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Caitlin Martin

Teaching Philosophy

After a year of teaching first-year composition, I understand that my teachingphilosophy and classroom management are highly influenced by my experiences as anundergraduate writing consultant at my universitys writing center. In this capacity, Ilearned the value of one-on-one instruction; I realized how I can work with students tohelp them find intrinsic motivating factors to improve their writing. Most importantly,though, I saw learning happen in my experiences as a writing consultant. I believe allstudents are capable of being successful communicators and writers, and I approach myclasses under that assumption.

I feel that the most important tools FYC courses can teach are critical thinking

strategies. I plan my courses in a way that uses a process-based curriculum to helpstudents understand the function of language and writing both in the university systemand in our current society. By creating a student-centered classroom that integratestechnology with a curriculum based in genre awareness and writing-about-writingpedagogy, I seek to instill in students the importance of critical thinking and the rolethat writing can play in reading and engaging with the world.

I strive to create a student-centered, enthusiasm-driven classroom where I am more of amentor that coaches writers of varying experience levels than an authoritative figurethat assesses them. One of the key ways I try to implement this is using one-on-onemeetings and small group work. Whether they are formal conferences or short

conversations during independent work time in class, these one-on-one conversationsallow for a stronger, more comfortable rapport with students and a level of engagementthat I believe leads to greater student success. Pairing this strategy with small-groupwork has helped students form the bonds that are so imperative to education success. Iwant students enrolled in the classes I teach to feel a sense of community and solidarity,and I believe this is best fostered through individual and small group interaction.

I also integrate current technology to help students critically engage with aspects of theworld they encounter daily, and I feel this strategy is a driving force in the compositionclassroom. I assign writing projects that are both more traditional, academic essays andwriting projects that allow for greater freedom to choose the genre, medium, and mode

of delivery. One assignment that fuses the academic goals of FYC with a more publicgoal is to ask students to research a public issue (often resulting in an annotatedbibliography and an essay that synthesizes that research), then craft to persuasivetexts that are targeted toward specific audiences that could have some effect onchanging or solving this issue. This assignment has prompted a variety of responses,including posters to persuade high school and college students to stop using socialnetworking sites and letters to public officials about SAT testing and underage alcoholconsumption, in addition to pamphlets, fliers, and PowerPoint presentations. This

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particular assignment has created a sense of excitement among students while stilldiscussing important tools that they can use across the university, such as research andsource evaluation, source integration, and academic integrity.

Finally, I believe that students are capable of recontexualizing the tools and concepts

learned in FYC in other writing and learning settings. I use a fusion of genre awarenessand writing-about-writing pedagogies to help students not only understand theconventions of FYC discourse, but also to help them develop the knowledge necessary torecognize conventions in new contexts. I use both rhetorical and process based termsused in composition theory to help students develop a lexicon for discussing theirwriting, while also placing a focus on overall learning outcomes for the course andindividual assignments. I also integrate daily reflective writing in the form of a processblog and assignwriters letters that accompany all major writing projects. Both of thesetasks ask students to engage with decisions theyve made in class activities and writingprojects, to refer to material from their own work to show growth, and to explainstruggles theyve encountered and the ways theyve dealt with them (or, conversely,assistance they need to deal with these struggles). I explain to students early on in thesemester and continually remind them that these reflective writings are not only a key tocontextualizing their major writing projects, but are also a venue for understanding thewriting process and how theyve developed as writers throughout the semester. I believethat this writing is a very strong tool for students to use, especially when it comes topromoting transfer of FYC tools to other writing contexts, a key goal of my compositionclass.

While I have illustrated here the ways that I aid my students learning and writingdevelopment, I believe that I, too, learn from them. I continue to refine my teachingstrategies and pedagogical decisions based on my experiences in the classroom. I believethat an effective teacher will tailor his or her approach to specific classes and groups of

personalities. While doing so, I continue to hold to my educational values. By using astudent-centered, process approach that draws on genre awareness and writing-about-writing pedagogies, I feel that I strongly engage individuals in my class as students, aswriters, and as educators in their own right.