Brainstorm Teaching Philosophy (Blog 1)

Some blend of the socio-cognitive and expressivist models best fits my teaching philosophy. The semester will be themed around a larger area of inquiry that students and teacher tackle together but that is mostly instructor-guided.

Reading:  students should read an array of college-level texts that includes multiple genres (short fiction, memoir or literary non-fiction, academic articles and social commentaries or editorials from Salon, The Huffington Post, New York Times, etc.). Students have some choice during the semester in a reading/writing project.

Writing: writing heavily focuses on areas of synthesis, with students asked to merge inquiry into their own life experience with texts they’ve encountered in and out of class. Formal assignments include narrative, analysis, synthesis (with and without personal response), and an argument or proposal.

Cognition:  students will develop academic, college-level skills in reading, writing and citizenship only through exposure to academic-level reading and writing assignments and clear classroom expectations. Class time will be spent on a mix of individual writing (freewriting, journal responses), small and large group discussion of the course inquiry, and collaborative reading and writing projects.

IRW:  Reading is accompanied by annotation and dialectical journals. Pre-writing activates schema prior to reading and post-writing moves students into class discussion. Writing takes place in response to texts. 

Brainstorm Writing Prompt (Blog 5)

Based on the units above, I either want to map out Unit 3 (the book club project) or Unit 4 (the proposal).

Book Club: Write a 4 - 6 page analysis of the intersections of place and identity as it relates to your chosen book and other texts from this semester. This style of writing will require you to reflect on the book specifically and its connections to theories of how place influences the formation of identity. This essay should synthesize your current understanding of place and identity in light of the book you read and other readings from the class, such as “Creating Narratives of Place and Identity in ‘Little Sweden, U.S.A.,’” Sir Barrie’s The Admirable Crichton, Yi-Fu Tuan and others.

  

Proposal (Research Project): Taking what you have learned about the significance of place, draft a well-researched proposal to improve a local space.  The specific audience for your proposal includes your classmates, the community that will be affected by your proposal, and the specific public official or entity (such as a city council, club, or community association) who has the power to enact your proposed change.

You will format your proposal as a business letter to a public official or organization that you identify, through your research, as most appropriate to receive and act upon your proposal.

Your proposal will need to discuss the following:

·      What is the problem?

·      What is your experience with the problem?

·      What do experts have to say?

·      What is your proposed solution?

Brainstorm Course Description (Blog 4)

"Over the next four months we will explore together the intersection of place and identity. How are individual and collective identities impacted by interactions with specific places (a bedroom, a park bench) and the surrounding environment (an island, a slum, an alpine village)? At first, our readings and class discussion will stem from personal reflections of place and identity, both our own and through published memoirs. We will then look at fictional representations of place and explore what sociologists, philosophers, geographers and architects have to say about the impact of place on individuals and community development. Is there a place you care about? A place you avoid? What makes a space ugly, desolate, comforting or restful? We will see what others have to say on the topic and, in the process, discover what we have to say for ourselves."   

Brainstorm Course Overview (Blog 3)

I’ve been wanting to teach a semester-long first year composition class that has a class theme/inquiry about “Place and Identity” or maybe “Place, Space and Identity.”

Unit one:  Personal Narrative Essay (a place that has some significance for you)

Unit two:  Analysis/Personal Response (analyze a book-length memoir for the role of place AND respond using your own experience of a place that impacted you)

Unit three:  Book Club (group presentation of a group-chosen novel, memoir or story collection that includes themes of place and identity AND a synthesis essay on the role of place in the chosen book and other readings from class)

Unit four:  Proposal (research assignment, propose a revitalization project or other new use of a space in your community; support your proposal with research about the space, the community, and cognitive/psychological studies about community spaces)

Unit five:  Definition/Semester Synthesis (Synthesize semester readings and your own deep thinking about place and identity. What is your understanding of the role of place in the formation of your own identity? Can this be extended into a universal understanding or definition of the significance of place?)

Brainstorm SFSU Tensions (Blog 2)

I may experience some tension in fully incorporating learning objectives 6 and 7.

With 6 (research), I think there are a lot of problems with the way research is designed / thrown into many FYC classes. It’s a big drain on class time to have to cover what library research is, how to determine the credibility of sources, how to find sources, and ridiculous requirements such as “must reference four academic journals, two newspapers and one online professional database.” Research is a skill that students need for academic success, but it can’t all be taught in a single 4-week unit in Freshman Comp.

With 7 (grammar), I do believe grammar needs to be directly addressed in FYC…but only as the class demonstrates the need or in one-on-one conferences with the instructor. At the FYC level, students should be made aware of recurring sentence-level errors, but the class’s focus is on more advanced writing strategies, like generating ideas, paper structure and organization. I am NOT going to spend time on spelling.