Michelle's Philosophy about
Teaching
“You can't depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus."
(Twain, M. (2006). A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court. Retrieved June 25, 2019, from http://www.gutenberg.org/files/86/86-h/86-h.htm)
Writing is a dynamic process through which students can perform acts of composing, yet writers sometimes get lost in the rules of writing or focus on a prescriptive style or structure instead of on the creation of meaning. When students engage in acts of composing, the emphasis should be on expressing ideas. Teaching students to write something meaningful using writing process strategies can help writers find their voice. Composition as a creative aesthetic gives student writers space to cultivate writerly identities based on how writers see themselves in the world, to produce meaningful messages that reflect a writer's culture and identity by drawing upon informed composing strategies students choose based on what works for them.
Meaning-Making & Contexts for Transfer
Writing is inherently situated in making meaning. Students learn meaningful expression by practicing writing for rhetorical situations they are likely to encounter as they move into higher education and careers in their fields of study. By thinking about how each writing task is rhetorically situated, students are challenged to think critically and weigh decisions about crafting writing .
Students write to learn while learning to write. I approach writing as a process of exploration and investigation through writing in discipline-related contexts. Students are tasked to explore ways writing situations could transfer into professional contexts. Exploring problems in professional contexts exposes students to writing situations they may encounter in their field and offers students spaces for expression in discipline-relevant genres. By investigating the rhetorical strategies used in discipline-related writing contexts, students can begin to transfer ways meaning-making production is rhetorically situated in their respective fields.
Engaging with Literature
Exploring writing through literature and contemporary media exposes students to different genres and modes of rhetorical production designed to prepare students for writing in multiple modes and contexts. Juxtaposing old and new pieces of literature helps students visualize variations in style, media, language, and context. For instance, the kairotic moment for Jonathan Swift’s A Modest Proposal may not apply to current economic structures, but students can consider how the effectiveness of Swift’s satirical reasoning strategies can be applied to similar situations in current contexts. Contrasting classics with current works gives students experience with historiography and opportunities to study writing strategies writers use in different contexts. Drawing upon these strategies, I encourage students to grapple with dangerous ideas and think about ways they can re-imagine problems to come up with new ideas.
Modes & Media
Considering how one form or genre of writing might be more effective than another to reach an audience is another way students can re-imagine how crafting a written work will impact meaning. I like to engage students in discussions about the flexibility of genres and medias so students can begin to visualize ways writing produces meaning for different audiences and purposes. I ask students to experiment ways they can challenge genre conventions and use different modes of expression for communicating the same message. I ask students to think about ways to repurpose textual writing for multimodal or oral delivery. Using a meme, a tweet, or six words to tell a story pushes students to think about how rhetorical strategies shift to address different audiences for different purposes in different contexts.
Metacognition
Metacognition encourages critical thinking by putting the writer in a position of self-examination or self-critique. Metacognitive acts or writing about writing and talking about writing give students spaces to examine their writing moves through a lens of self-analysis. Activities like reflecting, journaling, and sharing writing are some of these spaces. Student discussions of meaning in writing, writing process, and identity offer spaces for developing consciousness or awareness of how and why students chose to make decisions while crafting their writing, perhaps helping students focus their “imagination,” like Twain says, by refocusing their lens on the possibilities of what can be achieved through writing.
