Teaching Philosophy
My style
2018
When it comes to my pedagogical style, I would say my classrooms are very collaborative—there is group work and partnering, freewriting and sharing, class discussions and online posts. I always want to make sure my students are interested and included; by that, I mean I focus on inclusivity within the classroom as well, especially for students with learning disabilities. Overall, I want my students to be interested in the discourse and subject matter of the classroom, but also respectful and courteous of other students—more than anything, I want to make sure every student in my class has the same chance to thrive.
These activities—group based discussions, posts, and freewriting—keep the students engaged, and this engagement will, hopefully, become interest, and maybe even passion one day. It’s also important to me to relate to students through popular culture—to use the subjects and people they find entertaining to make the class more appealing. Many students come into the composition classroom with low self-esteem when it comes to writing, ready to write off and resist any topic or instructor. I want to show these students that composition does not have to be the standard read-the-text-write-the-paper kind of class. I want them to be interested and stay interested, even if that means I have to put in some extra time and effort myself.
I also try to be as inclusive as possible: I am very concerned with helping students with learning disabilities or who tend to shy away from class discussions. I want these students to understand that I will use every resource I have to make sure they get the same things out of the class as their classmates. Because of this, I use different types of activities to count towards class participation: journaling, online posts, google docs, etc. I believe it is important to have other types of contribution for students aside from speaking with and to the whole class, especially in a composition environment, where most of the class is made up of first-year students who are still trying to find their footing in a college environment.
When it comes to creative writing, my teaching style is very similar, however, I will say there are less group activities—that is a class that lends itself more to individuality. Discussions are still important, and there are times where group work is still useful and helpful for the students, but for the most part, my students work individually, with the exception of workshops. Workshops are something I focus on when it comes to creative writing: they can easily go badly based on one comment that has not been thought out or worded correctly. Because of this, I take workshop discourse very seriously. I like students to phrase critiques a certain way—no accusing language, no “I liked” or “I didn’t like”, because in workshop, “like” doesn’t matter. What’s important is how to explain to the writer what works and what is not as strong, There should also be an even amount of both positive and constructive comments, so the writers leave the workshop feeling good about their work, but also know what revisions need to be made.