UTA Program Faculty Guide
What the English UTA Program is
The English Undergraduate Teaching Assistants (UTA) Program brings high-achieving undergraduates and committed faculty together to foster student success in undergraduate English courses. The program prepares select students from a wide range of majors to serve as peer mentors and instructional assistants in the department’s writing, rhetoric, literature, and media studies courses. The goals of the program are to promote instructional excellence and student-centered learning while providing an enriching leadership opportunity for UTAs.
Students who apply to the UTA program are selected based on their writing skills, GPA, and instructors’ recommendations. Accepted UTAs are either placed with their recruiting instructors or matched with instructors seeking UTAs. Upon acceptance into the program, UTAs register for ENGL388V, a training seminar and pedagogy course.
How the English UTA Program is Unique
The UTA Program differs from other college teaching preparation courses and peer mentor programs on campus in the following ways:
- The UTA Program is specifically for English Department classes, which means that the theory and teaching practices UTAs learn in ENGL388V is tailored to discussion-based humanities classes and writing-intensive courses.
- The UTA Program is instructor-centered and flexible. It is adapted to meet instructors’ and UTAs’ unique needs for their courses, including courses that are not writing-intensive and courses taught in blended and online formats
- ENGL388V is structured as a majority-internship Scholarship in Practice course. The 388V coursework accounts for 25% of UTAs’ time; the other 75% is with their students and instructors in the course for which they are UTAing.
Benefits for students, instructors, & UTAs
Benefits for Students
UTAs halve the student-to-teacher ratio, giving students more individual support and more feedback on their writing. UTAs help communicate course and assignment expectations, work with students in and out of the classroom, and model how to become successful writers, researchers, and young scholars in our various subfields and discourse communities. Students especially appreciate being able to turn to a UTA for questions.
Student Testimonials:
“My UTA’s passion for helping with the class made me that much more excited to go to class and complete assignments.”
“Having a TA granted me access to another mentor that I was more comfortable approaching with academic concerns before having to ask my professor about it.”
“He answered questions and requests within the day. He was kind and tolerant of everyone. Writing is an extremely vulnerable outlet and he exerted his authority with extreme care, caution, and joy.”
“Having a teaching assistant for this course enriched my education. I met with her for a couple of assignments during her office hours. She always offered insightful and useful information. I believe it served to my advantage to have more than just one individual familiar with the course content. The information presented in this course was almost all content I had never seen or experienced before. Having a teaching assistant really helped with understanding the new information, especially from a student's perspective.”
Benefits for Instructors
UTAs assist with lessons, help lead discussions, facilitate group activities, guide peer review sessions, and more. Because UTAs are also students, they are especially adept at detecting gaps in understanding. In class, UTAs can close these gaps by asking the instructor to rephrase questions and provide additional examples. Outside of class, UTAs assist instructors with a variety of ongoing tasks such as creating course materials, managing the ELMS course site, and responding to student work on ELMS. UTAs are particularly effective in reaching out to students who may need help or who may simply benefit from a friendly message of encouragement.
Instructor Testimonials:
“He has been wonderful for making discussion and participation feel more collaborative, inviting, and inclusive.”
“I believe that the constant support helps the students stay motivated to come to class every week.”
“It’s clear that students sought [UTA]’s feedback and trusted her to help them successfully navigate the course.”
“She was passionate about the class and about helping the students. She instituted weekly check-ins...that I think really elevated the class and made everyone feel more engaged and invested in each others' work.”
“She had ideas about how to communicate with students and she implemented them before I even knew we needed them. After class, we would sit and chat and I couldn't ask for a TA to be more genuine and conscientious than she has been. If teaching is its own reward, then working with [UTA] has been one of the great events of my career.”
Benefits for UTAs
UTAs develop critical leadership and interpersonal skills. Through responding to a variety of overlapping and often divergent needs from their students, their instructors, and their peers in 388V, they become more agile and effective communicators. UTAs quickly improve their time management skills as they balance their responsibilities as UTAs with their responsibilities as students in their other classes. UTAs strengthen their initiative and ability to work independently: they become more self-directed and proactive as they reach out to students who may need help without being told to do so, and they become more capable and confident as they approach their instructors with suggestions about the course. Throughout all of this, UTAs develop precisely the skills most valued in professional settings while enjoying the support and guidance they receive in 388V and with their instructors.
UTA Testimonials:
“[ENGL388V was] the most valuable course I took in college. What I loved so much about this course was its focus on instructors understanding and respecting students, as well as the focus on reflection and problem-solving. From the short time I have spent in schools so far, I have learned that these skills can take an educator far. Thank you for providing me with valuable experience that I have been able to use on my resume, discuss in interviews, and apply in practical settings.”
“I feel so lucky to have been able to work with some of the amazing students that I have had over the two semesters, and I cannot even begin to thank my instructor. She has challenged me to be a better student and inspired me to continue toward a path of discovery for myself. I cannot imagine a more fulfilling and inspiring internship to end my undergraduate days with, and I am excited to see how it will affect my days to come.”
“Being a UTA, and being a part of our amazing little community, has been the absolute most special thing I have done here academically. It has given me a sense of belonging in a large school, it has given me community amidst a pandemic, it has given me many ears to listen to my weekly rants, it has given me mentors whose guidance has been so crucial and so comforting, it’s given me an amazing opportunity to grow as a leader, a writer, a student, and an individual, and so, so much more.”
How the program works for instructors
General
The UTA Program is structured so that instructors and their UTAs determine what UTAs do in their classes. This varies dramatically among instructors and courses. Some UTAs present mini-lessons or facilitate discussions in nearly every class; others only present in front of their students twice in a semester. Some UTAs play a near-equal role in designing the course; others have little input on course design. Some UTAs respond to student emails and electronic drafts on their own; others are instructed to cc their instructors on all electronic communication. In short, instructors work with their UTAs in ways that reflect their teaching philosophies and styles.
Just as the UTA Program is committed to honoring instructor autonomy, so too is it committed to ensuring that UTAs benefit from their internship experience. In this Scholarship in Practice course, UTAs should be challenged in ways that foster their personal and intellectual growth without being burdened by excessive or unclear expectations. To this end, the UTA Program has developed guidelines for instructors who work with UTAs, which can be found in the next section.
UTA Program Coordinator guidelines for instructors
- Collaborate with UTAs to determine their responsibilities. This is a learning experience for UTAs, one in which their own goals should be prioritized as they and their instructors negotiate their responsibilities. To facilitate this conversation, the UTA Program has developed a detailed goals and expectations worksheet for instructors and UTAs to complete at the beginning of the semester.
- Create opportunities for UTAs to have an active role in the classroom. While this will look different for every UTA-Instructor pair, it’s important that UTAs do more than sit quietly in each class with little more to do than take attendance. Students need to see that UTAs are knowledgeable and credible in order to seek their assistance, and UTAs need opportunities to apply the skills they learn in ENGL388V in their classes.
- Provide explicit guidance to UTAs on how to respond to student work. The more guidance you provide to UTAs, the more confident they will be when responding to your students’ low-stakes assignments and drafts. This in turn will help students view your UTAs as the excellent resources that they are.
- Encourage students to work closely with UTAs. Students will be much more likely to make use of your UTAs’ office hours when you remind them how competent, helpful, and approachable your UTAs are.
- Provide ongoing feedback to your UTAs so that they know if they are fulfilling their agreed-upon responsibilities effectively and how to improve.
What instructors can expect from the UTA Program Coordinator
Instructors who work with UTAs receive ongoing support from the UTA Program Coordinator. About three weeks before the semester, instructors receive welcome packets that include instructions for getting UTAs added to their ELMS sites, guidelines for working with UTAs, ENGL388V syllabi, and more. During the semester, the UTA Program Coordinator sends regular emails and facilitates informal meetings for instructors to exchange ideas about working with UTAs.
Arc of the semester for instructors
- Pre-semester: Negotiate roles/ responsibilities with UTAs
- Week 1: Sign Goals & Expectations sheet for UTAs to submit to 388V
- Weeks 3-4: Consult with UTAs on their lesson plans
- Weeks 7-8: Review Goals & Expectations with UTA & provide feedback
- Week 14: Submit evaluations for UTAs at end of semester
How the program works for UTAs
General
ENGL388V, the course that UTAs register for, is structured as a Scholarship in Practice course. These required general education courses are designed to give students the opportunity to “experience authentic work of a discipline.” In these courses, students “will have opportunities to take risks, innovate, apply, collaborate, revise and perfect their work, communicate ideas, consider how work is affected by ideas of others, and produce an original product or analysis.” Serving as a UTA in one of our English courses gives students ample opportunities to meet all of these learning outcomes.
UTAs meet these learning outcomes on two fronts: 1) through their experience as a UTA in their assigned courses and 2) through their experience as students in 388V.
What UTAs do as UTAs in their assigned courses
UTAs’ classroom experience is the “Practice” part of ENGL388V and accounts for approximately 75% of UTAs’ overall workload for the course. In the classroom, UTAs are active participants who may help facilitate lessons and activities, handle administrative responsibilities such as taking attendance, and clarify course concepts and assignments for students. Outside of the classroom, UTAs and instructors meet weekly to plan the upcoming week, discuss student needs, create activities and lessons, and review assignment expectations to better prepare UTAs to assist students with their drafts.
What UTAs do as students in the first semester of 388V
The seminar is the “Scholarship” part of the course and accounts for approximately 25% of UTAs’ overall workload for ENGL388V. In the seminar, UTAs learn foundations of composition pedagogy, learning theory, the scholarship of teaching and learning, and more. The weekly seminar offers UTAs an opportunity to connect with and learn from each other while practicing a variety of teaching and mentoring strategies that they apply in their assigned courses. ENGL388V assignments include online discussions, class observations, lesson plans, a group lesson, and a final synthesis paper.
What UTAs do as students in subsequent semesters of 388V
Returning UTAs do not attend the weekly seminar. Instead, they meet informally once a month and complete the majority of their ENGL 388V requirements online. Returning UTAs post weekly to discussions, observe each other’s classes, respond to first-semester UTAs’ learning logs and lesson plans, and design one learning artifact. Returning UTAs compile all of their work from both semesters into a final digital portfolio.
How to Find UTAs
Option 1: Work with a former student
For best results, start this process early, right around when Testudo publishes the schedule for the following semester (October for the Spring semester and February for the Fall semester).
Ideally, the student you recruit will be a former student, not a current one. While this isn’t always possible, it simplifies the process for everyone when there’s a clean break between one’s identity as your student and as your UTA.
When you’ve found a potential UTA, please ask them to complete and submit the application here.
Note that recruiting a student to be your UTA does not guarantee their admittance to the program. In the rare cases that your recruits do not meet the minimum requirements, the UTA Program Coordinator will work closely with you to find an equitable solution.
Option 2: Work with an accepted UTA who needs to be paired
Many students apply to the UTA Program on their own volition, that is, without having been asked to do so by an instructor. In these cases, accepted applicants are paired with instructors who are looking for UTAs. If you know you want to work with a UTA yet are unable to find one, please contact the UTA Program Coordinator.