The
philosophy behind my teaching is based on the idea of individuality and how it
plays a significance in the practice of writing. In the classroom, I want to
establish an open environment to give students the freedom to explore writing
with their own individual desires in mind. My job as their teacher is to
strengthen their writing skills so they can perform those aspirations
successfully. What I want to bring to this open environment is creativity in
order to stimulate innovation in fields applicable to students; introduce
speech and communication to better teach the essence of persuasion and
demonstrate to them the power of writing through voice; emphasize on research and reflection
in order for them to address their audience successfully through the discoveries they made over their designated topic; and to stress on the
importance of revision, for writing is always a craft that’s continuously
evolving.
Creativity
is such an important element that should be interwoven into any aspect of
teaching. Through composition, it’s essential to encourage students that they
are capable of reaching this ability and to remind them that it is appropriate
for any field that they want to venture on. By introducing journaling,
practicing expressiveness through writing prompts, and letting them explore
topics that speak to them on a personal level, I believe I'm giving students the opportunity to explore this skill in their own
terms.
Speech
and communication is highly necessary in any field, but it can’t be achieved effectively
without strengthening the skills in writing. By hearing the essay performed by
a speaker the students can hear the entirety of the essay, from the outline and
the inductive reasoning to the tone and style. They’ll hopefully learn to gain
perspective through this lens of composition, and learn that they can better
persuade any audience by experimenting with arrangement and style through their
own writing. I will attempt to introduce my students to speakers and the world
of format speech so they can train their ears to how essays really captivate
their audience, especially if done correctly.
To
communicate effectively, students must learn how to research appropriately and
reflect on those discoveries. They will practice by picking topics they’re
passionate about and spend time researching more about those topics so they can
confidently express their positions to their audience. In class, I’ll have
group assignments and discussion forums to helps students grasp an
understanding of certain aspects of composition and to discuss current and
future projects with each other.
And
finally, the importance of revisions will be highly emphasized. Students need
to believe that editing and reworking their pieces is essential to assure that
their papers/topics are fully expressed. Every writer has to be familiar with
criticism and learn that everyone makes mistakes, it’s just their job to
correct them.
I really love the idea of making speech a part of composition. I know I have to read complicated text out loud. Emphasizing the spoken can really hope the students understand the material better. I think many students are intimidated by writing, so bring it closer to speech can help make it a little less frightening! Really good points!
ReplyDeleteYeah, and this how I came to learn about composition, plus learning from how platform speeches are created. I've seen people in speech and debate spend a lot of time on those speeches because they have to make sure their essays are doing their job. So they spend hours writing and revising to make sure their essay is informative and persuasive enough. I think it should apply to standard composition as well, even if their essays aren't going to become speeches.
DeleteRachel,
ReplyDeleteI find that our teaching philosophies coincide with each other. As you point out, I believe that providing an ample space for creativity in the classroom is essential to the students' learning. I do not think that students can learn nearly as effectively if they are not given the chance to handle the subject matter in their own terms; sometimes, writing assignments that allow students to express themselves with less formality or with fewer restraints yield results that can lead to students learning. Additionally, as we talked about in class, I think that speech is essential for students to learn how to compose properly, as it is our primary mode of composition. I think, in light of what you point out regarding speech, that rhetoric itself would be easier to understand if taught, initially through speech. I think, by training students to watch body language and gestures during a speech and by having them mark language which coincides with the movement, that rhetoric might be more easily understood. Furthermore, I agree with your idea that revision is important for the learning process--if we can't learn from our own mistakes, then how will we learn at all?
Concerning the subject matter, I would definitely add a challenge to it. I think taking the elements of our current composition syllabus and cooperating those lessons to their own choice of essay. And speech can definitely make the class interesting. Obviously FYC isn't a speech class but it helps students understand the importance of words and how those words can move people.
Delete