NFE Reflections Simpson 2008-9
From CTLpedia
MCC New Faculty Experience Reflections
My Name
My Department
Mesa Community College
Contact me (mailto:myemail)
Contents |
Teaching
Courses Taught 2008-9
Fall 2008: English 101 (5 sections) Spring 2009: English 102 (5 sections including 1 online)
My Teaching Philosophy
The teacher who is attempting to teach without inspiring the student to learn is hammering on cold steel.--Horace Mann
While I don’t really like the metaphor of students as steel and the teacher as a hammer, I like the meaning behind the metaphor, and I believe that the desire to inspire students is central to my own teaching philosophy. I believe that writing is a way of learning in subjects across the curriculum. It is not something that is practiced—rather, writing is something which is used. Writing help people get important things done, like thinking, exploring, discovering, relating and making connections. As a metaphor for teaching, I favor Mortimer Adler’s view of the teacher as midwife. The [English] teacher’s role is to bring forth something that exists naturally in people—language. And then the result of the learning experience is something that genuinely belongs to the student. Based on my reading and interpretation of language acquisition theories, I believe that language is emergent and language is linked to learning. Therefore, the structure of learning needs to be emergent, not imposed from the top down. So it is my goal as a teacher to bring out that language from students, rather than “hammer” something into them.
If we regard truth as something handed down from authorities on high, the classroom will look like a dictatorship. If we regard truth as a fiction determined by personal whim, the classroom will look like an anarchy. If we regard truth as emerging from a complex process of mutual inquiry, the classroom will look like a resourceful and interdependent community.--Parker Palmer, The Courage to Teach
Collaborative activities are important in my classroom. Research suggests that social activities integrated into the writing process (such as prewriting discussions, collaborative drafting, peer editing groups, reading work aloud) can lead to better writing. When students are denied the chance for social interaction, they are denied a major portion of the available learning experience. This “social interaction” can also be easily fostered and encouraged in online classes as well, where students have a chance to share their questions, prewriting, ideas, and drafts on discussion board formats or live chats forums. Courtesy, honesty and respect for all people and all ideas are important values to me, and I believe they should be important to my students.
In first year composition classes, revision of grammar is accomplished through sentence combining/ sentence building exercises based on sentences from my students’ own writing. Students are encouraged to keep a “master list” of frequent grammar / usage errors—and use online references to reshape and rebuild their sentences and paragraphs accordingly. I encourage students to try more global revision—rather than surface “editing” which accomplishes little. “Writing,” noted Flower and Hayes (1977), “is a complex, cognitive process, not a body of knowledge.” Using and manipulating language for a variety of effects and purposes offers students a chance to understand both rules and revision.
Though letter grades must be awarded to students at the end of the semester, I try to have flexible and cumulative evaluation of writing that does stress process and revision. I bring drafts of my own writing to class to show students how writing can evolve. In evaluating student writing, I try to de-emphasize marking surface structure errors and focus on patterns of related errors. Students receive comments on papers which both praise and instruct.
Advising writing instructors in 91 A.D., Marcus Fabius Quintillian noted that “Youthful minds sometimes give way beneath the weight of correction excessively severe, become despondent and grieve…and in the end…in their fear of blundering everywhere, attempt nothing.” And, as theorist Sondra Perl has observed more recently, writers tend to grow more rapidly when their teachers “take delight” in what their students can do with language.
I combine structure with flexibility—I provide clear objectives for the course, yet I am open to various ways to reach those goals. I listen to what students say, and each person’s opinion is valued in class. Finally, I like to take the risk of inviting open dialogue and trying new approaches, and I encourage my students to do the same. If students are to grow as thinkers and writers in college these risks must be taken.
Teaching is important work. My approach and my philosophy changes year to year, semester to semester, day to day. But I am amazed by the mystery of language and how it can be encouraged and brought forth from writers of all ages and backgrounds—I am rewarded again and again when students tell me, “I never knew I could write.”
“Because of this class, I am able to walk away with more than a grade—I take with me an improved method of communication, and stories that are worth telling.” --English 101 student.
Professional Development
Professional Development Activities 2008-9
New Faculty Experience 2008-2009 and hiring Workshops through CTL. English Department: Composition Committee, Writing Certificate Program.
Professional Development Goals 2009-10
Secure Residential Faculty position in English, develop Hybrid course for English 102, develop online English 101.
Reflection on my Experience in the NFE Community
Link to PowerPoint presentation uploaded at SlideShare
Understanding of MCC Culture Gained through NFE
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Impact of NFE on my Approach to Teaching
As a result of workshops, and interaction / conversation with teaching colleagues, I think my students will be better served in my classes. I have more knowledge of student services, and I've gotten great ideas from teachers in other disciplines. I know I will be a better teacher from this experience.
Reflection on My Future as a Member of the MCC Community
I would like nothing better than to join the MCC Community as a residential faculty member.
Categories: NFE | 2008-9
