Notes on Service: Teaching Teachers

ITL
FCTL (advisory board)

When I was first hired at Rhode Island College several senior colleagues offered this bit of unsolicited wisdom: Try to find ways to make connections between your different responsibilities (teaching, research, service) and you'll find your work at the college more satisfying. I'm not sure how often faculty are able to operationalize this advice, but in my case, I've been fortunate in that my teaching, research, and service have tended to converge around at least two activities: educational technology and the teaching of writing. In what follows, I will articulate how I have served both the English department and Rhode Island College via these activities.

Department

One of the most significant contributions I feel I have made to the English Department comes via my work devising a new Rhetoric and Writing minor and, with it, a series of new writing courses. During the 2009/2010 school year, with the assistance of both the Department Chair and numerous members of the Department, I undertook to design and propose two new English courses at the 300-level: ENGL 378: Studies in Composition and ENGL 379: Studies in Rhetoric. During the 2010/2011 school year, again with help from my colleagues and in collaboration with other writing faculty, I worked to redesign the existing writing minor and its curriculum sequence, revise two existing courses (ENGL 230 & 231), add two new courses (ENGL 232 & 477). During the 2011/2012 and 2012/2013 school years, via these new courses and this new curriculum, I have begun the exciting work of introducing RIC students to current knowledge and practice within the field of composition/rhetoric, thus expanding their opportunities to learn about and improve their writing and to expose our English majors, especially, to the full range of areas of specialization within the field of English studies.

While my work on the Rhetoric and Writing minor has been ad hoc, my primary responsibilities to the department have come via my committee assignments. Here, I've served in four capacities: as a member of the Graduate Committee, as a Department Technology Liaison (DTL), as a member of the Composition Committee, and as internship supervisor. This year, for the first time, I am serving as a member of the Special Events committee in order to reinvigorate Career Day. It is my hope that this event will be an important step towards helping RIC English majors anticipate and plan for the world  beyond college. I'd like to say a few words about my work as a DTL, Composition Committee member, and internship supervisor.

In my capacity as DTL, I have tried to serve as a bridge between the English Department and User Support Services (USS). On the one hand, I have tried to represent both official and unofficial questions and concerns of the English Department to USS. On the other hand, I have tried to bring to the English Department relevant news about issues related to technology. This latter work has meant quick reports at department meetings on the ever-shifting technological landscape at RIC and occasional demonstrations of new and promising tools for teaching. I have also served, in less formal capacities, as a consultant to English faculty using instructional technology, as a resource for faculty wishing to access technological instruction, and as an advisor to the Chair regarding questions of technology acquisition. I have found this work to be both satisfying and a means by which to get to know members of the department better. I have also found this work useful in that, as a heavy user of educational technology myself, I am interested in participating in conversations beyond the department-level about technology and technology-use at the college. Thus, in addition to serving as a bridge between English and USS, the DTL position has provided me with an opportunity to learn more about technological initiatives at RIC, generally, and, when appropriate, to offer input and feedback (e.g. this fall I am working with USS to pilot and offer feedback on the newest version of Blackboard). In the years ahead, I hope to get more involved, particularly when it comes to the college's recent interest in and plans for online learning.

Some of my most substantive contributions to the English Department have come, I believe, via my work as a member of the Composition Committee. We have seen significant positive change in the first-year writing program since the arrival of our current director, Becky Caouette. Becky has provided the Committee with numerous opportunities for collaboration and I have taken her up on offers in both official and unofficial ways. Some initiatives/developments with which I have assisted include: bringing speakers to campus, consulting on drafting and revision of program documents (and website), observation of WRTG 100 instructors, initiation of first-year writing awards, and ongoing assessment of WRTG 100. I have participated in first-year writing coffee-hour/brown-bag events and delivered a talk on teaching composition with technology. Recently, I have taken on an unofficial role as a mentor to a new WRTG 100 instructor, reviewing her course materials and offering feedback as well as coaching as she transitions to college-level teaching. As Becky's office neighbor and fellow compositionist, I have offered an ear when asked and advice when requested. Watching the first-year writing program develop, change, and grow these past four years and having the opportunity to help shape this process has proven to be among the most rewarding--and, I believe, far-reaching--contributions I have made to the Department (and to the college).

My work with Daniel Scott, facilitating student writing-internships, has offered me yet another opportunity to connect my professional interests in writing with my service to the English Department. This work, which started small, with just one to two interns per year, has grown and will, I anticipate, continue to grow in the years to come as Daniel moves on to his position as Department Chair and I assume greater responsibility for writing interns. Supervising writing interns offers me one of the most significant opportunities I've been given to contribute to the work of Department, and that is to advise and support English majors as they begin to negotiate the transition from school to work. This is enormously satisfying work in that I am able to both help students navigate a significant life passage and draw on my scholarly knowledge of the role of writing in academic and professional settings to help them make sense of their experiences. By helping interns identify and secure placement opportunities, I have gained knowledge of the greater-Providence community as well as the local non-profit sector and publishing industries--knowledge I can share with all English majors. Now that we have a designated course and course number for student interns, I hope that in the years to come, we will be able to offer this course, not just on a one-to-one basis, but at least once per year, allowing a small group of interns to share their experiences and complete coursework in addition to the work of their internships. This fall, I have taken one step in this direction by devising a curriculum which attempts to introduce students to scholarly knowledge about professional writing and provide them an opportunity to share and reflect on the day-to-day work of their internships. It is my hope that  via courses like ENGL 477 and ENGL 230, and events like Career Day, English majors will feel more informed, supported, and empowered as they make the transition from school to work.

College

I did not anticipate, when I first arrived at Rhode Island College, that I would be engaged in the work of teaching teachers to the extent that I am today. Steadily, over the past four years, my engagement with faculty across campus on issues related to disciplinary writing instruction has increased. Early on, I was invited by the School of Management to do a half-day workshop on "best practices" in writing pedagogy. It was a terrific introduction to the work and I hoped for additional chances to share my knowledge and support faculty in their efforts to teach writing effectively. In the years following that first workshop, I found many such opportunities.

First, there was my regular participation in the Writing Board's annual Faculty Development Day (FDD). Each year I attended, in small ways--during panel presentations or break-out sessions or just during small group discussions--I found myself sharing my knowledge and experience with "best practices" for teaching writing and, frequently, challenging my colleagues to think in different ways about writing instruction and... struggling to find a way to offer them something more substantial in terms of professional-development than a brief conversation with a colleague on a cold winter afternoon.

As my reputation as a consultant on matters related to writing pedagogy grew, I found myself receiving occasional emails or engaged in spontaneous hallway conversations on questions related to the teaching of writing. These informal conversations, combined with my regular participation at the FDD, provided important opportunities to begin to understand the problem of teaching writing from the perspective of faculty in the disciplines--faculty who usually had received no formal training in the teaching of writing but were, nonetheless, doing their best to make writing instruction meaningful for themselves and their students. I think that these informal opportunities to listen to faculty who do not identify primarily as writing instructors were instrumental in my growing awareness that RIC faculty needed more support in how to implement effective writing instruction. They were also significant in that they helped me to begin to imagine approaches and strategies to effectively engage faculty in the disciplines in ways they would find persuasive.

It wasn't until the Faculty Center for Teaching and Learning (FCTL) opened its doors in 2010, however, that I was able to put what I was learning into practice and, I believe, really make a difference in educating and supporting RIC faculty on developing pedagogically sound instructional practices for teaching writing. The FCTL offered me the opportunity to connect with faculty on writing initiatives via occasional co-operative workshops. More importantly, the FCTL offered a venue to advance more ambitious and sustained professional development opportunities for writing instruction--and to serve Rhode Island College in ways that, I believe, are having a significant and, I hope, lasting impact.

In 2011, in collaboration with FCTL Director Joe Zornado and with the generous underwriting of Vice-President of Academic Affairs (VPAA) Ron Pitt, I launched the first Summer Seminar for the Teaching of Writing (SSTW) at Rhode Island College. The SSTW consists of a one-week immersive instructional workshop on "best practices" for writing pedagogy, a series of follow-up support meetings during the academic year, and a culminating campus-wide panel presentation where SSTW "graduates" share instructional artifacts and stories and make explicit their learning processes. This structure grows, in large part, from my developing sense of the challenges disciplinary faculty face in shifting perceptions around writing pedagogy, learning new approaches to teaching writing, and implementing them in the classroom. Designing and delivering the SSTW has been one of the most satisfying professional experiences of my career. I believe it is among the most significant contributions I have made to the campus community at Rhode Island College, as this work with faculty in the disciplines has a ripple-effect, allowing me to play a positive role in affecting the educational experiences of many more RIC students than those that I teach each semester. As Joe and I look ahead to the third SSTW in 2013, we have begun to undertake plans for a small research study in which we hope to collaborate with SSTW participants to study the implementation process--to try to understand what faculty do with what they've learned when they return to their classrooms. We anticipate that this work will culminate in a a publication which explores the nature of writing-related professional development initiatives--thus allowing me to make connections between my service and scholarly responsibilities at the college.

In addition to this work via the SSTW, my service to RIC, helping to advance an agenda for effective writing pedagogy, has recently been institutionalized in a second important way. I have recently been elected to serve as the chair of the campus Writing Board. This represents a new opportunity to work with RIC faculty and the campus at large on initiatives related to writing and writing instruction, especially given that the responsibilities of the Writing Board chair have recently been expanded and enlarged. In addition to the traditional responsibilities of the chair, which included scheduling and presiding over meetings and heading up planning for the annual Faculty Development Day and other events, the revised responsibilities of the Chair include facilitating and coordinating support for writing instruction on campus, collaborating with programs and departments around initiatives related to writing, and coordinating with units such as the FCTL or COGE on writing-related matters.

This new enlarged vision of the Writing Board chair furthers work already under way. As noted above, via previous experiences, I have already begun to serve as a consultant on matters related to writing across the curriculum/writing in the disciplines; have established relationships with campus units such as the writing center, FYW program and FYS program; have worked with departments and colleges to offer support for writing instruction; and have collaborated with units like COGE, Adams Library and the FCTL on writing-related issues and initiatives. The newly created Writing Board chair position provides me with an institutionally-recognized platform to continue to expand the scope of this work. In the days and weeks since my election to the Writing Board chair, I have already begun a new collaboration with the School of Nursing, to initiate what I hope will be a year-long series of talks and workshops on the teaching of writing in nursing education and to identify writing outcomes for nursing students. In the weeks and months ahead, in addition to planning and organizing the annual Faculty Development Day and leading members of the Writing Board in a revised agenda for our monthly meetings (focused on professional development and discussions of "best practices" in writing instruction), I plan to reach out to department chairs to initiate more discussions about and support for writing in the disciplines at RIC. During my first four years at RIC, my participation on the Writing Board has provided me with important opportunities to educate and support RIC faculty when it comes to the teaching of writing. I anticipate that my new role as Writing Board chair will allow me to further develop this work. 

A final opportunity for serving the campus community around issues related to writing and writing instruction has presented itself to me in just the past few months, as I was selected to serve a two-year term as a Teaching Fellow in the Faculty Center for Teaching and Learning (where I already sit on the Advisory Board). In this capacity, I will continue to serve RIC faculty via one-on-one consultation on "best practices" for writing pedagogy, lead co-operative workshops on different aspects of writing instruction (facilitating peer workshops, using technology to respond to student writing, designing effective assignments, etc.), and co-edit RIC's online journal, Issues in Teaching and Learning. The Teaching Fellow position provides me with yet another platform to serve RIC faculty by offering support on the inevitable challenges of implementing effective writing instruction.

When I first arrived at RIC, I felt that when it came to writing instruction, I had knowledge and experience that could help faculty in the disciplines improve their teaching practice, but I was unsure how I would share what I knew. I pictured a stone being tossed into a pond and the ripples going out. I felt like I could serve my students well when it came to writing instruction, but felt as though working with my own students would be just one ripple in the pond of Rhode Island College. I wondered if I would have the opportunity to create ripples that extended further and reached a wider audience of students. As I move into my fifth year, I am now finding myself in a position to create ripples which travel far beyond my own students and which extend to the many hundreds of RIC undergraduates who are taught by the dozens of RIC faculty with whom I have now worked. I am grateful to have the institutional recognition of and support for this work, thankful for the opportunities I now have before me to affect positive change with regard to the teaching of writing at Rhode Island College, and excited for the work ahead.

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In the past two years, my work working with RIC faculty has been institutionalized or formalized in three important ways.



establish, design curriculum for, and teach

I've been thinking about my tenure file and about the letter/essay I need to write to accompany my materials. I've also been thinking about the themes I want to highlight in this file and how I want to present myself. I'm thinking about key words or sort of ways to organize my presentation of myself. I thought that perhaps I would start by just spending this week writing, to try to clarify for myself what it is that I want to say about myself and my work to others at the university. I am thinking of this as a real opportunity for "taking stock" of the various types of work and professional identities I have been enacting during my first four years at RIC. I welcome a moment of reflection and the moment to pause from other work (sort of) to look up and ask where I have been and, importantly, who I am in the process of becoming.

Who am I in the process of becoming? That's an interesting way of putting it. The most obvious piece or the piece that's most on my mind this morning, given the workshop i just conducted yesterday, is the piece where I am in the process of becoming a teacher of teachers. So, perhaps I'll write a bit about this.


Assistant Professor, Composition and Rhetoric [2411] 
The English Department at Rhode Island College invites applications for a tenure-track position at the rank of Assistant Professor. Responsibilities include teaching undergraduate courses in composition and general education as well as the possibility of introductory surveys and specialty courses at upper-division and MA levels; an ongoing commitment to scholarly work; and departmental and college service. Faculty in composition may collaborate with Writing Across the Curriculum or Writing in the Disciplines work on campus as well as with a very active Writing Center and the Rhode Island Writing Project. Requirements include: Ph.D. in English with specialization in composition and rhetoric or Ph.D. in composition and rhetoric. Preferred: An interest in professional, business, and/or technical writing; expertise in writing assessment. (Job Ad, posted in MLA Job Bulletin, fall 2008)