English Composition

In my several years of teaching, nothing makes me happier than being a writing instructor in higher education.

It’s my belief that educators in post-secondary should continually study theories and pedagogies within their field; thus, you will notice how often I participate in regular professional development like conferences, workshops, and certificates to remain sharp and current in an ever-evolving discipline of composition and rhetoric.

English composition is a discipline loaded with pedagogies. And thankfully, writing teachers have no shortage of theory-based teaching approaches OR students who need to learn writing, so whether that’s argumentative essays, lab reports, movie reviews, magazine articles, I know one thing for sure: students need help developing and articulating their ideas to match their writing to the expectations of their audience.

That’s where I come in.

Below, you will find multiple documents highlighting aspects of my teaching ability in higher ed.

Excerpt of teaching philosophy………………………………………………..
Courses taught……………………………………………………………………………
Course outlines & syllabi……………………………………………………………
Essay prompts & rubrics……………………………………………………………
Activities & handouts………………………………………………………………..
Student essays with my formative feedback……………………………
Conference presentations………………………………………………………….
Student multimodal projects……………………………………………………..

Excerpt of My Teaching Philosophy

At the heart of my pedagogical philosophy is the Latin belief: “non scholae sed vitae,” meaning we learn not for school, but for life. I feel it is my responsibility to bridge the gap between what students may perceive as “writing for the teacher” and “writing to express myself effectively to communicate with others.” As an English instructor, I yearn to awaken students to the swaying forces of modern day rhetoric and how it affects their attitudes and behaviors. It’s my goal to bring the excitement of learning how to write to my students. Once students know how vital is to be critical thinkers in the real world, this empowerment will be contagious. To learn effective written communication will permit students to be responsible citizens, family members, friends, and human beings; and it all starts in the classroom.

Courses Taught

Mineral Area College, 2016-2018

Composition II: A terminal writing course meant for students to explore issues in their chosen field through deep research and critical writings. Students are asked to employ rhetorical & analytical techniques in their argumentative academic essays.
Basic Writing II: A non-credit bearing course emphasizing efficiency in paragraph writing and diction with a review of sentence structure, grammar, and punctuation.
Basic Writing I: Also a non-credit bearing course, students learn the basics of grammar, parts of speech, sentence patterns and punctuation.
Use of Library Resources: A one-credit hour course designed to help students locate, evaluate, and document information within the brick-and-mortar and online library environments and processes.
Writing a Research Paper: A one-credit class introducing students to research strategies needed for informative and argumentative writing. It breaks down the recursive writing process into a few parts: research, annotated bibliography, first draft, editing, final draft.

Southeast Missouri State University, 2014-2016

Composition I: A first-year writing course prepares students to write personal narratives using thesis-driven essays. A large portion of the class is dedicated to multimodal projects, such as blog writing, video production, magazine creation, and erasure poetry.
Rhetoric & Critical Thinking: This course focuses on applying rhetorical strategies in argumentative writing. It emphasizes close reading and argumentative writing that significantly engages source materials.

Course Outlines

Course outline: Using Library Resources
Course outline: Writing the Research Paper

Syllabi

Syllabus: Rhetoric & Critical Thinking
Syllabus: English Comp I
Syllabus: English Comp II
Syllabus: Library Resources
Syllabus: Basic Writing II

Essay Prompts & Writing Diagnostic

Literacy Narrative Prompt
Writing Diagnostic

Essay Rubrics

Activities & Handouts

I spend time designing my own infographics for my students. I print them out and watch how these interesting, colorful, visually-pleasing infographics stay with my students throughout the semester (longer than if I had typed up instructions on a Word Doc). Infographics are research-proven to compel your students into reading your data in an efficient way. If it’s an important concept for my students to remember, I transform it into an infographic, knowing it’s a sure-fire way to carve writing skills in their memories.