Gail Y.

Richard
Teaching Philosophy
As a composition teacher, I promote success for students in the writing classroom by facilitating foundational elements of importance. These elements are developing confidence in the students and helping them to learn life-long writing skills. In order to facilitate such a process, I incorporate key factors in my teaching. First, I provide scaffolding to ensure successful understanding and completion of assignments. Second, I facilitate collaboration by placing students in groups to encourage academic growth and the making of knowledge. Lastly, students are empowered in a student-centered environment with teacher-facilitated learning that promotes student growth in the classroom. Process writing is practiced in my classroom to get the students to produce good writing. One of the steps I implement in my teaching style is an incorporation of low-stakes assignments in the curriculum (Elbow). The goal of low-stakes assignments is to get the students to think, learn, and grow. By providing safe places for the students to make errors or opportunities to learn, they are able to explore and develop their writing beyond their current abilities. One way I foster this in the classroom is to allow the students to work in small groups on a mini-project before requiring them to work independently on another similar assignment. Another way I foster student-learning in the classroom is by providing scaffolding for students (Vygotsky). First, I introduce the new genre with its conventions. When all questions are addressed, students are divided into working groups of 4-5 members. Individual projects are then supplied and each group is allowed to choose one they would like to engage in. By providing a choice, this gives the students power which is indicative of learner-centered pedagogy (Weimer). After completing the group activity, students are required to develop an individual writing sample that demonstrates their ability to write according to the WPA Outcomes. Additionally, I evaluate the individual writing sample in conjunction with a scoring guide based on the WPA Outcome Statement. Students are required to write a reflection piece for each assignment which serves as a second indicator of the students learning process. I believe that learning is a human right and the ability to write and express ideas is imperative to that goal. By teaching students to write well, one builds bridges by which students may access and participate in the making of knowledge.