A Snapshot of a Semester in First-Year Composition at TCU
Final Course Portfolio
Teaching College Composition
Dr. Carrie Leverenz
Fall 2017
Introduction
Transfer is a frequent topic in composition studies, as researchers debate how knowledge can be transmitted between contexts and what instructors can do to best facilitate that transfer. This semester, I realized that transfer applies to knowledge of teaching as well. When we as teachers change environments—whether that means a new region, institution, course, or even batch of students—we bring ideas, philosophies, and patterns that we then try to place into this new context.
The transfer is never exact; institutions have different learning outcomes, focuses, and course catalogs, all which impact how a particular course functions in the overall ecosystem of that particular university, as well as the particular role we instructors play in that ecosystem. The university also functions as either a microcosm of the larger culture or an intellectual community isolated from reality (depending on who you ask), and the outside social context impacts the ways our students think, interact, and write within our classes. All this to say, TCC has helped me realize that, no matter how much teaching experience we may have, the transferring of skills and philosophies to a new intellectual context always requires consideration, thought, and patience.
This course portfolio demonstrates the work I have done this semester to draw on my past teaching experiences, adapt that knowledge to a new context, and enhance my conceptions of teaching writing through course readings, discussions, and projects. To be more specific:
My inquiry project demonstrates a great deal of my learning, particularly in regards to the course learning outcomes. Early in the semester, due to frustrations with the pace and unfamiliarity of the standard syllabus, I decided to construct a themed course proposal that would address the difficulty my students had in evaluating online resources and identifying a real audience for their writing. The themed course centers on public online writing: students will create their own online content, which they already do but often without conscious thought to genre, audience, and access.
A course that requires students to consciously and carefully engage with digital ideas and content should have the same amount of conscious care in its construction and framework, and so, I have created a rationale for the course theme and structure, drawing on composition and teaching researchers to articulate why this work might be risky but important. I also felt drawn to exploring what affordances came with posting this rationale on a webpage (instead of submitting it as an "offline" document). The time I invested in designing the webpage taught me skills that I will use to assist my students as they design their digital portfolios next semester. While my syllabus will be in process until the first day of spring semester when I actually walk into class to teach this course, I will feel more confident making upcoming decisions about lesson planning and readings given the extensive research and colleague feedback that have helped me construct the framework undergirding this course.
As in many classes, much of my learning cannot be represented on the page, as learning grew out of conversations with my colleagues, both inside and outside of class, as we struggled together to make sense of the syllabus, our classrooms, and the institutional context. Yet those conversations are implicitly present in each of my projects for this class, and they have made me a better teacher, prepared to teach a brand new class next term by once again going through the transfer process as I adapt my skills—both developed long ago and developed this semester—to a new syllabus and a new set of students.
The transfer is never exact; institutions have different learning outcomes, focuses, and course catalogs, all which impact how a particular course functions in the overall ecosystem of that particular university, as well as the particular role we instructors play in that ecosystem. The university also functions as either a microcosm of the larger culture or an intellectual community isolated from reality (depending on who you ask), and the outside social context impacts the ways our students think, interact, and write within our classes. All this to say, TCC has helped me realize that, no matter how much teaching experience we may have, the transferring of skills and philosophies to a new intellectual context always requires consideration, thought, and patience.
This course portfolio demonstrates the work I have done this semester to draw on my past teaching experiences, adapt that knowledge to a new context, and enhance my conceptions of teaching writing through course readings, discussions, and projects. To be more specific:
- My repertoire of pedagogical strategies has grown through feedback I received on my pedagogical presentation and the pedagogical presentations of others who approach teaching writing differently than I do.
- My planning for our class discussion about teaching philosophies demonstrates my own attempt to reconcile perspectives on this one crucial document that should encapsulate so much.
- My “This I Believe” essay takes that reconciliation a step further, as I reflect on the pragmatic idealism of my teaching self that manifests in how I approach my classroom, assignments, and student writing.
- My observation memos/reflection also provide a glimpse into my process of self-reflection; I am frequently hard on myself, then later recognize how psychology, relational pressures, and cultural standards impact my interpretation of the actions of myself, my fellow teachers, and my students. For me, self-reflection is a double-edged sword that can reify negative thoughts in the moment, but become beneficial once time has passed and I can assess the accuracy and value of those reflections.
My inquiry project demonstrates a great deal of my learning, particularly in regards to the course learning outcomes. Early in the semester, due to frustrations with the pace and unfamiliarity of the standard syllabus, I decided to construct a themed course proposal that would address the difficulty my students had in evaluating online resources and identifying a real audience for their writing. The themed course centers on public online writing: students will create their own online content, which they already do but often without conscious thought to genre, audience, and access.
A course that requires students to consciously and carefully engage with digital ideas and content should have the same amount of conscious care in its construction and framework, and so, I have created a rationale for the course theme and structure, drawing on composition and teaching researchers to articulate why this work might be risky but important. I also felt drawn to exploring what affordances came with posting this rationale on a webpage (instead of submitting it as an "offline" document). The time I invested in designing the webpage taught me skills that I will use to assist my students as they design their digital portfolios next semester. While my syllabus will be in process until the first day of spring semester when I actually walk into class to teach this course, I will feel more confident making upcoming decisions about lesson planning and readings given the extensive research and colleague feedback that have helped me construct the framework undergirding this course.
As in many classes, much of my learning cannot be represented on the page, as learning grew out of conversations with my colleagues, both inside and outside of class, as we struggled together to make sense of the syllabus, our classrooms, and the institutional context. Yet those conversations are implicitly present in each of my projects for this class, and they have made me a better teacher, prepared to teach a brand new class next term by once again going through the transfer process as I adapt my skills—both developed long ago and developed this semester—to a new syllabus and a new set of students.
"This I Believe" about Teaching/Writing
Inquiry Project
Initial Themed 10803 Proposal and Syllabus
Project Proposal
Workshop Draft
Rationale and Course Breakdown
Revised Syllabus
Project Proposal
Workshop Draft
Rationale and Course Breakdown
Revised Syllabus
Contributions to the Class
