Teaching Philosophy

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Since completing a writing exercise during my first composition pedagogy class session with Dr. Costello on the components of the best or worst writing course I had taken, I have been ruminating on what makes a great writing classroom. Coming from a country of silence, it is appealing for me to latch on to Expressivism, the nurturing of voices within my students. Silence as the modus operandi in Nigeria, not only exists politically but in the classroom as well. So it is liberating to discover that on this side, voice is the norm and not the exception. 

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Finding one’s voice and developing the innate ability to express that voice is a pedagogy, without doubt, to replicate in my classroom.  I will incorporate narrative perspective and counterstories in class readings that target higher-order thinking skills and call for both inquiring and critiquing. Inquiring will equip my students in the art of critical thinking, while critiquing will give voice to this analysis of both themselves and the world around them. My assignment sheets will include a literacy narrative on ‘Finding Wings’, aimed at having my students write about a life changing moment that draws from a  point of personal growth to self realisation. Through this approach, they will first “explore ideas that feel comfortable, not strained, in order to work toward the goal of being able to write convincingly” (Rebecca 5). For my students to write convincingly, I will structure my syllabus  from the familiar (personal narrative) to the academia (rhetoric).

 

As a tutor, it is one thing to encourage students to express themselves through their writing, and another to make them confident in that expression. Second-guessing themselves is one attribute I found quite dominant in a lot of students while tutoring at the writing center. Hence, despite Butt’s emphasis on the students’ completed writing being most important, I agree with  Murray's stress on the writing process and building the students’ confidence by offering academic guidance along the way. My confidence-building process is aimed at guiding my students to a point where they can express their thoughts through writing without the inhibiting fear of getting it right the first time. My syllabus will include low-stake assignments that will encourage them to write freely, such as journaling, class entry, multiple drafts, peer reviews, and revision. The scaffold draft technique will help them refine several essays throughout the semester and merge them into a final paper at the end with the goal of making them comfortable in Lamott’s assurance that “almost all good writing begins with terrible first efforts.”

 

My ideal classroom is a student-centered environment. Through the feminist praxis and collaboration, I will create inclusiveness and diversity in my classroom. The students will work with problems in smaller units, while I move between groups to facilitate discussions. Though my role as a teacher bestows authority, it is an authority that will be moderated with patience and compassion in my feedback to my students. In addition to commending their class contributions, I will offer thoughtful feedback through sidenotes, face-to-face conferencing and screencasting between assignment drafts to help them speak up on what part of their writing they are not so confident about. This authority, I will further share by granting them the power of agency through the hybrid grading system. My class will be accessible through zoom and recording to accommodate absentees and deadlines on the syllabus will be expanded.

Overall, since there is no one best way of teaching, through fluidity in teaching and adaptability I will center my methodology to always meet my students where they are.

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Works Cited

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Butt, Jimmy. “The More Writing Process, the Better” from BIW pp.109-114. ·        

Murray, Donald M. “Teach Process, Not Product.” The Leaflet,November, 1972: 

            11-14.

Elbow, Peter. “Voice in Writing Again:Embracing Contraries”

Womack, Anne Marie. “Teaching Is Accommodation: Universally Designing 

           Composition Classrooms and Syllabi.”

Lamott, Anne. "Shitty First Drafts.” Want to have this essay read to you? Check out 

           the podcast, “The Easy Chair with Laura Hurwitz,” episode 213. 

Rebecca Williams Mlynarczyk, “Personal and Academic Writing:  Revisiting the 

            Debate”