Sarah Schuster, MA

I’m excited to help students on what I hope will be a lifelong journey of reading, writing, debating, and learning! I was born and raised (and homeschooled myself) in Virginia. I’ve tutored and taught students many different types of students in my career, from tutoring ESL students to teaching middle- and high school students at WTMA to teaching rhetoric, writing, and American literature at UT-Austin. My most recent work has included designing online curriculum for educational technology companies, such as Cengage.

I’m passionate about writing and reading, and I’m always excited to share that with students! When I’m not teaching students grammar, argumentation, and writing, I’m more often than not engaging with various forms of media myself: reading good books, or watching movies. I have a German Shepherd mix named Rowan and a gray tabby cat named Queequeg, who is named for a character from one of my favorite books, Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick.

On teaching: My classes incorporate both lectures and seminar-style discussions, depending on the level of material. Even with a lecture-based section, I always provide students the opportunity to practice what they’ve learned. I use a broad range of teaching methods and include auditory, visual, and peer work to ensure students of different learning styles can achieve mastery over material. In writing, rhetoric, and literature, I encourage students to use skills they learn in the classroom in their everyday lives, from movie watching to reading articles or engaging with the news. I tend to “scaffold” my assignments, breaking larger assignments and papers into a series of smaller assignments. With this, students are able to practice writing skills and receive a generous amount of guidance for their completed project.