Get news & events by emailThe Role of the Teaching Fellow
Teaching fellows serve a vital role in the mission of the English Department. They provide outstanding teaching for significant numbers of students, improving their abilities to read and write and instilling in many undergraduates greater confidence in their work. Teaching fellows also make a conscientious investment in professional training programs designed to strengthen teaching and share expertise with less experienced colleagues.
The teaching fellowship represents an indispensable experience for graduate students preparing for a profession that requires, values and rewards good teaching. In awarding teaching fellowships, the Department of English assumes a responsibility both to its graduate students and to the undergraduate students enrolled in classes taught by teaching fellows. This document describes the training and experiences graduate students receive as they assume increasing responsibility for teaching well.
Teaching Fellow Requirements
Graduate students begin teaching in the second year of the M.A. program. Prior to their appointment, they must complete at least 18 hours of post-baccalaureate coursework and English 606 (Rhetorical Theory and Practice), a graduate course that surveys contemporary research and methods of teaching writing. English 606 also requires students to design a writing course of 30 lesson plans, including writing assignments and class activities consistent with a research-based philosophy of teaching.
All first-year teaching fellows also participate in a four-day orientation program that explains the philosophy of UNC's first-year writing courses, guides teaching fellows in designing the syllabus and writing assignments for the course they will be teaching, provides experience in evaluating students' papers, and requires participants to present a lesson that fellow teachers subsequently critique. Orientation sessions supplement the pedagogical materials published in the Writing Program's Staff Manual, a 100-page teaching guide and uniform description of courses. Though some first-year teachers receive appointments to tutor students in the Writing Center, most have full responsibility for teaching sections of English 101 and 102, courses in analyzing and constructing arguments and in writing for the humanities, sciences, and social sciences.
Teaching Literature & Film
During the second year of the Ph.D. program, teaching fellows, working under the supervision of a faculty member, begin teaching literature and film courses. In addition to leading discussion sections of large lecture courses, they assist professors in designing exams and other writing assignments, hold regular office hours, and determine their students' final grades. Occasionally, they may present material in the large lecture class. A series of workshops organized by the Director of Undergraduate Studies supplements the teaching fellow's working with individual faculty members.
By the third year of the Ph.D. program, teaching fellows have full responsibility for conducting one sophomore literature class per year, in addition to teaching composition. Depending on their qualifications, experienced teaching fellows also may teach basic, business, legal, and scientific writing or cross-curricular composition courses linked to courses in other disciplines.
Developing as a Teacher
Throughout their tenure, teaching fellows participate in on-going development as teachers by meeting monthly in small coordinating groups. Led by senior teaching fellows who are appointed by the Director of the Writing Program, these groups of approximately a dozen teachers each develop their own agendas for improving their work with students. They examine student papers, resolve teaching problems, explore uses of collaborative learning and instructional technology, and discuss the implications of scholarship on their teaching.
All teaching fellows elicit student evaluations for every course they teach. They also are observed each semester by the Director of the Writing Program, the Associate Director, or a member of the Peer Review Committee. Class observations, intended to help teaching fellows set goals for their teaching, entail a three-step process. First, teaching fellows complete a pre-observation questionnaire assessing their strengths and weaknesses and establishing a context for the class that will be observed. Second, an observer, who has participated in an intensive training program, visits the class, recording all activities in a detailed log. Finally, the teacher and observer discuss the log in conference, together setting appropriate goals for the teacher's further development. A written report of each evaluation becomes part of each teaching fellow's personnel file.
By the time they leave the graduate program, teaching fellows have taught a variety of composition and literature courses in settings that foster increasing independence and professional responsibility. They also have participated actively in a community of reflective scholar-teachers who learn from one another as well as from students how to teach well.
