Jamie_New_TA_Story

=Jamie, the New TA=

Jamie looked around the tiny office she would soon share with the three other teaching assistants in the department. As she surveyed her designated small corner, she sighed happily. It may be small, but she was on her way. This was the first big step in her journey to become a university professor. As she sat in her rickety chair, she placed her hands on her desk. Above her desk was a hutch with shelf space where she could place her notebooks and important textbooks she would need for her first teaching assignment. In a few minutes, she would join the others in a meeting with the program coordinator. There, they would see the new course syllabus. If the rumors were true, then the course was going to significantly different from when Jamie took it her first year. She hoped so, because as she remembered, she was mostly confused about the assignments. Even though she did well in the class, she wasn’t always sure what she was doing or why. Now, with the new course design, that would be different for her students. Jamie glanced at her watch. She jumped up, she didn’t want to be late for the first TA meeting.

As she walked back into the cramped TA office with her office mates, Jamie looked again at the new course syllabus. This new design didn’t look any better to her than when she had taken the course as a first years. She looked at the amount of work students would need to perform, and that she would need to grade. She wouldn’t mind the grading effort if she understood the course. There were a lot of weekly assignments. If she was worried about this, how would the first years react? How was she going to explain to them how the assignments fit in with the course design? She sat in her chair and faced the other three TAs.

“Do you understand the new course design?” she asked. “I mean, do you think the first years are going to get what they need to do, and why they need to do it?”

Joe was the first to speak up. “Jamie, you worry too much. Remember when we took this class as first years? I don’t think we understood it then, but we got through it. Sure the design is different, but the content is essentially the same. If you just follow the syllabus, the first years will get it. The objectives tell them the why. I don’t see the big deal.”

Jamie looked at the syllabus again. Joe was right, the objectives were right at the top before the assignments and grading criteria. When she took the class, she didn’t remember that objectives were listed, so maybe she was worrying too much. She could cover the syllabus with her class section and no doubt the students would understand. Probably, she was worrying too much and that was why she felt confused. Jill spoke up, “Joe is right,” she said. “I’m not sure it’s even necessary to go over the syllabus with the class. Remember that lecture we attended last week about constructivism. Remember, Professor Billings said that students need to be self-regulating. I’m thinking I will go over the objectives, point out the grading criteria, and maybe then share an exemplar for the new weekly assignments.”

Jamie thought about this. Jill made a lot of sense. By giving the students an exemplar, they would be able to perform. After all, they tended to be mostly focused on grades, and this way she could cover the most important aspects of the syllabus while providing a useful sample. The students would ask the questions they needed answered. Sometimes, she just made things too difficult.

John stood up from his chair in the opposite corner from Jamie and cleared his throat. “I’m not sure I agree with you all. Sure, the first years are in college now and they have to learn how to be independent. And I agree, this isn’t high school, but what’s the harm in showing them how the pieces go together. I was thinking I would create a grid for them to show how the assignments map to the objectives. Now that I think about it, I might even map the grading rubrics I plan to use for grading the weekly assignments. If you are going to create an exemplar, Jill, I would like to use it with my class. That way we are all on the same page about standards”

Jill shook her head. “John, you make things way too complicated. Besides, don’t you think the first years will feel like you are babying them? If you spoon feed them, how do you expect them to learn anything? They won’t be self regulating. You won’t be doing them any favors and you’ll be creating more work for yourself.”

Jamie looked from one to the other. What they all said was true. How should she approach this conundrum? What would be the best approach? She envisioned using each option. If she took Joe’s advice, she was fairly certain the students would be able to do the work, and many would successfully complete the assignments, but what would the price be in frustration? Wasn’t she still remembering her own confusion from when she was a first year? It would have been nice if someone had helped her back then. The more she thought, the less she liked Joe’s approach. On the other hand, Jill was right, students needed to learn independence. If she took John’s approach, was she making it more difficult for the first years to become active and independent learners? If they were not required to dig into the syllabus and consider how the assignments addressed the objectives, wouldn’t they be losing an important opportunity for growth and learning?

Finally, Jamie made up her mind. She needed to think about her students and she needed to make sure she felt comfortable as a teaching assistant and acting as their guide through this fundamental class.

The next day, when Jamie started class, she passed out a packet of information. The first page was the departmental syllabus. She pointed out the objectives and assignments to the students, then she turned them to the next page. ..

. . . Jamie realized that students needed to understand what they were doing, why they were doing it and how they would be assessed. Talking about alignment of objectives to assignments and assessment sounded like a foreign language to someone who wanted to learn the content in the class. Sure, the students needed to understand how the objectives framed the course, they needed to understand how the assignments helped them learn and achieve the objectives, and they needed to understand that the assessment of their assignments truly assessed how well they were doing.

She also realized she needed to explain it to them in plain English. Students didn’t need to hear the instructional strategy discussion that she and the other TAs discussed. Jamie showed the graphic she created for students so they could visualize how the objectives, assignments and rubrics fit together. By showing them visually, students quickly understood how the assignments helped them achieve the objectives, and with the grading rubrics, students knew the quality standards for performance. After her graphic, Jamie also shared Jill’s exemplar. This gave students a concrete example to understand the grading rubric.