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Hi Wendy,
I was a bit shocked to read in your message that you no longer have a writing
centre at SFU. Could you share a bit of the politics or the rationale that led
to its abolition?
Thanks,
Jo-Anne Andre
University of Calgary

Wendy Strachan wrote:

> Dear colleagues,
>
> In trying to implement Writing-Intensive courses at SFU across the
> disciplines at both the lower and upper division, we are also figuring out
> how to prepare the TAs who are working with faculty in large first year
> courses.   We've instituted a reduction in tutorial size to 15 with each TA
> having a maximum of 3 sections in a course, but the question of preparation
> continues to be a challenge.  Hiring practices governed by the union prevent
> our seeking out TAs who are a bit along in their course work and have some
> experience of teaching, so most are entering graduate students who are
> assigned TA-ships as a source of funding.
> While we can't do much about that at the moment, we can require that they
> have some pre-W-course training to help them handle the instruction and
> responding to writing for which they are largely responsible.  Since we no
> longer have a writing centre to which students can go for individual help,
> the TAs are not operating in a one-on-one tutoring context - they are
> working with groups on writing in content courses.
>
> We' re wondering how others of you work with TAs and do this training:
> When? how much time?  in what contexts?  how many TAs at a time, in a
> workshop setting?  do you have programs or courses within or outside
> departments? are these credit or non-credit? required or voluntary?   are
> tehy designed for overall teaching training or focusing on writing?  with
> what results?
> I'm looking at US institutions as well since there is a long-established
> tradition there of preparing TAs who work in the first year composition
> courses but I'm hoping there is a bank of Canadian models to draw on.  And I
> know this is the place to go to find out!
>
> Many thanks for any ideas and information,
>
> Wendy
>
> Wendy Strachan PhD.
> Director, Centre for Writing-Intensive Learning
> Simon Fraser University
> Burnaby, BC V5A 1S6
> Office: AQ 6205
> Tel: 604-291-3122
> Fax: 604-268-6915
> email: [log in to unmask]
> http://www.sfu.ca/cwil
>
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