ENGL513 Composition Theory & Pedagogy
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Peyton DiTullio grew up in a little seaside town called Duxbury, Massachusetts most famous for its oysters and beaches. Peyton lived just one street away from her best friend Colton, whom she would regularly sneak out to see at night. Although an ocean lover, Peyton loved the mountains more, and consistently traveled to Vermont where she skied throughout her lifetime. Due to her many travels to Vermont and her desire to study under Dr. Anthony Magistrale (the lead professor in all things horror and Stephen King), Peyton enrolled in the University of Vermont where she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in English. Soon after graduating from UVM, Peyton moved back to her hometown to marry her best friend, Colton, and to begin teaching at Duxbury High School. Peyton is known as Mrs. DiCoolio by some of her students and has been nominated for “coziest classroom” three years in a row. Peyton prides herself on her ability to connect with her students and to build lasting relationships with them. Currently, Peyton and Colton (along with their dog, Pepper) live along the beach in Plymouth, Massachusetts just one street away from Peyton’s father, Chris, who also works at Duxbury High as a dive coach. Peyton, a former diver herself, loves attending the swim and dive meets and actively cheers on, and sometimes embarrasses, her students with all of her cheering.
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"My literacy journey began at a very young age. In elementary school, my teachers informed my parents that I had a learning disability. The details are vague to me, as my parents have never been able to definitively tell me what my teachers said, but from what I have gathered, it was something along the lines of, “she can’t even read or write.” My teachers came to this conclusion because I refused to do any of my schoolwork. What my teachers didn’t know was that I wasn’t illiterate, but rather an advanced reader and writer; I just wasn’t interested in anything I was asked to read or write about in school. "
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Nick Elliott teaches English to sophomores and juniors at Fairhaven High School. After graduating from Fitchburg State University with a degree in English Education in the Spring of 2020, he entered a confusing and chaotic scene. Bouncing from long-term substitute job to long-term substitute job, he was eager to find a school to settle down in and begin working towards his Master’s Degree. Now juggling the full-time teaching career and his grad school classes, he is busier than ever before. He finds working at Fairhaven challenging yet rewarding, and truly feels that teaching is what he was meant to do. When not teaching his students he can often be found drawing, writing, or reading- gothic horror in particular. He lives in Plymouth, MA with his cat, Kona, who is skilled at sneezing on Nick’s mouth, falling off of the counter, and being a nuisance in general. He loves her very much.
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"I truly cannot remember how old I was when I started tracing. I must have been roughly four or five, but asking for any more specificity than that is a lost cause. For someone who has made a career in reading and writing, I have always had a much stronger artistic streak. Drawing, coloring, doodling, any time there is some marking implement in my hand, it still is drifting absently along any surface in front of me. I was on track, I suppose, to becoming an illiterate painter, the way that I focused on drawing as a child. And the one thing, above all else that I loved to draw, was superheroes. . . ."
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Sara McNaughton is a first year high school English teacher in southern Massachusetts. She currently teaches four sections of 9th grade English and one section of 10th grade English. She graduated from Bridgewater State University in 2022 and enrolled in their MAT English program directly after graduation. In her free time, she loves to read (which English teacher doesn’t?) and explore coffee shops. She is on a personal mission to find the best oat milk latte in Massachusetts. Suggestions are always welcom! Additionally, she is passionate about traveling and exploring the world. So far, she has traveled to 10 countries. It has always been a goal of hers to study abroad, and she is currently pursuing different opportunities. She recently applied for the Bridgewater at Oxford program, and she hopes to be accepted into that program so that she can continue studying for her master’s degree abroad.
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To read Sara's Literacy History, "DIBELS and Dinosaurs Divorce" please reach out to the author.
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Devon Melo is a 26-year-old, third-year English teacher at East Bridgewater Junior-Senior High School where she currently teaches tenth and twelfth grade. As cliche as it sounds, she has always wanted to be a teacher, and is very lucky to have a supportive community of educators there. Most recently, she has coached field hockey and is assisting with student activities at her school. In her free time, Devon loves going out to eat, binge watching tv, traveling, and Dairy Queen. She goes all year round, and if you have any blizzard recommendations, please let her know.
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"I have always struggled in confidence as a student and teacher with reading and writing. Yet, I have always had a mutual respect and appreciation for it. Yes, I have bias because of my profession, but I have seriously always loved learning, despite my low self esteem in literacy. However, it wasn’t immediate, and honestly it’s gotten worse as I’ve entered my twenties. Before I entered pre-school, I would watch the PBS Kids show called, the “Reading Rainbow.” This show’s iconic theme song still gets in my head to this day, and I am a strong believer this is one of the reasons why I loved to read. In elementary and middle school, reading felt effortless. Every summer, the Bridgewater Public Library would have a student read-a-thon, where you got a sticker for every ten books you read. Every couple of days, my mom would take my sister and I to morning storytime where the librarian, Mrs. Davis would read to a group of kids around our ages. Afterwards, I would explore the rest of the second floor for new recommendations. I picked up on series like Junie B. Jones and Magic Tree House, or The Series of Unfortunate Events, and The Hunger Games. I built a relationship with Mrs. Davis from the children’s section and Ann from the central circulation desk, (who recently just retired last month) and as I entered middle and high school I would still go to the library every now and then to study for school. . . ."
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Kasey Pelletier is a 27-year-old teacher at Global Learning Charter Public School, where she has taught High School English Language Arts since her graduation from Bridgewater State University in 2018. Though Kasey loves being in school, she took a five-year hiatus from getting her Master's degree so that she could focus on being the best teacher she could possibly be. Aside from her love of teaching, she has a plethora of different interests, one of the major ones being travel, which is a little ironic due to her fear of planes. Her favorite place has definitely been California, where she has now been three times, but Greece was a close second. She felt that being there made her feel like she was in her favorite movie: Mamma Mia. While traveling, she gets to do her favorite thing, which is eating all that the culture has to offer. She has always enjoyed learning about new cultures and felt that food was one of the major ways to discover more about people. Her love of food has led to her own exploration of cooking and baking. While she sticks to mostly Portuguese cooking due to her family heritage, she loves sweets, leading to a journey to make the perfect gluten-free donut. Currently, Kasey is enjoying her career, family-time, and exploring life with her partner of two years. She hopes for many more years of enjoying life with those around her and picking up new hobbies along the way!
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Cassie Peterson is A 25-year-old English teacher who works at Taunton High School. She currently teaches 8th and 9th grade and is in her 3rd official year of teaching. Prior to that, she was a long-term substitute for the Taunton English Department. She also runs the poetry club at the school, where students can eat snacks, make friends and write poetry. Cassie was diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder in her early 20's and works to destigmatize mental health struggles for her students. In her spare time, she sings in the BSU Alumni and Community Chamber Choir, does photography, crochets stuffed animals, and watches YouTube videos with her partner and their cat Eowyn. Cassie has a special interest in The Lord of the Rings, insects, crafting, and nature fun facts. She enjoys acquiring a little knowledge about everything and will hopefully move on to acquire a doctorate after she finishes the MAT program at BSU.
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"The first time that I remember being truly angry was in the second grade, when I got in trouble for “pretending to read” Stuart Little. I showed up to school the day after receiving the book, and instead of reading along with the class, I sat idly, waiting for the accompanying activity. Poor, innocent me did not realize at the time that inactivity was a sure indication of laziness and failure. This behavior baffled my ELA teacher. When she asked why I wasn’t following along, I told the truth. I read it at home last night. I finished it at home last night. If my teacher had gotten to know me better, the conversation would have ended there. But I didn’t match. I didn’t fit the expectations that my teacher used as a one-size-fits-all standard of literacy." . . .
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Dawna Vella grew up in Plymouth, MA and is currently living in Fall River with her husband, Gus, and their pets: Aurora the leopard gecko and two cats, Calliope Evelyn and Rye Bread. After attending BSU for undergrad, she is now halfway through her fifth year teaching seventh grade English in Carver. When not being a certified disaster and a half at work, Dawna enjoys singing, playing guitar/ukulele, exploring, crafting, and writing dramatic poetry about everyone she has ever had a crush on. This is her second semester in the MA program, where she plans to do a lot of nerdy composition/rhetoric things. Someday, she thinks she would like to pursue a PhD in Comp & Rhet, pending enough remaining mental stability. Basically, Dawna just loves language more than everything. The three coolest things that Dawna has ever done are living in Australia for four months, singing at Carnegie Hall with BSU Chamber Choir 2017/2018, and student teaching in Quito, Ecuador.
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"I have been a reader since before I was born and a writer for as far back as I can remember. My mother jumps at the opportunity to take credit for my lifelong love of language–reading was important to my family and a cornerstone of my childhood. I did not understand the true value of literacy, however, until I began telling stories." . . .
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Lee Torda is in her 23rd year of teaching writing at Bridgewater State University but only in her first year of dean-ing. She is hoping that the 23 years of doing just about whatever writing/reading related thing you could do on campus with and for students has prepared her for the work. Lee loves her BSU students, thinks they are some of the most special and thoughtful, kind, smart humans she's ever gotten to know, and believes (sometimes more than they do) that they could take on anyone, anywhere, anytime, from any college or university. Period. Her scholarly focus is on literacy pedagogy, with a little side-work in young adult novels. She lives in New Bedford, in a big, very old house, with her husband, a very old cat named Noodle and a very young dog named Chicken.
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"When I was four years old, I barricaded myself in the room I shared with my infant sister in an attempt to deny the fact of her birth. I pushed a dresser many times my size in front of the door. It was one of those mother lifting a car off their child moments, so rich was my fury over my mewling baby sister. Of course, yes, it could have killed me. That was the problem. It caused a big kerfuffle, and it ended up that my parents (and aunts and uncles) had to take the door off the hinges. I had a lot of Aunts and Uncles, and, thus, it was a lot of kerfuffle. During all of this, I was peeking from behind a volume of Charlie Brown’s Illustrated Encyclopedia that I mostly used to build houses for Barbies. It was how I watched the unwanted rescue unfold. When they got the door open, they mistook my peeking for reading and declared me a genius. But I wasn’t reading. I was scowling. But the moment was past. . . . "
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