honoring our students: instituting feminist practices in the composition classroom

Honoring Our Students: Instituting Feminist Practices in the Composition

ClassroomMegan Adams, Ph.D. Student in Rhetoric and Composition

adamsm@bgsu.edu

“The kind-of writing I finally want these students to be able to do brings together the personal and the political, the private and the public, into writing which is committed and powerful because it takes risks, because it speaks up clearly in their own voices and from their experience, experiments with techniques of argumentation and skillful organization, and engages, where appropriate, the insight of other writers.”- Pamela Annas

sWe can begin to perceive rhetoric as a “multidimensional human enterprise with multidimensionality being defined as engagement across one or more boundaries, whether crossing entails sectors of knowledge, forms and genres, modes of expression, sociocultural logics, material circumstances, or other possibilities” – Royster & Kirsch

We cannot separate theory from practice.

Play encourages dissonance, reminding us that writing is an imaginative, world-building activity. - Laura Micciche

Encourage Multimodal Writing

Implications/Takeaways- As teachers we are learners as well- Sometimes relinquishing authority is good- A kind word and extra encouragement often goes

a long way- Open yourself up to mentoring and sharing

relationships with students that inspire you- Do not be afraid to “teach outside the box”

…and if all else fails, never underestimate the power of Starbucks and a cute cat