Nichole's Weblog

Final Teaching Statement!

Somewhere in my first few years of teaching in

New Orleans

, I was struck with the realization that learning is not at all about memorizing new information, but instead about making new connections between that information and known experience.  This understanding changed the way I saw teaching. 

First of all, I can’t determine exactly what my students will learn, because there is no telling what will result from the combination of my knowledge and all theirs. This can be a little uncomfortable.  However, second, I don’t face nearly as much student resistance, because we collaborate on the agenda, sharing the responsibility of bringing in information. A lovely byproduct of this approach is that I get to learn too.

For my part, I bring in my many years of writing and teaching experience. I think the most important thing I can do for my students is push them to, instead of memorizing one formula for writing, learn to spot conventions in different genres and utilize them effectively.  Each assignment is a different genre—narrative, academic analysis, business letter, thank-you notes, op eds, and so on.  I present the specifics of each genre and provide examples, then give feedback on their writing via in-class conferences, workshopping, peer groups, and written comments on their multiple revisions.

I also bring in some of my research on non-privileged Englishes in our discussions of academic writing and assessment practices like entrance and proficiency exams.  As a native speaker of Cajun Vernacular English, I’ve had to master code-switching, so I think my first-hand understanding of audience awareness is particularly relevant.

 

For their part, students bring in knowledge from their careers, experiences and majors, to which I’m not typically privy.  They choose their own topics, based on their interests, and are consequently a little more motivated in their writing.  For example, in our problem-solving unit, students make lists of complaints and then research one thing they don’t like about their college experience (parking, curricular requirements, proficiency exams, etc.).  After class collaboration and a few drafts, the students send their business letters to real contacts.  One class succeeded in revising the requirements of a community college program designed to raise student enrollment.

What I hadn’t expected from this approach—but what I now gladly anticipate in these assignments—is the rich information that my students bring in.  Their research is thorough and impressive, probably because it is motivated by their own interest.  The combination of their prior knowledge with the theoretical undergirding and class structure I provide forges new connections and, as a result, new knowledge.

Gee

Geez, Renee really took Gee apart!  Good observations though.  I wasn’t thinking about any of that as I read.  I was thinking about a gaming grant I’ve been following at BMCC.  My beau Frank and a few of his colleagues are researching and proposing ways of tying in gaming—not just videos—with composition teaching specifically.  Their studies concern self-actualization and funny terms like that. 

One pair of the teachers (D&D geeks, by the way) is using a role-playing game called Diplomacy (a spin-off of Risk, a pretty popular war strategy game) in a few comp classes already.  The game is really appropriate b/c the students have to communicate with one another entirely via written persuasion and argument.  It sounds like the students are into it, but the professors are WORN OUT.  They have to work much harder to redesign the class than if they were to fall back on the old curriculum.  I know I don’t want to work that hard.

Anyway, they’ve already done a good deal of research into gaming and schooling, and, regarding sources other than Gee, I’ll shamelessly quote from their proposal: “The use of games and simulations in higher education pedagogy is well-established in fields as divergent as nursing, engineering, the natural and social sciences (Niecikowski, 2005; Sowers, 2005), and the liberal arts (Saliés 2002; Phillips 2003) because they help motivation, engagement, and rules-set compliance (Flood, 2006).”  They even plan to present on this research at conferences, including CCCC and GenCon, “one of the largest gaming conferences and conventions in the world. In addition to featuring hundreds of new and old games, there are numerous workshops and lectures where one can meet famous game designers and educators to discuss pedagogical theories or the applications of these games in the classroom.”

Interesting, eh?  It’s not my kind of thing, but it’s interesting.  I'm forwarding this article to Frank, as well as any other resources the rest of you guys can suggest.

another teaching philosophy... kind of cheesy

Somewhere in my first few years of teaching in

New Orleans

, I was struck with the realization that learning is not at all about memorizing new information, but instead about making new connections between that information and known experience.  Sort of like making a gumbo: a lot of disparate ingredients stew together and make something new and altogether palatable.  And I mean that melting pot metaphor—not in the sense of my students melting together but of their knowledge coming together and creating something new.  This means I can’t determine exactly what my students will learn, because there is no telling what will result from the combination of my knowledge and all of theirs. 

This understanding changed the way I saw teaching.  Instead of trying to sucker my students into swallowing my agenda whole, I would provide the roux and rice, and let the gumbo simmer.  A lovely byproduct of this approach is that I get to learn too.

For my part, I think the most important thing I can do for my students is push them to, instead of memorize one formula for writing, learn to spot conventions in different genres and utilize them effectively.  In other words, I try to facilitate audience awareness.  Each assignment is a different genre—narrative, academic analysis, business letter, thank-you notes, op eds, and so on.  I present the specifics of each genre and provide examples, then give feedback on their writing via in-class conferences, workshopping, peer groups, and written comments on their multiple revisions.

For their part, students bring in knowledge from their careers, experiences and majors, to which I’m typically not privy.  They choose their own topics, based on their interests.  For example, in our problem-solving unit, students make lists of complaints and then research one thing they don’t like about their college experience (parking, curricular requirements, proficiency exams, etc.).  They then send their business letters to real contacts.  One class succeeded in revising the requirements of a community college program designed to raise student enrollment.

What I hadn’t expected from this approach—but what I now gladly anticipate in these assignments—is the rich information that my students bring in.  Their research is thorough and impressive, probably because it is motivated by their own experiences.  The combination of their prior knowledge with the context I provide can make for a hot kitchen sometimes, but the outcome of each class has been singular and always full of flavor.

student resistance

I just read Renee's blog about the resistance she's getting class -- I can so relate to that frustration!  But I don't know what's worse -- the resistance I got last semester (hence, the frustration) or the non-class I'm teaching this semester.  I say that b/c, though I'm teaching the normal amount of hours, I honestly don't feel like I'm teaching at all.  The Saturday once-a-week meeting feels like an afterthought -- if I think of it at all.  I don't feel like I'm dedicating enough time to it b/c I simply forget about it!  Eek, I'm complaining, aren't I?

In spite of the fact that I feel like I'm not teaching, my students are doing an excellent job.  They gave their oral presentations of their problem-solving projects last week, and they were AMAZING.  They were dressed to the nines, they had excellent information, they gave professional presentations, and they even set up a coffee and bagel corner!  I'm seriously impressed by how passionate and well-informed they were on their topics.  I normally supervise the whole process b/c I have the students do all their work in class, but since I couldn't do that for this Saturday class, I let out the leash and was astounded by their level of research.  One group even wants to begin a lobbying group to address the CPE standards.

I snuck a few pictures on my phone, which I'll show at practicum.

the Saturday class

I don't know if I can ever teach this schedule again (though Gianna already has me down for a Saturday class next semester), but the Saturday feel has been nice.  Having 4 hours together makes it kind of feel like family, and the Saturday atmosphere is less formal.  What I'm struggling with, though, (aside from not having a weekend -- can't do anything Friday night and too tired to do anything Saturday night) is that we only meet once a week.

1. I can't assign student papers in "steps."  I can't have sources due one period and a draft due the next, so I'm not able to check during my students' processes and catch small mistakes that lead to grand errata.

2. Four hours and ten minutes slays me!  Yes, we take a break and, yes, we have plenty of discussion and group work, but I'm working the whole time.  Even during group work, I'm still making the rounds answering questions and brainstorming with students.  During in-class essays, I'm meeting with individual students to discuss their writing and revisions (since I don't have any office hours at QCC).  During the break, I cram some yogurt in my face, but that's always when students come to me with all their doctor's notes and  want to know what they missed.  As a result,  even though I break up the work for my students, it still requires of ME four hours and ten minutes of facilitating, talking, and utter attentiveness.  I AM SO TIRED AFTER CLASS.  And hoarse and starving and spent.

3. If students are absent one week, they've missed 2 classes' worth of material, and they're REALLY behind.  When one of them comes to me after missing one Saturday (usually for a good reason), I 'm tempted to arrange my eyebrows into a good worried look, throw up my hands, and advise him or her to drop.  How can I get that student caught up?  I'm an adjunct, and I don't get paid enough to teach the class twice (I don't even have an office hour).  If I choose to meet with the student outside of class, I'm doing it on my own dime, so this is a boundary I try really hard to keep b/c it's easy to get caught up in my students instead of my studies.  I've just resigned to the idea that students who miss a class will probably score pretty low on whatever paper we're on.

4. When there are school holidays (like this weekend, for example), this means that we won't meet for TWO weeks.  Later this semester, for Spring Break, we'll actually go THREE weeks without meeting.  I've had to cut a lot of material out of the syllabus b/c, even though we have the same number of hours per semester, I had to cut out assignments that require steps.

5. It's the weekend, so we don't have access to most school resources.  My students and I are both a little crippled by that.  The library is closed, the registrar is closed, there are no secretaries, etc.   My students can't use their technology fee to print their papers on campus, go to tutoring services, or use the library, and I can't ask anyone questions or take care of simple tasks without making another 3-hour trip out to the school during the week.

Whine, whine, whine.  Ok, now that I got all that out of my system... I really do enjoy the feel of a Saturday class and this is a great bunch, and there's probably a way around all these factors, but I don't think I want to try it again.

Student Emotion?

My most recent surmise about my teaching method this semester is that I must be sending out some maternal vibe.  The students feel very comfortable with me, yet they are also feeling comfortable being emotional with me--even in front of the rest of the class.  One student interrupted me and when I continued to talk over her (I was just going to pretend like it hadn't happened), she blurted out that she didn't appreciate my yelling at her, and got pretty emotional.  Surprised, I replied that I hadn't yelled at her but had purposefully talked over her b/c she'd interrupted me, and I also apologized for making her feel threatened or whatever she felt.  That was cool.  She was the sweetest student ever for the rest of the class, and I heard other students talking as though they were impressed with how I handled the situation.

Next, a student had her head down and eyes closed while we were going over ad analysis.  I'm definitely not cool w/ students sleeping in my class, so I asked her if she was sick or needed to go home.  Enter emotion.  She was FINE, she said, and she was paying attention with her eyes closed.  Unacceptable for a VISUAL ad analysis!  After a few more rude retorts from her, I asked her to leave, to which she responded with the slamming of books and stomping of feet.  I told her on her way out that she's welcome to come back when she's ready, and I feel pretty confident she'll be back next week with an apology (that's what I generally get), but two in one day???

The two-in-one-day part is what makes me wonder whether I'm doing something to provoke these daughter-like outbursts.  Maybe I need to act more like a man?  Maybe I've done something to invite emotional feedback?  Maybe I should quit seeming so understanding during conferences?  Maybe quit conferencing?  I hate doing the authoritarian thing, but I'm thinking about assigning all seat work and group work for the next class with a small lecture and no discussion.  Not that I'm stressed over this, just wondering and experimenting.

My Saturday 4-hour-and-10-minute-class

This is my first forever-long class, but I’m liking it.  I find that I have more time in this big old block than in 2 classes of equal time because I only have to go through one day’s worth of all the extras: attendance, questions, announcements, reminders, tardies and re-explaining, and so on.  I knew most of my students would be “returning” and “non-traditional” since it’s a Saturday class, but I’m a little surprised that 3 or 4 are excellent writers but must have scored low on their placement exams and are required to take 101. They’re going to stay in the class, but I offered to create an Honors option for them (I need to look into that).
 

By the way, the 4-hr-10-min block is how I’ve fit in 2 conferences already—one per class.  I simply have each student come sit and chat with me for a minute during the in-class writing.  I LOVE this! So I taught the 5-paragraph essay last class and then had the students begin practicing an essay; then I had each come up and answer a few informal questions: Do you understand all this stuff we went over today?  Were you already familiar with it? How are you doing on the essay you’re writing now? Any more questions? I find out SO MUCH.  In the first class, I had the students begin on their literacy narratives, and then I spoke w/ each of them to make sure they understood the assignment and see if they needed help coming up w/ ideas.
 

I feel really good about student resistance this semester (or the lack thereof), especially after that crazy ASAP experience I had in the fall.  Renee’s post got me thinking about it again. I think I’d like to dig further into it—I’m thinking of T. R. Johnson’s essay, “School Sucks.”  I want to reread it because I think I’ll have a whole new perspective this time (vs. 7 years ago with not much teaching experience). 

Beginning of the Semester

1. Introductions: Since I want my class to be a “discussion format,” I wanted everyone to be comfortable with one another, so I had them meet and introduce one other person in class, answering 4 questions:

a. name?

b. major?

c. from where?

d. last song heard?

Yeah, yeah, pretty cheesy, but I was surprised that the students actually got into it!  When a few new students joined us late, the rest of the class was pretty vocal about finding out those 4 bits of info from the newbies.  I regularly quiz them on names (by randomly pointing to a student and asking the class his or her name), which is also helping me to learn names quickly.

2. Atmosphere: Yikes, I don’t know; I’ve never really thought about that! Hmmm, I like my class atmosphere to be orderly, yet friendly and open to conversations.  I suppose my order of events on the first day reflected and served to establish that affinity: I began with 2 writing exercises, and then, though I had planned to go over the syllabus next, I sensed that the students felt a little uncomfortable diving directly into academic work, so I had us do introductions next instead.  Turns out a lot of them haven’t been in school in years, so they were indeed intimidated by academic work, and the introductions helped them loosen up and feel more comfortable with me.  But then we went over the syllabus and policies next, because I do like structure, then ended with another writing assignment.

3. Expectations and responses: I think I was pretty clear about expectations.  I gave out the syllabus first and went over the types of major writing assignments we’ll cover, and then I handed out the grading contract and outlined my expectations for the type of performance I expect for grades of A, B, and C.  We renegotiated the number of acceptable tardies on the contract, and then they signed them. Now, responses—I don’t know!  I was satisfied that the students were satisfied to sign the grading contracts, and I didn’t probe further.  I’ve already had 2 conferences with each student to check on their level of understanding, and I’m getting good feedback and clarifying where there are misunderstandings—well, I guess that IS probing further, isn’t it?

connecting practicum and my research

Hmmm, I’ve been brainstorming for a while about something to blog on, but couldn’t really think of anything too intellectual.  Is it ok if I ramble a bit?

 

I’d like to think through how I’d connect what I’m learning in this practicum to the work I’ll do in my dissertation.  Research on reading and linguicism, hmmm…

 

The most interesting assignments we’ve had so far for me have been analyzing syllabuses, assignments and teaching philosophies to identify underlying assumptions that I’d never thought of before.  You can really tell a lot from looking at those, especially the teacher’s attitude toward students. Is the student a burden, an adult, a brat, a subject?  Makes me wonder if the way my students are conceived in my syllabus is the same way I teach.

 

The direction I’m taking with my dissertation is linguicism, discrimination based on language, accent, dialect, and so on.  I’m interested in researching traces of it in writing classes and conceiving views and correlating assignments that help destroy that sort of linguistic elitism.  It would be interesting to analyze the syllabuses of several English departments to uncover that sort of thing.  In fact, I think syllabuses and reading/writing assignments would be a great resource for hard data in my research.  I don’t know exactly how I would go about analyzing it, but I definitely want to pursue this avenue.  

Teaching Philosophy, Draft 2

Here's  a really stripped-down, non-cheesy try at a teaching philosophy:

 While freshman composition might be summarized with the word communication, I try to center my classes on contextually effective communication.  In writing, the form changes with the message and the audience, so my students and I focus on types of context for our writing assignments, resulting in genre-driven papers.

 For example, we cover forms such as the business letter, the narrative, and the thank-you note, as well as the academic essay. The most important thing I think I can do for my students is teach them to assess their surroundings and respond in an appropriate, effective manner for their purpose, so I really push for them to, instead of memorizing one formula for writing, learn to spot conventions of different forms and appropriate them.

 On the flip side, I strive to be aware of my own context as I teach.  My recent teaching experience has led me to revise the end-of-the-semester research paper, due to student need and preference. I used to assign magazine articles written for the magazine of their choice, in which they would use magazine formatting, art, pull-out quotes and appropriate discourse. I really enjoyed getting those assignments in because they were so fun to read and evaluate; however, due to student interest at my college, I’ve switched to a Personal Research Paper. In this paper, students compile information on their chosen careers; this information ranges from the money, GPA and time that will be required of them to job market projections and the average age of retirement within their career choice. I’ve gotten some pretty enthusiastic thanks for this assignment, so I include it as an option at the end of the semester.

 In this genre approach, my own expertise has expended as I’ve researched conventions to share with my students.