Teaching Rhetoric and Composition

In chapter 2 of Restaino’s First Semester: Graduate Students, Teaching Writing, and the Challenge of the Middle Ground , a lot of the discussion is about grading and the power dynamic in the classroom. One of the graduate assistants described in this chapter was Tess, whose concerns probably mirrored our own as first year graduate students: Concerns about grades, not knowing how to grade, feeling as if grades are the only way to maintain some kind of control and authority in the classroom. Yet, that very power over grades was the source of much personal and interactional turmoil between Tess and her students. This conversation was particularly relevant for me this week. As I am staring down the barrel of just under 50 papers to grade this week it can be a frightening experience. A lot of times, we as instructors––especially as first-year graduate students––feel that the only way we have to maintain control is through grades. Us as graduate students who have o...

So this is a little off topic...but I think its important and I want to know what you all think. Bear with me. We have been learning a lot about the ways we might conceivably manage a classroom. We've talked about grading, attendance, classroom policies, expectations, theories behind all of those things, and more. Last semester we addressed these things, we spent class time discussing them, asking questions, clearing up those grey areas as best as we could, and I, personally, came out of it feeling like I was prepared enough to at least try to run my two classes. That being said, a question has come up that I don't believe we were prepared for: What are we supposed to do when things outside the classroom happen that we know are affecting our students? There has been a lot of things going on these past 28 days. The impeachment trial, Australia's bush fires, the death of Kobe Bryant, the incident on campus where the faculty member called the police on a student, an...

The second chapter of First Semester covered a lot of concerns that I and others in our cohort I’ve talked to are struggling with right now. The first section of the chapter dealt with one such frustration: is it too late to be studying theory now that we’re already in the midst of teaching? Sure, it’s helpful information to know, and everyone can agree that these theories would be beneficial if we implemented them in the classroom (such as the discussed topic of process versus product approach), but are we going to change the format of our class or our syllabus at this point in the semester? And how exactly can we implement practical applications for these theories we’ve been discussing? I’ve been extremely grateful for Ball State’s setup for preparing graduate students compared to other models (I don’t know if I would have been able to do this at all if I hadn’t been given a semester to observe and practice under mentor supervision), but that doesn’t necessarily take away all the...

“The blank page awaits the writer’s first sentence, while new teachers, charged with the task of getting students to write and navigating new graduate programs themselves, are largely untrained, unsure of their responsibilities, and equipped with a syllabus they did not design and perhaps a list of pedagogical procedures they do not understand. The first semester is more of a day-to-day keeping afloat than it is a carefully constructed, planned course.” (Restaino 1) This quote from our reading for today, Jessica Restaino’s First Semester really resonated with me. Over the last couple of weeks of teaching, I feel like I have just had to take things day by day and class by class; trying to learn students’ names, planning class activities, troubleshooting Canvas... the list could go on and on. Each week I feel like I am learning along with the students as I prepare for class and this has made me sometimes doubt my own abilities. Despite all the planning we did last semester, right no...

Road to Teaching I gained a lot more confidence and felt more comfortable about my teaching after reading the first chapter of the book ‘First semester: graduate students.teaching writing, and the challenge of middle ground’ by Jessica Restaino. Because I used to consider myself as a failed, frustrated and depressed graduate student before. Being an international student, surviving here is not that much easier for me. It’s really hard for me to cope up with all these new challenges. And not being a student from the composition background made my journey harder and difficult. I used to consider myself the weakest student here. I always thought it’s me who is lagged behind and that’s all happening due to my failure to catch hold of this new environment. But now I can relate to my problems and difficulties. This is not me only who have those complaints, this is not me only who have to go through all these difficulties. With days passing by and especially reading these articles...

In doing the reading for tomorrow's class (ch. 1 of First Semester by Restaino), I found the descriptions of the students in her study particularly interesting. I easily found myself trying to locate myself among them. I applied and accepted late--coming to grad school was a bit of last minute decision for me--so I didn't really know what to expect of the program or of my assistantship, and I didn't have this really clear cut idea of what my role was. I found myself relating a bit to Shirley, as she described herself as a fiction writer and a student of her writing first--she was adamant on not letting teaching get in her way. As a creative writing student, my intention for coming into this program was to become a better writer, and to figure out what's next for me. While I was excited about the opportunity to gain some teaching experience and to see if it was something I would like, teaching has never been in my mind as my end goal. Having finished one semester now...

Last semester we focused a lot on the idea of a “student-centered classroom.” We spoke about student agency, student progress, and how activities and lessons could be more effective if they took the focus off of “teachers teaching” and focused more on student engagement. Learning now about writing pedagogy as a process, I think that the techniques from last semester go hand in hand with process teaching quite well. If classes are more focused on the students and their active participation, it’s up to them to write and develop their writing.  As teachers, there are many ways we can facilitate a classroom that values student engagement and process teaching. In Murray’s article, the writing process was divided into three clear steps - Prewriting, Writing, and Rewriting. He mentioned that in process teaching, around 85% of the time should be spent in the prewriting stage (pg 4). Do you agree? What kinds of activities do you present to your class for prewriting? What pros/cons do y...

Our readings for Tuesday by Murray, Crowley, and Faigley focused on process pedagogy. Although we discussed this topic back in ENG 601, it was interesting to read these articles now that I have started teaching and applying my own approaches to teaching to my class. Murray provides a simple, thorough description of process pedagogy in the classroom. Crowley gives a detailed history of the emergence of process pedagogy and raises questions as to if process pedagogy is really the huge departure from current-traditionalism that it is advertised to be. Faigley offers more criticism and other approaches to composition. Reading these types of analyses on pedagogy helps in reflecting on what combination of theories would work in each classroom environment that we are thrown into as GAs. I found that I have already used some of the material from Murray's "Teaching Writing as Process Not Product" in my ENG 104 class, possibly due to having read it previously in Dr. Donnelly'...

As showcased in our readings, there are a variety of approaches an individual can classify themselves under when it comes to teaching composition. While these approaches can vary in emphasis, Berlin expresses that all composition approaches hold the same pedagogical foundations. For example, while expressionists put a lot of emphasis on students and their writing, they are no less pedagogically sound than another approach. One thing that I seemed to come back to as I was reading Fulkerson's article was just the idea that composition is messy and can be complex. In terms of teaching, our students can get a different idea of impression of composition based on what pedagogical approach we use. For example, if I am emphasizing process with my students and focusing a lot on revision and the overall writing process as a whole, they may get the impression that writing is a process and takes time and energy. On the other hand, if I take a more expressionist approach, which to me can ove...