REFLECTION: ESL COLLEGE COMPOSITION

HAMEL

Throughout each stage of my TEFL/TESL program, the skills I have learned in becoming
an ESL teacher continue to build upon one another. From my experience as a writing tutor and
consultant for the past year, I was able to take my knowledge of writing, and the skill of talking
to students about writing, to a new experience of teaching writing, specifically introductory
college composition for ESL students. For one 15-week long semester, I worked directly with a
co-teacher and supervisor, Hannah Nizam-Aldine, who guided me on planning lessons, grading
various genres of students writing and guiding me on how to teach writing in a classroom
setting. Not only was I allowed to transition from my experience working one-on-one to teaching
a whole classroom, but I was also able to engage ESL students from varying backgrounds;
China, Germany, Peru, Oman, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Egypt, and Hungary.
At the beginning of the semester, I mostly was observing Hannah to understand how to
engage a classroom of 24 students in the discussion of rhetoric and how it is used in writing.
Through these observations, I came to realize that the use of partner work was common. It
appeared that when students were in smaller groups, they would have more meaningful
conversations. In contrast, when there was a classroom discussion, typically the same few
students, who had stronger speaking skills, would participate. So, instead of having only a few
stronger students take part in the class topics, like how rhetoric can be used differently across
cultures, partner use was a strategy to engage everyone.
Since this class had such diverse cultural backgrounds, it allowed students to be more
involved in the topic of the class- global issues- because they were allowed to contribute their
own unique background. This contribution did not just end at classroom discussions but was also
incorporated into the assignments. Throughout each major assignment a global issue was either
read or written about. From my perspective, it appeared as though this benefited both lower-

REFLECTION: ESL COLLEGE COMPOSITION

HAMEL

leveled students and higher-leveled students. For lower-leveled students, it provided them with
the opportunity to gain confidence in a topic that they already had familiarity with, in order to
provide accurate and adequate context for their analyses. In contrast, higher-leveled students
could push themselves to learn about something completely new by using English-only
references. Therefore, the use of culture not only expanded their English proficiencies but also
allowed them to see these issues in a more critical way.
Throughout the semester, I was able to read and grade students papers, and in each
progression, it was evident that these students were developing how they viewed the notion of
rhetoric, and stakeholders, in a more critical way. The ways in which students were able to
develop these critical thinking skills was through the use of different genres of writing; students
were required to write a rhetorical analysis, create a website about an issue considering academic
stakeholders and then create a webposter or webpage about a different issue for a general
audience. Students seemed to realize that stakeholders are people that could be influenced by
how you write something when technology was incorporated into their assignments. With the use
of technology, it not only allowed students to develop higher critical thinking, but also provided
an opportunity to provide their opinions.
This use of technology was something that I observed Hannah use often in her class and
something I set out to integrate within each lesson I taught because it is part of my teaching
philosophy. It seemed that when students were allowed to use technology in the classroom,
students became more interested in participating. Through the use of the website Padlet, an
electronic discussion board, I was able to ask students about questions or concerns they had with
the content, but more importantly, questions critically analyzing topics, like visual rhetoric. Since
this virtual discussion board would be updated as soon as a student submitted a response,

REFLECTION: ESL COLLEGE COMPOSITION

HAMEL

everyone was able to see one others answers from the projection on the board. Essentially,
Padlet enabled me to create a class discussion with everyone, simultaneously. This then allowed
students who were shy, or whose speaking ability were not as advanced, to think about their
answers before providing them, and possibly allowed them to save face. From incorporating
technology, I was able to fulfill two aspects of my teaching philosophy: using technology for
communicative purposes, all the while, creating an open, relaxed environment for students by
allowing all to speak their mind.
Throughout this semester of observing and teaching, I was able to reinforce and
reevaluate my philosophy as a teacher. Hannah allowed me to see that by tapping into students
wants, like using technology, or students needs, like using a familiar topic to talk a complex
one, that the whole class could participate in meaningful dialogue. More importantly, I was able
to learn how students of various backgrounds and proficiencies could simultaneously be
contributing to these dialogues. This experience has also continued to allow me to grow
professionally through the collaboration with other professionals in the field.