Composition faculty share their expertise at ITL conference

Mason composition faculty continue setting the standard for innovation in pedagogy, and this year’s Innovation in Teaching and Learning conference, hosted by the Stearns Center for Teaching and Learning at George Mason University, gave many faculty within the program the opportunity to showcase what they know and what they do.

New adjunct faculty Audrey Pettibon presented “Supporting English Language Learners through Effective Feedback,” and Amy Bangerter presented about the use of digital platforms, “Get Kahoot!: the Pedagogical Utility of a Game-Based Learning Platform.”

Susan Lawrence, Director of the Writing Center and composition faculty, and Courtney Massey, Assistant Director of the Writing Center, shared their expertise in “Preparing Students for Effective Peer Review in Writing Intensive Courses.”

Collaboration and collegiality are an important part of the composition program, and many faculty presented as teams. Faculty also continue to do the heavy lifting for innovative composition projects; John W. Warren, Sean Dunaway, Virginia Hoy, and Catherine Saunders presented on their grant-funded OER initiative, “Collaborating and Developing Open Educational Resources (OER) for Your Courses.”

Another team of faculty, including Jessie Matthews, Brian Fitzpatrick, Billy Howell, Kerry Folan, and Ying-Ying Kuo shared their lessons learned during their semester-long project to design curriculum for online and hybrid versions of ENGH 101 and ENGH 201 in the panel, “Redesigning curriculum: Using Faculty Learning Communities to Develop Online/Hybrid Mason Core Courses.”

The program also benefits from collaboration between faculty and students; Michelle LaFrance, faculty member, and students J. Indigo Eriksen, Sarah Johnson, Thomas Polk, and Robyn Russo, representing the Writing and Rhetoric PhD program shared their expertise in “Getting Messy: Solving Writing Problems With Creative Play.”

Collaboration across programs is essential to the professional development of composition faculty. Anna Habib, assistant director for composition, and Karyn Mallet associate director of INTO Mason presented on multilingual student pedagogy, “Front-loading Curriculum Design: An Integrated Approach to the Multilingual Classroom.” Faculty of Global Health and Communication Julianna Miner, and Psyche Ready, composition faculty, helped attendees developed strategies to help students assess credibility of sources in, “Is it true? Helping students assess information credibility.”

We are lucky to have such an active, innovative team of adjuncts and term faculty spearheading the next big trends in composition.