English Graduate Instructors | SAGES Graduate Instructors | Other Resources
English Department Graduate Student Instructors
English Department TA Mentoring and Oversight
(Fall 2007)
A major component of graduate education in English is a deliberate and ongoing attention to teaching. As a Teaching Assistant in the English department, we expect you to spend significant time on your teaching (we estimate that each course you teach demands a minimum of 10 hours per week of preparation, class time, office hours, etc.). This document summarizes two of the most important mentoring and training programs that the department has designed to help you continue to enhance your pedagogical skills and support your teaching in the classroom and in the Writing Resource Center.
At your earliest convenience, please contact BOTH your Mentor TA and your Fall Faculty Mentor to exchange email addresses and other relevant contact information. Remember that it is your responsibility to contact your Faculty Mentor to set up times for visits and to distribute sets of graded essays. The current semester's mentoring guidelines and assignments are available in a separate document.
Mentor TA
Mentor TAs serve as accomplished teachers in their broad area of teaching expertise, and have a great deal of experience and advice to offer other Teaching Assistants. Mentor TAs can provide assistance with all aspects of course design, classroom management, and assessement. They also serve as primary coordinators for the development and maintenance of print, workshop, and online resources in the three primary domains that make up our writing programs:
• General education writing (English 150, First Seminar support, University Seminar support);
• Basic and ESL writing (ESL First Seminar, English 150esl, English 148, Grad 148, English 183, WRC consulting)
• Disciplinary writing (English 217B, English 398, Nursing consulting)
Graduate TAs and WRC consultants should plan to attend staff meetings with their Mentor TAs and meet at least once per semester with Mentor TAs to discuss successes and difficulties in particular teaching assignments and to work together to develop and refine print, workshop, and online resources. TAs new to Case should plan to “shadow” at least one Mentor TA in the classroom in the fall semester. Please note: TAs with more than one assignment might have more than one Mentor TA in a given semester.
Faculty Mentor
English TAs assigned to writing support posts in SAGES: The Director of Composition and the Assistant to the Director will meet with you in the course of the semester to discuss grading, classroom presentations and collaboration, and student interactions in the context of your SAGES writing support role. The Director will distribute to all TAs specific expectations for this oversight/mentoring in SAGES.
English TAs assigned other classroom teaching in English and SAGES: In any semester in which you are teaching a new course for which you are primary Instructor of Record, you will be assigned an English department Faculty Mentor other than the Director of Composition. Please consult the Graduate Handbook (available online: http://www.case.edu/artsci/engl/graduate.htm ) for details. For each semester you are assigned a Faculty Mentor, you should:
- • Contact your Faculty Mentor as early as possible to discuss syllabus design and course goals.
- • Arrange for your Faculty Mentor to review one fully graded set of student papers (make a copy of your first set after it has been graded to give to your Faculty Mentor).
- • Arrange for your Faculty Mentor to observe your teaching at least once, and preferably twice, during the semester.
- • Use your Faculty Mentor as a resource for any questions and/or concerns about teaching.
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SAGES Graduate Student Instructors
In the Spring 2007 semester, Graduate Students from departments other than English who are teaching in SAGES will be invited to consult with the Director of Composition at least once during the semester to share programmatic feedback.
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Other Resources
- > First Day to Final Grade - This text, by Anne Curzan (U. Michigan) and Lisa Damour (John Carroll University), is a very readable guide to all of the challenges and joys of teaching as a Teaching Assistant. You'll find practical suggestions and reassuring advice.
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