Leading Discussions as a New TA

[nhhistorynut]

Hi all,

I have searched a bit on here and advice and info for new TAs is pretty spread out and hard to find. As someone starting her PhD in August and TAing for the first time, I am hoping some experienced TAs will jump on here and list some ideas/advice for us newbies. For me, I will be leading 3 discussion sections for a total of 45 students from a freshman-level modern-US history class. I've never taught before (other than as a sub at an elementary school), so any advice is more than welcome!

Thanks in advance.

[DGrayson]

Hi! I've just finished my first semester as a TA and I've learned quite a lot (mainly that's because I screwed up a lot...but we won't talk about that!  ) Something that was especially difficult for me was getting the kids to do all the reading. I'd prepare discussion questions, arrive for section and have about 12 kids staring at me for 50 minutes. A few contributed often, but it was far from the majority. Two things really helped me with this. First, I would often pose questions to the section as a whole, then break them up into groups of three or four to discuss them amongst each other for about 10-15 minutes, then have everyone come together and go over what they talked about. This was something that was done in one of my seminars and I really liked it. Also towards the end of the semester, I started assigning groups a different paper to read and it was their job to present it to the section and create questions for discussion. The students really liked this because, while their reading load was lessened (albeit temporarily) for the week, it forced them to actively engage with the article more than they would have otherwise. Finally, I did this exercise I found online where the students had to create pictoral metaphors about one of the papers they read as a way to remember the main points of the article. They also seemed to really like that. 

Best of luck! 

[nhhistorynut]

Thanks for the ideas! I'm worried that I'll get there and try to get the convo started and I'll have 15 faces staring at me with nothing to say lol. So those activities sound like good ideas to me

[cowgirlsdontcry]

3 hours ago, nhhistorynut said:

I have searched a bit on here and advice and info for new TAs is pretty spread out and hard to find. As someone starting her PhD in August and TAing for the first time, I am hoping some experienced TAs will jump on here and list some ideas/advice for us newbies. For me, I will be leading 3 discussion sections for a total of 45 students from a freshman-level modern-US history class. I've never taught before (other than as a sub at an elementary school), so any advice is more than welcome.

I'm in English. I TA'd for 2 years through my MA. I also taught my own section of first year rhet comp in the spring. Hopefully, your department will have some sort of orientation before classes begin about how to teach. But, I'm sure the professors whose lecture class you will be leading discussion for will set forth parameters for all of the TA's so you can keep on the same page. This fall as I enter a Ph.D. program, I will be teaching two sections of first year rhet comp and will every semester thereafter. Stay calm and remember, you know more than these students do. Have fun and try to present the material in ways that are fun. Some ways to be sure they at least skim the reading matter, is to give little quizzes, either verbal or written, where each student has to respond and participate to get the daily grade. I told my class that if they participate each class period, they won't ever need to have those quizzes. Give them a week or so and if participation doesn't improve, come in one day and tell them they haven't been participating, so to take out a pen and they are going to have a quiz that counts as their daily/discussion class grade. You may have to do this every week for a while. Some discussion classes simply design a quiz for every week, and use it as a basis for the students to study for mid-term/final tests. The students keep those quizzes to study by later, but they do have to report their grade to the TA. They are more inclined to stay on top of reading material if they are held accountable in some way.

Edited June 19, 2017 by cowgirlsdontcry

[nhhistorynut]

16 minutes ago, cowgirlsdontcry said:

Hopefully, your department will have some sort of orientation before classes begin about how to teach. But, I'm sure the professors whose lecture class you will be leading discussion for will set forth parameters for all of the TA's so you can keep on the same page.

Thanks!

They do. I will have an orientation a week before school starts and that night will take the first session of "Grad Seminar on Teaching History," so I should know some expectations after that.

I really like getting the input of other TAs like this, too, though, because you guys have more recent experience from a lot of different schools and come with new, unique ideas.

Thanks again for the response!

[rising_star]

There's lots of relevant posts in the Teaching subforum. I'd start with this here:

See also: 

 

 

[Neist]

1 hour ago, nhhistorynut said:

Thanks for the ideas! I'm worried that I'll get there and try to get the convo started and I'll have 15 faces staring at me with nothing to say lol. So those activities sound like good ideas to me

This isn't precisely helpful for the upcoming Fall semester, but I suggest that you consider moderating an informal reading group. Depending on one's moderation style, a reading group can be quite similar to a discussion group. 

[nhhistorynut]

@rising_star thanks! I came across one of those. I was hoping there might be some more history-specific advice someone might give

[rising_star]

5 hours ago, nhhistorynut said:

Thanks for the ideas! I'm worried that I'll get there and try to get the convo started and I'll have 15 faces staring at me with nothing to say lol. So those activities sound like good ideas to me

Pick up a copy of Elizabeth Barkley's Student Engagement Techniques if you want some ideas about how to prompt discussion. Or use google. There's lots of info online.

[gsc]

21 hours ago, nhhistorynut said:

I'm worried that I'll get there and try to get the convo started and I'll have 15 faces staring at me with nothing to say lol. 

1) you've got to get comfortable with silence. at a certain point the students will speak up because they find the silence awkward, even if they don't have very much to say; other students have plenty to say but they need time to formulate their thoughts first. when you pose a question to the students, count backwards from 10/15/30 in your head, depending on how much time you think they need. usually someone will say something before you hit zero. a lot of folks get nervous and just start blabbing to fill the time, or they answer their own discussion questions before the students have a chance to try them out. 

2) you also can't control whether or not students do the reading. if you get to class and discover that no one's done the reading, honestly there's nothing wrong with just giving them 15 minutes to do the reading right then — I'm pretty up front with my students, like, "if you didn't do the reading, tell me so we can do it now, and have a shorter but more valuable discussion," etc. I'd just give them the 15 minutes of reading time over shuffling through some zombie-fied discussion over a text no one read.

but the main reason why students don't do the reading is that they are busy and pressed for time, and if they think they can get away without doing the reading, then they won't. they have a million demands on their time, and they're going to prioritize what has to get done to get by. so while you can't control what the students do in their spare time, what you can do is make doing the reading a worthwhile exercise. I don't like graded pop quizzes because they seem rather punitive, but I do sometimes ask students to jot down their thoughts at the beginning of class, or come to class with a discussion question prepared. you can then have them turn it in for a check/check plus/check minus grade, where the students can feel like their contributions are being noted but they're not being punished, either. again I like to be up front: our discussions will be less painful and more valuable to you if you at least make an attempt at the reading. my personal ninja trick is to very obviously take attendance and take notes during discussion — makes the students feel like I'm noticing their contributions and "counting" their participation, even though I never calculate participation grades by tallying up "well, you spoke up 2 times on Monday and 3 times on Tuesday." 

3) students will hassle you about grades. this is a known fact. where we usually grade starting at 0 and assign points upwards, students look at their grades as starting at 100 and losing points downwards. you give a student an 85 because you think it's a B paper; the student thinks that they lost 15 points and what they will want you to do is account for every single one. they'll do this on dumb assignments, too. I had a student send me 4 paragraphs of vitriol because he got an 8/10 on a reading response paper. don't get pulled into this. do NOT let them put you on the defensive. they'll try to corner you after class; firmly re-direct them to office hours. they'll ask stuff like "but why did I lose 10 points for this"; turn the question around and ask them why they think they could have lost 10 points or what they could have included. if you look at the grade and think that you maybe made a mistake in grading and they deserve more points (it happens) NEVER change the grade on the spot. tell them that you'll consider it and consult with the professor in charge. depending on the professor you may actually want to consult with the professor in charge! the first professor I TA'ed for gave me this advice, and it's exactly right. 

[OHSP]

I've been TAing for 3 years in Australia, where maybe 1 or 2 students (out of 45) will consistently do the readings. I know this seems like babying, but I would often copy a pertinent paragraph, have some questions relating to the paragraph, and then get them to split into groups to discuss the questions. Then I'd bring it back for a group discussion. I'd go to every group during the group discussion time to talk to them about their thoughts, what they found difficult/interesting about the paragraph etc etc. I really like teaching and I think the secret is to not think of them as "kids" and also to be a little bit understanding about the fact that they have other stuff going on in their lives/your 50 minute class is a tiny part of their week, so it's a matter of how you can make that 50 minutes worthwhile. I also like splitting them up into small groups, making them come up with questions for the rest of the big group, and then getting them to pose those questions to each other i.e. to direct the class. You'll work out your own style though, everyone's different. 

**Also, what gsc says about the readings is true -- I just taught for a class where one of my tutorial groups (sections) had 6 people and everyone did the readings every week, because I was very much like "with such a small group this is not going to work unless we have something to talk about so we all need to be able to talk about the readings."

Edited June 22, 2017 by OHSP

[pro Augustis]

I am relatively new at this myself, but I TAed the last two semesters, and one thing that seemed to work well for me is picking a surprising detail from the readings and trying to get the students to explain it in a way that shed light on larger topics. For instance, I might begin by mentioning how, under Augustus' marriage legislation, a husband who did not divorce his cheating wife could be prosecuted as a pimp—why? To explain that, our discussion could (and hopefully would!) go through topics like Roman ideas of family, Augustus' attempts to reform Roman morals, our sources for Augustus and their thoughts on this (say, an ancient historian versus Ovid's love-poetry take on it), etc, basically trying to cover the key issues from the starting point of a detail weird enough that people would want to jump in and figure it out. 

The best advice I received from an older student, meanwhile, is that close reading is key and is a skill that students struggle with, especially in lower division classes. Whenever we had a bunch of small bits of text—a series of short laws, say, or inscriptions—I would have a student read one aloud and ask for an explanation of what it meant and how it related to our discussion. The best part for me was that it did not here matter whether the student had done the reading, as all they really needed to know was what they had just read aloud, so people who had not done the reading and were normally hesitant to participate would do so. 

[nhhistorynut]

Thanks everyone for the advice! I think it's really useful having some history-specific ideas and tips, and I will certainly remember them. All 3 of my discussion sections are officially full and I don't have a single history major in any of them lol so I think, like most of you said, getting students to do the readings will be the biggest challenge. @pro Augustis I like the idea of having them read an interesting tidbit and using that to spark a discussion. I will definitely use that! @gsc I also appreciate your comment on how you can't force the students to completely the required readings, so giving them a few minutes to do it (or at least skim it) will at least make the albeit-shorter discussion time more meaningful.

 

Does anyone have any first day activities they do to sort of "break the ice" with the new students and get them comfortable talking?

[dr. t]

2 hours ago, nhhistorynut said:

Does anyone have any first day activities they do to sort of "break the ice" with the new students and get them comfortable talking?

I find appropriate activities in this regard vary a great deal with the instructor's age, gender presentation, and race. For example, as a straight white dude in my 30s, I can afford to take some self-deprecating potshots at my own authority to relax my sections; the Latina woman in her mid-20s in my cohort cannot. 

Edited June 24, 2017 by telkanuru

[nhhistorynut]

3 hours ago, telkanuru said:

I find appropriate activities in this regard vary a great deal with the instructor's age, gender presentation, and race. For example, as a straight white dude in my 30s, I can afford to take some self-deprecating potshots at my own authority to relax my sections; the Latina woman in her mid-20s in my cohort cannot. 

Good point. I am white, female, and in my 30s. The female aspect of it complicates things a bit, I'm sure, but I find my height kind of helps in that regard (or has in the past, at least), because I am almost 6 feet tall. A friend of mine suggested some sort of brief ice breaker activity where students just say their names, preferred nickname, major, year, etc., before jumping into the week's theme/topic.

[rising_star]

On 6/24/2017 at 9:18 AM, nhhistorynut said:

I also appreciate your comment on how you can't force the students to completely the required readings, so giving them a few minutes to do it (or at least skim it) will at least make the albeit-shorter discussion time more meaningful.

FWIW, I would not rely on this or do it frequently. If students know that you'll give them time to do the reading once they get to class, then why would they even bother skimming it before coming? I guess if you always want a shorter discussion period then that's a good idea but, otherwise, if you do this once or twice you may end up always having to do it.

As for icebreakers, I highly recommend google. There are literally thousands of icebreakers posted online and you can choose among them for those that might work. This is also something to ask about during whatever TA training you do have as there may be some standards used or avoided at your institution. Also, if you actually want students to get to know each other, you can't only do an icebreaker on day one of class. You have to have students regularly interacting with one another (e.g., icebreakers every class for the first few weeks, small group work) if you want to build a strong discussion dynamic in the classroom.

The one caution I like to give is to remind people not to engage in microaggressions or things that denote privilege in setting up their icebreakers. One that I frequently do is have students come up with questions they'd like to have others answer and then we put all the questions in a basket to be drawn from. There's a second basket with names. So, one student draws a name and another student draws a question. Typically after the first day of class, I'll go through all the questions and remove all the duplicates (e.g., favorite movie, favorite superhero, and favorite color). Students think it's fun and it helps us all learn names and a bit about others. 

But really, Student Engagement Techniques by Barkley is well worth your time and money. It was a required text in my University Teaching course and I still regularly use it 6 years later.