Photo by Steve Lessner
Steve Lessner, a graduate teaching assistant for WRAC and a PHD candidate in the Rhetoric & Writing program, was recently awarded a 2012-2013 Excellence-In-Teaching Citation for his outstanding efforts teaching First-Year Writing. While several citations were awarded, Lessner was the only individual from the College of Arts and Letters to receive the award.
This specific award is given to six graduate teaching assistants who have distinguished themselves in the classroom, and all were honored at the annual Awards Convocation, which was held on Tuesday, February 12, 2012 at the Wharton Center’s Pasant Theater.
A committee reviewed Lessner on a cumulative and diverse set of teaching materials including his teaching philosophy, course syllabi, curriculum vita, faculty letters of recommendations, Student Instructional Rating System forms (SIRS), and most importantly, letters of recommendation written by previous students.
“Mr. Steven Lessner is the definition of a truly excellent counselor, guider, teacher, and friend,” said a previous student in support of Lessner. “I wholeheartedly believe that [he] helped improve my writing, my thought process, as well as my ability to interpret and understand other scholars’ work,” the writer finished.
Lessner’s teaching philosophy primarily focuses on encouraging undergraduate students to “consider how their diverse literacy practices outside the academy can beneficially impact their writing in high education.”
Lessner draws upon his teaching experiences to enrich his own research. He recently co-authored a chapter with R&W alum Collin Craig entitled “Finding Your Way In: Invention as Inquiry Based Learning In First Year Writing,” published in Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing: Volume 1 (Parlor Press, WAC Clearinghouse, 2010).
