Jennifer_Ellen_Murphy_Pedagogical_Statement

 

You Can Lead a Student to Books, But You Can’t Make them Read

 

My goal when entering the classroom is to help students develop their authentic voices. Whether I’m teaching a creative writing course or a lower-division composition course, I want students to leave the classroom at the end of the semester with a developed awareness of their writing voice and their aesthetic intentions. Utilizing critical, empowerment, and feminist pedagogical strategies, I encourage students to consider medium, message, and intention in their writing. To embolden students to find their voice, I allow them to pick their writing topics for the semester. In the ENGL 1102 Composition classroom, I ask them to choose a topic they will write about in various ways throughout the semester. Allowing them the opportunity to research and write about what interests them most provides room for them to develop their personal aesthetic and a voice reflective of their own perspectives. It dissuades them from becoming fixated on mimicking examples that don’t necessarily represent their personal experiences. Students have chosen semester research topics ranging from horror films, clean energy transportation, the American health care system, Kendrick Lamar, high fashion, Yerba tribal traditions, and Alexandria Ocasio Cortez.

The best pedagogical advice I’ve ever heard was, “Good teaching isn’t about how well you can teach a student who does well in the English classroom. It’s about how well you can teach a student who doesn’t want to be in that classroom.” A student might not want to be in the writing classroom for several reasons, some more severe than others. I try to approach each student with an ethic of understanding. It has taken many years to beat the distrust I was taught when I was a student about the so-called “lazy” or “bad” student. Some professors use this enculturation method as an implementation of hierarchy. In truth, we instructors never really know a student’s situation and are aware of the horrors that truly exist in the lives of our students. There are no “bad” students. There are no good students. Only those who can approach writing confidently and those who have been pushed away and deprived of the necessary tools to develop that confidence.

I approach these students with a strategy of caring and non-judgment. When a student disengages from the course, I reach out with an email to check in. I post announcements encouraging students to contact me when they fall behind so we can develop a strategy for success. During the announcements portion of the class, I offer that it is natural to fall behind sometimes and share some strategies for catching up for those students who remain silent about their struggles in the class. This feminist approach of care shows the students that I understand and am sympathetic to their situations. It also encourages them to speak to me in person, allowing me to reconnect the student to the class. Once the student approaches me for help, I can chat with them about when they can turn in assignments. This approach also makes them accountable and enables them to think of ways to succeed instead of focusing on their inadequacies.

I believe any student can succeed in the writing classroom given the proper tools and the time to develop strategies for their success. To encourage such development, I integrate elements of process into the writing assignments. Prewriting and outlining are graded components. As is a reflection questionnaire about how they approached each project assignment and what they might do to improve their writing strategy in the future. These elements of a project grade are labor based. If the student does them, they will earn full credit for those elements. This strategy also allows students to reflect on their writing process and better understand their writing strengths and where they can improve. Furthermore, the entirety of a project grade isn’t reliant upon the qualitative evaluation of one paper for students who struggle with writing. These students can engage with their craft and process, knowing they will earn ten to twenty percent of the project grade by turning in these components, allowing them to focus on the writing process instead of dwelling on product and perfectionism.

To encourage students to find their authentic voices, I provide a variety of perspectives in the literature we read and study in class. For example, I include traditionally marginalized writers on the reading list in my creative and composition courses so the students can encounter a variety of approaches to rhetorical strategies, critical analysis, telling a story, writing a poem, or crafting a memoir. Some books I’ve found helpful in the classroom are Postcolonial Love Poem by Natalie Diaz, Cool for You by Eileen Myles, A House of My Own by Sandra Cisneros, Daytripper by Fábio Moon and Gabriel Bá, Citizen by Claudia Rankin, and Don’t Call Us Dead by Danez Smith. Providing a variety of voices helps the students gain the confidence to write their own truth. It is important that students connect with the readings and see themselves represented in the literature because representation indicates belonging.

I adore the diverse student population at Georgia State University. Serving a predominantly black population of students, I encourage conversations that question the systems we must operate under while offering literature that evokes culturally important conversations. I choose literature written by traditionally marginalized or unrepresented populations such as BIPOC and LGBTQ+ authors. It is important that each student is given the right to express their opinions in an environment that encourages civil discourse and debate. It is equally important that each student respectfully consider the opinions of their colleagues. A well-rounded analysis must consider a multitude of positions. While engaging with these complex and, at times, difficult works, I encourage students to play devil’s advocate or think of ways one might argue with a particular point.

I’ve taught many multilingual students during my teaching career. I like to have conversations about vernacular. What is academic vernacular? What is conversational vernacular? What is code-switching? It is important that students are aware of the systems they are participating in, as much as it is important that they understand the power structures that created these systems. I teach the students to adopt the Academic Vernacular while acknowledging the cultural inequalities that come along with these structures. I have taught many multilingual students who are self-conscious about their grammatical skills. Instead of expecting a student to know English grammatical structures perfectly, I incorporate a few lessons here and there to address common mistakes. While teaching at the University of Massachusetts in Boston, I encountered several immigrant students. To help the students who needed more than my mini lessons in grammar, I asked the tutoring center to come in and speak to the students about how to utilize the tutoring program, which offers more individualized attention.  

I intend that each student not only connect with their writing voice by the end of the semester but also move on from the class, feeling like they’ve been heard. Writing is a powerful act, even more so for those who’ve been denied access to that power. It is not only powerful in its dissemination but empowering in its practice. I pride myself in serving students who struggle with writing and reading to foster a positive relationship between the written word and the students who long to utilize their voices to represent the communities that have long remained unheard.