Smith 1

Annabelle Smith

Dr. Ashby

ENG 405

12 December 2018

Effective Pedagogies in Teaching and Learning

Like many, I have had some experiences in English classrooms that have drastically

changed the way I learn, write, and think. Throughout this time, my writing process has changed

drastically. From a speed-writing one-night stand to multiple different writing stages, my writing

is slowly getting tolerable. In high school, I learned grammar and that a paragraph was a

minimum of five sentences; but that was the extent of my writing knowledge. I hardly knew who

I was as a writer, much less my audience, context, or voice. Throughout college, my perspective

on writing has changed as a result of my exposure to effective writing pedagogies. My writing,

thinking, and learning has been molded by different practices of feminist and expressive

pedagogies.

My transformative experience happened in a literature classroom in which students were

the center of the learning process. In this upper-level British Literature course, journaling

became the center of communication between my professor and the classroom. We used journal

as author of writing theory and practice, Erika Lindemann, describes “In them [journals],

students may respond to reading assignments, jot down leading ideas in preparation for class

discussion” (116). By recording our thoughts and response to each literary work, my professor

used our comments to formulate the discussion for the following class. Authors Chris Burnham

and Rebecca Powell discuss that journaling gives us a deeper understanding of material due to
 Smith 2

“an analytical urge based in writing that results in understanding leading to action. Through the

process the writer gains control of the subject, either the writer per se or an intellectual concept”

(115). She asked questions and pulled more out of my writing which made me feel like my

writing mattered and meant something more.

Simply knowing my writing could be mentioned in class helped me understand the real

audience for my ideas. In retrospect, she employed practices of expressive pedagogy in which,

“The writing context is social and active; the writer is concerned with having an impact on an

actual audience” (Burnham 114). She made me own up to my words and made me understand

the importance of the language—particularly, how the language represented me in the classroom.

Writing pedagogy states this experience as, “It saw writing as more than the product of

communication, as a means for making meaning and creating identity” (Burnham 114).

Additionally, this practice made me actively refine my ideas prior and during class time—where

I was expected to perform.

By using journaling as the guide, my professor used student-based pedagogy to guide the

classroom. My professor compiled our ideas and used what we thought was important about the

literature to guide the classroom. She used the classroom space to question and connect all of our

ideas together. Often, I was surprised from the meaning she compiled from our writings. Authors

Chris Burnham and Rebecca Powell comment on the role of teachers within the classroom, “the

aim of her [Praxis’] pedagogy is to create a place for voices. The voices in the classroom include

the voice of the teacher as well as those of the students. Her expectations of the teachers are

extremely high: to bring students to a voice, teachers must have, and understand, voice” (124).

We, as students, guided our learning experience and she seemed to be learning with us. Along

the way, I learned that the voice I used influenced my communication with the classroom. I
 Smith 3

wanted to ensure that I could communicate effectively with the classroom. Others commented

that they thought she did not care about their understanding because she did not give her

opinions right away. I thought it was brilliant that she wanted us to think independently and ask

more questions.

Throughout the class, my professor used feminist pedagogy by cold calling students to

promote more thought in the classroom discussion. Although my classes have been

predominantly women, they have not always been as author Laura Micciche calls it, “woman-

friendly” (131). This type of classroom is constructed when “teachers call on women students

more often and “use non-competitive and student-centered activities” like sequencing small- and

large-group discussions to help female students move from “private discourse to public

pronouncements” (131). In this classroom, my professor equally called on the female students to

elaborate on the ideas and challenge others. Cold calling is a stressful experience, but it

challenged me to continually think about my ideas and compare with others in class. By

commenting on the material prior to class, all students could participate without being judged

entirely on the ideas mentioned in class. I thought her cold-calling was cruel but, in retrospect, it

is the most constructive experienced that focused on my thought processes.

Perhaps, the most important component of this classroom was the amount of expression

allowed. Through this class, we used components of expressivism pedagogy such as freewriting

as practice. Authors Burnham and Powell state that “Freewriting helps students discover ideas

and their significance, center of gravity exercises develop and focus these ideas, and peer

response groups allow writers to test their writing on an actual audience and revise on the basis

of that response” (114). We employed practices of freewriting through poetry and prose to

discover our individual voices regarding different audiences and purposes. Author Laura
 Smith 4

Micciche comments on other pedagogues that use freewriting as opportunities to discover

different styles:

She [Joan Bolker] recommended experimental assignments—“fictional letters to

enemies” and “freewriting, involving poetry, or playing with words, or even, God help

us, with obscenities”—and essays that begin with the personal, “even the selfish”…

Pamela Annas, writing in 1985, advocates for a pedagogy that values personal experience

to “ground [students’] writing in their lives rather than to surmount their lives before they

write (130).

Prior to this class, I had never written a poem with actual form and meter. I thought it was a

grueling task, but I discovered that I was capable of testing out different voices as a low-stakes

opportunity. This way, I was writing frequently which allowed me to grow.

In addition to freewriting, my professor used many creative outlets to engage students

with the goal of learning literature from different perspectives. She made me creative with my

poetry, prose, and even drawing. She wanted to incorporate all different angles of art into the

learning process to approach works from different angles. She encouraged me to compose music.

She made me literally act in class. She gave me more than just a voice in writing but a voice in

the classroom setting. Feminist pedagogy involves experimental assignments. Freewriting

assignments in poetry and prose.

Honestly, I didn’t understand the role of pedagogy in my learning until now—since I

have the language to define it. All of these practices of effective writing pedagogy helped define

my role as a writer, reader, and thinker. These practices were engaging me throughout the

learning process and it was one of the most constructive experiences I have had in a college

classroom setting.
 Smith 5

Works Cited

Burnham, Chris, and Rebecca Powell. “Expressive Pedagogy.” A Guide to Composition

Pedagogies, edited by Gary Tate, Amy Rupiper Taggart, Kurt Schick, and h. Brooke

Hessler, 2nd ed., Oxford University Press, 2014, pp. 111-125.

Lindemann, Erika. A Rhetoric for Writing Teachers. 4th ed., Oxford University Press, 2001.

Micciche, Laura R. “Feminist Pedagogy.” A Guide to Composition Pedagogies, edited by Gary

Tate, Amy Rupiper Taggart, Kurt Schick, and h. Brooke Hessler, 2nd ed., Oxford

University Press, 2014, pp. 128-140.

Tate, Gary, et al. A Guide to Composition Pedagogies. 2nd ed., Oxford University Press, 2013.