Guidelines for Choosing TA Assignments:

1. Every Fall, the program will send out a survey asking students to fill in their teaching preferences, and teaching qualifications. The results of this survey will be taken into consideration when assigning classes.
2. The Director and Associate Director will ask Departments Heads and Directors of COM 110 and ENG 101 for how many sections they will need CRDM students to teach (not all sections are staffed by CRDM students).
3. The Director and Associate Director will assign students based on department need first. Then the program will make assignments as requested if possible.
4. The Director and Associate Director will define which students have already been assigned from external grants or other funded positions (these positions must be reported to the program prior to August 15th for Spring appointments and prior to January 15th for Fall appointments)..
5. The Director will ask which students are enrolled in the Preparing for the Professoriate program.
6. Scheduling:
   
   COM: In scheduling meeting, the Director or Associate Director will check with concentration coordinators how many classes need to be staffed by CRDM students.
   
   ENG: At scheduling meeting, the Director or Associate Director will check requests to staff ENG 331, -2, and -3 (tech com courses) and LWR majors courses, like ENG 395.
   
   Once the courses above are filled, the Director and Associate Director will assign students to other courses according to departmental demands and their background (based on the TA requests survey from the Fall).
7. Remaining students will be assigned as follows:
   1. faculty research support (must be first approved by Department Heads)
   2. administrative appointments (e.g. CWSP, etc.)
8. After completing the assignments, the Director and Associate Director communicate the appointments to the students.
9. Departments will schedule times and days for classes and communicate to the students.
10. After confirmation from the Departments, Program Associate will send emails to each student to confirm their appointments.

PhD students who have teaching assignments are required to have 18 graduate credit hours in the disciplinary area of the undergraduate course they are teaching (NC State Regulation 05.20.20 - Instructor Qualifications). All of these experiences are intended to ease you into your role as the instructor of record. Some people will teach while taking the teacher preparation course. 

Teaching preparation courses are designed to help you plan a course and think through the practicalities of managing a class on a daily basis. For Communication courses, you should enroll in COM 585 (Teaching College Communication). You may also receive a few weeks of training for teaching COM 110 (Public Speaking) prior to the start of such an assignment. For English, you will enter into a training program whose contents will vary based on your background. Most will prepare to teach ENG 101 (Academic Writing and Research) by enrolling in ENG 624 (Teaching College Composition). Those without a background in composition theory may also need to take ENG 511 (Theory and Research in Composition). If you have a background in professional writing (e.g., technical writing, business writing, science writing) you will be asked to enroll in a more informal training program through the Professional Writing Program while enrolling for credits of CRD 885 (Doctoral Supervised Teaching) to satisfy the teaching preparation requirement.

Preparing to teach courses for which there is no formal training process will likely entail shadowing experienced, tenure-track faculty while being enrolled in hours of CRD 885.

Yes. All TA/RA assignments are subject to approval by the CRDM Director and Associate Director. For this reason, all requests to train for a particular course assignment should begin with an email to the Director.

Other courses have specific training requirements. COM/ENG 321 (Survey of Rhetorical Theory) requires that students have a background in rhetorical theory or to have taken COM/ENG 514 (History of Rhetoric) or its equivalent at another institution. Similarly, the requirement for teaching COM/ENG 411 (Rhetorical Criticism) is that students have taken COM/ENG 516 (Rhetorical Criticism: Theory and Practice) or its equivalent at another institution. ENG 422 (Writing Theory and the Writing Process) requires a background in composition theory, which one can gain by taking ENG 511 (Theory and Research in Composition).

Students can train for most classes by shadowing an experienced tenured/tenure-track CRDM (core or affiliated) faculty member. This shadowing is typically done in addition to regular TA/RA duties, but most can register for hours of CRD 885 to at least earn credit.

The program offers students an opportunity each Fall to submit their course preferences. While the program makes our best efforts to take preferences into account, departmental needs take priority. 

Yes, CRDM students have the opportunity to develop and teach a course, ENG/COM 395, as a special topic offering. ENG/COM 395 (Studies in Rhetoric and Digital Media) is offered during both the fall and spring semesters. It is cross-listed in English and Communication and could be taken by either English or Communication majors, and it also fulfills the GEP (General Education) Humanities requirement. Previous topics developed by CRDM students include: Media + Literacy + Sexuality, Soundful Writing, Code, Computation and Rhetoric, Digital Satire, Writing in/around Games, Wikipedia, Information, and the Collaborative Construction of Knowledge. Calls for proposals for the course usually go out in the fall for the next academic year. A group of faculty from English and Communication will choose one proposal to be offered during each semester. Preference will be given to CRDM students beyond their second year in the program.

Yes, if you meet the qualifications (18 credit hours in the disciplinary area), and if scheduling allows you to have the assignment.

Yes. Summer teaching does not go through the program. Departments determine their summer teaching needs. Closer to Spring 2019 enrollment, scheduling officers in English and Communication will send out a request for summer teaching assignments. The DGP and Associate Directors will send request directly to the students and ask them to be in touch with the departments if they want summer teaching. Since CRDM has no budget for summer teaching, the decision to hire will come exclusively from the departments.

Students wishing to look for funding that is outside the program must obtain approval from the DGP to make inquiries. Offers external to the program need to be made prior to January 15 for funding starting in the Fall and prior to August 15 for funding during the Spring term. The program must decide on admissions and course scheduling, so changes after this deadline will not be permitted.

In general, students who meet the requirements to take the course will be able to enroll on their own. If an exception is needed, please contact the undergraduate program director of the department you are teaching in. 

Room locations are determined based on space availability and the generally defined needs of the course being taught. If you require a room change for a valid reason, please contact the department scheduling officer. 

Scheduling takes place well in advance of the start of the term, and takes into account room availability and classroom resources. Students beyond the first year are asked to provide all available teaching times for the upcoming term. Once the schedule is complete, the course time slot is set. 

Yes, a final exam is required via NC State Policy; however, assignments, presentations, and projects are allowed to take the place of a final exam. Assignments not related to finals are not allowed to be given during finals week without departmental approval. You can find more information in NC State Regulation 02.20.14 - Test and Examinations.

Instructors in 100- and 200-level courses must keep a record of attendance throughout the semester. The instructor’s attendance policy, including procedures for submitting excuses and for scheduling makeup work when the excuses are accepted, shall be clearly defined in the syllabus to be distributed on the first day of class. Instructors may use reasonable academic penalties commensurate with the importance of the work missed because of unexcused absences. Students may be asked to provide documentation for multiple consecutive class absences or frequent single class absences. More information on attendance policies can be found in NC State Regulation 02.20.03 - Attendance Regulations

Yes! If you choose to use a textbook, you need to make a textbook adoption request through the NC State Bookstore. The deadline for textbook adoptions is typically in October for the Spring Semester and April for the Fall semester. You can check the exact deadlines for requesting textbooks at NC State Bookstore's Faculty Course Material Information page. You should receive an email reminding you to make your textbook adoptions each semester. Please note that you are not required to use a textbook and you can notify the bookstore of your decision to not use a textbook through the textbook adoption link in your email.

If you are having trouble with or in your course, please talk to the CRDM Director of Graduate Program and the undergraduate director of the department your course is in. 

Yes! NC State has some required university statements and guidelines for what information should be added to all course syllabi. This information is found under NC State Regulation 02.20.07 - Course Syllabus.

Yes. You should have a peer evaluation for your course scheduled by the department. CRDM is notified of your evaluations to ensure we are meeting the university’s teaching mission and standards. You will also receive course evaluations from students.

CRDM students are required to complete an annual assessment at the end of the year. One component of the assessment asks you to include your peer evaluation and course evaluation data. Evaluations include comments that you should review to help improve your course in the future.