and this is part of what I consider in the recognition of learning styles and encouraging students to learn about themselves through their writings. In addition, Malcolm Knowles stated that adult learners learn best when they understand why something is important, have the freedom to learn in their own way, learning is experiential, the time is right for them to learn, and the process is positive and encouraging. By implementing the collaborative learning environment where adult learners can work together, learning in their own way, and at the right time, the healthy exchange of ideas, experiences, and opinions can nurture these different styles.

Adult learners come into adult education with the foundation of life experiences and knowledge that is accompanied by a mutual need for respect. As an adult educator, it is my goal to meet this need through the method of teaching in a collaborative environment, the implementation of reflectivity in my work to ensure my teaching is effective, and through the recognition of learning differences, further enhance the knowledge and skills these learners bring with them.

Teaching to Practice

For this week, the questions for thought are: What is the most difficult thing to teach in the teaching of writing, and how do you go about teaching that? For me, I find that everyone has their own way of learning. In my graduate studies at UT San Antonio, I learned about adult learning and how it was important to know each learner’s style. These questions bring up a time where I had the opportunity to work with a friend who was having so much trouble with her English class. She came to my house several times over the semester to go over her papers. The hardest thing for me to teach her was transitions and concision, but that was not the hardest thing to TEACH…It was HOW to teach it.

After several tries, I found myself providing a series of demos where I created paragraphs about any subject and some of them had no transitions, some transitions with too much detail, too much detail and a transition here and there. I had her review them and tell me what she sees wrong. She got it right on the second try. I was able to demonstrate how transitions help with the flow of information and how being concise can keep the reader on the information you are trying to convey. For my friend, it helped to have concrete information in front of her to demonstrate the lesson rather than just simply explaining. I then had her put it to paper, rewriting what she wrote and as a result, she was able to realize how the paper flows better. Her response to me when she had her “ah-ha” moment was “my professor is all talk, no action so I cannot understand what he’s talking about.” The issue I had was I kept explaining the issues to her and she wasn’t getting it. When I put it to practice and she put what she learned to practice, she got it.
This situation is similar to what Janet Emig details in her article “Writing as a Mode of Learning.” She writes of self-pacing and references Luria on page 12, “writing is self-rhythmed” or self-paced. By understanding my friend’s way of learning and allowing her to learn a little more on her time, I was able to effectively show her how to better writing her paper. Emig also references Bruner who supported that we learn by doing which is exactly what I had to get into my mind when tutoring my friend on her writing. Putting to practice my demos as well as encouraging her to rewrite, it helped make the connection between learning and writing.

What is Rhetoric?

A mere oversight on my part about the question of the day for last week's class...what is rhetoric? There are so many definitions out there. To me it's two things -- (1) the study of words or communication that involves persuading, informing, entertaining, etc. or (2) the art of persuasion, conveying information to elicit interest, effect change, or entertain. My definition of rhetoric seems to be in line with Andrea Lunsford's definition: "Rhetoric is the art, practice, and study of human communication."

Here's a list of various definitions of rhetoric from Stanford University's English department at: http://www.stanford.edu/dept/english/courses/sites/lunsford/pages/defs.htm 

A Texas Aggie in Red Raider Country…An Introduction

Born and raised in the Dallas area, I received my BA in English from Texas A&M University and my MA in Education from the University of Texas at San Antonio. This is my third semester in the MATC program here at Texas Tech. I am currently a Project Manager for Pearson Education, an assessment test publisher. Prior to this position (held only a month), I was a Senior Editor, overseeing the development of assessment tests, including editing various pieces such as poetry, short stories, passages, and more. My current position allows me to work with various internal and external groups to ensure that the development goes smoothly and on schedule. It is my goal to take this MATC degree and put it to use as an instructor at the college/university level in the near future.  

I always had a desire to help others, whether it was through teaching, volunteering, or mentoring. I have a particular interest in disabilities and literacy, more specifically deafness and literacy. As a hearing-impaired person who loves to write and read, it always burdened me when I would encounter a deaf person who hated to read and over the years, I learned that literacy is an obstacle for them because of the use of sign language which, in syntax, is very different from English. My goal, as an English instructor, is to work with those with hearing losses on their writing and reading skills either within a college’s English program or a program dedicated to those with hearing losses. 

What is composition? I believe composition is the art or the making of creative work. It is the bringing together of words to form a work such as an essay, paper, book, etc. Composition integrates thinking, writing, and reading skills that can be transferred to everyday life.