Generally, Teaching Assistants are available to support those faculty wishing to integrate more writing in their curricula, particularly those who are teaching New Core classes. Whenever possible, Teaching Assistants and faculty will be matched (based on the TA’s major, the faculty’s needs, and the TA’s availability). Depending on the faculty’s needs, Teaching Assistants can work with them for thirty, fifty, or seventy hours a quarter. Faculty and TA will agree to their relationship and the TA’s relationship with the students in the class and to their respective roles and responsibilities.
Generally, it is best if TAs can attend the class they are assisting, particularly during the first week of the quarter and on those days when assignments are made and when they are returned.
Teaching Assistants Will Be Assigned to a Particular Class and Will...
- Meet with faculty members to develop writing prompts designed specifically to elicit the intended learning outcomes of the assignment;
- Attend class as deemed necessary to understand assignments in context;
- Support students individually and in small groups throughout their writing process, from helping them understand an assignment’s parameters to the brainstorming and crafting of a completed first draft;
- Encourage students who are having conceptual difficulty to meet with their instructor;
- Communicate regularly with faculty regarding their students’ progress;
- Provide students with a formative evaluation of their first drafts, helping them to identify rhetorical, organizational, and mechanical weaknesses and/or problems, supporting students’ revision process through their completion of a final draft; and
- Provide faculty with a summative evaluation of their students’ writing/progress.
Faculty Working with Teaching Assistants Will...
- Contract with their TA, agreeing to the terms of the relationship and estimated schedule;
- Meet with their TA as they develop writing assignments/prompts and their due dates;
- Provide TA with copies of assigned and recommended textbooks and any supplemental materials;
- Allow at least two full weeks between making an assignment and its due date;
- Introduce their TA to the class, reinforcing his or her role and responsibilities;
- Remind students of TA’s availability, reinforcing that working with the TA is a course requirement;
- Communicate regularly with TA regarding their students’ progress;
- Provide TA with formative evaluation of how his/her work is impacting students’ performance;
- Provide Hub Director with summative evaluation of impact/effects of working with a TA on his/her students’ performance and on effects on his/her instruction.
