Disruptive Pedagogy in College Composition

After taking several contemporary pedagogy courses, some general graduate-level education classes and some specific to the discipline of composition, I have learned the value of disrupting standard, age-worn pedagogical approaches, static classroom setups, rigid barriers between student and teacher, and stagnant values inherent within the field of writing and writing education.

I spend the great majority of both semesters of freshman composition reviewing the facets of rhetoric, or the art of public discourse. This is not to be confused with public speaking; my students only engage in oral presentations once per semester. However, they are required to learn how to critically analyze given texts/videos/visuals for their inherent rhetorical methods of persuasion-- mainly, they must identify and explain appeals to ethos, pathos, and/or logos. They are also required to define the purpose, exigence, intended audience, and constraints of each text, video, and/or visual. The basic expectation is for the students to deconstruct a given artifact, identify each part, explain how it works on its own, and then explain how each of the parts works together to achieve the author's purpose.

My students don't typically perform well on their first rhetorical analysis paper. They are so caught up in the jargon of rhetoric- exigence, ethos, pathos, logos, constraints-- that they dedicate more effort on using these terms at all rather than ensuring that they are using them correctly. In future classes, I plan to disrupt this way of thinking about rhetorical appeals by simplifying these terms and making them feel less like complicated and intimidating jargon to my students. For example, rather than calling appeals to fact logos appeals, I will refer to them as "factual appeals" or "appeals to data, statistics, logic, or reasoning." Instead of using the term "constraints," I will ask students to consider what challenges the author faced when writing this text or what barriers they had to contend with during composition. 

Tanya Sasser suggests numerous ways that college composition teachers can disrupt the pedagogy of writing in her Remixing College English blog, specifically in her entry entitled Disrupting the First-Year Composition Course. Sasser explains that her methods of disrupting freshman composition include: questioning the efficacy and function of thesis statements, problematizing the research process, re-thinking what determines whether or not a source is reliable, and adapting citation styles for writers composing in digital spaces. While these are all approaches I plan to apply in my next course plan, I particularly enjoyed the emphasis she placed on JiTT, or "Just in Time Teaching." This is a pedagogical strategy that relies on student feedback; essentially, students do the necessary homework and complete a pre-class assignment (freewrite or forum). The instructor reads over these assignments and allows student input to shape the class and determine what subjects need to be emphasized over others. Ideally, the instructor uses student feedback and answers from the pre-class assignment to foster class discussion. Sasser explains that "students tend to experience a deeper change in knowledge about writing methods when they are asked to access resources and receive instruction on skills as they are needed." Next time I teach research methods or rhetorical analysis, I can use the JiTT approach; rather than structuring a rigid "knowledge banking" course plan that starts with "the basics" and escalates into "the hard stuff," I can structure my lessons around the knowledge the students need at the time that they actually  need it and can apply it.

Sasser includes a link to a Google Doc that encapsulates some of the practical ideas she gleaned from Mill's Kelly's session on disruptive pedagogy for THATcamp. Some of the ideas from this document I am actively applying to my next course plan/ my ever-evolving pedagogical approach include:

• Having my students recognize their audience, describe the members in detail, then write against them. This will emphasize the importance of audience awareness.
• Assigning a freewrite that requires students to write in purposefully unclear and confusing ways. This will ideally make them a little more aware of syntax, sentence structure, and clarity problems in their own writing.
• Likewise, assigning prompts for entirely plagiarized papers or papers that are fraught with grammatical, syntactical, spelling, stylistic and mechanical errors. In order to execute this properly, they have to comprehend the basic rules and guidelines for each of these categories.
• Encouraging students to argue why a topic is insignificant or irrelevant. This will encourage them to critically analyze whether an argument or a piece of evidence is appropriate, interesting, effective, or relevant.
• Requiring students to prepare the worst possible presentation ever. This requires them to recognize and internalize good presentation skills-- they will have to know what constitutes a good presentation to make a bad one.

A Transformative Experience: Cynthia Wynne's Learner-Centered Approach to Biology at New River Community College

Nearly every semester, New River Community College's course request system crashes minutes after it opens, and it isn't due to lackluster site maintenance. Students are scrambling to sign up for a coveted seat in Dr. Cynthia Wynne's section of Biology 101/102 and the accompanying lab hours. Over the years, Dr. Wynne has built up quite the positive reputation among potential, current, and former students alike. But what could possibly be so appealing about a freshman-level Biology course that causes students to flock to Dr. Wynne's course so eagerly and competitively?

The answer is simple: Dr. Wynne is an absolutely incredible teacher. She is capable of taking a potentially alienating, math-ridden (math strikes fear into the hearts of liberal arts enthusiasts like myself) subject like Biology and presenting it in a manner that makes it immediately relevant to her students. She avoids conventional lecturing and opts for hands-on, problem-based learning grounded in real-life application.

The following section is comprised of a brief interview I conducted with Dr. Wynne. I approached her with a desire to understand what made her one of my favorite teachers despite the fact that I encountered her within the boundaries of a discipline I made a great effort to avoid. Also, with her permission, I have included pictures demonstrating a few ways that she transforms a subject that, at the introductory level, usually requires rote memorization and fact regurgitation into an interesting, relevant, and rewarding learning experience.

Dr. Cynthia Wynne and company passing out exams

Q: How long do you typically spend lecturing during a standard class? How do you make your lectures interactive and interesting?

A: I like it when students participate, and ask questions, so I often try to teach the material by answering student questions.  I find that students actually will ask enough questions, and ask the "right" questions, so that I can cover most of the material just by answering the questions.  I think of these moments as "teachable moments."  When students ask questions, that is when the answers will be relevant to them.  So instead of saying, "we will get to that soon," I just go ahead and address it then.

Just another day in Dr. Wynne's lab

Q: Do you use any problem-based learning methods in Biology 101/102 or lab?

A: [I assign] the Independent Research Project in lab, in which students design their own project to carry out based on their hypothesis.

A 2012 Trip to Claytor Lake- 15 students accompanied Dr. Wynne to Claytor Lake to save, count, and identify stranded mussels.

Q: In your opinion, what are you best qualities as a teacher?

A: My best quality as a teacher is that I really love my students! I love Biology, too, which doesn't hurt, but I love my students more than the subject!

Dr. Wynne's DNA Fingerprinting Lab- students take their own DNA samples and analyze them.

Q: Do you have any unique hands-on approaches to teaching any challenging concepts?

A: I do use hands-on approaches, but I don't think they are very unique.  I pretty much use the approaches that other teachers use.  I try to give as much positive feedback as possible, which might by a little unique.  For example, sometimes I ask a yes or no question, and when a student answers wrong, I will say "you are close," instead of you are wrong.  That always gets a good laugh.  In lab, when students are wrestling with a challenging problem, I am usually more hands off than hands on.  I will watch, and encourage, but I try not to step in and do the work for the student.  I will support them as much as I can, but (even though it would often be easier and faster for me to just do it) I let the student figure it out by themselves if they can.  If they can't, I give hints and tips until they can.

One of Dr. Wynne's students trying sauteed mealworms in class

Q: Do you think you run a learner-oriented classroom? If so, what makes your classroom a learner-oriented classroom?

A: I do have a learner-oriented classroom in the sense that I do let students choose, to some extent, what they learn and when they learn it.  Since I have a limited time to cover any given chapter, the parts that get covered are the parts that students ask questions about.  I kind of let students lead the learning in that way.  If we don't have time to cover everything in the chapter, I don't worry too much.  I figure if they need that information in the future, they can Google it.

Students holding a tarantula in Dr. Wynne's lab

Thus, Dr. Wynne's success as a professor is multifaceted. Rather than committing an hour and a half three days a week to "sage on the stage" lecturing, she encourages students to maintain agency over their learning process by providing a comfortable classroom environment and encouraging them to ask questions. Her students engage in problem-based learning where possible; Dr. Wynne's Independent Research Lab encourages students to choose their own topics for exploration, identify and evaluate the knowledge they already have and the knowledge they need, and use critical methods and research to come to a sound conclusion. In this project, her students are not only learning about their chosen topics through methods they select, but they are learning to critically analyze their own knowledge in a given subject and how to improve it.

Perhaps the most compelling element of Dr. Wynne's pedagogical approach is her ability to create memorable, rather, unforgettable educational adventures. In my experience, no teacher provided this amount or style of hands-on, active learning experiences after her sections of Biology. Dr. Wynne does not rely on a rigid attendance policy to ensure active, engaged participation from her students. Instead, she ensures that each class session promises fascinating, unique methods of learning, questioning, and internalizing topics that could otherwise be written off as flashcard material.

Dr. Wynne's sincere passion for her subject and for teaching, combined with genuine love and concern for her students, frames her pedagogical approach and cultivates successful learning and enthusiastic engagement within her students. Problem-based instructional methods and a student-oriented classroom merge seamlessly with her fervor for her educating students within her discipline.

Csíkszentmihályi's Theory of Flow: Fostering Good Writing Habits in College Freshmen

Many college composition instructors tend to repeat the same mantra: "writing is a process, not a product."

It's in every first-year graduate teaching assistant's syllabus. It's undoubtedly a chapter title or at least a witty subtitle in most composition textbooks released within the past decade. This emphasis on process over product is more than justified; dedicating time to an invention phase (brainstorming, freewriting, listing, etc...), preparing multiple drafts, partaking in multiple peer review sessions, and allowing time to revise are all important skills college composition instructors should work to instill in their students. Investing fully in each of these steps of the writing process enables students to produce quality academic writing and ensures that they are expressing their ideas in effective, organized, and understandable ways.

We spend so much time on practicing various invention and revision strategies that the process of writing tends to look something like a lengthy cycle of brainstorming, drafting, revising, more brainstorming, more revising, more drafting, more revising, and finally... a finished product.

The problem is...sometimes our students aren't even prepared to engage in the invention phrase. Some build up a lot of anxiety and choose to procrastinate on their assignments, especially major papers or assignments in unfamiliar genres of writing. They often feel like they're wasting time by brainstorming ideas and organizing possible sub-topics because they view writing as a finished product rather than a series of steps that culminate in a finished product. Many of my students have admitted that they did not have time to read back through their final drafts and look for grammatical, mechanical, or syntactical mistakes. But all of this can be avoided by recognizing the legitimate first step in the recursive process of writing: the literal set-up for success. Students must take time to experiment with different locations, times, and rituals (their set-up) in terms of writing so that they can consciously foster ideal writing habits. If these habits are maintained, students increase their likelihood of reaching what Csíkszentmihályi refers to as flow--essentially, full immersion in the activity of writing during which they can have an autotelic experience, or an experience in which the student is writing because the act of writing is intrinsically rewarding rather than to achieve an external, point-driven goal.

During the first week of class, I invite my students to discuss their writing habits in terms of location, time, and rituals. I ask them not only to share their optimal writing times and descriptions of their preferred writing locations/settings, but also to explain why they think these particular settings and times work for them so well. At this point, I introduce the idea of being "in the zone" and ask them to discuss what they think that phrase means or provide examples of times they were "in the zone." Then, I have them specify any pre-writing rituals they perform, like sharpening pencils or cleaning the space they're about to settle into and write. I typically assign a short reading about writing habits and then assign a blog post with a prompt, something along the lines of: What are your preferred locations/settings, times, and rituals for successful (uninterrupted "in the zone" writing? Have you tried altering any of these? Do you make a schedule for major writing assignments? If you have procrastination issues, what causes you to procrastinate? If you do not have procrastination issues, what inspires you to get started early on assignments? (blog posts with loads of questions yield thorough answers). In class the following day, we discuss our writing habits as a group. I typically show slightly amusing pictures of my personal writing set-up (a table stacked high with books, a hookah, a cat, a dog, several mugs of Earl Grey tea, and loads of scratch paper and pens) and explain how they put me into a state of flow.

In a 1996 interview with John Geirland of Wired magazine, Csíkszentmihályi explains that flow is

being completely involved in an activity for its own sake. The ego falls away. Every action, movement, and thought follows inevitably from the previous one, like playing jazz. Your whole being is involved, and you're using your skills to the utmost.

 This is exactly the state of mind/being that freshman composition students need to achieve in order to foster ideal writing habits, apply critical thinking skills throughout their writing process, and produce work that truly and accurately represents their own ideas. Csíkszentmihályi explains in Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience that the state of flow culminates in intrinsic motivation, or self-desire to learn about and analyze new things. This is a period of knowledge absorption, deep and uninterrupted engagement with an activity or topic, a unique sense of fulfillment, curiosity, persistence, and conscious/unconscious development of a given skill(s). This state of mind/being would likely inspire freshman writers to write meaningful papers rather than worry solely about grades and points earned. It would also combat the pesky problem of writer's block-- continuous, uninterrupted writing allows students to skip over the problematic sections and keep thinking through the next section of their paper.



Csíkszentmihályi makes an important point in his 1997 text entitled Finding Flow. He delineates a necessary balance between the challenge of the task and the skill of the performer. In terms of composition, this refers to the challenge of the writing prompt and the various composition skills of the student. The prompt must not be too simple; likewise, it must not be too complex or hard. The skill level and challenge level must correlate and push the limits of the student abilities without becoming frustrating. In order to cultivate flow among our students, our assignments must promote equilibrium between difficulty and the evolving writing skills of our students.

The following section simply serves as a collected list of different methods of setting up a work station to instill within a writer the ability to reach a state of flow:

• Set up a timeline for any major writing projects. Begin by writing down the date the paper was assigned and the date the final copy of the paper is due. Identify the time frame in which you are expected to complete this assignment. Then, determine what steps you need to take in order to successfully complete the assignment (brainstorming, picking a topic, researching, drafting, proofreading, etc..). Finally, propose a realistic schedule that keeps due dates for other classes and activities in mind. Remember that adjusting a writing schedule is normal. Keep track of the dates you actually achieve each of these goals.
• Pick a location that is conducive to writing uninterrupted for long periods of time. I recommend somewhere quiet and devoid of friends or distractions. Pick a location that is well-lit and comfortable--somewhere you can sit for several hours at a time. 
• Try to pick locations and times that are conducive to establishing a habitual approach to writing. In other words, pick locations and times that allow you write in a regular fashion.
• Consider writing at a desk rather than on a couch or in bed. Sitting up straight and having a flat surface to work on keeps you awake, focused, and organized.
• Turn off your cell phone and disable chat functions on your laptop or tablet.
• Set realistic goals for each writing session. In other words, don't sit down and plan to finish an entire paper at once. Allow separate time to engage in the invention phase(s), try several organizational methods, and execute numerous drafting and revising stages. Allow time for numerous short writing sessions rather than one or two long sessions.
• Allow yourself to take reasonable breaks when you achieve your goals. Also, if you notice yourself experiencing writer's block, consider taking a short break (or moving on to a different section of your paper). Charlotte Frost suggests using the pomodoro technique which involves using a timer to dedicate twenty minutes to diligent work and five minutes to miniature breaks.
• Identify any rituals you go through to set-up for a successful "in the zone" writing session and perform them consciously (give them power!): sharpening pencils, writing only on a certain kind of paper or with a certain kind of pen, drinking a favorite non-alcoholic beverage, smoking hookah while writing, devising a color-coding technique for annotation, etc...
• Establish a routine and stick with it. If you notice problems getting "in the zone" during your writing routine, critically analyze what you think is the cause of this issue and change one component of your routine at a time until you are satisfied with your routine again.
• Keep a bottle of water and a light snack nearby. Bananas are a great snack, especially when you're anxious or feeling deprived of energy.
• Do your best to make writing a daily occurrence. As the old adage goes, "nulla dies sine linea." Consider taking fifteen minutes to write a journal entry, even if you are simply recounting what you did that day and nothing else. Writing every day aids writing anxiety and curbs writer's block by making writing an activity rather than an artifact or product.
• Likewise, do your best to make reading a daily occurrence. Whether it's a brief article in the Collegiate Times, an AmA on Reddit, or a chapter of War and Peace, just sit down and read.
• Limit the time you spend sitting down at a computer on the days that you plan to get "in the zone" and write. Charlotte Frost argues that good writers should make an effort to "use another tool or location for online life (a tablet, a smartphone) and keep [their] desk[s] as ‘pure’ as possible."
• Consider choosing a writing partner from class to meet with regularly. You can read sentences out loud to each other, see if chosen methods of organization makes sense, help and encourage each other if either of you gets stuck, and suggest alternate ways of exploring a given topic.

Some resources for fostering good writing habits and about  Csíkszentmihályi's theory of flow:

TED Talk-- Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi: Flow, the Secret to Happiness [18:55]
Pamela Fagan Hutchin's "15 Habits of Good Writers"
Charlotte Frost's "Forming Good Writing Habits"
Dunn, Dana S. "Writing About Psychology." Readings for Writing at Virginia Tech. Boston: Pearson,
      2014. 18-20. Print.

No Problem: PBL in Freshman Composition through Multigenre Rhetorical Analysis

When people ask me about my profession and I respond that I am an English teacher, they typically assume that I "teach students how to write." But what exactly does that mean?  How does one teach writing? How can an instructor stand at the front of a classroom and spew forth valuable knowledge about the act of writing and useful methods for approaching composition?

The answer is simple- it is not possible to effectively teach students how to write through conventional, "sage on the stage" lecture. Hours of Power Points and droning disquisition serve only to hinder the development and refinement of compositional techniques. Do you think you are capable of sitting through an hour and half oration about thesis statements, paragraph structure, or proper comma usage without falling asleep or checking Facebook? Despite my avid interest in the subject and passion for writing, I know I couldn't make it through a single class structured like this.

Problem-based instructional methods are key to my discipline. This pedagogical style in particular promotes student agency throughout the learning process by requiring active engagement in the subject matter while allowing space for creative, subjective responses in both written work and class/group discussion. Problem-based instruction is perhaps the only surefire path toward either instilling an earnest desire to write within students who claim to "hate English classes" and "hate writing," or reigniting this passion within students who, due to prior "sage on the stage" classroom experiences, have lost the flame necessary to enthusiastically engage in critical analysis through composition.

In the first week of class, I assign a long term rhetorical analysis paper/group project. For those that are unfamiliar with the idea of rhetorical analysis, it involves deconstructing a given text/advertisement/speech, identifying key aspects (exigence, purpose, intended audience, constraints, ethos/pathos/logos appeals), and critically analyzing how these aspects function together as a whole to achieve a certain goal.

 First, I list possible categories for analysis on the board, provide short examples of texts/advertisements/speeches from each category, and allow them a few minutes to decide which topic most interests them. Categories I have listed in the past include: political campaign advertisements, product advertisements, or ideological advertisements/texts (commercials or texts that attempt to persuade an audience to think about a certain ethical/moral/cultural issue). I then separate the students into groups based on their initial sense of the category they are most interested in. It is important to note that I allow them to change groups up to one week after their initial in-class group conference. The assignment is structured with the following requirements:

• As a group, come to a consensus on a particular topic that interests you within your selected category.
• Select at least 3 examples of advertisements, texts, or speeches within your category to rhetorically analyze. Strive to provide an analysis of all three genres across various forms of media. For example, the political advertisements group could potentially select a brief campaign commercial, a campaign flyer or blog entry, and a recorded speech.
• Individual group members should rhetorically analyze each of the three examples separately, justify their claims/analysis with evidence from the example, then compare their answers and justifications with the group. Come to some form of consensus about each piece in terms of its exigence, purpose, intended audience (and secondary/tertiary audiences where appropriate), constraints, and rhetorical appeals (ethos/pathos/logos). Some examples may require visual analysis (commercials, posters, flyers, etc...). 
• Identify the problematic aspects within each example. In other words, identify how the authors/speakers are using/abusing rhetoric through various manipulative rhetorical appeals and playing toward an intended audience to achieve a certain purpose. 
• Analyze whether they are intentionally excluding pertinent information and/or counterarguments and justify your claims with evidence. 
• Analyze whether they are delivering their message in a dishonest or manipulative manner and explain why/why not with evidence.
• Critically discuss these problems in terms of how distorted messages in advertisements/texts/speeches promote confusion and conflict and prevent understanding and compromise among a larger population.
• Suggest specific and realistic solutions to the problematic elements within each selected advertisement/text/speech and justify how this solution could promote accurate understanding among the intended audience and a larger population.

This assignment is scaffolded in that smaller assignments throughout the semester play into its successful completion. For example, group members must provide their individual rhetorical analysis of each example on blog posts early in the semester. Each group member must leave constructive criticism and feedback in the form of a thorough comment. This requires individual accountability within the group and provides me with written proof that each group member is submitting valuable input to the discussion. Halfway through the semester, the group must submit a progress report to me in the form of an MLA format memo. Though the template is provided, they must work together to ensure that it is properly edited and executed. Finally, the group must present their project at the end of the semester in a professional presentation using either Prezi or Power Point. Their presentation is rated by their fellow class members using an anonymous survey I construct. After the presentation, the group hands in the formal, MLA style write-up of their collective rhetorical analysis and findings. Group members are later given access to a separate survey in which they anonymously provide me with feedback on accountability and work distribution within the group.

Though this assignment has undergone ample revisions throughout my three semesters of teaching English 1105 and 1106, I find it rewarding for numerous reasons:

• It preserves student agency and promotes curiosity in that they pick their topics, genres, and specific examples and offer their own analysis of said examples. They have control over how they work and how the group manages their time. They are able to change groups if they so choose.
• It allows for critique and revision by requiring feedback from fellow group members on the forum posts and from me in response to the progress report.
• It fosters critical listening skills in the students who are acting as the audience during a given presentation.

• It is multi-genre. Essentially, it works across genres not only in terms of the pieces the groups are analyzing, but in terms of the overall assignment criteria (forum posts, memo, presentation with visuals, and collaborative paper).
• It cultivates numerous 21st century competencies including: critical thinking, problem solving, collaboration, individual accountability, use of technology, effective presentation skills, and document production.
• It requires extended, in-depth inquiry about a topic that affects them on a daily basis, rhetorical means of persuasion that exist in nearly every advertisement, text, speech act, etc...Ideally, this assignment encourages students to be conscious and critical of rhetorical means of persuasion and their effects.
• It promotes self reflection in that students must identify what they already know and what they need to know and how to gain this knowledge.
• I encourage students to present this project beyond the comfortable boundaries of the classroom at undergraduate research conferences, encouraging the transfer of knowledge and skills out of my classroom and into academe.

PBL and Group Work: Strategies for Success

Most assignments structured around problem-based learning methods hinge on successful group work strategies. In my experience, the notion of group projects is typically met with backlash similar to that mentioned in Dan Sherman's famous case study. Essentially, there is much eye-rolling, harumphing, and general distaste among students who seem to feel as though they are being forced into an uncomfortable situation that requires collaboration, interdependence, individual accountability, the avoidance of procrastination, and active ownership of their own learning experience. Teachers engaging in this pedagogical method need to recognize that these preconceptions, combined with the likelihood that the majority of the classes their students have taken thus far have centered on rote memorization and knowledge regurgitation via standardized testing, coalesce in the minds of their students and foster negative feelings of insecurity and doubt.

Fortunately, there exists a wealth of behind-the-scenes,instructional, and assessment methods that can counteract these preexisting problems and potentially transform the "painful" process of group work into a gratifying and rewarding learning experience.

Part One: Behind-The-Scenes Strategies

• Confront negative preconceptions about group work. Provide discussion prompts centered on the importance of collaboration skills both within and outside of academic settings. Encourage students to share positive and negative experiences they've had with group work and prompt them to suggest methods of avoiding adverse group interactions. Emphasize the positive aspects and rationalize your choice of making this project a group effort.
• Foster a sense of interdependence among group members by constructing a complex assignment prompt with requirements that necessitate collaboration and a collective effort towards a unified goal. The assignment should compel group members to depend on the diverse set of skills and knowledge possessed by each of their peers.
• Maintain structure and provide ample direction. Assist students with planning and staying on track by requiring written project proposals, schedules, and progress reports. Establish provisional due dates for each of these assignments. Encourage groups to come to you for advice on problems with collaboration, understanding the assignment prompt, and successfully executing requirements.
• Integrate brief, reflective, in-class writing assignments that enable students to assess the overall process and progress of their group project in terms of teamwork skills, conflict management, and time management. This will ideally bolster the initial idea that collaboration via group work is valuable.
• Construct groups in a manner that will heighten their chances of successful and rewarding interaction among group members. Ensure that the size of the group allows for realistic collaboration; remember that each of your student's has a schedule they must work around in order to attend meetings. Also, keep in mind that as group size increases, so does the occurrence of "free riders" (group members that contribute very little or nothing to the project). Create diverse groups of students from different cultural, linguistic, and social backgrounds. Keep the personalities of individual group members in mind. For example, avoid assembling a group comprised of one shy student and four talkative students.
• Be flexible and allow for timely adjustments in group membership if necessary. Anticipate problems and challenges groups may face and act as a mediator.

Part Two: Instructional Strategies

• Foster collaboration by allotting some class time time after the conception of the group for ice-breaker activities.
• Encourage group members to assign specific roles and have them delineate exactly what is expected out of each role. Also, encourage them to divvy up the workload early so that expectations of each member are absolutely clear. If the project is not complex enough to require this level of stratification, encourage them to, at the very least, elect a communication leader to keep everyone informed of meeting dates, times, and locations and aware of their individual duties.
• Emphasize the importance of making the most of meetings by meeting in a location conducive to productive, uninterrupted discussion and setting an agenda.
• Remind them to work with each other's strengths and weaknesses. Reiterate the fact that each group member brings a unique perspective, skill set, and body of knowledge to the table.
• Stress the importance of working toward a unified, cohesive final product, whether it be a presentation or a collaborative paper.
• Most PBL group work requires a final presentation. Direct students to resources on campus that can improve the quality of their presentation, like the Comm Lab at Virginia Tech.

Part Three: Various Assessment Methods

• Assess individual and group work. Consider basing the overall project grade on a combination of the quality of the final product and your understanding of individual effort. When the group is finished presenting and/or submitting their project, require each student to write a brief paragraph specifying roughly what each group member contributed and what they contributed. Instruct them to conclude with an overall reflection of what they learned about collaboration and what they will do differently in subsequent group projects.
• Assess process as well as product. Analyze their progress reports and the aforementioned in-class reflections closely. Include these assignments in the final group project grade.
• Require classmates to assess group presentations. Provide a handout or a survey in which the students functioning as the audience for the final presentation can assess the group based on presentation skills, effectiveness of visual aids, and clarity. This emphasizes the importance of audience awareness in the group presenting and promotes critical listening and observing skills in the audience members. It also provides audience members with an opportunity to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the presentation and consciously mimic or avoid certain aspects of it.

 Works Consulted

•    "Using Group Projects Effectively - Teaching Excellence & Educational Innovation - Carnegie Mellon University."N.p., n.d. Web. 
•  Dredger, Katie, and Sean Conaway. "Presentations." Writing at Virginia Tech: Written, Spoken, and Visual Composition. By Sheila Lorraine Carter-Tod. Boston, MA: Pearson, 2013. 352-53. Print.

Tips for Revising a Teaching Philosophy: Lower Order and Higher Order Concerns

In case you're writing your Teaching Philosophy at the last minute and you can't make time for a Writing Center appointment, here are some questions to ask yourself while revising!

Higher Order Concerns (stuff you should worry about first)

1. Is my teaching philosophy too long? Ideally, it should be no more than two pages double-spaced, or around 500 words maximum. 
2. Do I demonstrate what I think constitutes effective teaching/learning with evidence?
3. Do I establish myself as unique without being sentimental or melodramatic?
4. Do I avoid sounding meek by abstaining from downplaying my achievements?
5. Do I provide a clear reason behind why I chose to/want to teach?
6. Do I provide specific examples of pedagogical methods I use to get students engaged?
7. Do I provide evidence that I am able to promote diversity, tolerance, and collaboration in my classroom?
8. Do I provide evidence that I encourage the use of technology in new and creative ways in my class?
9. Do I demonstrate how I foster creativity in my class?
10. Is it necessary for me to link my research to my pedagogy? If yes, is this connection explained clearly?
11. Do I have a defined, effective conclusion that wraps up my ideas without being redundant?

Lower Order Concerns (stuff you should worry about second)

1. Parallel Structure- In case you find yourself listing things in your Teaching Philosophy, make sure that you stick with a pattern so that you don't indirectly imply that one of the items on the list is more or less important than the others.
   
   Example: As an instructor, I enjoy lecturing,overseeing peer review, and group work.
                   As an instructor, I enjoy lecturing, overseeing peer review, and assigning group work.
2. i.e. versus e.g.- People seem to mix these up a lot. So, if you find yourself having to use these in your Teaching Philosophy, remember that i.e. (translates to "id est") means "that is..." while e.g. (translates to exempli gratia) means "for example."
3. Capitalization errors- Remember that when referring to your department specifically (Department of Physics, English Department) you must capitalize the initial letters in both words. If you use the vague term "departments," the first letter is lower-cased.

Confronting and Curbing Student Anxiety

Most of my composition students have been learning writing methods since first or second grade. Not just the physical mechanics of writing, but how to form sentences and how to make meaningful, logical, original statements. English 1105 and 1106 classes are comprised of students that did not take dual-enrollment courses in high school for a variety of reasons: those course weren't offered, they were already enrolled in too many advanced placement courses, or (the most popular response) they "hate English and suck at writing."

Writing seems so natural. Like talking, but with visible words. How could there be this much hatred for my discipline? So much disgust? So much anxiety?

I think these fears, anxieties, and negative emotions stem from an educational career dominated by standardized testing, forced prompts, boring lecture-style grammar and mechanics lessons, rigid grading on components of writing that don't actually matter that much (here's looking at you, GRAMMAR) and dull assignments. But how can one English teacher combat a decade or more of engrained composition anxiety in a classroom comprised of students from extremely different educational and cultural backgrounds? Each student has his or her own unique sets of strengths and weaknesses; how can I address all of them at the same time and structure my class around addressing these effectively?

Ask. Just ask them. And don't just do it once, do it several times throughout the semester. Allow their responses to shape your pedagogical approach. Make a flexible course plan that can be adapted and address their needs rather than your own desires and expectations.

My first freewriting prompt is typically something along the lines of: Review the expected outcomes of English 1105 listed on page XX. Are any of these confusing? Why? Which of these outcomes are you confident about? Why? Which of these outcomes are you anxious about? Why?

I give them roughly ten minutes to review the outcomes and prepare detailed responses. They perform this freewrite using a listing method so that they can get all of their ideas out without worrying about sentence structure and grammar. At the end of the allotted time, I pair them up in groups of three and have them compare answers and discuss. I have them change partners one more time and compare answers with new partners. Then, I give them a few minutes to jot down a few observations they made while sharing their answers with their peers. Finally, I bring the class back together and we discuss their answers from the first section of the activity first. I use this time to expand on the expected outcomes and ask them why they think those outcomes are in place. We then discuss the second part of the activity and the students typically discover that no one in the class is entirely confident about anything to do with writing or the expectations of the course. This dispells the feelings of "imposter syndrome" and at least some of their insecurities.

The important aspect with activities and discussions like the one I just outlined is specificity. If you don't CONSTANTLY ask why or encourage your students to be specific and critically analyze why they feel a certain way about a given topic or subject, they will just say they "hate English and suck at writing" without having any idea what is holding them back or making them feel that way.

I use the same approach when I start the unit on individual and group presentations, but I change it up a little. I teach two 50 minute lessons on presentation skills and I use the Scholar forums (I know, they're boring and ugly, but I broke Wordpress last time) to issue a prompt along the lines of: "After the lectures, readings, discussions, demonstrations, and videos about presentation skills, what are you confident about? What scares you about delivering a presentation? What are some methods you use to relax and keep your cool during a presentation? What are some suggestions you can give your classmates for delivering an effective and engaging presentation?" They are required to comment on at least two other forum posts, but they often do more. They seem encouraged by seeing that their peers have the same anxieties and they benefit from the tips they share with each other.

Finally, I do a freewrite at the beginning and middle of the semester asking them to specifically name topics and concepts they still feel unclear on. I provide a list on the board of the topics we covered and the concepts we still haven't gone over (separated by grammar, mechanics, invention, revision, etc...). I also ask them to tell me what teaching methods they like and dislike (always clarify what this means with simple examples). For example, I ask them to share how they feel about group work, videos, music played during freewriting exercises, etc... When I get their responses, I see what I need to cover again and I find alternate ways of teaching that concept. I also try to respond to what they like in class and incorporate more of those methods.

Making your students feel like their input matters, that their voice is being heard, is perhaps the most effective tool for curbing their anxieties. If they know that their instructor is listening to them and concerned with their progress in the class (that they are more than just a student ID number). If they can see how your approach/course plan is adapting to their needs, they are more likely to be engaged in your class and excited about improving their skills.