Category Archives: Principles for Teaching Composition

Showing Our Work With AI: Our Students and Their Coursework

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Today, we met with colleagues to talk about AI stuff, but what we really talked about was learning. During the first part of the workshop, I offered some reflections on examples of coursework completed by various students, some using AI and some not. During the second half of the workshop, we got into an interesting convo, asking each about the learning our assignments promote: when and why does our course design invite students to use AI tools?

Here’s the doc I share during the discussion. I’d love to hear from you if have thoughts or want to collaborate on the next Showing Your Work with AI discussion about learning, course design, and engagement.

Voice, Bias, and Templates

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We had a really rich convo yesterday about concepts of voice, concepts of bias, and concepts of templates by which we mean reproducible structures, devices, or tools that shape our thinking for us, or with us. At one point in the conversation, we got here:

“We’ve created an academic voice, and we’ve imposed structures and processes and practice on our students, so that by the end of their training, they write with an academic voice. That’s ideological. That’s a system that takes in what students say–and how students would on their own arrange and express that–and mutes, mars, and shapes their voice. By the end, we all speak in this certain way when we write in this space. That’s not something ChatGPT is introducing; that’s something that has defined and does define an English class and an English curriculum.”

To listen to our full convo, check out the Zoom recording or the podcast

All content shared and perspectives we discussed are collected in a Padlet.

Our next discussion will be April 12th, where we will discuss how our experiences reading in different modalities form us (as thinking, writing humans) and assist metacognition. We will be sharing from “Letter 3” & “Letter 4” in  Maryanne Wolf’s Reader Come Home. You do not have to have read the book to participate in the conversation. Hope to see you then to explore Attention and Thinking-about-Thinking with new writing technologies.

Surfaces, Tools, and Affordances

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In our discussion about the materiality of writing–different surfaces, different tools, and the affordances/constraints of each–we focused on an exploration of how we write. A writing process: scratching out words on paper; typewriting + whiteout back in high school; handwriting, touch-typing (8 fingers) or two-finger-hunt-and-peck, all thumbs. A writing style: the boring kind of writing or the truthful kind of writing generated (by what? by whom?) in the word, the sentence, and the structure.

Very early in the discussion, we zoomed in on how different ways of writing increase access or limit access. We talked about the cost and labor required of writers to participate fully in different mediums. And we talked about authorial/editorial choice as a fundamental value of our teaching: do our students have full confidence about how to write in a certain medium? Have our students reflected on why they write this medium?

To listen to our convo, check out the Zoom recording or the podcast

All content shared and perspectives we discussed are collected in a Padlet.

Our next discussion will be March 8th, where we will discuss how the writer’s voice, technique, and material encode values in text and which of these forces most shapes expression. We will be responding in part to Independent Lens’ Coded Bias (watch via PBS Passport or Netflix). You do not have to have watched the doc to participate in the conversation. Hope to see you then to explore Voice, Templates, and Bias of new writing technologies.

BYOD Sources on ChatGPT

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What other forms of expression can we teach now that the essay template is so easily reproducible?

What will happen to the struggle and the joy we experience as writers throughout the processes of composition?

What deep places can we expect our students to reach and what opportunities for deepening understanding of ideas, concepts, and content will we gain?

How are we–us and our students–giving up autonomy and agency to AI content generators to think and speak for us?

These are a few of the questions that emerged from our first discussion on teaching, composition, and new generative AI technologies like ChatGPT. We also collected a range of interesting sources and a cool AI generated image of MiraCosta College set in the dystopic future!

To listen to our convo, check out the Zoom recording or the podcast

All content shared and perspectives we discussed are collected in a Padlet.

Our next discussion will be Feb 22nd, where we will discuss other technologies in history that have shifted the way writers process and produce texts. We will be responding in part to Nova’s A-Z: How Writing Changed the World(watch via MCC Library). You do not have to have watched the doc to participate in the conversation. Hope to see you then to explore Surfaces, Tools, and Affordances of new writing technologies.

These are the [spaces] Where Writing Happens

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We’re exploring the spaces in our classes where writing happens. Some of us met in Zoom to share our thoughts. Some of us are participating asynchronously. You can too. Today or whenever. 🙂

Thinking about Material Affordances – A [Doc] Where Writing Happens

Thinking about Language Affirming Practices – A [Discussion] Where Writing Happens

Thinking about Contexts and Lived Experiences – A [Padlet] Where Writing Happens

Each space offers a different frame and a different mode of writing-to-think and writing-to-express. We might think of these as models for designing spaces where writing happens in our classes. We might simply use these spaces for reflection and collaboration. Like all shared, asynchronous spaces, these are simply spaces for our conversation to have already started and to be ongoing.

If you’d like to catch the convo we had in the Zooms, you can watch here or listen on our Letters Department Podcast.

Thank you for collaborating!

Communicating in Community Weeks 0 – 3

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What classroom community goals do you set for Weeks 0 – 3? What assignments/activities help you know who your students are and which help your students know who you are?

Watch or listen to The Ways We Make First Impressions Through Fourth Impressions at the beginning of the semester, a WritingwithMachines Discussion.

Then add your own plans for Pre-semester through Week 3 communications to our Google Doc

Your time listening/watching is eligible for FLEX.

This discussion is our fifth and final of a sustained series focused on our Online Teaching Principle for Communicating with Students. At the center of this deep-dive project, we’re asking this question: how do our communication tools, spaces, and methodologies promote student growth and student agency?

Thank you for the awesome convos, colleagues!

We Speak to Students Through Our Design Decisions

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What do we communicate to students from page to page, assignment to assignment? Why? How?

Watch or listen to The Voice, Verbs, and Grammars of our Courses, a WritingwithMachines Discussion

Then add your own exploration of Course Design Choices to our Google Doc

Your time listening/watching is eligible for FLEX.

This discussion is the fourth of a sustained series focused on our Online Teaching Principle for Communicating with Students. At the center of this deep-dive project, we’re asking this question: how do our communication tools, spaces, and methodologies promote student growth and student agency?

We will continue this series of professional conversations with one final conversation

First Impressions, Fourth Impressions: Communicating in Community Weeks 0-3, Thursday May 12th 3:30-5:00pm in Zoom

See you then!!

Feedback on Writing Can Be a Conversation

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How do you establish a culture of conversation in your class? How can your feedback on drafts sustain that conversation with each of your students?

Watch or listen to Dialoging in End Comments, A WritingwithMachines Discussion

Then add your own exploration of Feedback-style Convos to our Google Doc

Your time listening/watching is eligible for FLEX.

This discussion is the third of a sustained series focused on our Online Teaching Principle for Communicating with Students. At the center of this deep-dive project, we’re asking this question: how do our communication tools, spaces, and methodologies promote student growth and student agency?

We will continue this series of professional conversations with

Verbs, Voice, and Grammar (of Canvas): Speaking to Students Through Course Design Decisions, Monday April 11th 1:00-2:30pm in Zoom

First Impressions, Fourth Impressions: Communicating in Community Weeks 0-3, Thursday May 12th 3:30-5:00pm in Zoom

See you then!!

Communication in 3rd Spaces

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How do open, curated spaces encourage our students to lead, self-advocate, and belong within a community of readers and writers?

Watch or listen to Communication in 3rd Spaces, A WritingwithMachines Discussion

Then add your exploration of 3rd spaces to our Google Doc

Your time listening/watching is eligible for FLEX.

This discussion is the second of a sustained series focused on our Online Teaching Principle for Communicating with Students. At the center of this deep-dive project, we’re asking this question: how do our communication tools, spaces, and methodologies promote student growth and student agency?

We will continue this series of professional conversations next semester exploring instructor feedback, Canvas course design, and pre-semester outreach as sites for rich and effective communications. See you then!!

Explode the Weekly Announcement

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How can simple weekly announcements be designed as effective expressions that engage students in discovery and decision making within the dynamics of our courses?

Watch or listen to Explode the Weekly Announcement, A WritingwithMachines Discussion

Then add your Exploded Announcement to our Google Doc

Your time listening/watching is eligible for FLEX.


This discussion is the first of a sustained series focused on our Online Teaching Principle for Communicating with Students. At the center of this deep-dive project, we’re asking this question: how do our communication tools, spaces, and methodologies promote student growth and student agency?

Our next discussion will take place December 1st, 12:30-2:00pm, in Zoom. We will review different 3rd spaces–platforms like Discord, Pronto, and cafe style office hours–that involve students in the culture of our courses: how cultivated 3rd spaces encourage students to lead, self-advocate, and shape a community of readers and writers.

Thanks for contributing, colleagues!