Writing about literature ensures an individual perspective to the examined text, and once students conceive of their own writing as new knowledge, they begin to view themselves not as passive consumers of information, but as active agents of cultural production.
An essential, basic, world-wide canon of literature exists underpinning all cultural literacy. Understanding the political and social conditions which shaped any piece of literature promotes critical thinking about the contingency of our particular historical moment and challenges cultural assumptions.
My favorite days in the classroom involve collaboration with library personnel.
I have invited professional authors into the classroom via Skype. Mira Ptacin visited my Introduction to College Writing course at Big Fish, and Tamara Linse visited my developmental writing course at Great Bay. This past spring semester, Tom Payne and Ann Williams visited the classroom at UNH.
I believe writing is not just for the classroom—that there is a public audience. To this end, students present on their final research-based persuasive essays. These presentations can be anything—from interpretive dance, posters and poetry to PowerPoints. Outside staff, administration, and other faculty often attend.
As fellow writer, reader, coach, and editor, I encourage students through the act of creative writing without fear of reprisal. I share my own writing process—bringing in drafts, revisions, and editing to demonstrate every writer goes through the same process. I often open class with Anne Lamott’s chapter “Shitty First Drafts” from Bird by Bird.
In my creative writing courses, I utilize a “box of density,” where on the first day of class students brainstorm writing prompts on slips of paper. As the course continues, we randomly pull the prompts from a cardboard box, and we use these prompts for free writing, creative writing projects, and poetry exercises. Most of these prompts end up absolutely ridiculous which removes pressure from having to write perfect poetry, or deals in a fun way with the feeling that writing is inaccessible.
Although I am a descriptive grammarian as opposed to a prescription, I believe in the Oxford Comma. In my first year writing courses, we diagram professionally published standard and nonstandard sentences on the board to examine the nuts and bolts of what an author accomplishes through grammar.
Assessment is an integrated and ongoing component of the classroom, and I utilize a wide variety of assessment techniques such as PowerPoint presentations, classroom discussion, the Socratic Circle, multiple drafts, pre- and post- reading for comprehension tests, and one-on-one student/teacher conferences.
