My teaching
philosophy is still something that I’m working on, but I’m pretty sure that it
would have something to do with how writing can deliver an individual voice
while still appealing to different audiences. In that respect, the philosophy I
could develop is a cross between both cognitive and expressionistic writing
theories, while taking some influence from Mike Rose’s teaching philosophy
regarding acknowledging individual members of your audience. It’s still a
work-in-progress, but I still feel that I have a good start.
As
for assignments for my hypothetical class and syllabus, I have some interesting
ideas that can at least inspire students to write rhetoric in a way that gives
them a powerful voice while teaching them to appeal to audiences on a more
personal level. For my English 1301 class, I had this one assignment where we
were supposed to summarize a movie without using the title. I think that
assignment would be interesting for a class to use if I were to tweak it up by
having the student summarize movies of their choice in a way that convinces
people who haven’t seen it or who don’t want to see it to go see it. The movie
summary couldn’t use names of people, places, or things in the movie, and it
would have to be in an objective and professional tone that would make audience
member who didn’t like one aspect they saw with a movie to give it another
chance. For example: One student could write an essay meant for people who hate
science fiction movies that summarizes “Star Wars” by summarizing aspects of
the movie that a science fiction hating audience would probably enjoy. The
exercise would revolve around teaching the class how to persuade their audience
in general and how to adapt to a reader’s needs or likes and dislikes.
I
also think that I would give assignments that gave students the chance to know
each other and for them to know me, just to give students an idea about whom
the individual members of an audience for a college essay are. Examples of
which would include an assignment where a student talks with two other students
in order for them to understand each other’s identities, interests, and
studies. That way, the potential audience of the class could have a chance to
connect better than they would in a huge lecture-based class. That connection
would help improve peer reviews on a more personal level as well.
Another
type of assignment would be related to expressive writing, meaning that I would
issue out assignments that strengthened a writer’s subjective voice as well as
his or her objective voice. An example of this type of assignment, which Meghan
brought up on her blog, revolves around having student write one paragraph
based on an article in his or her own writing style and then writing the
paragraph again in what they think is a professional style full of big words
and such. My objective would be for students to learn through this assignment
would be that a college student’s idea of an objective and verbose essay does
not carry an argument as well as the essay in that student’s own words. The
goal that would at least be acknowledged through that assignment is the goal to
achieve an individual argumentative voice that blends a comfortable writing
style with a professional structure that appeals to more than teachers. My
teaching philosophy still needs work, as do these assignment ideas. But I feel
that I have more of a solid grounding with those two things after writing this
blog post than I ever did in the past.
Kevin, I really like your lesson plan ideas! They seem engaging, fun, and memorable.The movie title exercise seems like something the students might want to take outside the classroom later and share with their friends and families -- That, to me, is a measurement of success. You've also included specifics about your audience awareness and your students' audience awareness. The connection you made between this and peer reviews made me think about this in a new light. Students writing for their peers is a motivation in itself. I usually write for the instructor, then share cherry-picked ideas with my classmates.
ReplyDeleteI appreciate your comment on your teaching philosophy still needing work. I feel the same way about mine. It's never done. My ideas are always changing. The thing I need to work on is expressing my three primary values in teaching -- I liked what Dr. Rice modeled with his philosophy. His writing is very thick, full of meaning. I feel my philosophy statement comparatively rambles, so I'll be taking hints from him in my next revision (which I know won't be my last revision by any stretch of imagination).
Nice post, Kevin. Individual voice while appealing to an audience given a specific writing situation is a strong philosophy of writing. I could see different types of assignments which support and strengthen student thinking along these line, such as subjective and objective voice. Maybe search online for assignments that focus on tone and narration. You might look up "engfish" as you talk about "big words." I think you'll have even more foundation as you think this week about Fulkerson and others, and as you prepare to compose your own teaching philosophy. Might search online for models. I shared a link to mine, and Brandy, who commented on your blog post here, has already posted her philosophy draft in her blog. Might check it out for ideas.
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