WRITING SAMPLES

Rhetoric as Civic Education

This essay was the final reflection for ENG 551: Rhetorical Traditions, a graduate course examining the history and theory of rhetoric from ancient Greece through contemporary practice. The assignment asked me to advocate for a model of rhetoric supported by primary source readings and to reflect on how my thinking had evolved across the semester. I argued for the classical ethical model as developed by Isocrates, Cicero, and Quintilian, which treats rhetoric not as a neutral technique but as a practice tied to character, knowledge, and civic responsibility. Writing this piece pushed me to think seriously about who the classical tradition includes and excludes, particularly as a teacher working with students who have historically been kept at the margins of the kinds of public discourse these thinkers valued. The essay represents a turning point in how I understand language as a teacher. Rhetoric is not just persuasion that works. It is persuasion that deserves to work because it serves truth and builds community. That conviction now shapes how I approach writing instruction, discussion, and advocacy in my own classroom and beyond. Click here to read.

Reading Banned: LGBTQ+ Voices and Censorship

This Pecha Kucha style presentation was the final project for ENG 540: Teaching Young Adult Literature, a graduate course examining how YA texts function as tools for identity development, critical literacy, and social action. The assignment asked students to design an original four to six week thematic unit built around a topic and a set of YA texts, then present it in a timed twenty slide format. My unit, Reading Banned: LGBTQ+ Voices and Censorship, was designed for grades eleven and twelve and centered on four of the most challenged books in the country, including Maia Kobabe's Gender Queer, George M. Johnson's All Boys Aren't Blue, Stephen Chbosky's The Perks of Being a Wallflower, and David Levithan's Two Boys Kissing. The unit was grounded in four theoretical frameworks, Bishop's mirrors, windows, and doors model, Lewison's critical literacy framework, Alsup's conception of YA literature as social action, and Rosenblatt's reader-response theory. Students moved from reading to analysis to civic action through activities including a censorship mapping exercise, a mock school board hearing, a formal book defense essay, and a multimodal advocacy project. This unit represents my belief that literature education is not politically neutral and that teaching students to read critically, argue evidence-based positions, and participate in democratic processes is one of the most important things an English teacher can do. It also demonstrates my ability to design rigorous, research-backed curriculum that meets students where they are while demanding serious intellectual engagement from them. Click here to read.

Integrating Pedagogy, Text Selection, and Student Voice: A Literature Review of Effective Literacy Instruction for At-Risk Secondary Students in Alternative Schools

This literature review was completed for ENG 501: Introduction to Research Studies, the foundational research course in the ASU MA in English Studies program. The assignment required synthesizing a minimum of eight peer-reviewed academic sources around a self-selected research problem within English studies. I chose to examine literacy instruction for students in alternative educational settings, a population that remains significantly underrepresented in mainstream English studies research despite comprising substantial numbers in secondary education, particularly in urban districts. The review is organized around three interconnected areas: culturally responsive pedagogical approaches for at-risk students, text characteristics and accessibility features that support struggling readers, and student voice and reading motivation among marginalized populations. Drawing on fourteen peer-reviewed sources published primarily between 2020 and 2025, the review argues that effective literacy instruction for alternative school students cannot address these elements in isolation. It requires integrated frameworks that combine culturally sustaining pedagogy, accessible and representative text selection, and authentic attention to student identity and experience. This piece represents the beginning of a research agenda I intend to pursue as I move into instructional leadership and college level teacher preparation work. There is almost no published research on the specific population I teach every day, and I believe that gap is itself a problem worth naming and working to close.