Sample Work

Class Blogs and Course Syllabi
Here are some of my class blogs. I mainly use them to link syllabi, homework, assignments, useful websites, and other helpful or interesting ideas for my students.

• Academic B Writing
• Foundations C Writing
• Academic A Linguistic Accuracy
• Foundations B Reading

Prezis

Here are some Prezi presentations that I developed for advanced writing classes. Please keep in mind that these were developed when I was a student teacher teaching my first advanced writing class.

• Effective Paragraph Organization
• Crafting Topic Sentences
• The Pre-Writing Process 

Lesson Plans 
Here is an example of a lesson plan that I constructed for a low-intermediate CORE C class. This was one of the first classes that I student taught, and the lesson plan was part of a class assignment for LING 611/612. 

Action Research: "Multi-level Peer Review: Academic Grammar and Foundations Writing Class Pair Up"

The Rationale:
I believe authentic application can increase student motivation. Also, taking the environment under consideration, several of the students who attend classes are motivated by service due to their religious affiliation (because it is a private institution). With this knowledge in mind, the teachers perceived that a service component to the curriculum would also enhance motivation. Furthermore, there were several purposes for this activity:

• To help students internalize course material through authentic application
• To help lower level students receive feedback on their writing from more advanced writers
• To motivate students through interactions with their peers
• To make learning about grammar and writing fun

The Methodology:
I teamed up with a Linguistic Accuracy teacher, and we combined classes with my Writing students for the purpose of a peer review. The Linguistic Accuracy students were paired with lower level Writing students and the Linguistic Accuracy students read the Writing students' papers and providing linguistic accuracy/grammatical feedback for improvement. This study was conducted across two semesters where the classes were paired up twice per semester:

• 1st Class Pair Fall 2013: Academic C Linguistic Accuracy Class and Foundations C Writing Class

The classes were combined two times. The first time the classes were combined, they met in a Gym and the Foundations C students were instructed to print their essay and bring it to class. At the beginning the students were instructed on how to give feedback in a constructive manner for about 10 minutes and were paired with students to work with. The students switched pairs after 25 minutes. The second time the classes were combined in the computer lab and the Foundations C students were instructed to update their essays in Dropbox. There was brief instruction on track changes at the beginning of the class for 10 minutes, and then students from the Academic C class were paired with Foundations C students. The students switched pairs after 25 minutes.

• 2nd Class Pair Winter 2014: University Prep Linguistic Accuracy Class and Foundations C Writing Class

The classes were combined two times. The first time the classes were combined, they met in a computer lab and Foundations C students were instructed to update their essays on Dropbox. At the beginning the students were instructed on how to give feedback in a constructive manner for about 10 minutes and were paired with students to work with. The students switched pairs after 25 minutes. The second time the classes were combined in the computer lab and the Foundations C students were instructed to update their essays in Dropbox. There was brief instruction on track changes at the beginning of the class for 10 minutes, and then students from the Academic C class were paired with Foundations C students. The students switched pairs after 25 minutes.

The Results:
We surveyed the students both times the classes were combined and here are the results:

• Winter 2014: Peer Review and Track Changes Evaluation
• Fall 2013: Foundations C Writing Evaluations 

Overall, we found that the results were really positive. Some of the perceived benefits for the students were that they were able to interact with more experienced students and build a "mentor" bond that lasted beyond the sphere of the classroom. Also, there were several some perceived benefits from a teaching standpoint. The Linguistic Accuracy instructor found that her students participated and were engaged in the tutoring and it helped them feel good to be a mentor to the less experienced students. It also provided additional motivation in the classroom to learn the material. From the standpoint of the Writing teacher, it increased participation in the classroom because the students valued the mentor student's feedback. Also, it provided additional motivation for students to complete their essay drafts and bring them to class. Furthermore helped to provide the students with feedback that was not directly provided by the teacher. One unexpected benefit was that students who had previous behavioral problems in the classroom tended to react positively to helping or being helped and were great participators in this activity. Also, the students not only stayed on task the whole time, but had fun re-writing their essays, which was one of the biggest reasons that this research was conducted.