Erin Hurt
erinhurt@mail.utexas.edu
316 K Assistant Director
Office Hours: Wednesdays 11-2 in Chez Cal and by appointment

Resources for TAs: A Practical Guide

Getting your lecture assignment:

• You will fill out a schedule of your availability once you’ve registered for classes. You’ll put your class meeting times and any other big obligations (other jobs or child care) on the schedule and submit it to the main office. You’ll be able to list your preference of 316K topic (British, American or World) but chances are you won’t get your first choice your first semester. The office makes every effort to be sure you TA once for each variant of 316K and the more you’ve TA’d, the more likely you’ll be to get your first choice.

TH
5:00 PM- 8:00 PM
PAR 204

Course Description

E 383L The Teaching of English Composition and Literature http://www.en.utexas.edu/classes/bremen/e316k/tapages/tapages.html Parlin 127 bremen@curly.cc.utexas.edu

TTH
9:30 AM- 11:00 AM
PAR 214

Course Description

E383L Teaching Masterworks of British Literature Fall, 2008

Strategies for Leading Your Discussion Section
Although you might have more than enough to do in your discussion sections, some of you might be interested in some ideas to get discussion going. It's always a good idea to start class off by asking for questions about the lecture whether your professor has requested that you do so or not. Those questions might start discussion.

Ask good questions. One of the keys to a successful discussion is asking questions that inspire conversation. Be careful not to ask the students to read your mind, or to guess what you are thinking. Also stay away from general questions (e.g. What’s going on in this story? ). Students respond better to questions that are focused and lead somewhere.
- Ask careful, provoking-but-not-fishing-type questions
- Prepare several different kinds of questions

Strategies for Your First Discussion Section 


The first day of class can be intimidating for both students and the instructor. You don’t know your students yet, and the silent first-day classroom can be daunting. First day activities provide one way to begin developing a rapport with your class. These activities provide you with a way to get to know your students, and for them to get to know each other. The more comfortable your students feel in the classroom, the more comfortable they are in participating in discussion.

• The most common first day activity is introducing the syllabus and the class schedule. While your professor may not require that you go over this information, it is a good idea to cover the basics (major assignments, test or paper due dates, your expectations, late policy, etc.). Maker sure you leave yourself enough time to cover everything you want to cover.

Erin Hurt
FAC 16
Erinhurt@mail.utexas.edu
Office Hours: W 9-10, TTH 9-10 or by appointment
(If these times do not work with your schedule, you are welcome to email me to set up another time)

These documents help you to structure your class.

Below is a list of teaching resources for teaching assistants.

TTH
9:30 AM- 11:00 AM
UTC 2.112A

Course Description

Global Literature and Culture--
What is a "self," an individual? Is it a single entity or is it always entangled with others? Is it something created by history, by politics, by art, by culture or by the divine? Or does it fashion itself? Does it change over time and across space? At some level, art is always concerned with making and unmaking the individual and with freeing or chaining this being. Tracking texts from Classical Greece, Palestine and India to medieval Europe and Japan, we will focus on the continuing, and sometimes desperate, attempts of ancient and early modern artists and authors both to phrase and to answer this question. Expected names from the western canon, like Euripedes, Shakespeare, Goethe, and Baudelaire will keep company with Japan's Basho, Russia's Pushkin, Brazil's Borges, and Nigeria's Achebe.