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TEACHING PORTFOLIO
In this section, you will find multiple projects that I created and shared with my online first-year writing students during our multimodal composition unit. Their final creative remix assignment for the unit is a remediation of a previous problem-solution research essay driven by their own narratives about a problem or phenomenon they feel deeply invested in. Between their own narratives propelling their inquiries followed by a turn to multiple modes of communication, this further impresses upon them that the writing process is an embodied practice that not only surpasses words on the page but requires an engagement with various senses, technologies, genres, modalities (and more).
From the beginning of our journey into the world of multimodal composition to their remixes and an essay asking them to reflect upon the rhetorical choices in their creations, I am with them along the way, including now, as I write/design this portfolio. I begin the unit by highlighting the shortcomings of my own work. In doing so, I hope to help my students overcome any of the writing myths they might hold onto, like that the final draft is ever truly final. Ultimately, they find comfort in knowing that the writing process is inherently recursive and messy, even for their own writing instructor! ​
Research Essay to Website Remix:
A Genre Convention Failure​
I initially created the Multimodal Antiracist Composition web page in Melanie Gagich's multimodal composition course as an MA student at Cleveland State University. It was a blended course with both undergraduate and graduate students that asked us to write a research paper then turn it into a multimodal project: a similar undertaking to what is expected of my students.
Along with Gagich's linked article, I share this project with my students at the beginning of the unit as we just begin to explore the different modes of communication: spatial, aural, gestural, textual, and visual. Rather than a model to follow, I let my students know in advance that this creative remix needs their help: what went wrong?
By sharing this creative remix, I not only begin the conversation about genre conventions and intended audience, I also hope to remind my students that the writing process never truly stops. All these years after writing/designing the web page, I walk back from final draft to a collective peer review with my students. I still hope to revise this remix in the future with the excellent feedback I received.
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As I type this, I am considering the genre conventions of a website page and that there is a need for brevity. Yet, as I consider my intended audience as other academics who are interested in my teaching portfolio, I recognize that I must break with genre conventions. The secondary audience here are my students, because I believe that the use of models, especially in need of further revision,