Pedagogy For The Composition Classroom

As a lifelong learner and passionate educator, I seek to inspire curiosity and awareness in my students as they grow into mindful and productive citizens of this interconnected world. My teaching philosophy has developed over years in classrooms filled with students from diverse cultural and educational backgrounds. My international teaching experiences provided a firm pedagogical foundation upon which I have been able to construct an evolving pedagogy for the composition classroom. My current role as an instructor in a rhetoric-based first-year composition program has given me the opportunity to develop an approach to writing that seeks to empower the students who find themselves in my classroom. I believe that learning to be a mindful consumer

Through instruction and practice, students in my composition classroom learn to move beyond consumption into critical thinking. As an essential process that must be solidified in first-year composition students, the analytical skills necessary for academic success are practiced in each class. Following the scaffolding model of linguistic acquisition, students learn to analyze a wide variety of texts, of increasing complexity, throughout the duration of the course. Readings authored by academics, popular figures, and students are incorporated to establish patterns of critical thinking through reading and discussion. This often translates into a written product, whether in the informal context of a journal entry, or within the context of a moderately formal online discussion post or an essay written in an academic register. By incorporating diversity in textual consumption and written production, I seek to establish the patterns necessary for student success in the university setting and

Since much of what is possible in the classroom is dependent on student participation and motivation, I have adopted a student-centered approach to teaching. Bearing in mind my students’ educational backgrounds and abilities, I approach each class meeting as an opportunity to build off of what has already been mastered or acquired by the individuals sitting in front of me. This often involves intentional contextualization of course material prior to presentation and practice, allowing students to locate the experiential and linguistic scaffolding upon which new concepts can be built. My years of international experience instilled in me this emphasis on reaching students where they are. If coursework is presented without context and real-world application possibilities, it is difficult to engage students fully. To this end, I set out to forge connections between student coursework and their daily lives. Bearing this in mind, I regularly incorporate class discussion based on texts that exhibit aspects of immediate interest and relevancy to students, allowing them to explore areas of interest in new ways. Furthermore, teaching students in the context of the 21st century classroom necessitates the incorporation of digital texts. By leading students to seek out and process materials from the Internet, especially texts generated from mass