My award-winning teaching for the New Start Summer Bridge Program and my teaching in the LEAD Scholars program highlights my dedication to serving underrepresented student populations as faculty at Santa Clara University, which began during my graduate study at the University of Arizona. In addition to collaborating on the LEAD Scholars iPad pilot, I have taught courses such as Social Justice and Literacy, Writing about Culture and Literature, Digital Publishing and Writing Studies, as well as a Bilingual first-year composition course. 

Santa Clara University

Critical Thinking and Writing 2, Bilingual

In this first year composition course, students speak and write in Spanish during their first quarter and in English during their second quarter in my course where we focus on issues of language, translingualism and multimodal composing. Below are some examples of student work:

“Spanglish: Abomination or Identity”

“American Dream as Dream Act”

“Emojis: A New Variant of Visual Literacy”

Introduction to Writing Studies and Digital Publication

This class asks us to think about the writing process, how writing has always been multimodal, and how digital logic affects reading and writing for the screen. In Writing Studies, composing written communication no longer singularly refers to alphabetic texts and the ‘technology’ of the essay. Additionally, to meet the demands of writing post-graduation, writing for specific audiences in specific contexts needs to be considered in translating alphabetic texts into the genres available in online writing environments such as blogs, instructional YouTube videos and podcasts.

An example of student work:

Lead Scholars Program iPad Pilot

Here is a a study with statistical data from surveys during the first two years of the pilot: 2013-14_Collaborative_Report

Social Justice and Literacy

Framed around critical approaches to pedagogy and U.S. education, this course examined the enduring impact of Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed on critiques of white privilege (Peggy McIntosh), institutional schooling, and systemic oppression of Latin@s (Angela Valenzuela; Tara Yosso) and African Americans (bell hooks; Toni Morrison). This course included a community outreach component wherein which students researched and met with non-profits and organizations with social justice ethos. In addition, members of the community spoke in class with students about their work as it pertained to the intersection of social justice and literacy.

Oakland Missionary Matthew Miles from Interchange Speaks about his Work Teaching Undocumented Immigrants and Youth in Juvenile Hall

The Bread Loaf School of English

Link to Summer 2016 course on Multimodal Writing in the Digital Age:

http://cnmedina.wix.com/digitalwriting

<p><a href=”https://vimeo.com/176628959″>Bread Loaf Santa Fe 2016</a> from <a href=”https://vimeo.com/user31654473″>C Medina</a> on <a href=”https://vimeo.com”>Vimeo</a&gt;.</p>

University of Arizona

English 101A: Developmental Writing (5 semesters)

This basic writing course  provided a weekly workshop to students identified as developmental writing, allowing for specialized student-instructor interaction. Readings and assignments included literacy narratives from writers of color, which students analyzed and used as models for their own writing.

English 101: First Year Composition (3 semesters) 

First semester of two-course first year composition series, focusing on textual analysis through the lenses of cultural difference and geographic space. In addition to composing essays, students engage with texts by Chicano, Native American writers and feminist authors.

English 102: Rhetorical Analysis (4 semesters)

Second semester of first-year composition, introducing rhetorical analysis and evaluation of popular and academic resources. Emphasizing technology and community, Twitter serves as a supplemental writing practice. Wildcat Writers service-learning, a Visual-Spatial Exhibition and contract-grading served as aspects of this course.

I created this Xtranormal video for introducing research assignment.

Click on the links to see examples of student digital productions:

Parental Censorship

Religious Differences

Historical Perspectives

Nursing Shortage

Hip Hop as Public Enemy

Same Sex vs. Co-Ed Education

Story of Moriah

GEAR UP Project (Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs), Tucson, AZ

College Literacy Specialist, Sunnyside High School, Tucson, AZ

During the 2009-10 school year, I identified students from the after school writing program and trained student peer-writing mentors to serve the developing writing center. I developed the writing assignment and presented in classes about the student publication This We Believe/Nuestras Refranes that I co-edited, featuring student work from multiple high schools in Tucson and Sunnyside districts.

Chapman University

English 445: Major Authors—John Fowles  (1 section)                   

This one-semester course centered on the major works of author John Fowles. As teaching assistant to the professor teaching this course, I had the opportunity to lead a class session of the course that focused on postmodern theory and analysis in the novels of John Fowles. Outside of class, I responded to concerns of the students in the seminar, which was meant to be taken during the final year of English studies.