Teaching Philosophy

On the off-chance that this might help someone gather ideas for their Teaching Philosophy, I thought I'd post a selection of bullet points from my brainstorm:

-  understand writing as process

-  awareness of audience 

-  heavy writing approach

-  portfolios

-  being patient with students 

-  combination of reading and writing 

-  multi-media, multi-faceted approaches 

-  written and visual texts

-  explore other “texts” than typical written ones

-  multiple literacies

-  various genres, audiences, and purposes

-  relate literature to other art forms such as painting & film

-  goal to have students move beyond the classroom and think about the world they exist in

-  students should write every day

-  class discussions are also important 

-  strong rhetorical skills 

-  apply writing skills to any situation, any style of writing

-  discuss the various pedagogies and allow students to pick and choose

-  show interaction between literary culture and society as a whole

-  argumentative theory, critical essays, and student essays

-  read about and debate current articles to address controversial topics, analyze opponent’s argument, and defend their position

-  writing, revising, rewriting

-  analyze peer’s essays to identify rhetorical structures and logical fallacies

-  teach studnets to become better readers of their own work

-  get students to develop different ideas and new points of view

-  group workshops so students know, teach & help each other

I'm looking to bolster up the section on practical assignments and ways to analyze the effectiveness of our teaching. Anyone have ideas? (Got a few good ones from Gina already -- Thanks Gina!)