Teaching Associate Responsibilities

Teaching Associates (TOs) within the Writing Program have two interrelated sets of responsibilities. One is to meet contractual obligations to the Program and the other is to work within the underlying philosophy of the Writing Program.

In accordance with the GEO contract, a full-time Teaching Associate position is 20 hours per week for 38 weeks. Your specific responsibilities as a TO include the following:

Teaching two sections of College Writing (or its equivalent) each year that reflect the Program philosophy;
Spending additional time to prepare materials and respond to papers for your course(s);
Observing at least two set office hours per week while classes are in session;
Attending all required teacher training (see below);
Participating in course/teacher evaluations at the end of each semester;
Complying with University deadlines and requests (e.g. filing grades, progress reports from Disability Services and Athletic Services, etc.).

Responsibility for Common Philosophy/Share Curricular Goals

Working within the philosophy of the Program means adhering to the following pedagogical assumptions:

Students are writers. Therefore we treat them as people engaged in all the steps of the writing process rather than as people who can't write or who are poor writers.
The course is based on respect—teachers’ respect for students, respect for students’ writing, and the respect students show for one another.
Writing is the central and primary activity of the course.
The most prominent and extensive reading for the course should be student writing in process.
Published writing in the course should come primarily from required course texts.
The course is about the essay. Although the official course description announces explicitly that the course is also meant to help students use writing in the rest of their lives during and after college, the obvious purpose of the course is to help students with the writing they will need to do for other University faculty.

In order to enact the Writing Program's philosophy, there are a number of concrete practices that we require of all our teachers:

Have each student compile a portfolio of writing through the semester that contains four essays that go through a drafting process.
Assign a Writer's Notebook that contains substantive generative writing related to the essay units along with a variety of short in-class and out-of-class assignments.
Teach each essay unit represented in the program syllabus including: Inquiring Into Self, Interacting with Texts, Adding to a Conversation, and a fourth of your own design that meets the course philosophy.
Have each student write a Final Reflection that serves as the basis for a Final Conference. Hold Final Conferences during finals week only.
Make response groups central to the course by holding regular peer response sessions for unfinished drafts as well as publishing at least one class magazine of finished essays.
Be sure to offer a substantive response yourself (in writing or in conference) to at least one draft of each essay in the four units.
Provide substantive and evaluative feedback to each final draft for each of the four major units.
Hold two conferences in addition to the final conference each semester.
Use the required texts (The Text-Wrestling Book, Penguin Handbook, and Student Anthology) for the course.

Required Teacher Training

The Writing Program's mission is to provide writing instruction to the University's first-year students. As a result of our mission, we have two interrelated obligations. One is to the first-year students of the University by putting the best possible teachers into our writing classrooms. The other is to you—the TOs—by providing you with the support and resources you need to grow and to develop into the best teachers that you can be.

Various models of teacher-training exist within our profession. The model we have chosen to work within is informed by the same philosophy that underlies our first-year writing courses. In order for students to grow and develop as writers, they need to occupy the role of writer. By behaving like writers, doing the kinds of things writers do, our students face the choices and decisions that assist them in their on-going development.

The same assumptions hold for our mission to train teachers. Our teacher-training program begins by asking that you inhabit the role of teacher. As you occupy the teacher’s position, doing the things teachers do—setting goals and objectives, planning each class meeting, responding to and evaluating student writing—the issues surrounding the teaching of writing will emerge. As you face the choices, conflicts, and rewards all teachers face, we ask you as a member of a teaching community to reflect on your decisions and the outcomes of your choices. This combination of practice and reflection will not only assist you in your on-going growth as a teacher but will enable you to make conscious choices concerning the kind of teacher you strive to be.

Teaching in the Writing Program also involves a significant training component; you cannot teach in the program without meeting these obligations. By signing your contract, you are committing to participating in these requirements for the length of your assistantship with us. (Please note that these requirements are connected to teaching in the Writing Program and do not count toward your graduate program nor are you required to continue with them after you are no longer teaching for the Program. If you return to the Program, however, your obligation will continue.)

In your first year of teaching,

Summer orientation and biweekly workshops
CD group meetings in your first year of teaching for both semesters
Two classroom observations per semester in first year (total: 4)
Enreollment in 698B: Intro to Teaching Writing for three credits in the Spring semester. Upon entering into your second semester of teaching in the Writing Program you will automatically be enrolled in this practicum. (These credits are awarded for your participation in the above.)

After your first year of teaching

One classroom observation each year for your second and third year
Enrollment in one of the one-credit practica per semester for each semester you teach in the program until you accumulate three credits. (Note: only I or J can be taken more than once.) Practica generally offered are:

698D Alternative Classroom Practices will examine alternative methods and practices that can enhance your teaching of Englwrit 112, such as the use of technology, collaborative writing, or incorporating special projects.

698F Professional Development will help you draft a philosophy statement, develop curricular plans, and compile materials from your classroom and student evaluations. This one is probably best taken close to completing your program.

698G Composition Theories and Pedagogies will look at various approaches to teaching composition and ways to revise our syllabus to include some of them (e.g. themed writing assignments, critical pedagogy, etc.). It will also consider issues raised in the composition literature relevant to 112 such as approaches to ESL and multicultural topics.

698I Teaching Basic Writing (open to teachers of 111 only) will cover issues relevant to teaching Englwrit111. (Note: Enrollment in 698I is required to teach 111, even if you have completed your five semester training requirement.)

698J Teacher Mentoring (open to Resource Center staff only) will focus on issues surrounding mentoring teachers within and outside of Course Director groups. Biweekly meetings with the asst. director for teacher training.

698K Language Diversity explores teaching issues related to multi-lingual writers and ways to make our classrooms more inclusive of students from diverse language and cultural backgrounds. Topics to be covered include cultural influences on reading and writing practices, evaluation of L2 texts, and the range of experience of multi-lingual writers. This practicum would be helpful (but not required) for teachers interested in teaching Basic Writing in the future.

698N Conferencing for the Classroom and the Writing Center will explore a variety of one-on-one teaching techniques both as used to supplement classroom teaching and as the primary mode of interaction in a Writing Center. We will look closely at how the roles of teacher/grader and tutor/ally reader, as well as issues surrounding gender, race, culture, and ethnicity, may change both the instructor’s choice of approaches and the way students “hear” and use the knowledge gained from the conference.

Your training obligation is complete when…

You have completed 5 semesters of teaching and accumulated 6 practicum credits (3 for your first year and 3 additional, one-credit practica). Please note that additional training options (e.g. experimental course director groups, technology workshops) are voluntary and do not count toward your total practicum obligation.

Teacher Evaluation

Student course evaluations are completed for all teachers within the Program. Near the end of the semester you will receive notification that these evaluations are ready for you to administer to your class. The results of the student evaluations will be available to you, to your Course Director, and to the Program staff after the end of each semester.

All teachers are strongly encouraged to do mid-semester course evaluations. Although it is recommended that you share the results of these evaluations with your Course Director, these are for you only; they provide useful information that can enable you to make changes in your class and/or teaching practices for the remainder of the semester.