Introduction When approaching a curriculum for the first time, especially one designed by someone else, there are going to be things that don’t mesh with students, the rest of the curriculum, or an individual’s teaching style. Implementing the Fall 2018 English 101 curriculum at Western Washington University allowed me to deeply consider my own teaching […]
Author: johns965
Accountability is Never Out of Style
Citation: Takayoshi, Pamela, Elizabeth Tomlinson, and Jennifer Castillo. “The Construction of Research Problems and Methods.” Practicing Research in Writing Studies, ed. by Katrina M. Powell and Pamela Takayoshi, Hampton Press, 2012, pp. 97-121. Summary: In this chapter, Takayoshi, Tomlinson, and Castillo explore how researchers make decisions and how a practice of ongoing, guided, critical self-reflection can improve research processes in the field […]
Emotional Literacy
I’ve been struggling with the formation of this project, going back and forth, questioning the practicality and concreteness of my various ideas. Always my first inclination is to return to my (Catholic) social justice background and nothing we’ve addressed in this class fits more comfortably into that space than Freire. I asked myself how I […]
Power Imbalances, Again
When I first considered the term “adversarial,” I immediately thought about two equals at opposition to each other–your arch nemesis in a comic book, maybe or two knights from opposing camps. But in this context, there is an inherent power differential and so in the examples above, maybe it would be the origin story of […]
Self-doubt and cop-outs
It would take deep, intentional exploration to consider anything as “truly toxic” within my classroom. All in all, it is seemingly full of kindness, good intentions, respect. There have been individual incidents: a student asking another student how they would “rate” them, a student exclaiming that the class is stupid, a small group briefly talking […]
Project 1, Student C
Student C- I enjoyed reading your insights throughout this essay! It sounds like getting stuck on the beginning of the essay, like Ruth did, and getting caught up on grammar are two things you identify with from the Rose piece. One thing I though was particularly interesting that you discussed was the ability or inability […]
Enjoyment and Expectations
As I read through student letters at the beginning of the quarter, I noticed how many students claimed they were bad writers but appeared to have a strong grasp on language within the letter itself. Many of the students who claimed that they were strong writers seemed to identify this skill set with a specific […]
Different Values
For some of my students, the struggle with writing is dependent upon the context. Some folks really struggled with the literacy narrative but excelled with the research proposal. More of the students found the literacy narrative challenging than found the research-centered writing. In fact, many of them did not manage to bring their narratives out […]
Solidarity
I keep coming back to the same idea: each person as the expert of their own life. Only the individual can say what they feel, want, need, what’s best for them, why, and who they are. To apply this to the question of the most powerful impact of a first-year writing course (or any course, […]
“Everyone in your generation is depressed.”
It is hard to gauge my students’ worldviews within a classroom setting. Despite the encouraging language on the syllabus and my own openness in talking with my students, the classroom still feels like a somewhat official setting where success is tied to behavior in the classroom (subconsciously). I think this atmosphere is inherent in the […]
On Not Betraying Poetry
Citation Farber, Jerry. “On Not Betraying Poetry.” Pedagogy: Critical approaches to Teaching Literature, Language, Composition, and Culture, vol. 15, no. 2, 2015, pp. 213-232, Web. Summary In this article, Faber addresses the decline in appreciation for poetry within the United States, explores potential reasons for the decline, and proposes some methods by which to engender […]
each person is the expert of their own life
Coming from a background in social services, there are two tenants I apply actively to my approach to teaching: first, that each person is the expert of their own life. Second, that the path to social justice exists in all facets of our lives. It’s difficult to pin down how the latter translates into a […]
Preparing Graduate Students for Academic Publishing
Citation Söderland, Lars, and Jaclyn M. Wells. “Preparing Graduate Students for Academic Publishing: Results from a Study of Published Rhetoric and Composition Scholars.” Pedagogy: Critical Approaches to Teaching Literature, Language, Composition, and Culture, vol. 18, no. 1, 2017, pp. 131-156, Web. Summary In this article, Wells and Söderlund attempt to shed light on how faculty […]
we are not the gatekeepers to accommodation
I often feel conflicted when approaching questions of awareness of disabilities, diversity, barriers, etc. I want to avoid the tendency to center myself, to participate in “Oppression Olympics,” or assume my definition of disability is complete or correct while honoring the huge importance of these questions. In my classroom, my awareness of my body in […]
Expectations
English 101 as I’m experiencing it now is dramatically different from my English 101 course as an undergrad, which was essentially a literature survey, more on how to think about reading than how to think about writing. I have been considering this shift in my own expectations as well as the expectations of my students. […]
Who are writers?
While we were catching up over the weekend, a friend asked me, “have you told anyone to ‘write drunk, edit sober’ yet?” We got a good chuckle out of it but the question was on my mind when I chose “Writers are Mythical, Magical, and Damaged” by Teri Holbrook and Melanie Hundley as one of the […]
Karaoke Bar
This might be simplistic and silly, but the first thing that came to mind when I read the prompt for our second blog post was a karaoke bar. Maybe it’s just because I love karaoke, but I’m going with it. In this scenario, I’m the host (side note: my favorite karaoke host is Master Moose); […]
Personality and Collaboration
Coming into Comp Camp, I was confident in my ability to speak to a room. I was sure that this would naturally translate to teaching. However, I found myself fumbling a bit in my transitions and not letting my personality shine through. I was hyper focused on the need to get the material right so […]