Overview of WRD 551 & TAP
WRD 551 functions as the companion course to WRD’s Teaching Apprentice Practicum (TAP), a program that gives MA in WRD and ENG students the unique opportunity to teach a section of WRD 103, one of the two courses in DePaul’s First-Year Writing Program. As they teach using a shared syllabus, TAP instructors meet weekly in WRD 551: Teaching Apprenticeship Practicum during Autumn Quarter to discuss composition pedagogy, share classroom experiences, and prepare for upcoming WRD 103 class meetings.
WRD’s Director of First-Year Writing, Prof. Erin Workman, teaches WRD 551 and summarizes the class as so:
“WRD 551 provides a supportive community for TAP instructors to further develop and apply theoretical approaches to teaching writing explored in WRD 540 to the shared teaching context of WRD 103. TAP instructors teach one section of WRD 103 using a shared syllabus while completing WRD 551, a course that provides direct instructional support and cultivates a strong community of reflective practitioners committed to equitable and accessible writing pedagogy. TAP instructors carefully document their daily teaching plans and experiences, reflecting on what worked or didn’t, why that might have been, what they might do differently next time, and why. By engaging in deliberate, reiterative reflective practice, TAP instructors develop knowledge, practices, and strategies crucial to securing future teaching positions.”
WRD 551 is offered in Autumn Quarter, but there are opportunities for TAP instructors to teach WRD 103 again in Winter or Spring Quarter pending successful completion of WRD 551.
What Students Do in WRD 551
WRD 551 supports TAP instructors as they teach and engages them with relevant disciplinary scholarship on writing instruction and professional statements of best practices that can be applied to their teaching philosophy and in their classroom. Much of class is focused on discussing and theorizing practice, as graduate students share successes, challenges, and questions or concerns from the past week of teaching and prepare for upcoming assignments and class meetings. Students are encouraged to listen rhetorically, pose thoughtful questions or offer suggestions, share best practices, and collaborate on curriculum design.
During Spring Quarter, TAP instructors will receive access to the following materials:
- A comprehensive guide orienting instructors to the websites and platforms used for 103 and 551
- Important FYW policies, procedures, and resources
- A template WRD 103 syllabus
- Course calendar
- Class agendas for first five weeks, and agenda starters for second five weeks
- Access to the 103 D2L sandbox and instructions for setting up individual 103 D2L sites
- Access to relevant professional and pedagogical resources for teaching writing.
TAP instructors gain more than just course materials; the collaborative and supportive class atmosphere begins before Autumn Quarter, too, when TAP instructors meet for a three-day, immersive orientation in late August, which culminates in a finalized shared syllabus as well as writing assignment prompts and lesson plans for the first five weeks of WRD 103. TAP instructors receive a comprehensive guide, drafts of shared course materials, and access to a WRD 103 D2L sandbox during spring quarter so that they can familiarize themselves with the course design ahead of orientation.
Note that there’s a substantial amount of reading and writing that TAP instructors will complete ahead of, and during, orientation. While all three nights of orientation will be in-person, WRD 551 will be hybrid: weeks 1, 3, 5, 7, & 9 will be in person, and weeks 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, & finals meeting will be on Zoom.
Throughout the quarter in which they teach, students in WRD 551 keep a reflective journal and develop a culminating, open genre/media teaching persona project, which articulates their teaching persona in conversation with their teaching philosophy. Here’s what one 2018’s TAP students, Kira Schorr, says about WRD 551:
“The community that the class provides is a major resource. I have a network of people who are all teaching for the first time, together.”
Interested in TAP?
The TAP experience is one of the best that aspiring teachers of writing can have: by participating in it, MA in WRD and ENG students gain not only valuable university-level teaching experience to add to their resume, they also have the support of a cohort and a professional mentor as they teach. As MA in WRD alumni Molly Rentscher and Bridget Wagner have noted, the TAP experience can set students on a range of career paths in higher ed. The annual TAP announcement is typically posted in late February, and applications to participate in the program are due in early April. Refer to the TAP Resource Page for more information.