1. What’s your philosophy of “good student writing”? What are you aiming for in your BW and FYC courses?
• Where does your philosophy fit in the overall landscape of the field?
• How is your philosophy evident in your course and unit plan?
• What tensions to do see? (Within your own views, within your course, within institutional expectations, and within the field)
My philosophy of “good student writing” is that it is clear and specific with its main intent. As long as the writing is simple and to the point, I feel that would determine “good” student writing. Strengths of an essay come from a clear argument with a solid thesis, rather than “flowing” and “pretty” prose. It comes from the input of its main ideas. Of course, striving for perfection should be its intention. However, students should simply make the effort in producing something useful to add into the academic conversation rather than stressing over how “perfect” their grammar is and how “smart” they sound on the page. It’s what the effort that counts through the efforts of very sound and cohesive prose.
Therefore, what I aim for in my BW and FYC courses is to essentially teach my students writing with specificity and clarity in their assignments. And by doing so, I want to incorporate the importance of reading and how their analysis is what shapes their specificity in writing. As indicated in my course unit planner, there is an emphasis of reading and writing activities that students will have to participate in. The writing activities done in class will center around the art of freewriting and brainstorming. The reading activities will focus on students utilizing their schema when annotating various reading assignments. That way, students will learn that good writing comes from the integration of reading and writing strategies. So, not only would students have a chance to practice their reading and writing skills but will also have an idea on how they can utilize those skills when producing full-blown essays. By doing so, students can be taught how to further improve their reading and writing by practicing consistently in class.
Additionally, as indicated in the first unit of my course unit planner, the first assignment will be for students to write a personal/narrative essay where they discuss their own writing and student philosophy and how their past experiences with writing and being a student influenced them. So, I also want students to realize that “good” student writing comes from being self-aware of their own writing processes. By doing so, they would need to be aware of their own narrative as developing students and how strategizing and being self-aware of their own writing will allow them to continue developing strong and solid papers. The purpose of their narrative assignment would then serve as a stepping stone for allowing students to see the importance of creating a formula for themselves when beginning their writing process. Essays do not come from magic for they are created through our awareness and what we want to add to the academic conversation.
That being said, there certainly are a few tensions within my own teaching philosophies. While I like to imagine my students to get the idea on the importance of writing in specific prose, many beginning college students won’t put that idea into practice. I could say and suggest many options and students may respond positively to my advice. However, once they do those essays, especially when put under pressure, the specificity won’t come as easily. Yet, I do have to keep in mind that my class would be the platform for them to practice that and achieve that goal by the end of the semester. For I myself have to keep reminding myself that students typically produce better essays towards the concluding weeks since they’ve garnered an efficient amount of practice through in-class activities and homework.
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2. What’s your philosophy/approach to “the writing process” in your BW and FYC courses?
• Where does your philosophy fit in the overall landscape of the field?
• How is your philosophy/approach evident in your course plan?
• What tensions to do see? (Within your own views, within your course, within institutional expectations, and within the field)
My approach to the “writing process” in my BW and FYC courses is that it involves collaboration. As indicated in my course unit planner, students will actively participate in in-class writing activities in addition to group work. By doing so, students will have to collaborate their ideas with each other in order for their writing to be influenced. The writing process should not be a solo experience since writers need to collaborate their ideas together in order to develop their proofreading skills. Good writing also comes from getting advice from a second opinion.
My approach fits in the overall landscape of the field since it touches upon the importance of feedback in Composition writing. As stated before, the writing experience should not be a solo experience. As with good writing, it is essential for all writers to not only proofread their own work but to also learn how to share their own work for peer review. That way, writers are able to see what revisions and edits they consider to embellish on for their next draft.
So, in order for students to realize that, I will have them work in peer review groups. When in peer review, I would advise students to not “check” for grammar but rather ask each other whether the intent was clear, if a thesis can be located, and if the structure efficiently paralleled with their ideas. Students often feel tension during the peer review process, especially if they don’t want to receive severe criticism or are unsure if they’re capable of identifying any errors. So, I must establish an importance that students are to simply respond with their peers’ rough draft and explore what other ways a student can embellish on their ideas. By doing so, it creates a collaborative environment since students are helping with each other through feedback. Also, in one of my units, students will have to work in groups to construct an essay together in addition to doing a presentation.
There certainly is a risk with group essays, especially if a passive student refuses to cooperate. This actually is a great tension of mine since I myself am aware of how many students actually dislike group projects in general. However, in my class, I intend on having students to strategize in writing within “one voice” so that different writing styles can’t clash or overwhelm each other. Students will then have to ask each other on how they can cooperate in developing a clear essay within one voice. This is also an example of collaboration since not only must students research together but will also need to compromise on how they can write a strong paper together that will represent all of their ideas into one scholarly voice.
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3. What’s philosophy of “good teaching” in your BW and FYC courses? What roles do see yourself taking on as a “good teacher”? How does “authority” play our in your notion of good teaching?
• Where does your philosophy fit in the overall landscape of the field?
• How is your philosophy evident in your course plan?
• What tensions to do see? (Within your own views, within your course, within institutional expectations, and within the field)
My philosophy of good teaching is by collaboration. Not only would I want students to collaborate amongst themselves but I also want to collaborate with them as well. For instance, if a group is feeling lost on configuring ideas for a writing activity, what I’ll do is collaborate by listing out possible ideas and questions they can ask themselves. So basically, I feel that good teachers often help and engage with their students.
Also, when I have students collaborate their ideas during class seminar sessions, I’ll be sure to write out their ideas on the board in order for students to take notes. My philosophy of teaching in my BW and FYC courses would not consist of me being a “talking head.” While I will lecture throughout the semester, I also want students to actively participate in group and class seminar discussions. That way, not only will students learn from each other but I myself will learn from them so that my own writing can continue to improve.
The roles I see myself taking on as a “good teacher” are mentor and coach since not only would I want to simply be viewed as their instructor, I also want my students to know that I’ll be willing to mentor their writings and aide them if they are in need of suggestions for additional reading and writing practice. As indicated in my planner, I will require students to meet me with one-on-one conferences. That way, I can privately discuss students on any concerns they may be having or mentor them on how they may be able to improve in class. Additionally, I want to take on the role as a coach since I want students to realize that good writing takes practice. And good writing comes from reading.
So, my classroom environment will consist of me coaching students and making sure they actively participate in daily writing activities. The tension that may happen is whether I’ll be seen as an expert despite the fact that no teacher is ever perfect and “all knowing.” However, when considering my students’ perspectives, I cannot escape that assumption. And, in a sense, I would be an expert in comparison with my students since I’ve had more experiences with academic writing and my knowledge on reading and writing would be more intensive than a good majority of my students.
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4. What’s your philosophy about the purpose and goals of BW and FYC?
• Where does your philosophy fit in the overall landscape of the field? e.g Framework for Success and WPA Outcomes?
• How is your philosophy (as well as elements of Framework and WPA) evident in your course ?
• What tensions to do see? ? (Within your own views, within your course, within institutional expectations, and within the field)
My philosophy about the purpose and goals of BW and FYC is that students should aim for specificity in their argument and to enhance their critical thinking skills. Many students enter academia, with only having knowledge of the five paragraph essay. In that students should strictly follow formula for essay writing. While essay writing does indeed follow a formula, in a sense, it shouldn’t be restricted to its structure alone. I believe that the reason why many students struggle with specificity in their writings is essentially because they’ve restricted themselves to only five paragraphs. So when they only write five paragraphs, they’re limiting their argument because they’re only writing to the “minimum.” As their instructor, it is then my job to mentor students and encourage them to expand their writing by utilizing their critical thinking skills when making a specific argument.
My philosophy fits in the overall landscape of the field since it stresses on the importance of students having developed their rhetorical analysis skills and can write strong essays with an academic voice. By doing so, students will need to build up their argumentative writing skills and to enhance their schema with critical thinking. To rhetorically analyze, students will need to have an argument and synthesize that into their rhetorical thinking. In order to do that, students must establish their ground in critical thinking through the building of creating a foundation of knowledge.
Therefore, since my philosophy relies on students to collaborate on their ideas and to be specific in their argument, students are able to write a full-blown essay that is critically profound by the end of the academic year. My philosophy, along with elements from the field, is evident in my course since students are to participate in rigorous writing activities. Additionally, students will have to actively write their reading responses and blog posts. By doing so, students are practicing their reading and writing comprehension from both the class and outside of class. Also, their major writing assignments, such as argumentative essays and research essays, pushes students to enhance their critical thinking skills by strategizing ways in conducting the academic voice through specificity and with cited research.
Nevertheless, I do feel some tensions with my views in regards to the purpose and goals of BW and FYC. The tension I see is whether I would efficiently be able to guide students while also following institution guidelines. During my years as a college student, I made many best attempts in being specific in my argument. I knew that when analyzing a source, I didn’t just summarize but also specifically argue for that source in relation to my thesis. So, I have some anxiety on whether or not I can effectively teach that to my students. That is, I worry if I will unintentionally be contradicting myself by not being specific in my own advice to students. However, it should be clear through the work I am requiring students to actively participate in for their writing to improve. So, all I would need to do is to simply mentor my students.
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5. What’s your philosophy/approach to sequencing writing instruction and writing assignments?
• How do your writing assignments /activities/instruction build throughout the 30 weeks of the year?
• How do you build bridges between each of the writing assignments your course(s)?
• What tensions do you see? (Within your own views, within your course, within institutional expectations, and within the field)
My approach to sequencing writing instruction and writing instruction will involve prior planning. I’d have to map out every semester, and map out the amount of time for such and such assignment to be done and turned in. As the semester progresses, so will the level of difficulty, I want students to challenge themselves by managing their time and being able to produce work within deadlines.
For instance, at the beginning of the semester, students will start off by writing a four page paper. By the end of the semester, the minimum requirement will be raised to 10 pages. By doing so, I must push my students by challenging on how they can delve deeper when writing critically in order to keep students engaged. Throughout the semester, a lot of their writing assignments will be bridged into bigger writing assignments for students to finish at home. Their reading/writing responses are what will aid students in further developing their ideas rather than having me to expect students to show up for lecture and write an essay “from scratch” even without any intensive homework assignments. And through all that, students will then have that foundation in preparation for writing an intensive and lengthy paper, utilizing everything they learned so far. These activities will allow students to realize the importance of pre-writing activities before creating a full-blown essay.
The class discussion and peer reviews themselves will be what bridges between assignments. That way, students will have a moment to “breathe” and not feel overwhelmed with the intensive work they have to endure for the semester. Plus, this bridge will guide students in developing furthering their knowledge of writing and editing. Since I feel that a writer’s journey shouldn’t be a solo experience, by bridging together their progress with each other, students will then be able to continue collaborating and learning from each other.
The tension students will have is whether the work will be exhaustive. My tension is that whether my expectations would exhaust my students which would result in students becoming passive. I have been grateful for the rigorous work my instructors gave to their classes. Through that work, it allowed me to become a better writer. Yet, there were times where I did feel burned out and felt that I would’ve done slightly better on some assignments had there been more room for students to “breathe.” However, since students have to realize that college work is a challenge and will continue being challenging throughout the years, students must already start preparing themselves for the intensiveness of upper-division writing. By doing so, students must begin rigorously writing at the beginning of their academic career. I do have to understand that, I can be that understanding instructor. I can, at the least, extend the deadline for an assignment. As long as I am not too “nice” and too “forgiving,” I can give a few passages of freedom for my students. Nevertheless, I must still abide by my standards for rigorous work since it would, overall, help my students achieve.
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6. What’s your philosophy/approach to using readings and providing direct reading instruction into your course ?
• Where does your approach fit in the overall landscape of the field? Do you favor cognitive, expressivist, or socio-cultural reading theories?
• How do your reading assignments/activities/instruction build throughout the 30 weeks of the year?
• What tensions do you see? (Within your own views, within your course, within institutional expectations, and within the field)
My approach to using readings and providing direct reading instruction into my course is I want students to integrate both reading and writing. By doing so, many of my homework assignments stem from their reading responses. Within those responses, I want them to cognitively ask what was difficult about the text and what about its aesthetics hinder or enhance their overall understanding. I also want students to actively respond to the text and point out what they could identify with the text in relation to their own cultural understanding. Additionally, I expect to students to express what their reactions were after annotating a text. So basically I want all reading theories to be touched upon in their written responses so that they can diversify their thinking in order to become more engaged as critical writers. My approach fits in with the overall landscape of the field since students will become enhanced in their rhetorical thinking and writing since it’ll stem from their developing reading skills.
My reading assignments, activities, and instruction will build throughout the year since the level of demand will increase. In addition to reading and responding before every class, students will have to additionally read in their book club. By establishing the importance of reading multiple texts, I will instruct the importance of developing writing through increased reading. Rather than me simply lecturing them, I want to show them how and why reading and writing collaborate together by having them participate in book clubs. Additionally, by also having them to read and annotate films and music videos, students will then learn they can hone their critical reading by practicing with elements from pop culture. That way, they can utilize those skills with literature. By doing so, students will have to become more innovative with the art of critical reading through means of visual media. There have been studies of individuals learning literacy through such mediums as video games. So, I want to put that theory into practice by having students look at visual mediums in addition to literature.
The tension I have is whether I can make those connections clear on the importance of integrating reading with their writing. Most especially if the students actually don’t do the reading. I can easily assume that all of my students will abide by my guidelines and actually read and respond to the text. However, that would be my assumption, since I honestly as an instructor would not want to assume for the worst. Yet, if I’m already having high expectations for my students, my tension centers on whether students will take advantage of my soft-spoken demeanor and not really respect my authority as their instructor. Therefore, by constantly requiring students to have written responses to all of their readings, the reading will become immersed with their developing writing skills. If their reading responses don’t meet the minimum I will have to dock them participation points and even inform them as a warning of what they should expect their grade to be if they don’t learn to integrate their reading and writing skills. So, I basically have to be firm with my students and simply hope for the best.
7. What’s your philosophy/approach to integrating reading and writing in BW and FYC?
• Where does your philosophy/approach fit in the overall landscape of the field?
• Where is your philosophy/approach to integrating reading/writing evident in your course?
• What tensions do you see? (Within your own views, within your course, within institutional expectations, and within the field)
As answered previously, my approach to integrating reading and writing is through my assignments. By keeping track of their cognitive thoughts while reading, students will then integrate those skills since they’ll have to write daily on blogs/journal entries. Keeping track of their thoughts while reading and what questions they may have while reading the text is essential for writing. When reading and writing become a collaborative force, students will then be able to improve on both skills since they’re being integrated. If neither skill is being utilized enough, students tend to struggle a bit more when writing an essay. So, in order for students to not risk that, I will have to incorporate my approach through my assignments.
My approach fits in with the overall landscape of the field since integrated reading and writing courses are starting to become developed within academia. By keeping that in mind, this would mean there has to be more of an emphasis for instructors to configure ways in incorporating that. Since reading and writing were commonly viewed as separated courses, configuring ways to integrate both skills can be quite challenging. However, I feel that by literally placing both assets together, is what I feel will create an integration.
The assignments throughout my course represents my philosophy since students will have to discuss their annotations and written assignments amongst each other in groups. All in-class activities and group projects require the integration of reading and writing. Students will not be able to do an efficient group paper if they have not read and annotated their research at all. Additionally, a blog response would be lacking if students did not actively annotate their readings. At the beginning of the semester, I will have students practice annotating readings during class in order for them to practice the art of annotation. That way students will then have an idea on what annotation is and why that is important.
That being said, my tension I have with my approach is whether that would be enough. For I feel that there is so much to be done in so little time. While integrated reading and writing courses are typically a year-long stretch course, I fear that it is not enough. For my experiences as a tutor, I have worked with students who were first year stretch course students that struggle immensely with the intensity and brevity of the workload expected from 2nd year Composition. In most cases, students aren’t used to the fast pace of the class in comparison to their previous semesters of Composition. Additionally, those classes don’t utilize and integrate those writing and reading activities. So, students aren’t given specific opportunities for them to practice them since it appears that many instructors are treating them as experts. I feel that the integration of reading and writing needs to continue within second year Composition as well since a lot of students do still need guidance and mentorship with reading and writing. However, I feel that the best that I can do is by enforcing students to keep my assignments in mind and to continue practice them even after the semester.
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8. What’s your philosophy/approach to working with academically underprepared students?
• Where does your philosophy/approach fit in the overall landscape of the field?
• How is your philosophy/approach evident the developmental portion of your year-long plan?
• What tensions to do see? (Within your own views, within your course, within institutional expectations, and within the field)
My approach to working with academically underprepared students will be that I will simply treat them like I would with “prepared” students. I feel that these students need a lot of encouragement too. I would have to rely on tons of reading activities since the underlying problem is that many of these students lack the foundation of academic close reading. Active reading is what I feel is key with producing solid writing. So, many of those students will need to enhance their reading skills by activating that into my classroom.
My approach fits in with the overall landscape of the field because it is expected of students within academia to challenge themselves when writing. This fits in the overall landscape of the field since there’s already an expectation of preparation for “standard” college level writing. So, even with underprepared students who aren’t writing on the same level as the standard Composition students, I would need to expect my students to feel challenged. Plus, I wouldn’t want to be insulting if I’m undermining their abilities especially since they chose to be in college and would want to be challenged as well.
My course load will decrease with these students since the key thing is practice. So, I would have to encourage students and push them to challenge their thinking in order to have these students to produce a solid academic paper. The expectation of work as seen in my course plan, with the amount of writing activities, assignments, along with readings, is an indication of my philosophy since I want all students to actively work hard throughout the year.
A particular example is my usage of book clubs. What I expect of my students with book clubs is that I’d have students split off into groups and meet various times outside of class to discuss their chosen book. They will have to arrange deadlines for themselves in order to complete the book before the day of presentation. On the day of presentation, each group will present their book and discuss various themes they’ve chosen to embellish on for that novel. I feel that the book club will allow students to utilize their active reading. Additionally, it will allow students to practice leisurely reading through book clubs.
The tension these students have is they lack the proper practice for academic writing. But, with my tension, I fear if my guidance would be enough for them. The big question is whether they would listen to me and actively participate in reading. Also, for some students who skills are extremely lacking, they would need to continue staying in further remedial courses. Yet, it gives me tension if they’re expecting me to be their miracle worker when there’s so much I can teach them in so little time. So, I just need to help these students by having them to integrate reading and writing for all of their assignments. I should not worry about tensions that I do not actually have any control over. For students who severely lack literacy skills, it is a sad revelation of how education really is so limiting and not offered for all. So, the best thing I can do is to encourage my students and just do my best.
yumekim2011 