8/28 Teaching concepts

My own teaching philosophy in regards to writing revolves around methods of self-expression developed through demonstrations. I am very interested in the invention stage of the writing process, particularly the writer finding his/her own true voice without being concerned with fundamental parameters. In my classroom, I plan to help the students develop their voices through journal writing. They will not have to worry about grammar or sentence structure in this forum as I feel these restrictions can sometimes silence the student’s creativity. Rather, the focus will be on each student finding a way to express his/her own thoughts through language, a skill that will be beneficial to them across disciplines.
I will re-enforce this idea through demonstrations involving group work. In school, I was often the shy student who was afraid to communicate my ideas to the instructor for fear of being wrong. However, when I was a member of a group, I was more likely to share my thoughts with peers. After gaining their understanding, I would feel more comfortable addressing my teacher. Little did I know that the group activities were a method of teaching. My peers were teaching me, I was teaching them, and we were all teaching the instructor, who in turn taught us! I love this idea that no one person knows more than the next regardless of age or degrees earned. We all have acquired different information we can share with one another.
Related to this idea is the discussion of cultural backgrounds. This is another concept integral to my teaching. The student’s ethnic, cultural, and social background certainly influences his/her cognitive process as well as the writing product. In “A Brief History of Rhetoric and Composition,“ the authors provided an example of a student whose home culture places little importance on academic study and so he, therefore, feels an assignment to be irrelevant. This is a particularly helpful scenario because so often we, as teachers, may disregard a student’s reluctance as laziness or stubbornness. By considering that student’s social background, the context in which their writing is produced, we may find another reason for his reluctance and as a result, a better method of communicating and working with that student.

my background

Hey class,

My name is Landon Moore. I'm a PhD student specializing in creative writing. I like to write fiction. This is my first year at Texas Tech, and I'm coming from Sul Ross State University in Alpine, Texas.