Cathy,
Last year we used to have a lecture and 2-hour workshops. It was a total
disaster: first, I agree with you completely -- lecturing about writing
is like lecturing about swimming or driving to people who can't swim or
drive; and second, very few students would come to the lecture, so
instructors had to go over the lecture material in workshops. We never
had enough time for writing and peer conferencing in the workshops.
Miraculously, we managed to persuade Engineering to change the course
format to 3-hour workshops for 25 students once a week. The course
didn't have any TAs at the beginning -- just ONE instructor. Then I
managed to negotiate a 5-hour TA position for 10 sections of the course.
This year we are most fortunate: we have three instructors (one of them
sessional) and two 5-hour TAs for 11 sections of the course. Our TAs
can't physically be in the classroom (they only work 5 hours a week, and
we have 33 hours of classes/week). So what we train our TAs to do is to
communicate with students on the course newsgroup and hold office hours
for individual/small group consultations.
Usually, our TAs are Master's students from School of Applied Language
Studies mostly unfamiliar with engineering discourse. This term,
however, one of our TAs is a fourth-year engineering student who took my
course last term as his elective. He's been through the course, so he's
very familiar with the philosophy of the course and the assignments and
knows my requirements well. On the other hand, students are more willing
to listen to him as his belongs to the same community (they see him as
an "insider"). This term, it's much easier for me to work because I have
him as my TA. I think it may be beneficial for Engineering/Science
Communication courses to try and find TAs from within the discipline
from which students are coming. I understand that this is a challenge,
but it pays off.
--
_____________________________________
Natasha Artemeva
School of Linguistics and
Applied Language Studies
Carleton University
1125 Colonel By Drive
Ottawa, ON
K1S 5B6
Canada
Tel. +1 (613) 520 - 2600 ext. 7452
Fax +1 (613) 520 - 6641
E-mail: [log in to unmask]
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