Clayton Chiarelott's teaching philosophy is shaped by a decade of experience in writing centers, emphasizing a student-centered and context-based approach to writing education. He advocates for understanding the effectiveness of written communication rather than adhering to strict standards of correctness, and believes that writing instruction should be integrated across all disciplines, not just within English classes. Chiarelott's philosophy continues to evolve as he pursues a PhD in rhetoric and writing, incorporating new methodologies that enhance student engagement and relevance in writing.

1. Clayton Chiarelott
Teaching Philosophy
A decade of working in writing centers has exposed me to stimulating ideas from a diversity of
disciplines that have informed the way I approach the teaching of writing. Between teaching
classrooms full of students and tutoring individuals as well as small groups, I have developed my
educational philosophy, which is both student-centered and context-based. My approach to
teaching essentially involves understanding students where they are (student-centered) and
helping them understand where they are going and what they need to get there (context).
I strive to avoid prescriptions of right versus wrong, proper versus improper, and standard versus
non-standard English in favor of understanding and describing what words do or can do
depending on the context, for better or worse. Helping students look at writing this way opens
their eyes to the potential that written communication possesses. Students often come to me and
say something along the lines of “my teacher didn’t like what I wrote,” which I take as an
opportunity to first validate their feelings and commiserate for a moment, and then pivot from
the emotions of writing to the motions of writing: did the written piece reach its intended
destination and have its desired effect? Why or why not?
I have developed this philosophy over the years growing up in a “higher education” family and
then working in that field myself for many years. From my father, who wrote the book
Curriculum in Context, I learned importance of incorporated personal relevance into my tutoring
sessions and teaching lessons. While working closely with the Director of the Writing Center at
Bowling Green State University, I learned how to empower students and validate their ideas
while at the same time critiquing their work and giving them the tools to communicate their ideas
more effectively. From my supervisors at Mercy College of Ohio, including the Director of the
Academic Resource Center and the Associate Dean of Students, I have learned how to navigate
the sometimes tense relational dynamic between student, professor, and tutor in a way
communicates the role of the educator as the guide on the side (not the sage on the stage).
I also believe that it is necessary to continually stress that writing exists beyond the English
department—that writing, as well as reading, needs to be taught to some degree everywhere by
everyone. This realization first occurred to me at Mercy College of Ohio, where I work (and
have worked for the past 8 years) as the Writing Center Coordinator. As a college with a focus
on nursing and allied health, Mercy faculty require students to write in APA style, but many of
the transfer students only know MLA. As a result, the job often falls on the writing tutor to catch
those students up and teach them about the type of writing that is expected of them in healthcare
programs. I have consistently argued that writing (and reading) instruction needs to be
deliberately embedded throughout the curriculum, and that teaching reading and writing is not
just the job of English teachers. I am certainly not the first to hold this position, but it bears
repeating as much as possible until changes occur.
Now that I am in a PhD program in Rhetoric and Writing and I’m teaching composition courses
at BGSU, my teaching philosophy is evolving even more. I am gaining an appreciation for the
writing-about-writing (WAW) approach, as defined by Doug Downs and Elizabeth Wardle. This
approach already aligns with my focus on the student, the context, and the relevance of writing in
the real world, but it has given me know ways of thinking about my approach and has helped me
refine my teaching philosophy.