Teaching Assistant Recruitment for the College Writing Programs
UCSD CLEARINGHOUSE 2011-2012
Teaching Assistant Recruitment for the College Writing Programs
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Description: The six writing and core programs, one for each undergraduate college, appoint more than 100 graduate students each year to assist with undergraduate instruction in improvement of writing skills. Students are appointed as Teaching Assistants and usually at 50% time. The writing program descriptions are below.
Qualifications: Applicants must be confident, competent writers. Some weight is given to applicants who have had classroom teaching experience, especially as writing instructors or writing tutors.
Application Procedure: You must use the new online application system called Academic Student Employment System (ASES).
In the online application system (ASES) you will need to submit:
1. A letter of application explaining why you are interested in teaching in a program in which writing plays a central role and stating any experience you may have acquired in the field thus far and other experience you consider relevant. You are encouraged to apply to more than one program, because there are more applicants than available positions.
2. A resume or CV of pertinent qualifications.
3. A sample of your writing (in English), such as seminar paper or term paper.
Questions about the application process should be directed to the program coordinator for the particular writing college you are applying. Contact information is below.
APPLICATION DEADLINE: Monday, May 2nd, 2011 at 11:59pm.
UCSD WRITING PROGRAM DESCRIPTIONS
For additional information about a specific writing program please contact the appropriate representative. Most program offices are open Monday through Friday, but are closed for lunch. Out-of-town applicants are encouraged to send questions via e-mail if possible.
HUMANITIES PROGRAM
REVELLE COLLEGE
Program contact: Pam Clark, pclark@ucsd.edu, (858) 534-3311, 180 Galbraith Hall, Mail Code 0306
The Humanities Program is a sequence of five courses required of all Revelle undergraduates. The five courses offer a chronologically arranged study of Western culture, from its origins in Hebrew and Greek society (Humanities 1) to its condition in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries (Humanities 5). Most texts are drawn from the "great books" of Western history, philosophy, and literature; writing assignments address topics derived from these books. The program does not demand that teaching assistants possess an expert knowledge of all the texts; it does demand that they possess a lively concern for individual students and their education, both in the Western cultural tradition and in rational and persuasive writing.
Teaching assistants will ordinarily be hired to work in either the first-year or second-year sequence of courses. (1) TAs in the first-year sequence take a fall seminar on Humanities issues, texts, and pedagogical methods; they then supervise discussion sections in Humanities 1 (winter) and Humanities 2 (spring). In each of these Humanities courses, which include intensive writing instruction, TAs work with two groups of students, attend three lectures and a staff meeting every week, and grade four groups of essays and a final examination. Graduate students who are new to the Humanities Program are almost always assigned to the first-year sequence. (2) TAs in the second-year sequence of courses attend lectures and staff meetings and supervise discussion sections in Humanities 3 (fall), Humanities 4 (winter), and Humanities 5 (spring). In these classes writing instruction is not so time-consuming, and TAs have fewer papers to read for each student.
MUIR COLLEGE WRITING PROGRAM
JOHN MUIR COLLEGE
Program contact: Catherine Raney, craney@ucsd.edu, (858) 534-2426, 2346 HSS, Mail Code 0106
The Muir College Writing Program consists of a two-quarter sequence required of all Muir students. Muir TAs work under the guidance of program administrators but are the sole instructors in the classroom. This arrangement gives TAs a good deal of responsibility but also some autonomy. Experienced instructors may be given the opportunity to design their own courses based on their research interests within the program framework.
Our goal at Muir is to help students become critical thinkers in writing—to enable them to recognize and produce informed arguments that are logically sound. In MCWP 40 and 50, we emphasize the analysis and construction of arguments written from the perspective of the sciences, the social and behavioral sciences, and the humanities, broadly defined. We also focus on the relationship between what an author claims and how he or she chooses to support that claim.
In MCWP 40, TAs teach from a reader and choose a text from a selection of book-length sources. In MCWP 50, experienced Muir TAs have the opportunity to design a “discipline-specific” course organized around current issues in the sciences, social and behavioral sciences, or the humanities.
TAs in our program teach five sections per year. Each MCWP 40 or 50 section meets for one hour and twenty minutes twice a week. Additional responsibilities include implementing a course syllabus, commenting on multiple drafts of student papers, assigning grades, holding office hours, and attending mandatory weekly seminar meetings. Prior to the beginning of fall classes, TAs are required to attend a two-day training session focusing on pedagogy, program expectations, and course planning.At Muir, we work to establish a supportive environment for the teaching of writing and revision. The program also offers opportunities for professional collaboration, including course development and pedagogical growth. We encourage applicants from a variety of departments, including the humanities, social sciences, and sciences departments.
DIMENSIONS OF CULTURE PROGRAM
THURGOOD MARSHALL COLLEGE
Program contact: Sue Hawkinson, schawkinson@ucsd.edu, (858) 534-0635, 133 Sequoyah Hall, Mail Code 0509
The Dimensions of Culture Program (DOC) is an introductory three-quarter social science/humanities core curriculum sequence that is required of all first-year students at Thurgood Marshall College at UCSD. Two senior professors are the Co-Directors of the DOC Program and oversee its day-to-day operation.
A set of senior professors drawn from the departments of Communication, History, Literature, Political Science, Sociology, and Theatre & Dance have formulated the current course logic, content, and syllabi. The courses are more strongly rooted in history than DOC classes were in the past, with more focused, accessible, and doable reading assignments. The three courses are designed to be integrated, with central themes flowing from course to course.
DOC 1, "Diversity," focuses on questions of inequality, and is rooted in historical texts rather than abstract theoretical readings. This four-unit course is designed to provide a broad overview of the histories of multiple communities and to explore the origins of social stratification in the United States. Students will acquire a basic understanding of some of the foundational ideas that underlie US history, as well as tools for analyzing the contradictions that arose as the nation developed. Central aspects of the course include colonialism and native peoples, successive waves of immigration, movements for social and economic equality, and the rise of corporate power. By grounding lectures and discussions in the historical development of collective identities, the course introduces key concepts related to the categories of class, gender, religion, “race,” and sexuality. Students will learn to analyze and discuss complex texts that range from theoretical essays on racialization to autobiography to video and film. Instead of a formal paper assignment in DOC 1, numerous journal entries are geared toward helping students identify and summarize the key arguments of assigned texts, and also develop the elementary but critical reading and writing skills necessary for work at the university level.
DOC 2, "Justice," is a six-unit course focusing on social justice and law, and is oriented with reference to political theory and the American experience, as well as court cases. This six-unit course explores tensions between the founding American promise of "equality for all" and its imperfect realization in various settings. We provide historical context, but then emphasize the political movements and constitutional challenges that arose in the post-World War II era to confront the injustice of denying the American promise to various groups in society – racial minorities, women, those of diverse sexual orientations, foreigners, and the poor. Central themes in the course are: the conception of justice embedded in the founding principles of the American experiment; the nature and relative inclusiveness of that conception when put into practice; the methods through which groups have demanded justice (and the relative success or failure of these methods); the role of government, the courts, the university, the media, and the people themselves in bringing about political, social and cultural change; and the extent that the American promise of equality is becoming more or less realized in the 21st century. Resources include classical works of political theory, political documents, court cases, speeches, narrative
accounts, literature, music and film. Two formal papers will be assigned in DOC 2, accompanied by intensive instruction and revision.
DOC 3, "Imagination," focuses on cultural representations – literature, film, photography, music, video, theatre, etc. – and emphasizes their historical context. We strive to build the students’ analytical skills to interpret these complex and allusive cultural expressions. This six-unit course plays out many of the themes raised in the previous two courses through various artifacts of modern American culture from the post-war period until the present. Two formal papers will be assigned in DOC 3, accompanied by intensive instruction and revision.
The Dimensions of Culture Program encourages TA applicants from all departments. We desire especially to recruit TAs with a serious interest in the role of writing in learning and in a dynamic interdisciplinary approach to American culture. Since vanguard work in many social science and humanities disciplines currently involves interdisciplinary work from the perspectives represented in DOC, we think many graduate students will find their own graduate work enhanced by the opportunity to work with TAs and faculty from several different social science and humanities departments.
WARREN COLLEGE WRITING PROGRAM
EARL WARREN COLLEGE
Program contact: Julie Lakatos, jlakatos@ucsd.edu, (858) 534-3068, EBU3, 1st floor, room 1114, Mail Code 0422
The Warren College Writing Program welcomes graduate student applications from all departments of the university, including the sciences, social sciences, and arts and humanities. Our appointments are for year-long (and usually renewable) teaching positions. Successful applicants learn how to teach students to write and read academic arguments. Our courses are conducted as writing workshops in which student texts provide the primary intellectual content. Our goal at Warren Writing is to teach students about academic argumentation. Students summarize, analyze and respond to academic arguments. They also construct their own.
All students in Warren College must complete a two-course writing requirement. Warren Writing TAs work under the guidance of the program director but are the sole instructors in the classroom. All new TAs teach the first course in the sequence from a common syllabus, which allows for productive discussions of pedagogical issues in our weekly staff meetings. Experienced TAs are given the opportunity to design topic-specific courses that fulfill the second course in the sequence. Design and implementation of new courses is always done in groups. Our current 10A course topic is "Self and Society." Our spring 2011 10B course topics are "Food and Ethics," "Education and Ethics," and "Athletics and Ethics."
TAs in our program teach six sections per year (not more than 15 students per section). New instructors teach five sections during their first year: one in the fall quarter and two each in the winter and spring. In lieu of the second course, new instructors meet weekly during the fall to discuss scholarly work on writing pedagogy and its relevance to their teaching.
Just before the start of the academic year, instructors meet for a two-and-a-half-day orientation to prepare them to teach the first of the two writing courses offered by the program. During orientation, we discuss teaching academic argumentation, conducting writing workshops, responding to work-in-progress, teaching successful revision strategies and grading.
Responsibilities include implementing the course syllabus, teaching assigned sections, commenting on drafts of student papers, assigning grades, holding office hours, attending staff meetings, and working on course design. Teachers enjoy the collegial atmosphere and a fair amount of autonomy. We work to establish a supportive teaching environment where pedagogical ideas and materials are shared and where TAs feel comfortable asking questions and seeking help.
MAKING OF THE MODERN WORLD
ELEANOR ROOSEVELT COLLEGE
Program contact: Mollie Martinek, mmartinek@ucsd.edu, (858) 534-7117, 2nd level, ERC Admin. Bldg., Mail Code 0546
The core of the Eleanor Roosevelt College (ERC) general education requirements is the Making of the Modern World Program (MMW) which, like the college, was founded in 1988. MMW is the academic expression of the official mission of ERC which seeks, in part, “to feature dimensions of international understanding and cultural diversity.” MMW is an interdisciplinary, multi-course sequence which provides a broad, global overview of the past from the dawn of human history (MMW 11) to the achievements and challenges of the contemporary world (MMW 15). Writing instruction, equally important to the program’s general education mission, is imbedded in the course work.
Students entering ERC as freshmen complete a five-course sequence, numbered MMW 11 to MMW 15. Students entering ERC as transfers complete a two-course sequence, numbered MMW 21 and MMW22.
Classes meet for three hours of lecture and one hour of discussion per week, except for the writing-intensive six-credit MMW 12 and MMW 13 courses which meet for three hours of lecture and two meetings of discussion section (for two hours total) per week. The remaining MMW courses (MMW 11, 14, 15, 21, and 22) are four credit courses.
MMW OverviewMMW 11: Pre-History and Ancient Foundations. Offered in Fall. 4 credits
MMW 12: Classical and Medieval Traditions (100BCE-1200CE). Offered in Winter. 6 credits.
MMW 13: New Ideas and Cultural Encounters (1200-1750). Offered Spring. 6 credits.
MMW 14: Revolution, Industry, Empire (1750-1917). Offered in Winter. 4 Credits.
MMW 15: Twentieth Century and Beyond. Offered in Spring. 4 Credits.
MMW 21: Exploring the Pre-Modern World. Offered in Fall. 4 credits. Transfers only.
MMW 22: Exploring the Modern World. Offered in Winter. 4 credits. Transfers only.
MMW 12-15 and MMW 21-22 are offered on campus during Summer Session.
MMW 14 and MMW 15 are also offered in Athens, Berlin, and Istanbul during the summer.
MMW 11: Pre-History and Ancient Foundations (4) MMW 11 begins with an exploration of human origins, the emergence of social organization, and the strategies early societies used to negotiate their physical and social environments. The course continues through to the development of the ancient world’s classical traditions in China, India, Mesopotamia, and Greece. This course is delivered through three hours of lecture and one hour of discussion section each week.
MMW 12: Classical and Medieval Traditions (6) Covering the period from 100 BCE to 1200 CE, MMW 12 examines classical empires (Han China, Roman Empire, Gupta India, etc.) from the period of their greatest achievements to their collapse and transformation into distinct medieval forms. MMW 12 also explores the rise and spread of three religious movements that have significantly influenced the global past (and continue to impact the present): Christianity, Islam, and Mahayana Buddhism. MMW 12 is the first of two writing-intensive quarters in the MMW sequence and is delivered through three hours of lecture and two hours of discussion section each week.MMW 13: New Ideas and Cultural Encounters (6) MMW 13 covers the transition from the medieval to the early modern world and provides a framework for understanding developments in the global past from the thirteenth to the eighteenth century. This period witnessed increased interaction between cultures and continents through trade, exploration, conquest, and missionary activity and experienced dynamic change in political, philosophical, and religious thought as well as scientific understanding. This course is the second of two writing-intensive quarters in the MMW sequence and is delivered through three hours of lecture and two hours of discussion section each week.
MMW 14: Revolution, Industry, and Empire (4) This course introduces the “modern age” of the nineteenth century, an era characterized by revolutions, industrialization, imperialism, independence movements, and global reform programs. Beginning with the European Enlightenment and Atlantic revolutions of the eighteenth century and early nineteenth century, the course examines the global impact of and responses to westernization. The course is delivered through three hours of lecture and one hour of discussion section each week.
MMW 15: Twentieth Century and Beyond (4) This course begins with the causes and consequences of World War I and the post-war crisis of liberal values and institutions. It goes on to examine the deepening crisis of the 1930s, especially evident in the emergence of ideological politics and extreme nationalism in the context of worldwide depression, an examination that provides the background for understanding World War II. In the post-war period, attention is given to the Cold War, the competition between capitalism and communism, and the process of decolonization. The course ends with the collapse of communism and the emergence of a new world order (or disorder) and its challenges. The course is delivered through three hours of lecture and one hour of discussion section each week.
MMW 21: Exploring the Pre-modern World (Transfer Students Only) (4) MMW 21, the first of two required courses for ERC transfer students, addresses specific themes and topics from the pre-modern world (antiquity to the eighteenth century) and strengthens
transfer students’ research and writing skills. The course is delivered through three hours of lecture and one hour of discussion section each week.
MMW 22: Exploring the Modern World (Transfer Students Only) (4) MMW 22, the second of two required courses for ERC transfer students, addresses specific themes and topics from the modern world (eighteenth century to the present) and strengthens transfer students’ research and writing skills.
Teaching Assistants: TAs new to MMW teach in the first-year of the sequence (MMW 11-MMW 13). During the fall quarter, in lieu of teaching, most new TAs attend a training seminar (MMW 200). In this seminar, TAs are given a preview of the content of the program, practice teaching, design lesson plans, and discuss readings in pedagogy and composition theory. MMW 11 TAs attend three hours of lecture per week and meet with two sections of 31 students each once weekly. In MMW 12 and MMW 13, TAs attend three hours of lecture per week and meet with two sections of 15 students each twice weekly. In all three quarters, TAs proctor and grade exams, and are responsible for planning and implementing section activities that allow students to explore the lecture material in depth and to improve their critical reading skills. In MMW 12 and MMW 13, TAs also teach writing (following the instruction provided by the program) and grade all assignments and exams.In the second year of the program (MMW 14 – MMW 15) and in the transfer sequence (MMW 21 and MMW 22), TAs attend three hours of lecture per week and meet with two sections of approximately 31 students each once weekly. As in the first year, TAs grade all assignments and exams.
All TAs are required to hold two office hours weekly, attend hour-long program meetings (weekly in the first year, bi-weekly in the second year), and meet regularly with the course professors. New TAs must attend a two-day orientation in the fall; all TAs attend short orientations prior to the beginning of Fall, Winter, and Spring quarters.
We hope to match the cross-disciplinary strengths of the faculty with a diverse group of teaching assistants. While we don’t expect that TAs will have an academic background in the course material, we prefer that they bring to the program a zest for inter-disciplinary dialogue, the experience of living or traveling abroad, and an academic background that reflects an international perspective. We expect our TAs to have a lively interest in students, the ability to write well and, above all, a demonstrated commitment to teaching.
CULTURE, ART, AND TECHNOLOGY
SIXTH COLLEGE
Program contact: Ethel Lu, erlu@ucsd.edu, (858) 5334-6883, Pepper Canyon Hall, room 257, Mail Code 0054
Sixth College offers two opportunities for teaching assistants: the Core Sequence (CAT 1, 2 and 3) and the upper-division writing requirement (CAT 125).
Core Sequence - CAT 1, 2 and 3: Culture, Art and Technology
All three courses in the Culture, Art and Technology Core Sequence deal with the causes and implications of change in society. We discuss questions such as these: How do we shape the world, and how does the world shape us? How do art and technology reveal, as well as influence, culture? What ethical questions are raised by artifacts, environments, institutions, and interactions? Why does historical perspective matter?
As a writing program, the Core Sequence focuses in the fall on the skills required for reading at the college level; in winter we focus on writing as a set of argumentative strategies; and in spring we concentrate on the tasks which go into writing the academic research paper.
Under the guidance of the Core Sequence administrators and the faculty, our TAs lead discussion sections to help students understand the lectures, readings, and other course materials from a variety of disciplines and involving many different media (often including art, film, video, and music). They also spend a large amount of section time on helping students learn, understand, and practice specific skills in writing.
For all three quarters, TAs are required to grade student work, to hold regular office hours, and to attend the course lectures as well as weekly planning meetings. A 50% appointment in CAT1, 2, and 3 involves teaching two sections of 15 students each, with sections meeting once a week in CAT 1 and twice a week in CAT 2 and 3.
CAT 125: Public Rhetoric and Practical Communication
Some TAships for this course are available depending on student enrollment each quarter. As an upper-division course, it requires a particularly high level of teaching skill and experience in teaching writing.
CAT 125 teaches public rhetoric and practical communication, including oral presentation skills and writing both for print and online formats. TAs attend lecture and meet with students in sections of 15 students each to help them accomplish these tasks. They also meet intensively with students in office hours.