TEACHING PORTFOLIO

Rinita Banerjee

Teaching Philosophy
Rinita Banerjee
Truth has many sides. There are many truths. Perception defines reality and reality speaks
through perceptions. Interpretation is a voice. Sometimes more than one. Language is a means to
define interpretability and interpretation. My commitment to teaching draws from the
interpretability of reality, and hence to explore a students voice that uniqueness that each
writer, even of the one who does not know the words that are dying inside to come out, to find
expression.
The process that we must teach, according to Donald Murray is, the process of discovery
through language (4). I draw from Murrays stress on voice and individuality in my attempts at
introducing rhetorical situations and engaging students in critical thinking; I do so with the aim
of providing them contexts beyond the classrooms and the need to perform because the grades
might reflect who they are or the kind of writing they do. That language through each of their
writing styles discovers a facet observed of themselves and outside of those is the core that form
the kinds of enquiry the students are introduced to in my classroom. I am cognizant of the
potential of this process of discovery in different contexts given my own experiences as not only
a graduate student writing simultaneously in different genres, but also as editor for over four
years in the field of publishing where texts had to be perceived with regard to a certain audience
and authors had to be guided with the pieces they would submit for publication; also as a
translator, I understand the nuances of language and idiom in expressing experience.
Be it in asking them to come up with print ads involving the use of images and related texts to
understand rhetorical appeals, or asking them to create texts out of the images Pounds At the
Station in a Metro exudes, to pushing them to describe the images that come to their minds
when they see a dry leaf sticking out in the snow and just that the idea is to push them to think
of the multimodality of composition and therefore making their experience of writing individual
and tuned to an audience. By allowing students to understand the potential of ideating and then
asking them to share the same in class encourages collaboration, and learning despite being
expressivist happens also through collaboration. To be able to see and observe that there is a
multiplicity in the way things make themselves available in terms of meaning, is what I

encourage in class. In that, the understanding of the audience for whom one is writing or
composing is emphasized and amplified. The movement towards an audience outside of oneself
is emphasized to emanate from the inside. Therefore, the relationship built with regard to coming
up with research topics in which the search begins from what interests the student.
While I have discovered myself a great value in group activities where they have answered
accommodation-related questions for the science articles they were going to repurpose for a
popular audience, or even trying to observe the obvious in and then flesh out the implications
from the many elements of a photograph which they were to analyse for a visual-rhetoric paper
and come up with claims and evidence, in changing their habit of sitting huddled in their
everyday groups with the same people speaking across tables and indulging in the deliberate
immoveability of chairs to bringing all my students to the center of the class and making them
realise that the chairs do shift, I have realised that even in the classroom context it is essential
that collaboration is induced by breaking into the comfort zones that students create for
themselves. In doing the latter, most times, there is a sense of knowing something that they did
not know before about another, and in it again the potential of recognizing that to be able to
come to a decision, or a topic, you have to search for that which interests you. And hence my
satisfaction when a student who is an athlete in my class, and is struggling with even basic
sentence-level issues in his writing, looks at an image on the screen and comes up with
observations and implications that I never thought he would and the rest of the class participates
in that enthusiasm with that zeal!
However, I recognize that learning happens not only through cooperation in collaboration. In
fact, to not acknowledge that there are emotions such as competition and rivalry even in
situations that are collaborative is unrealistic (Tobin, in Richmond 75). Hence, when teaching
documentation guidelines in terms of MLA and APA styles of citation, gamifying the lesson plan
was revealing. I divided the class into two groups and we played a quiz over the documentation
styles where they either had to format a certain entry given to them in chunks or had to recognize
a certain element from a formatted entry. Gaining points over a right answer and losing points
when taking the help of a hint affected their zeal to answer the subsequent questions. Learning by
inducing positive competition was taking place in my class. Hence, I draw from Alice Brands
insistence on the crucial aspects of emotions and affect in learning and in composition
classrooms. Emotions influence not only what we write and how we write, but how we view the
process and how it shapes our thinking (Brand 6-7). Learning and especially writing cannot be
devoid of affect; we need to recognize it in ourselves as instructors and in students. It cannot be
only cognitive. And therefore, there has also been a conscious application of motivational
strategies of scaffolding and positive reinforcement not only in in-class activities but also in the
feedback that I have given my students on their drafts and papers.
Critique in the form of questions that lead them to think, and suggestions have been at the centre
of the kind of verbal or written responses that I have given my students. Class time spent
sometimes on simply exploring their writing idiosyncracies have helped induce a sense of
inclusion and breaking down a sense of feeling I am the only one repeating a certain infelicity
or that grammar is the only fault to be corrected. In these discussions, I have used examples

from my own life as well, as student, as writer academic and otherwise, as how writing in two
different universities, cultures, and countries have shaped me as a writer. Hence, while to a
certain extent students have been collectors and cataloguers (Freire 72) of information like
for instance in using documentation when researching for guidelines for citing sources are not
subservient to invention, there has not been the adherence to what Freire would have called the
narration sickness (71).
I have also found it important to repeatedly stress on a parallel between the process real-life
authors undergo to get for instance their work published and the process that writers at the
college level engage in; drawing from my own experience as an editor in publishing I have
mentioned to them that the process of writing is never as linear as one thinks to be, a point on the
basis of which it is easy to put oneself down and say I am not a good writer. That even seasoned
authors keep drafting, writing and rewriting till they feel it is done, that even after they have
submitted of piece of that labour to a publisher or journal there is further vetting, that therefore
there is a merit in chiseling what you intend to communicate till you feel you are satisfied and
that it is therefore important to distance oneself from what one has written and look at it with a
fresh pair of eyes later to cull out the infelicities that one never thought would creep in - have
been a part of the philosophy that I practice.
Navigating and negotiating the complexities of rhetorical situations that involve strategies of
invention, organizing, developing, arguing, and having to envelope the argument in analysis that
is situated in a scholarly conversation is a difficult task. To be able to keep sentence-level
concerns at bay and look at rhetorical contexts and ones own writing from a distance with a
perspective that is unbiased, is a tactic that takes time to develop. I strive to negotiate this
realization with the students backgrounds stifled in the phobia of the five-paragraph trap. As an
instructor (and earlier a TA) teaching Academic Writing and Research (ENG 101) to Freshmen at
North Carolina State University that is research-driven to facilitate a writing-in-the-discipline
curriculum, my strategies have thus focused on inculcating a sense of the writer a student can be,
which draws as much from what they feel as much as from what they think, because it is amidst
these states that discovery rests.
WORKS CITED
Brand, Alice. Hot Cognition, Emotions and Writing Behavior. Journal of Advanced
Composition 6 (1985/1986): 5-15. JSTOR. 10 Nov. 2015.
Freire, Paulo. The Banking Concept of Education. The Pedagogy of the Oppressed. NY:
Continuum, 2005. 71-86. Web. 2 Nov. 2015.
Murray, Donald M. Teach Writing as a Process, not Product. The Essential Don Murray:
Lessons from Americas Greatest Writing Teacher. Ed. Thomas Newkirk and Lisa C.
Miller. Portsmouth: Boynton/Cook Publishers, 2009. 1-5. Web. 2 Nov. 2015.
Richmond, Kia Jane. Repositioning Emotions in Composition Studies. Composition Studies
30.1 (2002): 67-82. ProQuest. 9 Nov. 2015.
NCSU ENGLISH DEPARTMENT

CLASSROOM OBSERVATION REPORT

Teacher Observed: Rinita Banerjee
Class Observed: ENG 101
Date of Visit: September 14, 2015
Observer: ***
Description of Class Session
Given that Rinitas class meets only twice a week, I thought that helping the students
become comfortable with each other and Rinita herself might be a challenge. Rinita has
overcome this challenge by starting her class with an ice-breaker. Each person shares a piece of
good news and does this willingly and happily. Besides helping students get to know each other,
this also set a positive tone for the entire session.
Rinitas class was working on their first project, which requires students to translate
scientific writing for a mainstream audience. They could choose between several different
articles that Rinita had already selected. She had provided effective scaffolding for this
assignment; she assigned them a handout on reading strategies before they read the actual
articles. On this particular day, they were to have selected one article to translate and explored
several different mainstream platforms (also provided by Rinita).
During class time, Rinita encouraged them volunteer information. She encouraged the
class to generate questions and talk about the process that they went through while completing
their assignment. She acknowledged and addressed their concerns and difficulties directly,
individually and helped them navigate how they would proceed forward from here.
She focused a great deal on perceiving reading and writing as a process, one that has to
be navigated in different ways. She focused on how this process includes learning new, positive,

helpful methods, and unlearning old habits and methods that come in the way of effective
reading and writing. These are valuable, vital lessons and they were delivered clearly and simply.
Some students had not completed their assignments, and she handled this very well. She
clearly outlined expectations and the consequences of not meeting these. She was very respectful
as she did this and did not single anyone out.
The second half of the class was dedicated to small group work. The class was divided up
according to the articles they had chosen and analyzed in context of a set of questions provided
by Rinita. She gave them clear instructions for the in-class group-work but these instructions
were framed in a way that allowed them to engage in an open discussion.
She conferenced with each group separately and there was a lot to learn and admire in her
approach to these conferences:

She engaged them and pushed them to think critically. She pointed them in the right
direction by asking them questions rather than just telling them what to think, which is

good.
She sometimes had to navigate two differing viewpoints and handled this diplomatically.
She talked about articles broadly and also localized and contextualized each article by

relating it back to the paper.

She reassured them when they made mistakes, exuding compassion and calmness.
She sat with them at their tables when she conferenced, which made her approachable.
She was generous with praise.
She used examples to illustrate everything she said.

All in all, Rinitas class was wonderful. I have a couple of suggestions.

The major one is for Rinita to protect herself from reaching a stage of burnout, because if
this was a typical class day for her, she puts a tremendous amount of pressure on herself to

constantly speak to, monitor, direct and lecture to students. I think that she could spend even
more of the class time having the students work on their own so that she can breathe. A class as
well organized and structured as hers must take a great deal of pre-planning. After all this
preparation for the class, coming into class and putting herself under all that pressure for the full
100 minutes cant be easy. This didnt reflect on her teaching, and Im certain that the students
didnt pick up on it, but Im concerned that it might take its toll on her. Using some of the 100
minutes for in-class writing might be beneficial to Rinita herself and in-class writing is valuable
because it gives students protected writing time, gets them started on their papers, and also gives
them an opportunity to ask questions that crop up while they are writing.
The second suggestion is one Im sure she has already thought about this, and is perhaps
implementing in the future. I figured I would still offer some strategies. I think it may be useful
to offer the students opportunities to look for and distinguish between credible and non-credible
sources, and the best way for them to do this is through practical application. Since Rinita
provided the articles herself this time around (which is good since it shows them what a credible,
peer-reviewed article looks like), next time she could require that they do so themselves.
Rinitas class was a positive space, one where the students are challenged, encouraged,
and nurtured. Rinita has a wonderful and balanced teaching persona: she is warm (yes, Rinita,
warm!), prepared, approachable, firm, and inspires respect. I have gained a lot from this
observation.
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