No cover letter just yet but here is my CV that was created not too long ago.
Douglas LaTourette CV
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Author Archives: ProfLaTourette
Thoughts on Accessibility in Higher Education
I have very strong feelings abut accessibility in all shapes and forms because I identify as “partially” disabled that I would not like to expand upon here in this post. I even feel frustrated with myself referring to any kind of disability as partial since for so many individuals, it is usually invisible. This is discussed in both Rachel Zemach’s article as well as Kat Mcfarlane’s appearance in the podcast. Zemach’s article about having perfect english while being deaf resonated with me so much. When you find yourself being viewed as “in-between,” the accessibility discussion becomes so much more difficult, as explained with numerous examples in the spilled tea podcast with Kat Mcfarlane.
The process to prove disability not only makes you feel like you’ve been outed, but is also costly and not very respectful of one’s time. Mcfarlane refers to this as the medical documentation loop in her example about laptop use permission in the classroom. If this process is cut out and applied across the board to all students (which I think our department has been making great progress in), we can create a more comfortable learning environment.This is why I strongly feel that accessibility should be naturally built into our courses. In the last two years, every accessibility option I could have utilized seems to have benefitted nearly every student and has caused absolutely no harm. There should be no red tape or documentation proceedings on a repeated individual basis for each and every single class. Let’s take the bureaucracy out of our accessibility please.
Writing is Boring, Long Live Multimodality
Reading Pamela Takayoshi and Cynthia Selfe’s article about multimodality and composition felt a bit challenging but resonated with me about my deeper feelings on teaching writing snd writing in general. First and foremost and I might catch some shade for saying this but the writing process isn’t fun. I could go log into my twitter right this moment and see prolific writers posting about their pain and suffering with getting anything written on the page. For writing instructors and other writers, this is less sad but mostly hilarious. I think to a degree, it takes a little bit of lying to ourselves to say that the process is enjoyable. I often spend time at some point during the semester having the discussion with my students that the writing process can feel difficult and even dull at times. If you regularly experience anxiety, I even think that an appropriate metaphor for writing is the feeling of having a cage match with yourself. To get it done, you just need to sit down, grab your writing tool, and push through all the ways your brain is just telling you to sit still and remain safe, not to think. At least this is something I like to share with my students because they get some commisserable joy out of this discussion.
Why do I bring this up though? I feel the goal post for the writing discipline is always on the move. We constantly have to defend our place in academia and frankly it is tiring but this can also be an opportunity for growth. Writing seems to no longer be a good enough reason alone to teach a course so now we have to sometimes dress up something with the freshest tech. I even taught a course about rhetoric and memes in an effort to freshen up an aging discipline. It felt difficult and unnatural because I was asking my students to write out their ideas and execute them in ways that I had previously never done myself in a comp course. Creating video essays, original memes, etc. all seemed sacrilegious in a writing course. I worried that I could not quite fairly grade that kind of work for writing quality and instead opted for grading effort. This article made me realize that I have definitely given in to a new era of teaching writing but I like to address multimodality in composition as not something completely separate from writing but to call it what it is: fancily veiled composition.
I Don’t Even Teach Grammar Anymore
When I first started teaching, I thought that reviewing over student drafts would be less about guiding my students through ways to better clarify their ideas and more like the time I spent editing fellow classmates’ work throughout undergrad and grad school. This would look like helping them rephrase awkward wording and small typos that weren’t detectable by spell/grammar check that would make a work look unprofessional. Finding that blatant error after you have already submitted something like a final project or even a résumé just feels absolutely cringeworthy.
Of course, this all occurred before the rampant adoption of browser extensions akin to the AI-enhanced “Grammarly” and similar programs. I have had some students begrudgingly admit that they used Grammarly, sapling, and some others that I forget the name of. At first, these extensions seemed to let my students down quite a bit but it seems that they, both my students and these grammar AIs, have learned quite a bit about writing because now I feel like I rarely have to watch out for grammar fumbles. As that one Malcolm in the Middle meme portrays, “The future is now old man” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ta41xU-tkFA.
In response to the reading, “There is One Correct Way of Writing and Speaking,” I felt similar to some of my colleagues comments and replies. The article felt outdated in ways such as Pattanayak’s word choices to describe what writing and speaking in the class feels like. Even if I assumed that the opening sentences were also part of the title which indicate exactly what the bad idea about writing that is being examined, at least in our population of english instructors, we no longer teach or encourage the one golden standard of “correct” english. Even I criticized that metaphorically her audience left the show a generation ago. We encourage all discourse communities and find that learning english in all of its forms is an enriching experience. However, it is important to remember that although now we accept different forms and styles of english, language is still being used as a powerful exclusionary tool against people of poor and/or working class backgrounds as well as new english speakers.
Teaching Research as a Step by Step Methodology
For me, the thought of writing a research paper triggers the emotional response of great excitement with an equal part of anxiety. Research allows my brain to probe and roam but this must be very guided process. Without proper guidance, you can easily get lost, lose the focus of your topic, or because of *too* much curiosity and what I find to be even worse in some instances, over-researching. This happens most when you are 30 chrome tabs into your research topic and realize that you have inadvertently began researching enough for a short novel instead of the 10 page research paper initially assigned. I sometimes see my students doing this when they update me on a biweekly basis to let me know that they’ve changed their topic for the final time this time and it can be difficult to try to curb their enthusiasm. However, they eventually understand that this is just part of a greater process that must begin with small steps that are built into the course.
I find that my students think in very binary terms of black and white when it comes to research but I try to share with them the sentiment that research can also be a tool of self-expression. Their topics are representative of their interests and perspectives which of course is how you find “yourself” in what you write. This can be difficult to convey to a classroom online and even in person. I can assure them that I can help them research a topic that they are interested in, I am met with looks of skepticism for quite some time until they get started and finally trust that I want them to write about their perspectives in conjunction with and on equal ground with the scholars in their field of interest. In this way, I hope they begin to view research as a project they should spend some time with. That is to say, this class does not encourage all-nighter, one-shot large assignments. This should in fact take some time since they are discovering intricate details about a specific topic while hopefully learning a little bit about themselves.
An Instructor’s Role as a Medium in First Year Composition
I was asked by a colleague to write my own teaching philosophy a few years ago after my first year or so of teaching first year comp at the College of Staten Island. I was completely unfamiliar with what this should look like but she gave me a few examples and one that resonated with me began with a metaphor. I was working on my Master’s thesis about a book in which the main character was a switchboard operator and I couldn’t think of a better metaphor for my experience teaching up until that point. I like to view the switchboard operator as a medium; not in the spooky communing with spirits way but in a way that connects those who are seeking out connection to others. I still feel the same way about my teaching philosophy as I did a few years ago which I find both comforting in that my students have mostly felt comfortable writing in my classroom, knowing that I am not the harshest critic, but also disappointing because I consider myself someone that perceives change as a litmus test for development.
An Instructor’s Role as a Medium in First Year Composition
Writing instructors are switchboard operators. A switchboard operator’s sole duty is to answer and connect calls; to send one caller and direct them to where they are needed, or where they want to go. I’d like to think that a switchboard operator is fluent in different dialects and a good listener, the perfect medium of ideas from various cultures, education levels, and age groups. They are desired for their multivalent capabilities to discuss almost anything with anyone. In a First Year Composition (FYC) setting, their primary job would be to connect students to their calling or to better find a pathway to express themselves. In this way, you are not a gatekeeper but simply guide a student as far as they want to take themselves.
In David Bartholomae’s article titled, “Inventing the University,” he explains that academic writing is only achieved through students modeling themselves after the author’s work which they read and to mimic that way in which those authors write. Bartholomae believes that a good instructor of writing guides their students to act and write within varying discourses as opposed to writing about them (11). Ultimately, what Bartholomae asks of his students is to let the academic topics they read and write about usurp them; temporarily let them become their voices and their interests until finally the authority shifts from author’s beliefs to the student, where it finally becomes their own (12, 17). This is extremely difficult to have your students process. Bartholomae asks for nothing short of a complete transformation of a student’s mind and way of being through their thinking, speaking, and writing. To accomplish this, I like to expose students to a wide variety of topics that they could take a liking to as well as have them write and assess each other’s short responses. Although this is not the most efficient way to get students quickly to their most desired subject matter, it is a broad survey into what college writing might be like for them.
On more than a few occasions, I’ve witnessed students start from having trouble writing about themselves in an introspective way to crafting their own writing topic for a longer writing assignment, and even tell me that the broad exposure to topics has led them to appreciate an author or to even rethink their choice of study. Of course, this consolidation does not occur without the occasional obstacle. My education plan is to get students writing about as many topics as they can; ones they love, some they loathe, others that they feel indifferent towards, and then hopefully some that are cathartic. While one instructor might focus on a narrow topic in which their students would be very proficient, my method is slow and interdisciplinary. Like the process of learning how to write, I like to think that mine is one of longevity and broad appreciation.
Like a switchboard operator, I am connecting multiple students with ideas and vice versa. With each connected pathway, the students develop one more skill or a slash through a writer’s bucket list when they are exposed to a myriad of writers and academic discourses. It’s even possible that along the way, a student teaches me something about a topic or a better feeling yet, I connect the student with a deeper understanding of themselves and others.
Bartholomae, David. “Inventing the University.” Journal of Basic Writing. 1986. Pgs. 4-23.
