At the heart of my teaching philosophy is an awareness that building expertise involves a shift in perception: where the novice sees isolated acts and instructions, the expert sees purposeful patterns. Composition and rhetoric has given me a vocabulary that guides my attention, and one of my roles as a teacher is to share that vocabulary and what it helps us see. But all of us, as learners, can reflect back and name to each other the patterns we notice in reading and in writing, in processes and products, so we can notice differently the next time around.
Read my full teaching statement here.
Courses Taught
Hunter College, CUNY: English 301, Theory and Practice of Expository Writing
In my own spin on the upper-level non-fiction writing course, students “engage directly with articles published in academic journals, learning some of the core claims and central debates in the field of composition and rhetoric. Students leaving the course will be able to recognize many of the common references that often make such articles opaque to novices, and to understand such genre conventions as literature reviews, citations, and various kinds of evidence and reasoning. In addition, because the content of these articles often has implications for the practice and pedagogy of writing, students will broaden their repertoires for generating and revising their own prose, as well as for teaching writing to others.”| Summer 2012 | Syllabus | Evals |
|---|---|---|
| Summer 2011 | Syllabus | Evals |
| Spring 2011 | Syllabus | Evals |
| Summer 2010 | Syllabus | Evals | non-linked items forthcoming |
Hunter College, CUNY: English 120
English 120, an introductory expository writing course, has four related goals: “Through recursive processes of reading, writing, discussion, and reflection, it teaches students (1) to generate, explore, and refine their own ideas; (2) to analyze and evaluate intellectual arguments; (3) to take positions, develop thesis statements, and support them persuasively; and (4) to proofread for standard acceptable grammar, varied sentence structure, logical organization, and coherence.” My sections were conducted as hands-on practica in a large variety of generative and revision techniques, with an emphasis on the relationship between product and process, and with readings drawn from composition scholarship (a Writing About Writing approach).| Fall 2010 (two sections) |
Syllabus | Evals |
|---|---|---|
| Spring 2010 | Syllabus | Evals |
| Fall 2009 (two sections) |
Syllabus | Evals |
| Spring 2009 | Syllabus | Evals |
| Fall 2008 | Syllabus | Evals | non-linked items forthcoming |
Columbia University: University Writing
University Writing “seeks to welcome and integrate students into the virtual barrage of written exchange that forms the intellectual life of the university. Emphasizing critical analysis, revision, collaboration, and research, this course aims to translate this academic conversation from a source of anxiety to a source of stimulation.” I was the instructor for six sections, including four in the College and two in the School of General Studies (a program for non-traditional and returning students).| Spring 2007 | Syllabus | Evals |
|---|---|---|
| Fall 2006 | Syllabus | Evals |
| Spring 2006 | Syllabus | Evals |
| Fall 2005 | Syllabus | Evals |
| Spring 2005 | Syllabus | Evals |
| Fall 2004 | Syllabus | Evals | non-linked items forthcoming |
