Graduate Writing Workshop

SEMESTERS TAUGHT
Summer 2008

Catalog Description for ENG 5030 [3 credits]

Graduate writing workshop intensive with special emphasis on writing process, discourse, and style.  Analysis of professional models, strategies, and standards.  Students develop skills necessary for graduate-level course work.

Reflecting on My Practice

This course my first foray into the world of Graduate level teaching.  I was nervous, excited, and self-confident prior to the start of this course, with each emotion taking precedence over the other from the day to day that this course ran in the Summer of 2008.  This experience was unlike any other I’ve had since.  To start, I co-facilitated this course with two other professors who had more experience than myself.  Furthermore, this course was part of the inaugural KUWP Summer Institute; not only was this form of teaching new to me, this was new to all three of us!  We weren’t sure what to expect from the eight teacher participants that were accepted into the ISI that semester, nor were we sure of what the National Writing Project expected our Institute experience to run like.  That said, the institute ran very successfully, and I was grateful to be initiated into the realm of post-secondary teaching with two supportive mentors who I am privileged enough to call colleagues to this day.

Teaching Methodology

As I stated previously, this course was taught in tandem with ENG 5030 [Topics in Composition] as part of the KUWP’s initial invitational summer institute.  That said, we did a tremendous amount of pre-planning together that involved a great deal of collaboration among the three of us as the co-facilitators of this immersive experience.   My primary role in the Institute was that of a liaison between my colleagues and the teacher participants during the hours we were not on campus together (of which demonstrated my high level of competence in administrative affairs that ultimately led to the development of my role as Assistant to the Director of the KUWP, a charge that began in September of that same year).  I also had the pleasure of attending the Institute daily, serving as an academic coach and mentor to the teacher participants enrolled in the institute, as well as analyzing, evaluating, and grading their finished portfolios, the culminating project of the ISI experience.

Selected Course Resources

Course content can be found by clicking on the following links below: