Clearinghouse Information

COLLEGE WRITING PROGRAMS

Teaching Assistant Recruitment

CLEARINGHOUSE INFORMATION FOR 2008-2009

APPLICATION DEADLINE: THURSDAY, MAY 1, 2008

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.

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: Muir Writing Program is the clearinghouse for the six writing programs this year. Send applications to Muir Writing, mail code 0106, or deliver to the Muir Writing Program main office, H&SS 2346. Questions about the application process should be directed to Nancy Hesketh at 534-2426 or ndhesketh@ucsd.edu. The deadline for submission of applications is Thursday, May 1, 2008, at noon.

Applicants should send:

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. Both Sixth and Marshall colleges request college-specific cover letters. In the upper right-hand corner of this letter list your name, graduate department and degree goal, e-mail address, daytime and evening telephone numbers, and your hours of accessibility (if appropriate). Right below this information please list, in order of preference, the program(s) whose consideration you seek. (You are encouraged to apply to more than one program, because there are more applicants than available positions.) This letter should be the first page(s) of your packet.

2. A brief resume of pertinent qualifications.

3. A sample of your writing (in English), such as seminar paper or term paper.

Send one copy of your application packet for each of the programs included in your list of preferences and an additional copy for the clearinghouse file. For example, if you are applying to all six programs you will need to send seven packets.

Descriptions of each of the six writing programs are listed below. For additional information about a specific writing program please contact the appropriate representative:

Eleanor Roosevelt Writing Program, Mollie Martinek
mmartinek@ucsd.edu, (858) 534-7117, 2nd level, ERC Admin. Bldg., Mail Code 0546

Muir College Writing Program, Nancy Hesketh
ndhesketh@ucsd.edu, (858) 534-2426, 2346 HSS, Mail Code 0106

Revelle College Humanities, Pam Clark
pclark@ucsd.edu, (858) 534-3311, 180 Galbraith Hall, Mail Code 0306

Sixth College Writing Program, Nik Hay
nhay@ucsd.edu, (858) 534-1209, Pepper Canyon Hall, room 257, Mail Code 0054

Thurgood Marshall College-DOC, Sue Hawkinson
schawkinson@ucsd.edu, (858) 534-2742, 132 Sequoyah Hall, Mail Code 0525

Warren College Writing Program, Michelle Lee
m27lee@ucsd.edu, (858) 534-3068, EBU 3, 1st floor, Mail Code 0422

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.

UCSD WRITING PROGRAM DESCRIPTIONS

DIMENSIONS OF CULTURE PROGRAM
THURGOOD MARSHALL COLLEGE

Dimensions of Culture (DOC) is a multidisciplinary, issues-oriented, writing-intensive three-quarter social science and humanities sequence required of all first year students at Thurgood Marshall College (TMC). Each quarter students attend both large-class lectures taught by university and program faculty members, and small section meetings guided by TAs. In the first quarter, DOC 1, TAs attend three lectures and a teaching meeting each week plus meet with two sections of approximately 13 students once each week. During the second and third quarters, DOC 2 and DOC 3, TAs also attend three lectures and a teaching meeting, but meet with two sections of students twice a week.

DOC’s course content closely identifies with the educational philosophy and goals of Thurgood Marshall College, in particular its concerns for social justice, the history and cultural experience of minorities and otherwise underrepresented groups, and the development of intelligent citizenship.

DOC 1, “Diversity,” introduces students to basic distinctions in academic inquiry about systematic social differences among human individuals and groups. The aim is to convey a range of scholarly views illuminating the stratifications that shape our human attachments to self, work, community, and nation through the lenses of race, class, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation and ability. The course also questions the ways and means we seek to build a more fully just and pluralistic society—themes that DOC 2 and DOC 3 will revisit from different academic perspectives.

DOC 2, “Justice,” introduces students to fundamental concepts in political and social theory and moral philosophy, presenting them in concrete historical and contemporary social contexts. The course provides special focus on political and constitutional implications of American diversity and pluralistic society. Course readings include numerous original sources, especially Supreme Court opinions, as well as pieces drawn from the rich field of American history.

DOC 3, “Imagination,” investigates the ways in which these same publicly significant social differences examined in DOC 1 and DOC 2 have been imagined and re-imagined in a wide variety of cultural productions since the World War II era. In particular, they will examine how primary texts such as films, television, short stories, poetry, music, technology, journalism and advertisements imaginatively represent public tensions in the U.S. as they have emerged and changed over time.

In the first quarter, students review the principles of argumentative writing and develop their skills in the close reading of academic arguments. Students complete a series of writing exercises as preparation for a midterm and a single essay. In addition, students take a comprehensive final exam. In DOC 2, students apply principles of argument in two essay cycles based on deductive reasoning, and write an in-class final exam. For the third quarter, students further refine their facility in argumentation by completing two essay cycles based on inductive reasoning. The three-week essay cycles emphasize thesis formation, drafting, peer review, and revision strategies.

Dimensions of Culture 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.

HUMANITIES PROGRAM
REVELLE COLLEGE

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 about 30 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, the number of undergraduates supervised by each TA is larger than in Humanities 1 or 2, but writing instruction is not so time-consuming, and TAs have fewer papers to read for each student.

MAKING OF THE MODERN WORLD
ELEANOR ROOSEVELT COLLEGE

The Eleanor Roosevelt College Writing Program is part of a two-year required course sequence, “Making of the Modern World.” This core course, taught primarily by professors from the humanities and social sciences, has a cross-disciplinary and cross-cultural focus.

First-year sequence:
The first quarter of the course introduces students to what is known about early humans, including the evolution of the human body and the reconstruction of Paleolithic and Neolithic cultures. The second quarter examines the religious, social, and political institutions of the ancient Near East, classical India, classical China, classical Athens, and the Roman Republic, using texts such as the Hebrew Scriptures, Sophocles’ Antigone, The Bhagavad-Gita, and the Analects of Confucius. Quarter 3 focuses primarily on the religious, social, and political institutions of the Roman Empire, India, China, and the Near East between 27 B.C.E. and 1200 C.E. Topics include the rise of cities, the growth of commerce, popular religion, health and disease, concepts of gender, the development of science and technology, and the rise of Christianity and Islam. Writing instruction takes place during the second and third quarters (MMW 2 and MMW 3). Students earn an additional two hours of course credit for composition during the second and third quarters.

Second-year sequence:
Quarter 4 examines the Americas, China, Africa, Asia, and Europe, analyzing the structure and impact of empires and discussing major examples of cultural and interaction caused by imperial expansion. The fifth quarter examines the great changes in European society from the late seventeenth century to the Russian Revolution and the impact of these changes on the non-Western world. Finally, the sixth quarter begins by examining World War I, and studies the social and cultural implications of the expansion of state and power as well as conflicts between democratic and anti-democratic forces. It concludes with a discussion of the notions of world culture and world systems. Term papers are assigned in quarters 4 through 6, but writing instruction in these quarters is minimal.

A full description of the MMW course sequence can be found on our website at http://provost.ucsd.edu/roosevelt/mmw/.

TAs new to Eleanor Roosevelt College teach in the first-year sequence. During the first quarter, in lieu of teaching, most TAs new to the program attend a training seminar. In this seminar, TAs preview the content of MMW2 and 3, practice teaching, design lesson plans, and discuss readings in pedagogy and composition theory. Some TAs new to the program, particularly those with extensive teaching experience and/or a background in anthropology, teach MMW1 rather than take the fall seminar. MMW1 TAs attend three hours of lecture per week and meet with two sections of 30 students each once weekly. During the second and third quarters, 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 the second and third quarters TAs also teach argumentative writing and grade all written work.

In the second year of the course, TAs attend three lectures per week and meet with two sections of approximately 30 students each once weekly. As in the first year, TAs grade papers as well as midterm and final exams.

All TAs are required to hold two office hours weekly, attend hour-long program meetings (weekly in the first year, four times per quarter 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 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 cross-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 in English and, above all, a demonstrated commitment to teaching both writing and course content.

MUIR COLLEGE WRITING PROGRAM
JOHN MUIR COLLEGE

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 in the sciences, the social and behavioral sciences, and the humanities, broadly defined. We also focus on the relationship between what the author claims and how the author chooses to support that claim.

In MCWP 40, TAs select and assign essays from a reader as well as choose a book from a selection of book-length texts. 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 has a maximum enrollment of fifteen students that 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 staff meetings. Prior to the beginning of fall classes, TAs are required to attend a two day TA training session. During training, we will focus 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.

WARREN COLLEGE WRITING PROGRAM
EARL WARREN COLLEGE

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. In order to establish a common language with which we can discuss academic arguments, we use the concepts of practical reasoning and argumentation developed by the twentieth-century British philosopher Stephen Toulmin.

All students in Warren College must complete a two-course writing requirement. Warren Writing TAs work under the guidance of the program director and assistant 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 focuses on the “Consciousness Debates.” Our spring 2008 10B course topics include “Garbage,” “Beauty,” “Biotechnology and Athletics,” and “Truth, Illusion and Deception.”

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.

CULTURE, ART, AND TECHNOLOGY
SIXTH COLLEGE

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

CAT 1 (Nature and Culture) deals with the question of "How did human beings come to have culture, art and technology, and how do these three pursuits interact with each other?" TAs lead weekly discussion sections to help students discuss the lectures, readings, and other course materials (often including art, film, video, and music) and help them learn how to work in teams on projects in a variety of expressive media.

In the winter quarter, CAT 2 (Agents of Change) comprises courses on several different topics, each driven by a case study of a particular historical instance in which art and technology have both transformed culture and been transformed by it.

In the spring, CAT 3 (Working Forward) again offers courses on a range of topics, all dealing with contemporary circumstances and the roles of art and technology in reshaping our lives.

For CAT 2 and 3, each discussion section meets twice a week to discuss course material and to help students improve their writing. Under the guidance of the Core Sequence Director, the Writing Director and the Digital Literacy Coordinator, together with the faculty, our TAs help students do the following: integrate ideas from a wide variety of disciplines, develop written, oral and digital media skills and use writing and digital media as tools for thinking as well as communicating. In CAT 3 particularly, TAs will also help students work on team projects designed to help students connect their learning to a larger community context.

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 CAT 1 involves teaching two sections of 30 students each, with sections meeting once a week; a 50% appointment in CAT 2 and 3 involves teaching two sections of 15 students each, with sections meeting twice a week.

CAT 125: Sixth Practicum Reflective Writing

TAships for this course are occasionally available depending on student enrollment. As an upper-division course, it requires a particularly high level of teaching skill and experience in teaching writing.

All Sixth College students are required to design and complete (usually in their junior year) an independent project referred to as the Practicum, in which they engage with a wider community. After completing their Practicum, they enroll in CAT 125; in this course they write a long essay reflecting on their experience and create related work in visual media. This assignment calls on them to integrate their personal experiences with the broader themes of culture, art and technology; to deal with the broader themes of culture, art and technology; to deal with the planning requirements of a longer paper; and to continue to improve their writing. TAs attend lecture and meet with students (once a week in section and intensively in office hours) to help them accomplish these tasks.