The Department has a strong commitment to help its graduate students become excellent teachers. You will discover pportunities for professional development at every stage of your graduate teaching career. The workshop includes general profiles of our undergraduate students, evaluations of writing, and syllabus design.
Experienced teachers serve as mentors throughout the year.
The mentors meet with a small group of new teachers intensively before the semester, then every other week in the fall, and once a month in the spring. Teachers and mentors visit each others' classes and provide a supportive community. A practicum course, EngL 5800, is required during fall semester. The course has separate sections for teachers of stand-alone composition courses and for recitation sections in literature, creative writing, and English language courses. As part of the practicum, we have informational sessions on our writing lab, general pedagogy issues, and the use of University and community resources, such as museums and student support centers.