Graduate Teaching Assistantship

A Graduate Teaching Assistantship in English represents a 20-hour-per-week commitment. For first-year graduate assistants, this typically involves the following each week:

• Four classroom hours of teaching English 105, NAU’s freshman composition course. The curriculum follows a standard syllabus and is content-based. It incorporates a technological literary component for each section which is taught in a computer lab (once a week).
• Six hours of regularly scheduled Writing Center instruction, which involves one-an-one tutoring (walk-in and English 100, our individualized tutoring class), the preparation and presentation of cross-curricular writing workshops or other projects.

Experienced Graduate Teaching Assistants teach a second class, usually ENG 205, in lieu of the working in the University Writing Commons/ENG 100.

The approximate time commitment breakdown:

First-Year GTA Weekly Time Commitment

Second-Year GTA Weekly Time Commitment

Additional weekly requirements during the first semester include participation in English 601, a three-credit-hour teaching practicum. This course should be part of, not in addition to, the nine-hour full-time enrollment required of all graduate assistants each semester.

Prior to teaching, graduate assistants must also participate in a three-week orientation prior to Fall semester and a brief session before Spring semester.

In order to be eligible for financial support, you must turn in a FAFSA form and/or other financial aid information as necessary to the NAU Financial Aid Office. Preference for GTA applicants will be given to applications received by February 1.

A complete application includes

1) A 1-2 page teaching statement that demonstrates your writing skill and illustrates your commitment to and preparation for teaching composition. Consider including:

• Descriptions of teaching qualities you have valued as a student and how you might adopt or adapt them as a teacher;
• Descriptions of how your life experiences (e.g., tutoring, acting, debate, student leadership, editing) have prepared you to become an effective composition teacher at NAU;
• A brief articulation of how you will balance work as a graduate teaching assistant (20 hours per week teaching, tutoring, grading, etc.) with your academic work.

**If you are applying for assistantships in English Composition and PIE, a separate essay should be submitted for each position.

2) transcripts of your previous undergraduate and graduate work (photocopies okay); and

3) two letters of  recommendation from people able to judge your educational, professional, and teaching potential.

If applying as a returning student, please submit applications to composition@nau.edu.

A Graduate Teaching Assistantship (GTA) in the PIE requires a 20-hour-per-week commitment, which typically involves the following:

• teaching PIE classes, including the development of instructional materials, tasks, and assessments
• collaboratively planning lessons
• grading student work and providing constructive feedback
• participating in programmatic assessment
• participating in program meetings
• holding office hours

All PIE Graduate Teaching Assistants must also participate in a two-week orientation prior to each Fall semester and a one-week preparation week before each Spring semester.

A complete application includes

1) a 1‐2 page teaching statement which outlines why you would succeed as a graduate assistant teaching in our program. This statement should

• illustrate your writing skills;
• identify any specific professional experiences in or preparation for teaching ESL/EFL that will enable you to succeed in teaching in the PIE ;
• highlight your experience(s) with and/or interest(s) in international student education (e.g., study abroad, teaching ESL/EFL, advising international students) that prepare you to teach in the PIE; and
• articulate the relationship that you see between your work as a Teaching Assistant and your professional goals as a student in one of our Graduate English programs.

**If you are applying for assistantships in English Composition and PIE, a separate essay should be submitted for each position.

2) transcripts of your previous undergraduate and graduate work (photocopies okay).

3) two letters of  recommendation from people able to judge your educational, professional, and teaching potential.

Please save your materials, including statement, as 1 document named PIE_Family name_Given name, and submit as an email attachment to pie.nau@nau.edu.