DOMAIN A: PLANNING AND PREPARATION

 

A1. Teaching Assistants will demonstrate an understanding of English teaching pedagogy, including instructional strategies for language acquisition and applications of technology.

 

 

Because of the fact that I had previously completed the teaching certification to become an English teacher before entering the master’s program and becoming a graduate teaching instructor, I had taken many courses on English language pedagogy. These courses focused on English education for high school students yet the methods and approaches to teaching and possessing such background knowledge on education has helped me immensely when teaching my college level courses. I was able to apply what I had learned about teaching techniques, classroom procedures, management and organization. In my courses I focus on the importance of always including after theory a section for practice and application. When creating a daily lesson plan for high school English classes we had to specify the sections for exploration, conceptualization and application, the general strategies for approaching our daily classes. When crating the plans for my college level courses I follow this format as well because students need time to explore, conceptualize and apply the material learned. Regarding the application of technology, in our teaching preparation courses, we had a class, which was titled The Use of Technology in Education. Having taken those courses has helped me in the creation for classroom materials to teach both of my Intermediate English I and II. One of the manners in which I use technology to communicate with my students is through the creation of a facebook group for the course, where students have faster access to class materials and receive notifications left by their instructor personally in their notifications.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A2. Teaching Assistants will develop and select appropriate instructional goals that are appropri-ate for the group level at which they are teaching.

 

 

Intermediate English I and II, which are the courses I have taught so far, are mainly writing courses with the objective of teaching students the proper format and techniques for writing essays. Since I am a teaching instructor at the graduate level, the learning goals for this course are selected for us by our course coordinators. Our job as instructors is to learn these goals to be able to instruct our students in the completion of these goals by the end of the semester. From my part, because we are required to teach four different types of essays, I divide my course into these four essays and teach each essay with enough time for students to successfully learn the proper format for each essay. I also take time to fulfill the remainder of the goals, such as teaching the writing process and proper MLA formatting. At the beginning of the semester students receive the syllabus, where I explain the goals of the class and also provide them with the course outline. The course outline is an essential part of the class. In this outline, students will find the topics, reading and assignments for each class. This outline helps students become more organized because they have an idea of what will be taught to them during the semester and how to prepare successfully to achieve the learning goals specified in the syllabus.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A3. Teaching Assistants will plan for a nurturing learning environment.

 

 

It is important to maintain a balance between students feeling comfortable in the classroom and students feeling too comfortable enough to become disrespectful. In my courses, I aim to maintain the balance with students feeling that they are being taken into consideration, without having them become comfortable enough to disrespect the instructor and their classmates. From the beginning I make clear that I am there to clarify doubts and that they can approach me in class and during my office hours for doubt clarification. After discussing theory in each class, I open a space for students to express themselves and answer their doubts as best as my abilities permit. During all this time, I maintain a professional approach to doubt correction, without making students feel ashamed of asking questions. I clarify to students the fact that I am a student just like them and we are all learning together. Another method to help promote a nurturing learning environment is correcting student errors yet also giving positive feedback along with this error correction. Students need to see the positive aspects of their work to feel motivated to keep working and by signaling those instances where they were able to dominate the material I demonstrate to my students I notice their effort and recognize their success.