Paula Patch
Senior Lecturer in English
Department: English
Email: ppatch@elon.edu
Phone number: (336) 278-6062
Professional Expertise
Brief Biography
I am the Associate Director for First-Year Initiatives in the Elon Core Curriculum, where I am responsible for curriculum and faculty development for COR 110: The Global Experience, programming for the Common Reading, and working across university sectors to ensure a high-quality first-year experience for Elon students.
I am also a senior lecturer in English, and I teach first-year writing; Native American literature; Literary Landscapes of England, a study abroad course in London that focuses on British Literature and culture; literature of disability; and rhetorical grammar.
From 2011-2019, I coordinated the College Writing Program at Elon, which includes ENG 1100 Writing: Argument and Inquiry and ENG 1000: Supplemental Writing Workshop. The program also offers a college writing seminar for high school juniors in Alamance County.
My research focuses on composition pedagogy: What classroom experiences help students develop as writers? My interests include helping faculty discover ways to strengthen their students' and their own writing, mentoring undergraduates in research about writing and in teaching assistantships, analyzing the impact of technology on writing and the teaching of writing, and incorporating sustainable practices into the classroom. In 2019, I co-wrote and published a book chapter on the connection between the high-impact practice of writing across the curriculum and library instruction. In 2011, I co-wrote a proposal that became Elon's Writing Excellence Initiative, which focuses on creating a culture of writing in which students, faculty, and staff work together to become stronger writers. I have also collaborated with colleagues to determine the effectiveness of offering College Writing during the shortened summer sessions. You can read about our experience with that class here.
In recent years, I have worked on CATL grant-funded projects to incorporate anti-racist practices into the first-year writing program and to develop a grammar proficiency program for students in the Elon School of Education.
Links
Courses Taught
Writing
- Writing: Argument and Inquiry (formerly College Writing)
- Supplemental Writing Workshop
- Special Topics in Writing, including Writing about Taboo Language
- Writing Center Workshop
- Writing Studies Survey
Literature
- Native American Literature
- Literary Landscapes of England
- Unruly Bodies: Disability and Illness in Literature
Language
- Grammar
Elon Core Curriculum
- The Global Experience, Elon's signature first-year seminar
Study Abroad
- Literary Landscapes of England, 2020, 2022, 2023
- Co-teacher, Elon Human Services Studies Practicum in London, Winter Term 2010
Leadership Positions
- Associate Director for First-Year Initiatives in the Elon Core Curriculum
- College Writing Coordinator
- Co-leader of the Elon Women's Forum
- Quality Enhancement Plan Steering Committee
- Leadership Faculty Scholar
- Academic Technology and Computing Committee (chair)
- Writing Center Director (interim)
Current Projects
Student Mentoring:
- Undergraduate research mentor:
- Dorothy “Dory” Boudette, Elementary Education Licensure Candidate and Teaching Fellow, “Understanding Alternative Grading Systems in Writing Classes,” Fall 2018-present
- Emily Guyton, English and Philosophy major and Honors Fellow, “Intro to Intersectionality,” Fall 2018
- Juliette Firla, Secondary English Teacher Licensure Candidate and Teaching Fellow, “The Benefits of Personal Journaling in Secondary English Classes,” Fall 2018-present
- Amanda McMahon, Secondary English Teacher Licensure Candidate, “Creative Writing in the Composition Classroom,” Fall 2018-present
- Emily Roper, Human Service Studies major and Professional Writing Studies minor, “Literacy Instruction in the Juvenile Justice System in Guilford County,” 2015-16
- Alex Hanner, English major and Elon College Fellow, “Social and Pedagogical Implications of Community Creative Writing Workshops,” 2010-11
- Organization advisor:
- Elon Native American Student Association, 2018-present
- Autism Speaks U, 2016-present
- Faculty advisor, Alternative Spring Break Service Learning trip to Pine Ridge Reservation in Pine Ridge, South Dakota, Spring 2016
Grants Awarded
- CATL Diversity and Inclusion Grant to work with lecturer in English Margaret Chapman and assistant professor of English Jennifer Eidum to address privilege in the College Writing/ENG 110 writing program and to develop anti-racist, anti-sexist, and anti-ableist curriculum, assessment, and language for the program, 2018-19
- CATL Scholar Fellowship to develop a program of study for Elon students to learn about and demonstrate grammar competency, 2013-15
Publications
“The Impact of Co-Ownership and Community: Reimagining the Relationship between Library and Writing Instruction as a Community of Practice.” The Engaged Library: High-Impact Educational Practices & Academic Libraries, edited by Joan Ruelle and Deandra Little. Forthcoming from ACRL.
"Rev. of Cole, Kirsti, and Holly Hassel, editors. Surviving Sexism in Academia: Strategies for Feminist Leadership. Routledge, 2017." Peitho 21.1 (2018): 240-3.
“The Danger of Polite Silence: Five Strategies for Getting Students to Talk to One Another.” Field Notes Blog, National Council of Teachers of English, 26 March 2018. http://www2.ncte.org/blog/2018/03/danger-polite-silence-five-strategies-getting-students-talk-one-another.
Coker, Jeffrey S., and Paula Patch. “Lessons from a Scale-Up of Residentially Linked Classes.” Learning Communities Research and Practice 4.2 (Nov. 2016), Article 6. http://washingtoncenter.evergreen.edu/lcrpjournal/vol4/iss2/6/
Moore, Jessie, Kimberly B. Pyne, and Paula Patch. “Providing Access to College Capital: A Transitional Summer College Writing Experience for Underrepresented Students.” Composition Forum (Spring 2013).
“Meeting Student Writers Where They Are: Using Wikipedia to Teach Responsible Scholarship.” Teaching English in the Two-Year College (March 2010): 280-7.
Presentations
- Elon Leadership Education Panel, “Leadership Education: An Inclusive Perspective from Voices in Our Community,” September 2018.
- “Disrupting the Myth of Monolingualism: Tips for Teaching Crossculturally in Any Class” (with Jennifer Eidum and Margaret Chapman), Elon Teaching and Learning Conference, Elon, NC, August 2018.
- “Unicorns or Digital Natives: Which One Are You Most Likely to Encounter?” (with Jeffrey Carpenter, Sana Haq, and Scott Morrison), Elon Teaching and Learning Conference, Elon, NC, August 2018.
- “Inventing the Global University: Crosscultural Composition as Core Experience,” Council of Writing Program Administrators Conference, Sacramento, CA, July 2018.
- “Fear and Learning in the Classroom: The Costs and Benefits of Vulnerability in First-Year Writing” (with Margaret Chapman), Council of Writing Program Administrators Conference, Sacramento, CA July 2018.
- “Reassessing Information Literacy: Methods and Findings from a Collaborative Assessment of College Writers’ Source Use,” International Writing Across the Curriculum conference (IWAC), Auburn, AL, June 2018.
- “Cultural Competency as Core Experience: A Successful Model for Crosscultural Composition,” 5th Annual Southern Regional Composition Conference, Memphis, TN, March 2018.
- “Rising (and Staying) Out of the Slush Pile: How to Get, Keep, and Enjoy a Job Teaching First-Year Writing.” Finding Happiness and Satisfaction in the Work of Teaching and Administering Writing (panel). Council of Writing Program Administrators Conference, Knoxville, TN, July 2017.
- “Re-Tooled: Revising a Grammar Competency Exam for Education Majors into a Learning Opportunity for Everyone.” Conference on English Leadership, Atlanta, Georgia, November 2016
- (with Patrick Rudd). Webcast presenters.
- Invited Speaker, Elon University Turning 21 Dinner, September 2016
- (with Patrick Rudd). “Co-Owners in Engaged Learning: Reimagining the Library-First Year Writing Partnership as a Community of Practice.” Georgia Conference on Information Literacy, Savannah, GA, September 2016
- “Tracking the Invisible Faculty: Using Institutional Ethnography to Determine the Material Conditions of Non-Tenure Track Lecturers.” Carolinas Writing Program Administrators Fall Meeting, Little Switzerland, NC, September 2016
- “Fresh, Local, Good: A New Model for Librarian-Faculty Partnerships.” Elon Teaching and Learning Conference, Elon University, August 2016.
- “Retooled: How We Revised a Grammar Assessment for Education Majors into a Learning Opportunity for Everyone.” Elon Teaching and Learning Conference, Elon University, August 2016.
- A Real-Time Conversation with Campus Partners: What We Learned from Collaborating on Our Residential Campus Initiative. Roundtable discussion with Dr. Jeffrey Coker, Dr. Jennifer Eidum Zinchuk, Prof. Greg Shemkovitz, and Dr. Janet Warman. Council of Writing Program Administrators Conference, Raleigh, NC, July 2016
- (with Patrick Rudd). “Co-Owners in Engaged Learning: Reimagining the Library-First Year Writing Partnership as a Community of Practice.” The Innovative Library Classroom annual conference, Radford University, Radford, Virginia, May 2016.
- Plenary speaker, Intersect Diversity and Leadership Conference, Elon University, November 2015
- “There’s Something Happening Here: The Inner Workings of a Partnership between the First-Year Writing Program and the School of Education to Provide Writing Enrichment to High School Juniors in the Community,” SAMLA, Durham, North Carolina, November 2015
- “Bringing the Class to the World: Integrating Authentic Audiences and Purposes into Assignments,” Elon Teaching and Learning Conference, Elon University, August 2015
- WPAllies: A Conversation Starter about Horizontal Mentoring, or the Benefits of Having Friends in Other Places. Conversation Starter Roundtable with Dr. Casie Fedukovich (North Carolina State University) and Dr. Joyce Inman (University of Southern Mississippi). Council of Writing Program Administrators Conference, Boise, Idaho, July 2015
- Gendered Risks and Rewards in the New Job Market(s): Changing Positions, Changing Locations. Roundtable. 2015 Conference on College Composition and Communication, Tampa, Florida, March 2015
- “The Long Good-bye: Investing Emotionally in Faculty on Terminal Contracts.” Carolinas Writing Program Administrators Meeting in the Middle Conference, Charlotte, NC, February 2015
- “ ‘I am Large, I Contain Multitudes’: A Post-Oppositional Approach to Social and Institutional Change.” Elon Intersect Diversity Conference, Elon University, November 2014
- (with Prof. Greg Hlavaty) “Extra Credit: A Case Study of a Writing Program’s Outreach to Local High School Students.” Success and Identity in Periods of Transition. Thomas R. Watson Conference in Rhetoric and Composition, Louisville, Kentucky, October 2014
- Flipped Instruction: Perspectives on Making the Transition. Panel presentation. Elon Teaching and Learning Conference, Elon University, August 2014
- (Inter)Active Reading: Using Web Apps to Promote Active Reading. Workshop. Elon Teaching and Learning Conference, Elon University, August 2014
- The Myth of Tiers: Proposing a Chaos of Agency for WPAs. Conversation Starter Roundtable. 2014 Council of Writing Program Administrators Conference, Normal, Illinois, July 2014.
- “Who Are You Calling Contingent? Making the Case—and a Place—for Permanent Non-Tenure Track Faculty in Today’s English Department.” Gender, Contingent Labor, and Writing Instruction: Surviving and Thriving While Working off the Tenure-Track. Conference on College Composition and Communication, Indianapolis, March 2014
- The jWPA & Labor: Protecting Yourself and Your Teachers. Roundtable participant. 2013 Writing Program Administrators Conference, Savannah, Georgia, July 2013
- “Mindfulness and the MOOC: What We Can Learn from MOOCs about Delivering Writing Instruction.” Panel Presentation with Chris Anson, Denise Comer, and Susan Miller-Cochran. 2013 Writing Program Administrators Conference, Savannah, Georgia, July 2013.
- What is a WPA?: Perspectives on Writing Program Administration from Junior Faculty WPA, Tenured WPA, Two-Year College WPA, Grad WPA, and Small College WPA. Roundtable participant. 2013 Writing Program Administrators Conference, Savannah, Georgia, July 2013
- “Better Together: Opportunities for Including Athletic Academic Advisors as Partners in the Teaching and Learning of Writing.” Going Public through Partnership: Basic Writing as a Nexus for Transfer, Advocacy, and Activism. Conference on College Composition and Communication, Las Vegas, Nevada, March 2013
- “Building Community through Shared Goals: The Role of Faculty in Creating Meaningful Program Assessment.” 2013 North Carolina Symposium on Teaching Writing, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina, February 2013
- “#winning Approaches to Teaching with Twitter and Other Digital Media.” Elon Teaching and Learning Conference, Elon University, August 2012
- “Leading by Listening: The Role of the WPA in Creating and Implementing a University-Wide Quality Enhancement Plan.” You Put Your WPA in My QEP, or, Lessons from Leadership Work in University-Wide (Writing) Initiatives. Council of Writing Program Administrators Conference, Albuquerque, New Mexico, July 2012
- “Creating a Culture of Writing through a Quality Enhancement Plan.” 11th Annual International Writing across the Curriculum Conference, Savannah, Georgia, June 2012
- “Fluid Boundaries: Constructing a Meaningful Assessment of a Basic Writing Workshop.” Reframing Basic Writing and Sites of Transfer. Conference on College Composition and Communication, St. Louis, Missouri, March 2012
- Poster (with Dr. Jessie Moore, Assistant Professor of English, Elon University, and Dr. Kim Pyne, Assistant Professor of English, Elon University). “Assessing Learning in a Modified Section of College Writing.” Student Undergraduate Research Forum Faculty Scholarship Poster Presentations. Elon University, April 2011
- (with Dr. Jean Schwind). “Using Visual Arguments in the Composition Class.” Lilly South Conference, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, February 2011
- (with Dr. Jean Schwind). “Integrating Visual Argument into the Composition Classroom. Using Images in the Composition Classroom: Critical Thinking and the Rhet/Comp Classroom, Session I, South Atlantic Modern Language Association, Atlanta, Georgia, November 2010
- “What Do They Know?: A (Further) Analysis of Student Essays about Wikipedia.” Teaching English Composition (panel). Rocky Mountain Modern Language Association, Albuquerque, New Mexico, October 2010
- “Composing Across Contexts: Understanding the Transfer of Writing Strategies from First-Year Composition to Other First-Year Courses.” North Carolina Symposium on Teaching Writing, North Carolina State University, October 2009
- “What Do They Know?: An Analysis of Student Essays about Wikipedia.” 6th Annual Innovation in Instruction Conference, Elon University, August 2009
- “Engaging the Millenials: Using Wikipedia to Teach 21st-Century Literacy Skills to First-Year Writing Students.” Lilly South Conference, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Greensboro, North Carolina, February 2009
- “Casting the Net: After-the-Fact Writing Instruction for Failing Students.” Conference on College Composition and Communication, New Orleans, Louisiana, April 2008
- “Students Don’t Fear the Wiki: Using Wikipedia to Teach Responsible Scholarship.” Beyond the Blogosphere: Digital Culture and the Social Web in Rhetoric and the Writing Classroom (panel). South Atlantic Modern Language Association, Atlanta, Georgia, November 2007
- “Wikipedia and the Transformation of First-Year Composition.” Free and Hot: Using Popular Web Resources to Teach Research Skills and Critical Thinking (panel). Teaching and Transformation: 4th Annual Innovation in Instruction Conference, Elon University, August 2007
- “Students Don’t Fear the Wiki: Using Wikipedia to Teach Responsible Scholarship.” Teaching and Transformation: 4th Annual Innovation in Instruction Conference, Elon University, August 2007
Professional Activities
- Vice-President/President-Elect, Council of Writing Program Administrators, 2019-
- President, Carolinas Writing Program Administrators, 2019-
- President-elect, Carolinas Writing Program Administrators, 2016-2018
- Member, Executive Board of Council of Writing Program Administrators, 2016-20
- Chair, Diversity Committee of Council of Writing Program Administrators, 2016-present
- Chair, Council of Writing Program Administrators Tenure-Free Faculty Caucus (the formal, permanent product of the CWPA Task Force on Non-Tenured/Untenured Writing Program Administrators), 2016-present
- Reviewer, Teaching English in the Two-Year College, 2010-present
- Reviewer, WPA: The Journal of the Council of Writing Program Administrators, 2018
Awards
Elon College, The College of Arts and Sciences Excellence in Service Award, 2016