Experience Summary
After evaluating over 7,200 college English papers, I know the language skills that students need to develop in high school. I have taught college composition courses full-time for five years and part-time for nine, helping a wide variety of students become better readers and writers. During both my M.A. and Ph.D. programs in English, I was awarded a graduate teaching assistantship allowing me to study Composition & Rhetoric pedagogy while teaching one or two freshman-level classes of my own. I have conducted hundreds of individual writing conferences, and I have experience with gifted students, ESL students, remedial students, and students with learning difficulties. I enjoy helping people become more effective, confident writers.
Teaching Style
Although some students are naturally gifted in reading and writing, I believe every student can learn strategies to strengthen their language ability. Good writing begins with good reading, and many students need training about how to focus their minds during the reading process. Effective writing is also a result of effective thinking. Students often struggle with writing because they have not spent enough time on the mental planning and pre-writing stage of the composition process. I can help students work on a specific writing project or work on their own grammar and editing skills. I can also offer general approaches for helping students read more effectively, study more efficiently, write more clearly, and think more critically.