Sara Jameson
Composition Coordinator
Sara.Jameson@oregonstate.edu
Each year the English department offers teaching assistant (TA) fellowships to selected incoming graduate students, in both the MA and MFA programs. If you are interested in applying for one of these fellowships, just check the box on your graduate application and discuss your teaching aims in your letter or statement of objectives. Also, ask those who are writing recommendations for you to speak particularly about your aptitude and/or experience with teaching.
These fellowships provide TA's with a stipend, tuition remission (not including student fees), partially funded health insurance, and other department benefits, in exchange for teaching four sections each year. The teaching schedule is two terms teaching one section (at .25 FTE) and one term teaching two sections (at .49 FTE). The first year, all TA's teach our first year composition course, WR 121. Click here for more information about our WR 121 program.
Assuming good performance, the TA fellowship is typically renewed for a second year. In their second year, in addition to teaching first year composition, TA's might also teach business writing, technical writing, or introduction to fiction writing WR 224; (particularly our second year MFA students) depending on the department's needs. For more information about the additional opportunities for graduate students, click here.
To support this teaching activity, new TA's receive teaching materials
and textbooks over the summer and then attend a required multi-day pre-service
orientation in mid September, before classes begin. The orientation
includes visits to OSU's Writing
Center and Valley Library, which are important components of the
first year writing course. This also includes an introduction to Blackboard,
the online learning module, and to our enhanced technology. In addition,
TA's take WR 517 their first term. Click for the Fall
2005 syllabus. This two-credit 10-week practicum course taught by
the Composition Coordinator covers additional aspects of teaching. Peer
mentoring with second year TA's further aids incoming TA's develop their
skills.
Finally, TA's take at least one pedagogy course during their two-year
program. This handout
explains the pedagogy requirement in depth. For more information about
our rhetoric and writing program,
see that part of the department web page. You can meet our rhetoric
and writing faculty and staff by visiting the individual departmental
web pages for Chris Anderson,
Lisa Ede, Anita
Helle, Vicki
Tolar Burton, and Sara
Jameson.
For more information, check the rest of this page, organized as follows: