| Title: | Assistant College Lecturer |
| Dept: | English |
| Office: | RT 1844 |
| Phone: | 216-687-6872 |
| Email: | j.a.townsend19@csuohio.edu |
| Address: | 2121 Euclid Ave. RT 1844, Cleveland, OH 44115 |
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| Education: | ||||||||
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Ph.D., Literacy, Rhetoric, and Social Practice, Kent State University, 2019
M.A., Composition, University of Akron, 2014 B.S., Electronic Medial Production, Kent State University, 2011 Minor, Japanese, Kent State University, 2019 Graduate Certificate, Teaching English as a Second Language, University of Akron | ||||||||
| Brief Bio: | ||
| My research focuses on the literacy practices of multilingual writers and contributes to the increasingly important field of translingualism in English composition studies. The study looks at the specifics of translingual workflows and communication. It also investigates how we can better implement a translingual lens in any writing classroom. | ||
| Research Interests: | ||
| Translingual Framework
The translingual language framework builds on the understanding of multiliteracies (New London Group, 1996). According to the New London Group, teachers can benefit their students by including multimodal (video, photographs, sound, and design) instruction in their teaching and by acknowledging and respecting the multiple languages and language varieties that students may bring to the classroom. The translingual framework (Horner et al., 2011) moves multilingualism further. In the translingual framework, monolingual teaching approaches are harmful, and boundaries between languages are fluid and porous (Horner et al., 2011). Translingualism is a type of critical language pedagogy, meaning that it views all languages and language varieties from a linguistic standpoint and questions the value that society gives certain language varieties over others. From a linguist¿s point of view, every language is rule governed and systematic. However, according to some institutions (school, media, and workplaces, for instance), standard English is valued more than other languages and monolingualism is often portrayed as normal. This point of view may make students internalize a negative view about their language and about themselves. At Cleveland State University, some students bring a negative or uninformed view of African American English into the classroom. Translingual pedagogy can give a framework for teachers to help students see that all languages are linguistically equal. This pedagogy can also help students raise a critical consciousness about the languages that they command or hear in their communities. Linguistic consciousness is the awareness that languages are equal and the understanding that society discriminates against certain languages. Linguistic consciousness also opens students to think about ways of questioning or dismantling linguistic discrimination. Screen Recordings One aspect of my classroom research is focused on how teachers and students can use screen recordings to better understand and improve their writing processes. Screen recordings use software to document the specific actions that writers take on the screen. Researchers in writing studies use activity theory (stemming from Vygotskian learning theories) to more fully understand the actions on screens during the writing process. Screen recordings are ways to measure directly what students do on their screens while reading, writing, and researching. Activity theory uses tools, the community, and the subject to understand outcomes (Engestrom, 1978). With screen recordings specifically, teachers and students can discover more about writing and the products they create by looking at how tools can mediate, or affect, the writing process. Tools mediate writing by enabling writers to perform tasks that they would not be able to without that tool. The tools continue to mediate products by informing and making up the writing process. | ||
| Teaching Areas: | ||
| My first experience teaching was as a peer undergraduate writing tutor at Kent State University in 2011. In the years following, I taught first-year writing, technical writing, and media writing across universities including Stark State College, The University of Akron, and Kent State University as I earned my master¿s degree and Ph.D. I am eager to teach Composition Theory in Spring 2023. Within my study of composition, literacy, rhetoric, and social practice in my advanced degree programs, I began my academic journey as both a researcher and a teacher. My academic and pedagogical experiences have always been intertwined with an understanding of theories of learning and how they can be enacted in the writing classroom. Academic research, including translingual and critical language pedagogies, has a visible impact on how and what I teach in my first-year writing classrooms. For example, I use readings that get students thinking about their language ideologies and prompt students to question linguistic discrimination against African American English and English as a second language speakers. Each semester, Irevise my teaching through a recursive process informed by scholarship and student reflections, reactions, and products each semester.
The field of composition has moved writing instructors away from focusing on editing student essays and towards teaching a more holistic view of writing as a process. A few of the student learning objects for First-Year Writing include composing texts that follow academic writing standards, understanding how to understand academic texts, following the writing process, and developing agency as a writer. In my classroom, I create a learning community that focuses on improving reading and writing with online tools like SharePoint and OneNote and a collaborative and welcoming in-person atmosphere. Students have unlimited opportunities to revise essays and improve their writing and grades. Students are required to read their peers¿ essays and give them comments. This collaborative and open atmosphere helps students to understand writing as a discussion as opposed to a strict set of rules to follow (as many students perceive the writing process when they first begin the class). | ||
| University Service: | ||
| University Assessment Council. Spring 2022-current. Tasks: attend semester meetings.
AAUP Level III Grievance Panel. April 2022. Tasks: Attend meeting and decide on grievance. Programmatic Assessment Group Leader. July 2021. Tasks: Scheduled remote meetings with two other reviewers, created and implemented a process for the group to complete the assessment through OneDrive, reviewed eight departments¿ assessment reports in a team of three. Stipend received. Programmatic Assessment Reviewer. July 2020, October 2020, November 2020, July 2021, August 2021, June 2022, August 2022. Tasks: Reviewed eight departments¿ assessment reports in a team of three. Stipends received. | ||
| Professional Service: | ||
| Peer Reviewer for Journal of Literacy Research. January 2021-present. Reviewed articles in February 2021, May 2021, July 2021, February 2022, and May 2022. | ||
| Research Grants: | ||
| Textbook Affordability Grant, Summer 2021. Cleveland State University. Tasks performed: create open-education resource for College Writing II with Pressbooks, attend meetings with grant team, survey students on course material created for grant, present data at campus events. | ||