English 2800 gives senior English majors, with a GPA in the major of 3.5 or above, the opportunity to work as teaching assistants in introductory level courses under the supervision of a faculty member. Click here to read a narrative by a former teaching assistant about his experience.

Before registration, interested students should approach the professor with whom they would like to work and ask about the possibility of arranging an assistantship. The student also needs to have permission from the chair of the department to register for the course.

The professor and student would work out the specifics of the assistantship together, but the teaching assistant would probably be expected to:

• Attend all classes.
• Read all course texts.
• Work one-on-one with students on their writing.
• Help generate questions for class discussion and topics for papers.
• Lead small discussion groups of writing workshops within the class.
• Teach several classes over the course of the semester.

The student receives three credit hours for the course. The course is graded and counts as an elective towards fulfilling the requirements of the major.

Students who have worked as teaching assistant have found the experience to be tremendously beneficial to their education. Further questions about the teaching assistantship can be directed to Prof. Michael Berthold (519-4630; michael.berthold@villanova.edu)