Q. Who is eligible to teach E314/318? When should I request to do so? What factors go into the Sophomore Literature Committee's assignment of such courses?

Prepare yourself for a lengthy answer.
In most cases, if you entered the graduate program possessing only a BA degree your turn to teach in the sophomore literature program will occur during your fifth year in the department, after you have spent two years as a teaching assistant for E316K and two years teaching as an assistant instructor in the DRW (usually one year of RHE 306 followed by one year of RHE 309). Students who entered the graduate program with an MA usually work as teaching assistants for only one year, which means that these students, in most cases, will be coming back to the English department to teach E314/318 in their fourth, rather than their fifth years. Toward the end of each fall semester, AIs receive a "teaching preferences" sheet for the following academic year, which asks you to rank three choices of courses you would like to teach. Note that you request a course almost a full year before you actually have a chance to teach it. If you want to teach an English department sophomore literature course during your UT career, make sure to request it during your fourth year (third year for students who entered with an MA). If for some reason you choose not request a sophomore lit course for the year that it is officially your "turn" to do so, we cannot guarantee that we will be able to honor a request later in your UT career.

At the same time as you are filling out your teaching preferences sheet, staff in the English department and the DRW are busy compiling a list of those students who will be coming due for an E314/318 course the following year. Students who have followed the pattern outlined above (one or two years as E316K TA, one year of 306, currently in the middle of teaching 309) are placed in "tier 1." These tier 1 students will receive top priority for teaching English department courses during the following year and should count on being awarded such a course if they request one. The next "tier" (tier 2) comprises students who will be entering the first "extension" year (usually year 6 for students who entered the program with a bachelors degree, year 5 for students who entered the program with a masters degree) and who for one reason or another have not yet taught a sophomore-level English course. We do our very best to find an E314/318 course for such students but cannot guarantee success.

"Tier 3" includes students entering the first extension year who have already taught a sophomore-level English course. If you are in tier 3 and wish to be considered for another E314/318 course, you should list such a course as your first choice. There are several things to keep in mind, however. First, depending upon the budget, we are at best able to fund only a few of these requests and, in some years, alas, we find ourselves unable to fund any. Any "tier 3" request to teach E314/318 is a long shot and such students should therefore also request teaching in the DRW.

Once the teaching preference forms have been collected and processed by DRW and English department staff, the English department's Sophomore Literature Committee meets to assign actual courses to "tier 1" and, if the budget permits, "tier 2" students. The committee tries to assign tier 1 and 2 students to either their first or second choice of specific course (e.g., 314L Banned Books), but we have an obligation to ensure balance and distribution in the curriculum and so sometimes have to ask students to teach courses that may not have been at the top of their lists. The committee then ranks all "tier 3" proposals for sophomore level courses, in the hope that the final budget will allow us to fund at least a couple of the top ranked ones. Course proposals by "tier 3" students are ranked according to the following criteria: the committee's perception of curricular gaps and priorities; the proposed instructor's (timely) progress towards his or her degree, as reported by the Graduate Office; the proposed instructor's previous performance as an AI. Because the final budget will not be known until the summer, in some cases "tier 3" students whose proposals have been given a high rank by the SLC will receive a DRW assignment initially and then, if extra funds become available, be given the option to switch to an English department course.

Students who do not fit into tiers 1, 2, or 3 are assigned to sophomore level English courses only under extraordinary circumstances and so should not use up one of their preference slots requesting such an assignment.