Cask of Amontillado Activity

This is an activity I use in English 101 to teach my students about adaptation and remediation as they begin adapting their writing into a new medium. Students read the short story "The Cask of Amontillado" and listen to its radio adaptation to consider how the play adapts central idea into a new format. They then apply these concepts by planning a film adaptation of the story.

Public Awareness Campaign Brainstorming Activity

This is an activity I use in English 101 to help students prepare to develop a public awareness campaign writing project by learning the importance of narrowing their topics, deciding early on who their audience is, and becoming aware of how different genres of writing will be more effective for different audiences. It also includes a creative writing component to make these more fu

Analyzing Ads Activity

This is an activity I use in English 101 to teach my students about rhetorical appeals and how they appear beyond the classroom setting. After learning about Ethos, Pathos, and Logos, the class watches an ad the heavily features one of these appeals and identify how and why the ad is making this appeal.

Following this, the students identify these appeals in a series of political ads.

The Great Object/Genre Draft Activity

This is an activity I use in English 102 to  assist students in practicing writing detailed descriptions. Students will draft an object and two genres of writing, describing the object within each genre. By demonstrating how description is a critical act, this assignment shows students how to adapt their descriptions to different audiences/genres as they begin working on an Object Essay.

The Big Mouth Billy Bass Source Scavenger Hunt Activity

This is an activity I teach in Unit 1 of English 102 to give my students practice in evaluating the credibility of online resources by looking up information about the invention, workings, and cultural legacy of the Big Mouth Billy Bass It invites students to see some of the drawbacks of a simple Google search and why sources such as the KU Library or Wikipedia) might be more trustworthy.

Practicing  Positionality with Harlan Ellison Activity

This is an activity I use in Unit 2 of English 102 to give my students practice in interviewing and seeing the importance of preparation. The students are asked to come up with questions for SF author Harlan Ellison before then analyzing how two different interviews portray Harlan, showing the students the importance of framing their interview subjects for the autoethnographies.

Parking Parlance Activity

This is an activity I use in Unit 3 of  English 102 to teach my students about Burke's Parlor Metaphor for the acquisition of knowledge. In groups, students come up with an argument about KU parking and then rewrite it to incorporate the arguments of the other groups. This activity thus emphasizes the importance of synthesis for the Research Essays the students will write.

Research on Critical Making Pedagogy

This is a research project I completed for English 801 at the University of Kansas on Critical Making as a composition practice and some of the critical dimensions of its usage.

I've included both a written report and a PowerPoint on Critical Making with ideas and activities for incorporating Critical Making into the First-Year Writing Classroom.

Composition Pedagogies in Movies

This is a Research Paper and PowerPoint I presented at the CEA Conference in 2024  on the portrayal of composition pedagogies in films.

The research I did for it helps inform much of my approach as a teacher while offering insights into the cultural expectations placed on writing instructors.

Adapting Composition Course Proposal

This is a proposal for a topic-based English 101 class I will be teaching in the Fall of 2025. The course focuses around adaptation as central to the composition process as students consider both the rhetorical choices central in adapting from one medium or genre to another and also adapt their own texts and life experiences into new forms.