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24 % Teaching Writing Online [ 285 ]

Provide students with adequate and detailed information about policies and

procedures for using the online tools. Step- by- step written instructions for turn-

ing in assignments, completing tests and quizzes, participating in discussions, and

contacting you or other individuals who can provide technical support when

Useful Readings

Allen, I. Elaine, and Jeff Seaman. Going the Distance: Online Education in the United

Hannaﬁ n, Michael J., et al. “Open Learning Environments: Foundations, Methods

and Models.” Instructional- design Theories and Models, vol. 2., edited by

Charles M. Reigeluth, Erlbaum, 1999, pp. 115–40.

Hewett, Beth L. The Online Writing Conference: A Guide for Teachers and Tutors.

Heinemann, 2010.

Hewett, Beth L., and Christa Ehmann. Preparing Education for Online Writing

Instruction: Princi ples and Pro cesses. NCTE, 2004. (Includes an excellent

Peterson, Patricia Webb. “The Debate about Online Learning: Key Issues for Writ–

ing Teachers.” Computers and Composition, vol. 18, no. 4, 4th quarter 2001,

pp. 359–70.

Reeves, Thomas C., and Patricia M. Reeves. “Effective Dimensions of Interactive

Learning on the World Wide Web.” Web– Based Instruction, edited by Badrul H.

Khan, Educational Technology Publications, 1999, pp. 59–65.

Warnock, Scott. Teaching Writing Online: Why and How. NCTE, 2009.

[ 286 ]

IF YOU’VE NEVER TAUGHT BEFORE, or if you ﬁ nd yourself in new teaching situ-

ations, you’re prob ably going to have a period of adjustment. Getting used to your

new territory won’t happen overnight. No one is going to hand you a script with every

line of dialogue you’ll deliver, provide you with a wardrobe and makeup, explain

your character’s motivation, or coach you when to emote and when to be stoic. Get–

ting comfortable with yourself as a teacher is a much more ﬂ uid pro cess than that.

You might think of your new teaching context less like a play and more like

Teaching as a Writer

You’re in a writing classroom because you’re a writer. You know how to write, and

you’ve done it successfully. Your experience as a writer should inspire both you

and your students. As someone who’s been where they are, you can serve as an

example. Writing along with students can be a power ful teaching tool and can help

Teaching as an Expert

Start by reminding yourself who you are not: you are not another student in the

class. Your students shouldn’t expect you to act like one of them, and you shouldn’t

suggest that’s what you’re trying to do. Think about it this way: you’ve got a lot of

jobs that your students don’t. Among other things, you have to prepare materials

twenty– five

Creating and Sustaining

a Teaching Persona

Scott Geisel

25 % Creating and Sustaining a Teaching Persona [ 287 ]

that are current, useful, engaging, and productive for each class day; manage the

pacing of daily activities and the course overall; keep students on task and move

students productively both in and out of class; and pay attention and be prepared

feel like it’s in conﬂ ict with your other roles. Your teaching persona may be all

encouragement while the course is getting under way, but if you’re unprepared or

haven’t prepared your students, there can often be a change in the feel of the class–

room when you hand back that ﬁ rst set of graded papers.

ing pro cess will work. You’ll be giving your students the opportunity to begin to

interpret the comments you’ll put on their papers. Make sure to include character–

istics of good writing in general as well as qualities speciﬁ c to a par tic u lar assign-

ment. Prioritize so students know the greatest impediments to achieving the

goals of an assignment and don’t spend the majority of their time worrying about

less impor tant features like headings and margins. When students are aware of

your expectations and know how you’re going to grade their papers, you’ll feel

Balancing Your Roles

At the same time you’re juggling vari ous roles in your classroom, you’ll have a

whole other life outside of the classroom and your responsibilities as a teacher.

Your students will, too. Their lives are their own, and yours is your own, but there

are bound to be points of intersection and common experience that come up in the

activities and discussions and writing that you share. How you handle those inter–

sections will depend mostly on you, but keep in mind that you’ll want to maintain

the ability to keep control of the course while still trying to show you’re a real

person. A key here is relevance. The class you’re teaching is about your students

[ CONDUCTING CLASS ]

[ 288 ]

At the same time, don’t be afraid to think like a student— like your students.

What questions might you have or would you want to know if you had to complete

the assignment you’ve just given? What is its value and goals, and what would be

your motivation to work hard and try to do well? What’s likely to be difﬁ cult, and

where would you start? What pro cesses might you use to get every thing done? Then

Dressing Like a Teacher

Dress codes in an academic environment are often arbitrary, self– imposed, or even

non ex is tent. Look around you— what are other people wearing, and why do you

think they dress that way? And do they look comfortable? If the people you’re

noticing have been teaching long enough, their appearance and demeanor prob–

ably reﬂ ect themselves as teachers, and that’s what you’ll be projecting, too, once

Consider, too, a balance between fashion and appropriateness. Short skirts or

oversized baggy shorts may distract students from reading and writing tasks in

class. Many teachers are comfortable in a similar wardrobe day after day; others

dress in a variety of ways to suit their mood, the weather, and what’s happening at

any given time in the course. It’s useful to look around at what other En glish teach-

ers and people in dif fer ent departments are wearing, too. Your colleagues may not

feel compelled to wear a tie every day, but faculty in the business college may put

Having Fun

Teaching can be serious business, but if you’re not enjoying yourself, too, then why

are you here? And if you’re not enjoying yourself, how must your students feel?

Doing some things for fun (especially if they have some inherent value or relate to

what’s happening in your course) can set every one more at ease and help create a

comfortable, positive learning environment.

25 % Creating and Sustaining a Teaching Persona [ 289 ]

perform skits in class with more energy and fun than I could have imagined. Ask

students to perform a draft of a paper or to draw their thesis as a cartoon. Assign

groups to attend and review a ﬁ lm or play or restaurant. And serving popcorn while

you show a movie in class can make the whole experience more worthwhile.

But don’t force fun. Starting class every day with a joke that you think is

funny will prob ably be about as enjoyable for students as you can imagine it would

be for you if one of your teachers did that. You don’t have to be funny; you just want

Gaining Confidence

When you ﬁ rst start teaching, some plans will work better than others, and some

activities you may do once and vow never to repeat. If you have a backup plan, or

several, you may feel more conﬁ dent for those days when technology fails you or

students just don’t respond as you’d hoped. If you’d like to do more than there is time

for in the term, have some of those other activities ready as alternatives: a ﬁ eld trip

to practice observation and the power of details, an activity with magnetic poetry

Outside pressures can also inﬂ uence your attitude in the classroom: a rest–

less night of sleep, the stress of other responsibilities, your love life (or lack thereof),

or a dead car battery on a cold January morning. You’ll know you’re getting some-

where when you appreciate the good days and don’t dwell on the bad— just keep

moving forward. And remember that gaining conﬁ dence is a key to becoming

comfortable with yourself as a teacher. You’re here because you’ve got something

valuable to offer your students.

Useful Readings

Bishop, Wendy, and Deborah Coxwell– Teague, editors. Finding Our Way: A Writing

Teacher’s Sourcebook. Cengage, 2004.

[ 290 ]

MOST OF US speak and behave differently in a gym than in a church or a

neighborhood pub. We’ve had ample time, an entire lifetime, to learn

the social norms of familiar places, and we recognize that there’s an already estab-

lished social hierarchy where we know our role. In a church, for example, we know

that the priest or pastor stands at the front, behind the pulpit, and we sit in a pew

Most of us have about seventeen years of experience learning how to be a

student, from kindergarten through undergraduate school. On the ﬁ rst day of kin–

dergarten we didn’t know to raise our hands before we spoke. Through observation,

practice, and reminders from the teacher, we learned to do so. High school teachers

prepared us for college by saying, “When you get to college . . .” and the expectations

gradually became clear.

The transition to gradu ate school, however, is usually abrupt, and the transi-

tion from student to teacher feels even more sudden. Most gradu ate programs pro-

vide some type of teacher preparation in the form of a crash course, but rarely do

gradu ate teaching assistants feel prepared to deal with their dual roles as both

teacher and student. As gradu ate teaching assistants ourselves, ﬁ rst in an M.A.

Teaching First– Year Composition

Before you ever step into the classroom, you can prepare yourself for teaching writ–

ing. Meet people. Introduce yourself to the other teachers in your program, the pro-

twenty– six

Balancing Gradu ate Studies

with Writing Instruction

Melissa Faulkner and Melissa Toomey

26 % Balancing Gradu ate Studies with Writing Instruction [ 291 ]

and the students will address each other. Also, take a bottle of water, both to

quench your thirst and to have something to hold in your hand. See Ch. 25 in this

Guide, “Creating and Sustaining a Teaching Persona,” for more ideas.

Once your class gets going, don’t feel that you can’t vary your routines. In

fact, you should try dif fer ent pedagogical approaches in order to keep the stu-

dents and yourself interested and refreshed. Don’t hesitate to ask students for their

views on new activities. In doing a midterm assessment one semester, Melissa

Toomey discovered that students wanted more collaborative work where they

talked in groups, went back to their seats and freewrote about the peer workshop,

Cultivating Good Habits as Teacher and Student

Developing sensible practices as both a writing teacher and a gradu ate student is

vital to your success in both roles. In order to manage your busy schedule, it’s use-

ful to create systematic rec ords of what you are teaching and reading. Here are

some tips for keeping rec ords.

Be or ga nized. Try constructing a basic or detailed lesson plan for each class that

you can place into a binder or folder. Include key points you want to address in class,

and write down any information you will want students to note. As soon as pos si ble

Keep your work for each class you’re teaching and taking in a separate folder

or binder so you can locate information both during the term and later, when you

want to use a handout from your fall section of En glish 101 or cite from an article

that you can ﬁ nd easily in your folder marked “En glish 700: Research Methods—

Spring 20XX.”

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[ 292 ]

If you walk into class without students’ homework or class assignments

ready, you quickly can lose credibility, so make copies of handouts or put infor–

mation on reserve several days before you’ll use or assign them. Unanticipated

prob lems— broken copiers or scanners, delays in the library— often arise, and

you want to avoid scrambling for an alternative to your planned lessons. You can

then review the readings, copied handouts, and lesson plans just before your

class.

It’s equally impor tant to manage your time wisely as a gradu ate student.

Schedule time to write. We write in our planners (another good way to stay or ga–

nized) that from nine to ﬁ ve on Mondays we will do nothing else but write. Sched–

ule speciﬁ c times to read, research, and revise. The more papers you write, the better

You may often feel overwhelmed when you think about dealing with your

students, your own work as a student, and your family. Do what ever it takes for

you to maintain your balance and sanity. Melissa Toomey only recently deci ded

that she should take an entire day off each week from doing any schoolwork what–

soever. She believes she has made herself a better student; knowing she has a day

off coming up soon, she works extremely hard to get there, and after that day off,

she feels revived and rejuvenated. If you can’t schedule a regular day off, consider

a private holiday. When Rich Bullock was in grad school, he and his wife periodi–

cally declared “Januarius McGahan Day,” and took the day off in honor of the lib-

erator of Bulgaria.

Read actively. Being a busy student and teacher, you need to ﬁ nd ways to read

that will help you understand material and remember it long after you have

read it. Generating good reading notes is crucial to initial readings of texts and

gives you a way to review the information later. Ask other students in your pro-

26 % Balancing Gradu ate Studies with Writing Instruction [ 293 ]

• Summarize the chapter read.

• What two questions do I have?

What ever strategy you use, it’s impor tant to remember that you are building a

system that you can consciously change and renegotiate as your learning habits

and skills are modiﬁ ed.

Help students manage their time. The syllabus is a key ele ment in any classroom,

especially in a writing classroom where assignments are due regularly, so use the

syllabus to your advantage by spelling out assignments and rules in detail, mak–

ing it a place where students can go for quick and concise answers to many of their

questions. Students also appreciate having a detailed document to lead them in

the right direction when they are experiencing difﬁ culties. Sequences and dead-

Although you may change some of your assignments as the term progresses,

follow through with what ever policy you have stated. Inconsistency can foster

student irresponsibility and reduce your credibility. For example, Melissa Toomey’s

syllabus states that she does not accept assignments by email. Yet students have

sent her their work with notes attached stating that their printer is out of ink or

Succeeding as a Gradu ate Student

Here are some concerns we’ve encountered, with some advice for dealing with

them.

Relating to faculty. As a gradu ate student, your relationships with faculty are dif–

fer ent than they were when you were an undergraduate. Your professors may ask

you to call them by their ﬁ rst names. They will prob ably begin to ask you how

[ CONDUCTING CLASS ]

[ 294 ]

Relating to your fellow grad students. Grad school does not have to be competi–

tive. Next to faculty, your fellow gradu ate students can be your greatest resources

and your best sources of support. You have all proven your academic ability by

being accepted into your gradu ate program, so you don’t need to compete to see

who can be the best of the best. Form alliances, share useful sources, and help one

another. Write together. We teach collaboration in the classroom, so why not prac-

tice what we teach? This very chapter is the result of an ongoing collaboration

between peers. As grad students, ﬁ rst at the same M.A. institution and now with

Publishing. We don’t intend to downplay the importance of building your creden–

tials, and we recommend you not feel overly pressured to publish and pres ent at

conferences. However, attending conferences even without presenting is an invalu–

able learning experience. You get to learn about exciting new research and ideas as

well as meet people who are impor tant in your ﬁ eld— and they get to meet you. If

pos si ble, attend several conferences to learn their routines before you attempt to be

a presenter. Seek advice from experienced presenters on how to write a proposal.

While publishing is an honor and a desirable goal, concentrate ﬁ rst on writ–

ing successful seminar papers; focus on completing your degree. Do not be afraid,

however, to submit your work to appropriate journals for publication, especially

work that may grow into something larger like an M.A. thesis or Ph.D. disserta–

tion. These submissions can help you develop an area of expertise or specialization

26 % Balancing Gradu ate Studies with Writing Instruction [ 295 ]

Useful Readings

Bishop, Wendy. Something Old, Something New: College Writing Teachers and Class-

room Change. Southern Illinois UP, 1990.

Bishop, Wendy, and Deborah Coxwell Teague, editors. Finding Our Way: A Writing

Teacher’s Sourcebook. Houghton, 2005.

Deen, Rosemary. “Notes to Stella.” College En glish, vol. 54, no. 5, Sept. 1992,

[ 296 ]

YOU ARE ABOUT TO ENTER A COLLEGE COMPOSITION CLASS, maybe for the

ﬁ rst time. You might be ner vous. Good, you should be: I don’t think we can do

anything well without worrying at least a little. We need a bit of adrenaline to get us

Being Honest

Be as honest with your students as you can be. Tell them the truth about yourself

and the subject at hand. This approach does not mean telling your students every–

thing you feel, think, believe, or desire, nor does it mean telling them your life

story. You should, however, try to be open. Often we are so close- minded, so closed

off from one another, and why not? As Brenda Ueland says in If You Want to Write:

A Book about In de pen dence and Spirit, we’re well advised to be careful who we

Are you scared? Are you lost some of the time? Admit it. Tell your students

you’re new, that this is your ﬁ rst class, your ﬁ rst year teaching, that you’re just learn-

ing. They’ll appreciate your honesty, and most of them will be relieved because they

already know it (or intuit it) and feel embarrassed and uncomfortable when you’re

twenty– seven

Interacting with Students

Jimmy Chesire

27 % Interacting with Students [ 297 ]

embarrassed and uncomfortable. So if you own up and express your concern,

they’ll understand while being ﬂ attered to have been trusted. Then you can both

relax. If you allow it, students will help you, especially if you tell them you believe

they can teach you a thing or two— and that you’re open to learning from them.

When they do teach you something (and they will), let them know, thank them,

Doing the Work

I learned as a TA that one of the most effective teaching techniques was to do the

homework assignments you give your students. Do the work you ask them to do.

Tell them you are doing it, and tell them why. Explain that you want to keep in

close touch with just how complicated and difﬁ cult many assignments can be;

work, that I know exactly what I’m asking them to do, and that I know how hard it

is. And they like the forgiveness: “I couldn’t get mine typed up, so I’m not going to

insist that you type yours up.” But mainly they are very impressed, reassured, and

wonderfully appreciative of how close I am to the pain and intellectual challenge

of the homework I’ve assigned.

Caring

Look for ways to let yourself really care for your students and learn how to be com-

passionate toward them. There is a tremendous pressure, in my opinion, to belittle

and ridicule our students, to make jokes at their expense, and to laugh at their

weaknesses and deﬁ cits—as if we teachers are so much more wonderful human

beings because of our love of reading and writing. If you witness denigrating sto-

ries in your ofﬁ ces, lists of students’ mistakes on email, and complaints at faculty

meetings, don’t be sucked into this morass. Don’t make fun of your students, put

[ CONDUCTING CLASS ]

[ 298 ]

good and kind. Offer them condolences, understanding, and second chances. They

may have been chastised along the way by a reading or spelling teacher, and it only

takes one such teacher to put a child off. Many of my students have told me this.

I appreciate my students and tell them so, especially in the opening days of

the term when talking about my university’s many strengths. I say things like “I

learn a lot from my students and will prob ably learn a lot from you all.” I re spect

my students and show it by paying attention to them, by taking them seriously,

Observing Yourself

Discern how you are most effective in the classroom. Perhaps being open, honest,

and willing to reveal your vulnerabilities won’t work for you. Find out what does.

Notice the things that really get your students reading and writing, and then do

more of those things. A number of my peers bring sweets to their classes, like

dents, and with the repetition, you’ll get better and better at it. If something you

ﬁ nd exciting isn’t well received by students, try it again before abandoning it.

Sometimes the idea is good, but the term, the students, or your delivery aren’t

right— but will be another time.

Setting an Example

If you want to be the very best teacher you can be, then make a conscious decision

to grow, both personally and professionally. Dedicate yourself to learning— the

best teachers believe in teaching, which means we value learning. Actively learn–

ing and having a lot of fun in the pro cess will show in your demeanor, and stu–

27 % Interacting with Students [ 299 ]

Useful Readings

Barkley, Elizabeth F. Student Engagement Techniques: A Handbook for College Fac-

ulty. Jossey– Bass, 2009.

Buskist, William F., and Victor A. Benassi, editors. Effective College and University

Teaching: Strategies and Tactics for the New Professoriate. Sage, 2011.

Holt, John. “Making Children Hate Reading.” The Underachieving School, Sentient,

2005, pp. 55–65.

[ 300 ]

STUDENTS WHO FEEL COMFORTABLE SHARING IDEAS and experiences with

their instructors and other students in their classes will learn more and stay

in college longer than students who ﬁ nd their learning environment and their inter–

actions on campus awkward and uncomfortable. But creating a classroom in which

all students feel included, comfortable, and respected regardless of physical abilities,

learning styles, sex, age, ethnicity, sexual orientation, socioeconomic background,

Understanding Four Key Ele ments of Inclusive Design

Simply put, teaching for inclusion means you teach so that each student’s individ–

ual learning needs are met. Sometimes called culturally responsive teaching, this

approach calls for instruction that honors each student. Inclusive courses, no

matter what the subject, contain the following key ele ments:

1. The instructor demonstrates awareness of his or her own attitudes and

biases.

2. Course content reﬂ ects vari ous worldviews and perspectives.

Appraising Your Attitude and Awareness

To create culturally responsive classrooms, begin with an honest appraisal of your

own attitudes and biases. Sometimes we think we are encouraging multiple

twenty– eight

Teaching for Inclusion and Diversity

Adrienne Cassel

28 % Teaching for Inclusion and Diversity [ 301 ]

viewpoints and worldviews, but unless we have examined our own beliefs in

light of the dominant culture within which we live and work, we may be uncon–

sciously replicating and encouraging the same frames of reference we are trying

points, they are not meant to suggest that the only pos si ble responses are “ either-or”

responses. They are meant instead to provide a springboard from which multiple per–

spectives and interpretations are pos si ble. As you answer the questions, think about

other perspectives that may be equally valid in other cultures or situations, and

assess to what degree you allow for these alternative worldviews and approaches

to learning in your classrooms. The ﬁ rst two questions include some analy sis. Use

these examples to help you create your own analy sis of the other questions.

• How do you deﬁ ne success? In the United States, there is an emphasis on

“pulling one’s self up by the bootstraps,” or the rags- to- riches success story

characterized by large ﬁ nancial gains achieved by working hard or by being

• What do you believe about work? In the United States, we generally believe

that working hard is a virtue; however, that belief devalues the importance of

• What are your humanitarian mores? Do you believe people should come

together to help the “underdog,” or do you believe that people “get what they

deserve”?

• What is your moral orientation? Do you believe in a deﬁ nite right or wrong?

• Which is more valuable, efﬁ ciency and practicality or the quality of the pro-

cess? Is it more impor tant to make decisions and act on them or to make sure

[ CONDUCTING CLASS ]

[ 302 ]

the like equals betterment for humankind, or do you believe that honoring

the natu ral world and the inherent cycles is a better way to live?

• What constitutes “the good life”? Do you see the good life as the attainment

of things that can make you more comfortable, or do you believe the good life

• Is freedom an absolute good? Do you believe in freedom at any cost, or do you

believe that limiting your own freedom may be a way to show re spect for

someone else’s freedom?

When you look at your cultural values through the vari ous perspectives suggested

by these questions from Wlodkowski and Ginsberg, you develop a better understand-

ing of how your worldview can subtly but profoundly change the experience your

students have in your classroom. For example, simply asking, “Where are you going

on spring break?” may unnecessarily make some students uncomfortable. Students

who travel on spring break are usually supported by their parents or guardians, giv–

Although this variation might seem like a small thing, awareness of these

kinds of implied values can have a huge impact on ﬁ rst– generation students and

students from underrepresented groups who often get through college only if they

are lucky enough to ﬁ nd people who are willing to help them interpret, analyze,

Revisiting Course Content and Materials

Once you understand how your own values and beliefs shape your teaching, you

will be better able to evaluate the content you pres ent and the materials you use

28 % Teaching for Inclusion and Diversity [ 303 ]

tion of higher education. The ongoing debate about what authors and works should

be included in the En glish literary canon is just one example of how embedded

values shape education.

Another example is the debate over the teaching of “standard” En glish and the

ac cep tance of African American Vernacular En glish and other dialects in spoken

language in the classroom. Students must understand and learn to write with the

conventions accepted in the professional world, but it is also impor tant that stu–

dents understand that issues of diversity are inherent in any use of language. One

While it’s impor tant to allow students to understand and explore vari ous

ways of speaking and writing, it’s also impor tant to be aware of the vari ous chal–

lenges that students face based on their ethnic backgrounds, the area of the coun-

try in which they grew up, and their preparation for academic work. If you can

You should also review your examples. Are the examples that you use to

illustrate key points both meaningful and sensitive to the students? Do the exam–

ples demonstrate that you value multiple perspectives and ways of viewing the

world? One way to incorporate a variety of viewpoints is to ﬁ rst offer your own

Understanding Learning Styles

In addition to engaging a diverse student population by providing content that

reﬂ ects multiple perspectives and experiences, you can also motivate students by

[ CONDUCTING CLASS ]

[ 304 ]

to each of the four types of learners identiﬁ ed by David Kolb, an orga nizational

researcher (in Sharp, Harb, and Terry).

• Divergers learn through interaction and discussion. Freewriting, peer

reviews, personal reactions, and opinion papers appeal to this type of learner.

• Accommodators learn best through self– discovery. They are risk takers who

resent having to follow too many rules. They enjoy assignments that involve

teaching concepts to other students, solving “what if” formulas, and formulat–

ing prob lems.

One of my favorite assignments is for students to post their research proj ects on

blogs they have created themselves. Using blogs for both group and individual proj-

ects is an easy way to publish students’ work, and blogs also provide an opportunity

for students to gain computer literacy skills while participating in an activity that

they consider trendy and fun. In addition, the blog assignment has a component

that resonates with each of the learning types described by Kolb. For divergers, who

like interaction and discussion, the blog provides instant access to both. Assimila–

au then tic assessment: they ask students to perform real- world tasks that demon–

strate meaningful application of essential knowledge and skills, the best approach

to embracing a diverse student body.

Understanding Learning Disabilities

Complicating the issue of learning styles are students who come to us with diag–

nosed or undiagnosed learning disabilities. Keeping these students engaged

requires going beyond respecting their worldviews, cultural backgrounds, and