Teaching: Requirements and Program Ethos

[hopefulscribbler2014]

LONG POST, Sorry! (but hopefully useful for some)

 

For those of us researching PhD programs, it'd be so great if those accepted / already attending could give us the skinny on what teaching looks like in their programs. Aside from the stuff we can easily find out on our own (load / stipend / etc) which is also really appreciated if you want to add it , what's the reality look like? What kinds of pedagogical training is expected once you're in, and are any exceptions made to rules? Is the training overkill or do you think there should be more? What are the students like? What's the evaluation process like for teachers. How many lit classes vs. how much comp (sometimes this is surprisingly difficult to find out)?

 

Some of these questions are more geared to those already attending, but as teaching is an important segment of what we'll be doing in most cases, it seems like any information on it would really help us narrow down our lists!

 

No need to read further if you don't give a fig about UVa or U Oregon!

 

My experience from UVa is probably outdated (2008-2010) and definitely a little unique (because I was an MA on a teaching fellowship), but their approach was relaxed and supportive, with a class in pedagogy, weekly staff meetings that weren't designed to check up on you, opportunities to TA literature, and the standard academic and prof writing class that you later use as a kind of basis for designing your own writing course based on a topic of your choosing. My load was 1:1 apart from my first semester of my second year where I taught two sections as a head TA. People preferred teaching lit over writing, but there wasn't a huge amount of complaining about the latter, probably because it was run by two really lovely, smart professors who cared about your progress as a teacher (one of whom sadly died). As I say, my experience wasn't the norm, but I loved it. Generalisation alert : UVa undergrads are on the whole a little spoilt and entitled, but I can say this for them: in both writing and lit classes they were smart and most importantly, motivated, and they generally responded to me as adults. In my opinion, this made them more of a pleasure to teach. Beware the grade grubbers: they all expect As, but it's less annoying when a good proportion of them work hard and end up deserving them!

 

My experience at Oregon has been wildly different as an MFA. I taught a year-long 6-student advanced seminar for CRWR as an instructor and was thoroughly spoiled before becoming a comp instructor for the English department. They prepare you thoroughly with TWO graded pedagogy seminars (one is theoretical, one a little more practical) which for MFAs were only single credit (can't attest to Eng folks), a 10 or 4 week apprenticeship ( length dependent upon whether or not you have teaching experience), plus a four-day-long madatory conference before your first fall term of teaching begins. The seminars are a lot of busy-work, and unless you are actually interested in a career in comp/rhet the theory one is a lot of work period, and even if you know bupkiss about comp, completely unnecessary given the practicalities of the job.

 

The deparment pushes the pedagogy of one chaired professor in the department who wrote a textbook almost universally hated by both students and most GTFs, hence the theory seminar. There is autonomy, but only to a degree (you don't design your own comp course entirely for the first three (unless you're a senior instructor and probably no longer actually in the program), you teach one of three based on a set choice of readers that you can mess about with syllabus-wise). The structure of the courses is in essay cycles where students submit, and then resubmit a revised version again. In one particular course, there are three cycles, and you're likely to have the max number of students at 26 - that makes 156 1200-1500 word essays in a ten week term. There are, of course, creative ways to deal with this but when you factor in other graded assignments, there's no escaping that currently, it's a grading intensive structure.

 

While the student administration is very helpful, the admistration overall is a little uptight and a lot less trusting than I experienced at UVa (think clucking, sometimes pecking, hens); all the prep, above and beyond what is reasonable, is evidence of that. I should add I wouldn't mind any of this if I thought it genuinely benefitted the students and GTFs but I don't. I will say, though, that the administration is great about evaluating their teachers - once in the first year - which can be very helpful, and although I can't speak to this personally, it seems they'll really support you when it comes to a job search. That's where the stringency pays off.

 

Generalisation Alert: I've had quite a few students who had below par SATs and were required to take additional tutored classes at the university. The overall standard of writing and level of student engagement shocked me at first. The comp classes are required, which makes them naturally challenging in terms of motivation and engagement, but thus far both myself and a number of my colleagues have remarked that the attitude and aptitude of students overall is hard to work with. It's sort of a "come prepared to spend a lot of time working on ways to engage them" situation, which can be frustrating when you have a lot of material to cover in a short time. I only have UVa and Oregon to compare but UGs at UVa came to my classes as undergrads (new to the work and ideas but generally aware of their responsibilities as college students) whereas Oregon students have come very much as high school students who need to be shown college is different.

 

Finally, at Oregon I *think* you need to be an advanced PhD to teach any literature class, if you get the opportunity at all due to postdocs, etc. This is slightly different for concentrations in film because that is a much smaller cohort.

 

Hope this ramble helps someone.

[toasterazzi]

I'm not in a Ph.D. program yet, but I am a TA for my MA program at Indiana State. TAs here have a 2:2 load. Typically, we teach a personal response writing class (101) in the fall and a research writing class (105) in the spring. Students have to take and pass the 101 class before they can take the 105. As a result, some TAs end up teaching 101 in the spring and 105 in the fall because some students have to repeat those classes. However, no TA has a split prep. Both classes you teach in a semester will be the same type. We use textbooks that were written by a prof in the department and there is an overall course schedule that is given to us by the director of the writing program. We're supposed to do certain chapters on certain days and collect essays at certain times throughout the semester. However, it is left up to us to plan how we're going to approach each day, what activities we use to explain the chapters or introduce the essays, etc. We also do all of the grading for our classes. The director of the writing program observes us 3 times in the first semester, 1 time in the second semester and 1 time in our second year. We had a two day orientation before school started and we were teaching right from the beginning. We took a How to TA/rhetoric/composition class in our first semester as well.

 

The rule of the school is that undergrads have to take both of these classes if their verbal score on the SAT was less than 510. If they score above that, they can take one class that combines the two. And if they score really high, then there's an Honors version of that one class. My students typically are not overly enthused about writing, but many of them have good ideas. However, they don't always know how to put those ideas into a well-structured essay. They tend to like the personal response class better, but they tend to do better in the research class (presumably because they've had practice from the first class). It's been my experience that my afternoon classes are always better than my morning classes. Particularly, my 9am class is perpetually on the struggle bus...

 

My undergrad degree was in English Education. At this point, I've volunteered weekly at a preschool, did student teaching and subbing at a high school, taught a year of middle school and now I'm teaching freshmen composition. The only one I want to avoid like the plague in the future? Middle school. 

[thatjewishgirl]

I'm not looking forward to the changes that come with starting a new program. At my current university, we are allowed to create our own curriculum for Writing 1 and 2. I've taught novels for 5 years.

[blakeblake]

I've found that it's really common for new TAs to be shocked by the "the overall standard of writing and level of student engagement" in freshman comp classes.  However, if you think about it, that makes perfect sense:

 

A) As English nerds and people who are masochistic enough to want to attend grad school, we tend to have attained high levels of writing ability and engagement that do not appear in the average freshman student.

 

We have likely taken honors/AP/ other advanced English classes over the course of our educations.  I don't know about y'all, but I never took classes with people at my students' level.  I AP-Examed my way past boring, slow-paced freshman comp.  Then, one day, I was assigned to teach it.  The same may well happen to you.

 

C) Many colleges' admissions standards do not require that admitted students pass a writing test or achieve certain grades in high school English or even submit an application essay.  Public colleges have been hit by years of declining funding.  Most of them are desparate for tuition dollars and will accept as many students as possible, even if these students are not prepared for the rigors of college coursework.  I have taught some of these kids and I feel badly for them.  Their parents or the bad job market pushed them into college, and they're going to lose their investments in tuition when they inevitably drop out.  But they are in your classes so you have to try to teach them.

 

Of course, you will probably also teach a number of students who are too advanced for your class, as well.

 

It's all a big balancing act.

[hopefulscribbler2014]

Sorry, should've been clearer. I meant I was shocked by the level at Oregon in comparison to the freshmen I'd taught elsewhere. But the reasons why are, as you mention, pretty straight forward and common sensical. I think it's definitely a learning curve for TAs and instructors. Expectations need to be adjusted very quickly to avoid exasperation or, at worse, getting completely depressed by what you're confronted with. I've been teaching as an instructor for years now, and it's always a struggle / disheartening when you get group after group of real under-performers. I think it's best to be as prepared as possible for that, because it can really affect first-time teachers who feel like throwing their hands up in despair when they find they're teaching college students who really haven't developed writing skills past the 9th or 10th grade level. It can be very dispiriting to watch them struggle, to try to help them as best you can but to find, ultimately, that you have to let them go with improved but still not completely adequate skills.

 

I encourage all first-time teachers to spend a little time before they begin teaching reflecting upon the huge disparity between what they are capable of and what their students will be capable of, as blakeblake mentions. Sounds really obvious but I don't think many new teachers do this. It's also a good idea to focus on what you can give them in a given quarter or semester, rather than focusing on everything they need that you won't possibly be able to cram into their heads. If, for example, there's one particular component of the course that can really help everyone, make sure they leave knowing that one thing inside out. It takes a little of the pressure (and potential guilt) off.

 

Of course, you will probably also teach a number of students who are too advanced for your class, as well.

 

Haha! Not in a mandatory freshman comp class you won't! HIGHLY unlikely! Okay, maybe one or two...

Edited March 31, 2013 by hopefulscribbler2014

[jazzyd]

I've found that it's really common for new TAs to be shocked by the "the overall standard of writing and level of student engagement" in freshman comp classes.  However, if you think about it, that makes perfect sense:

 

A) As English nerds and people who are masochistic enough to want to attend grad school, we tend to have attained high levels of writing ability and engagement that do not appear in the average freshman student.

 

We have likely taken honors/AP/ other advanced English classes over the course of our educations.  I don't know about y'all, but I never took classes with people at my students' level.  I AP-Examed my way past boring, slow-paced freshman comp.  Then, one day, I was assigned to teach it.  The same may well happen to you.

 

C) Many colleges' admissions standards do not require that admitted students pass a writing test or achieve certain grades in high school English or even submit an application essay.  Public colleges have been hit by years of declining funding.  Most of them are desparate for tuition dollars and will accept as many students as possible, even if these students are not prepared for the rigors of college coursework.  I have taught some of these kids and I feel badly for them.  Their parents or the bad job market pushed them into college, and they're going to lose their investments in tuition when they inevitably drop out.  But they are in your classes so you have to try to teach them.

 

Of course, you will probably also teach a number of students who are too advanced for your class, as well.

 

It's all a big balancing act.

 

Also don't forget that larger institutions also tend to have a good number of international students. I consult at the writing center here and we get about 75% international students. Now, in my experience, they write at pretty high level, it's only that they miss small details like articles that native English speakers would usually not miss. International students also bring in more money than domestic students, so as universities are further hit financially the amount of international students will likely rise. Either way, graduate students who are not used to working with students for whom English is not a first language might also need to adjust their approach on that front.

[ProfLorax]

I've been teaching as an instructor for years now, and it's always a struggle / disheartening when you get group after group of real under-performers. 

As an alternative perspective, I have been teaching basic writing and reading at a community college for three years now. These students are often the poster children for underpreparedness, and it is this student demographic I will miss the most.

 

Students who come to college without the required skill-level are often very intelligent and thoughtful students who have never been taught how to compose an essay-- for various reasons. Some have learning disabilities that were never diagnosed. Some were placed into lower level English classes because they didn't know English at a young age, and then after they mastered the language, were never moved into a different class. Some had shitty educational experiences that turned them off from writing. The best part of my job has been showing these students just how awesomely capable they are. And they are capable. There is something so rewarding about watching skills develop throughout the semester, watching students discover their inner writer. I freakin' love it. 

 

So, if you get into your first class and see that they are not writing at the level you expected, do not despair. You have an amazing opportunity to be the teacher who shows them that writing isn't a humiliating task-- but an explorative and empowering process. 

[ComeBackZinc]

Thanks for that lovely comment, Profolax. Incidentally, vertical transition-- the move from high school to college writing-- for traditionally disadvantaged groups-- is my primary research area.

[ZacharyBinks]

I'm an incoming PhD student at Ohio State this Fall so I don't have personal experience yet with their teaching requirements, but from what I gather from POIs I've talked to and info from their department, the landscape for TAs looks like this:

 

The load never exceeds (from my impressions) 1/1. TAs start out teaching the introductory comp class and after a year of successful teaching, are able to move on to the advanced comp class. Then, I believe, after shadowing a professor for a semester, they can teach basic lit courses in their fields of study like Intro to Shakespeare, or Intro to 19th Century Brit Lit or something like that. I've also heard that there is a contest every year wherein grad students can design their own unique lit course and the undergrad committee chooses one or two which is then offered to undergrads (from what I've gathered, these courses seem to be typically on "trendy" or hot-button topics that are relevant to today's climate). I think they said that this year there's a class on Arabic poetry.

 

All in all, I was pretty impressed with OSU's teaching requirements. I thought that, for a huge school, they would require a 2/2 teaching load and that I would be stuck doing basic comp courses the entire time, but that's not the case at all.