Troy Hicks :: Professional Portfolio

A Teacher of Teachers

In my work with students, most of whom are learning how to teach themselves, I strive to be a model teacher. Our department by-laws suggest for components to teaching competence: understanding subject matter, communicating effectively with students, advising and supervising students, and promoting student learning. Except for direct advising experiences, which I have been excused from during this first year of my appointment, I will describe the ways in which I met these department goals in the sections below.

• Approach to Teaching
  • ENG 201
  • ENG 315
• Student Evaluations
  • SOS Results
  • Peer Observation
  • Additional Student Evaluations
  • Unsolicited Student Correspondence and Feedback
• Undergraduate Advising
• Course Development

Approach to Teaching

In both courses I taught this year, ENG 201: Intermediate Composition and ENG 315: Teaching Writing in the Elementary Schools, my teaching approach centers on active student engagement both in and out of class as well as an integrated use of technologies in the support of writing. This approach is consistent with my scholarship and helps students better understand the subject matter of 21st century writing, whilJanuary 16, 2008January 16, 2008e teaching a generation of “digital natives,” my experience continues to show that they may be able to use cell phones and Facebook, but they do not automatically examine these tools from a critical perspectivenor do they engage in the production of rhetorically-sound multimodal texts such as websites or video production. Thus, I aim to bring the sensibilities of scholarship into their experience using the internet and digital tools so that they can remediate their experiences as readers and writers who use technology to support their own inquiry and learning.

In particular, I invited students to use blogs (websites that allows for “push button” publishing of a personal website without the use of dedicated server space and web design software such as Dreamweaver) and wikis (websites that allow multiple authors to collaborate on the site, again without the use of dedicated server space and software). Both of these read/write web technologies invite students to become authors that publish, often immediately, for real purposes and audiences. Blogs allow for readers to "subscribe" to one another's postings and then offer comments back. Wikis allow for collaborative writing and revising over time. For both technologies, students have to adapt the skills that they know about applications such as word processing and the habits of mind that come from other online contexts such as instant messaging or social networking to create an academic persona.

Top

English 201 (1 Section, Fall 2007)

Fall 2007 Syllabus

For my fall section of ENG 201, I wanted to develop students’ competence as writers while also introducing them to digital reading, writing, and researching skills. From the first day of class, we began a wiki, affectionately titled by them as “Team Chaos” because of the immediate, somewhat sporadic collaboration that we started through our initial class activities. Throughout the semester, students also kept their own blogs, posting weekly responses to class discussions as well as their ideas for upcoming papers. Other activities throughout the semester included collaborative writing with Google Documents, learning how to cite materials with a citation manager, Zotero, collecting resources with Google Notebook, and aggregating online content through Google Reader. This approach to using digital writing was, according to the students, a unique experience, unlike any other that they have had in their college experience. It also allowed me to stay in touch with them over time, helping them developing ideas about their personal interests that moved them from their first paper to an annotated bibliography, their own primary research, an argumentative essay, and, finally, a multimodal group project.

When I teach the course again , I know that I need to introduce opportunities for more purposeful collaboration and response from the beginning of the course. As we explored the themes of technology, media, and identity, students began working in affinity groups for peer response and development of a final multimodal argument. In all their work, I encouraged them to consider audiences beyond the classroom and purposes that would take their writing into real contexts. For instance, one student composed her argumentative essay as a proposal to the CMU student chapter of the American Chemical Society, inviting them to build on her primary research about how students perceive the effectiveness of ethanol and create an outreach effort that would better inform students about the environmental and economic benefits and costs of using the fuel. She is considering purpose and audience beyond ENG 201, and for that reason alone I feel as if the students are learning what I would hope they would about how to read, research, and write in authentic contexts. Another group focused on health issues created a website, "Wellness Information for College Students," to inform students about issues related to prescription drug abuse, eating disorders, fast food addiction, and stress.

In summary, I feel as if I allowed students choice and freedom in topics all the while supporting their growth as writers. Perhaps, as they let me know in their actions and end-of-course comments, I allowed for a little too much freedom and incorporating some structure--especially around discussions of the readings and expectations for the writings--would be helpful. I know that, if anything, I err on the side of allowing my students too much choice at times and that this choice can be both overwhelming and unhelpful. Still, I feel that my student-focused classroom can work, with some modifications, and continue to help these writers develop a style and voice suitable for their upper level courses and future careers.

Top

English 315 (1 Section, Fall 2007; 3 Sections, Spring 2008)

Fall 2007 Syllabus

Spring 2008 Syllabus

As with ENG 201, I wanted to introduce digital writing skills into my ENG 315 course which had the added complication of both teaching these skills while also inviting these pre-service teachers to think about how they would use them in their own future classrooms. We began a course wiki and used Google Docs to think about the potential for collaborative writing. Also, students began blogs, some of which they used as “blogfolios” at the end of the semester to submit their final portfolio pieces and projects. Some students also composed digital stories and shared them through their blogs, too. Over the course of the semester, we also engaged in readings about newer and multiliteracies in addition to the regular course readings that outline the foundations of the writing workshop model of instruction.

As students considered the ways in writing is changing in digital environments—as well as the demands that teaching young writers carry anyway—we talked about implications for their daily teaching practice, assessment, curriculum, and school structures. Integrating technology is becoming an imperative for all teachers, and I structured the course in ways that would invites students to explore digital writing while still honoring the types of literacy practices that they will, in turn, teach to students in their future classrooms. Throughout the semester, this required them to make two cognitive shifts--one in how they envisioned the teaching of writing and the other in the way they saw technology a part of the writing process.

As I planned the course for spring 2008, then, I decided to pare back on the readings a bit, move the larger individual project up to an earlier due date, schedule period check-in times for that project, incorporate more peer response and group work, and spead the technologies out over the semester. In so doing, I feel as though have been able to stay focused on the content of the course while also better focsuing our attention on both the content of teaching writing and the practice of being writers.

Top

Student Evaluations

Along with the SOS forms that allow for written response, I invite students to reply to a supplemental survey as well. Both the ENG 201 and ENG 315 surveys invite students to offer specific feedback about the course structure, texts, homework, technology used, my approach to teaching, and comparative feedback. Along with the traditional forms of positive feedback that we all crave, I invite students -- both during the semester and in the SOS forms -- to give me specific ideas for improving my teaching.

Top

SOS Results

For the fall of 2007, my "Overall Instructor Effectiveness" scores were 3.69 for ENG 315 and 3.47 for ENG 201. In conversations with my mentor, Dr. Elizabeth Broackman, and my department chair, Dr. Marcy Taylor, these scores appear to be in the upper levels of teaching effectiveness.

Top

Peer Observation

At my request in the spring 2008 semester, my mentor, Dr. Elizabeth Brockman, agreed to observe me teach one of my ENG 315 classes.

Top

Additional Student Evaluations

At the end of the term, in addition to the SOS forms, I collected more specific information from my students and my teaching through supplemental surveys about the ENG 201 and ENG 315 courses. In these surveys, students were more apt to offer specific praise and criticism and ideas for improvement.

Positive comments from both classes in the fall of 2007 indicated that the ways I used technology for writing were unlike anything that students had experienced before. Also, they demonstrated my willingness to work with students. For instance, ENG 201 students wrote that (each quote links to a PDF scan of the evaluation):

The technology aspect of the class was very useful and informational. These experiencs will help reach a larger audience and help with future tasks such as jobs, classes, and social life.

Uses technology a lot. Most accessible prof I've had in 3 years!

He assists us when we are confused and leads us in the right direction.

I thought that it was very nice that you commented on our papes and blogs because normally teachers don't do that.

Similarly, as a teacher modeling what it means to teach writing, my students in ENG 315 had positive comments as well:

He always provided feedback and helpful suggestions for our writing.

Personable, flexible, up to date with technology, respectful and enthusiastic.

Provided an immense amount of opportunties to explore Calkins, Atwell [authors we read in class]. Organized, extremely good professor.

This class was a great help to me. It introduced me to a totally new idea for teaching writing.

I think that I learned a lot about how important it is to use different genres and writing styles to engage students. I wish I could have done more than just write short stories in elementary school.

It is sad to say, but very few classes I have taken at CMU have really impacted me... but this was one of them. I would be lost when teaching writing if not for this class because there aren't any others that address writing in teacher ed.

This was the first class that a professor has used technology in this way. I think all teachers should use this!

Keep doing what you are doing. This was one of my favorite classes and most helpful as I begin student teaching.

Also, I specifically sought constructive criticism from my supplemental surveys. While on the one hand there is never a good way to take the sting our of criticism, I talked with my students throughout the semester about ways that I could improve the class and help them learn better. So, on the final supplemental surveys and SOS forms, I was pleased to find some thoughtful suggestions that reflected a civil and compassionate tone. I felt as if my students this semester helped me refocus my attention on their needs, as I had been out of the college-level classroom for a number of years. These comments from the fall of 2007 are ones that I am already integrating into my work in the spring of 2008.

From 201:

• Adjust the readings from longer books to shorter selections.
  • Although some students found them engaging and relevant, many students did not like the idea of reading and analzing book-length arguments.
• Use fewer technologies more deliberately.
  • At times, students felt overwhelemed and would have preferred to use two or three technologies in more depth than the many we explore.
• Explain expectations on assignments more thoroughly.
  • In my efforts to offer students some freedom and avoid writing that simply conforms to a pre-set list of criteria, I know that I sometimes overwhelm students who need more specific steps or who otherwise do not feel prepared to begin an assignment. Given the number of students who told me this, I will spend considerable time in the future clarifying the general criteria for assignments while still helping students develop specific topics and formats that they find useful.
• Try to pace the classes out and not cram too many activities into each session.
  • As I consider all that I did try to cover last semester, I agree that I overplanned and yet still tried to do everything in the limited time we had. As with my need to explain things more clearly, I will also have to be more concious of my pace, both at the syllabus level and in individual class sessions.

From 315:

• Have the opportunity to teach in the midtier or interview a student about his/her writing.
  • Students found my "interview with an expert" assignment useful, but wanted an opportunity to have more choice in a research-based project. In spring 2008, I am offering them that opportunity.
• Integrate more group work.
  • As the semester went on and I asked students to work in groups, I realized that I had not scaffolded their work together in prodcutive ways. In spring 2008, I will begin group work earlier and integrate class activities that show students how to participate as group members and invite others to participate as well.
• Blog earlier and with more purpose.
  • In the fall of 2007, I intorduced students to blogs and invited them to post their writing on the blogs. This began well, but quickly faded as we didn't make this a regular part of our classroom response. This semester, I will more conciously integrate blogging into their weekly work and efforts to respond to one another.
• Discuss the readings in more detail; focus more on one main reading each week.
  • Like the blogging, I would inroduce readings each week and expect that students would engage with them, thus leading to class discussions about the readings. As we have all experienced, some readings went over well and some did not, thus leading to some flat class discussions. This semester, I will integrate a writing-to-learn strategy with each reading so that students both learn the strategy so they can use it with their own students as well as better understand the content.
• Spread out the workload.
  • Requiring an assignment each week last semester, I was very strict on timelines and the number of products. While I will still be strict on the products, I have allowed students more flexible timelines to turn in certain assignments so that they can spend more time developing and revising their ideas.
• Add more structure to the course and do more writing workshop
  • Part of the problem that I encountered last semester in my efforts to make my class student-centered was a lack of consistency from day to day and week to week. Thus, this semester, I have structured the course so the first day/half of class each week will be spent in writing workshop time and the second half will be spent in more traditional class activities.
• Be more specific with assignment criteria and give more examples for projects.
  • Like ENG 201, I found that students want more specifics about how to do their work and I need to balance my concern about providing scripted templates as compared to helping them generate ideas. having asked some of my students last fall if I could use their work as models, I have now set up a page on our course wiki for them to view exemplary projects from past classes and more detailed criteria on the syllabus page.
• Focus more on what is happening in the midtier.
  • I realize that over the course of the semester, I offered students few structured opportunities to talk with one another about their midtier experiences. By literally reminded myself to restructure the room at times (e.g., into a large oval, into small groups), I will also make more efforts to have students engage with one another in pairs, small groups, and large group discussions.
• Like 201, try to pace the classes and not cram too many activities into each session.
  • As mentioned above, I will aim to keep our agendas for each day and the course as a whole at a more reasonable level so that students do not feel overwhelmed yet are able to both write themselves and better understand what it means to be a teacher of writing. No small task for a 16 week semester, but one that can be managed more effectively with focused effort on my part.

Top

Unsolicited Student Correspondence and Feedback

During the fall semester, I was fortunate enough to receive some unsolicited feedback from students as they expressed their appreciation for my teaching, the activities we did in class, and the responses that I gave to them. Here are two in particular that I found insightful as a teacher.

ENG 201

Before this class, I had never written a blog and am not sure if I had ever read one. I am not going to lie, I was a little skeptical on the idea. I thought blogs were just places for people to vent on when they had a bad day or a place to share really good news; I guess I never really associated blogs with intellectual thinking. But once I started writing my blog responses, I started to see some positive things coming out of it. From "Becky's Blog," 11-12-07)

ENG 315

Troy, I believe you do a great job introducing us to new realms and forms of text we otherwise likely would not have come in contact with. Not only are you a great model of what Anstey and Bull [authors we read in class] write but you are teaching us how to use these new texts in our classroom someday. I look forward to trying out many of these new text forms in my classroom someday. (From a personal email).

Given the focus of my scholarship on multiliteracies, and the ways that I attempt to integrate purposeful technology use into my courses, this comment was both timely and helpful. Also, throughout the semester, I would receive brief comments from students, especially in emails, as they expressed their appreciation for the ways in which I replied to their work and helped them effectively revise their writing.

Top

Undergraduate Advising

As noted above, I did not have any specific advising responsibilities this semester, as I was excused from those duties as a first semester faculty member.

Top

Course Development

Over the next year, I plan to develop a course that will become the summer institute offering for our writing project: “Writing Workshop for Teachers.”

Top