Tag: teaching

What Does Writing Mean for Students?

Every year, as the spring semester comes to a close, I think about some of the things I have tried to teach students over the course of the semester and academic year. As a composition teacher, my main goal is to help students become better writers and readers, and hopefully, through that combination, become better students in the process. If they can hone their … Read More What Does Writing Mean for Students?

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Some Pedagogical Changes in My Teaching Over the Past Twenty-Five Years

Whenever I think about my, at this point, quarter century of teaching at both the high school and university level, I contemplate how I even became a teacher. As I’ve written about before, barely graduated with my undergraduate degree in secondary education and minor in English. I struggled my first few semester teaching high school, and those struggles led me to graduate school and ultimately to … Read More Some Pedagogical Changes in My Teaching Over the Past Twenty-Five Years

“Critical Consciousness” and Pedagogy in Ernest Gaines’ “The Sky is Gray”

During my educational career, I sat in countless classroom regurgitating information back to the one at the head of the classroom who held my grades and my future in their hands. I felt, for the most part, disconnected from any of my experiences or reality. That does not mean that the information I learned did not relate to my life; it just means that … Read More “Critical Consciousness” and Pedagogy in Ernest Gaines’ “The Sky is Gray”

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Graphic Narrative/Script Assignment

A few years back, I taught a course focusing on graphic memoirs. For their final assignment, students had to create their own graphic memoirs, either illustrating it or using picture and an app. The assignment went well, and I was thoroughly impressed with the products that the students produced. This semester, since I was teaching “Monsters, Race, and Comics,” I wanted to do a similar … Read More Graphic Narrative/Script Assignment