STATEMENT OF TEACHING PHILOSOPHY

Being a professor doesn’t only mean having a command of the content but it also means creating an environment in a class where students are able to safely express their views and to provide them with an opportunity to learn and grow as a person. After being bullied by various teachers during high school and undergraduate, which definitely left an impression on me, I will try to make sure students in my class don’t have similar experiences. Hence, I will be borrowing a little bit from every pedagogy, to ensure that students feel represented and their uniqueness is appreciated.

The first disclaimer I will give in my class is there is no such thing as a perfect essay. They should allow themselves to make mistakes and bring forth their rough drafts. As Donald M Murray mentioned in Teach Process not Product, “Instead of teaching finished writing, we should teach unfinished writing, and glory in its unfinishedness. We work with language in action.” (Murray, 4) By introducing the process pedagogy early on, it will allow students to learn to move on from the idea of perfectionism and focus on expressing themselves in their writing.

Following in the footsteps of Peter Elbow’s teaching that academics will be more enjoyable if they are able to engage in it. Hence, in my classroom students will be given literary narrative assignments in which they will be free to choose to tell their story through a medium they feel most comfortable with. It will open the channel of expression among students. It will serve as a segue to further emphasize in the classroom how every individual should have a platform to voice their opinions without the fear of interruption. It will also open the floor for critical, feminist, and queer pedagogies.

As Laura Micciche explains how feminist teachings “share a common goal of actualizing social justice through teaching and learning methods” (128), my classroom will be amplifying less heard voices. There will also be an in-class activity where students write from a different voice than theirs which then will be peer-reviewed. It will serve as a teaching moment where not only the students learn to accept different perspectives but will open to discussing existing political, social, and gender constructs.

Since it’s not possible for professors to cater to every genre of writing which makes up the class, teaching them through WAW will make it easier for them to mold their writing according to the requirements of the assignment. Introducing this pedagogy along with various Genres would make students confident in understanding that their writing isn’t supposed to fit all the assignments and how it can be switched when needed.

Being bilingual myself, I understand student’s right to their own language, and how often they feel difficulty in expressing themselves when English is their second language. Hence, my classroom will be a space where it isn’t about one form of dominant language, culture, race, or religion but a place where everyone is welcome. I aim to apply these pedagogies by introducing the class to various texts and teaching them about how language depicts identity. While also curating exercises such as interviewing someone from a different community and writing a short response paper on it.

I will try to make my classroom accessible to every individual whether it’s a physical, mental, or learning disability. Recording classes and making it only accessible to the class students will allow them to revisit the lecture later when they want to revisit a concept or are revising for an exam. Students will be allowed to make up for up to two classes with one excused absence. Students can send me a text or email before class, “Handle with care” on days they aren’t doing good and would need a little extra help or accommodation. There will be an activity in class where I ask students to modify the accommodation policy during the first class according to what they need help with and hence opening up the conversation about disability and ableism.

Work Cited:

Murray, Donald M. “Teach Process, Not Product.” The Leaflet, November, 1972: 11-14.
Micciche, Laura. Excerpt from “Making a Case for Rhetorical Grammar.” CCCC 55.4 June 2004.

References:

Womack, Anne Marie. “Teaching Is Accommodation: Universally Designing Composition Classrooms and Syllabi.” (in folder)
Hubrig, Adam. “Access from/as the Start: On Writing Studies and “Accessibility.” Composition Studies 2021.
Anzaldua, Gloria. Excerpt from “How to Tame a Wild Tongue.” Borderlands/La Frontera. 1987.
Downs, Doug, and Elizabeth Wardle. “Teaching about Writing, Righting Misconceptions: (Re)Envisioning ‘First Year Composition’ as ‘Introduction to Writing Studies.’” College Composition and Communication, vol. 58, no. 4, 2007, pp. 552-84.
bell hooks “Talking Back”
Elbow, Peter. “Voice in Writing Again: Embracing Contraries”
Lamott, Anne. "Shitty First Drafts.”