My teaching philosophy can be condensed to one simple phrase: writing is thinking. This encompasses the ideology that writing is a process of discovery and based in inquiry and critical thinking. The classroom materials below are a sample of some of my work. The “Writing is Thinking” lecture is a student’s first introduction to my theory of writing and how it plays out in the classroom. The sample writing prompt shows how I set clear expectations and guide students through the process of brainstorming. Finally, the Analyzing Sources lecture and handout show how I equip students to evaluate sources through a familiar tool, the rhetorical triangle. Through these materials I aim to create inquiry driven writers and researchers.

Writing is Thinking – Lecture

Purpose: This video lecture is used early on in the course to discuss my theory of writing and how it impacts the classroom through writing process, as well as the use of generative writing AI in the classroom.

Sample Writing Prompt

Purpose: Each writing prompt is drafted with three things in mind: Purpose, Prepare, and Product. Purpose explains to the student why they are doing the assignment and what skills they should take away from it. Prepare walks the student through the brainstorming process including what types of information they should gather. Product describes the final draft of the assignment including what details are expected such as any template for the thesis statement, MLA formatting, number of sources needed, and the page count.

Analyzing Sources Lecture and Handout

Purpose: Students must learn to critically evaluate sources in an era of misinformation, as well as combat their own biases based on their un-evaluated experiences. The purpose of this lesson is to teach critical thinking, and use a familiar tool–the rhetorical triangle–to evaluate sources.

Prepare: The lecture defines critical thinking and why it is important, and then describes how to use the rhetorical triangle to think critically about sources. The students are walked through how to use the rhetorical triangle to evaluate a source. After the lecture, the handout is given to the students as they use in-class time to search the library for sources for their research essay.

Product: Each student is capable of describing what critical thinking is and why it is important. Each student is capable of using the rhetorical triangle to evaluate the credibility of a source by looking at the author, message, audience, purpose and context of a piece of writing. Students can also look at writing produced by a generative writing AI to evaluate the credibility of it.